Adding friend with verification message to inbox

Question

I have this code which is stored on a view_profile.php page. It has a form called Add as a friend. There are no syntax errors. But when I submit the form nothing happens when it should refresh and send me to the outbox page? Also, it should send a message to the requested users inbox. Any ideas?

PS: I'm new to PHP/MySQL so sorry if the code is not 100%. I am going to convert this piece to PDO in the future, just don't want to yet as it is practice to get to grips with queries etc.

<?php 
session_start();
include "db.php";

$sqlCommand = "SELECT userid, username FROM users WHERE username='" . $_SESSION['username'] . "'";
$query = mysql_query($sqlCommand, $connection) or die (mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    $pid = $row["userid"];
    $from_username = $_SESSION['username'];
}
mysql_free_result($query);

$to_userid = $_POST['to_userid'];

$sqlCommand = "SELECT userid, username FROM users WHERE userid='$to_userid' LIMIT 1";
$query = mysql_query($sqlCommand, $connection) or die (mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    $TOid = $_SESSION['username'];
}
mysql_free_result($query);
?>

<input name="to_username" type="hidden" id="to_username" value="<?php print $username;?>"/>
<input name="title" type="hidden" id="title" value="<?php print $from_username ?> wants to add you as a friend!"/>
<input name="content" type="hidden" id="content" value="<?php print $from_username; ?> wants to add you as a friend!"/>
<input name="to_userid" type="hidden" id="to_userid" value="<?php print $TOid; ?>"/>
<input name="from_username" type="hidden" id="from_username" value="<?php print $from_username ?>"/>
<input name="userid" type="hidden" id="from_username" value="<?php print $_SESSION['userid'] ?>"/>
<input name="senddate" type="hidden" id="senddate" value="<?php echo date("l, jS F Y, g:i:s a"); ?>"/>

<input type="submit" name="addFriend" id="addFriend" value="Add <?php print $username ?> as a friend!"  />

<?php 


if($_POST['addFriend']){

$to_username = $_POST['to_username'];
$title = $_POST['title'];
$content = $_POST['content'];
$to_userid = $_POST['to_userid'];
$userid =  $_POST['userid'];
$from_username = $_POST['from_username'];
$senddate = $_POST['senddate'];

require_once "db.php";

$query = mysql_query("INSERT INTO pm_outbox (userid, username, to_userid, to_username, title, content, senddate)VALUES('$userid', '$from_username', '$to_userid', '$to_username', '$title', '$content', '$senddate')",$connection) or die (mysql_error($connection)); 

$query = mysql_query( "INSERT INTO pm_inbox (userid,username,from_id, from_username, title,content,recieve_date)VALUES('$to_userid', '$to_username','$userid','$from_username', '$title', '$content','$senddate')",$connection) or die (mysql_error($connection));


echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0; URL=pm_outbox.php\">";
exit();
}
?>

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

You never started the form tags

You need to start them before the inputs and end them after it so it becomes

<form action='Your_action_page_here.php' method='POST'>    
<input name="to_username" type="hidden" id="to_username" value="<?php print $username;?>"/>
<input name="title" type="hidden" id="title" value="<?php print $from_username ?> wants to add you as a friend!"/>
<input name="content" type="hidden" id="content" value="<?php print $from_username; ?> wants to add you as a friend!"/>
<input name="to_userid" type="hidden" id="to_userid" value="<?php print $TOid; ?>"/>
<input name="from_username" type="hidden" id="from_username" value="<?php print $from_username ?>"/>
<input name="userid" type="hidden" id="from_username" value="<?php print $_SESSION['userid'] ?>"/>
<input name="senddate" type="hidden" id="senddate" value="<?php echo date("l, jS F Y, g:i:s a"); ?>"/>
<input type="submit" name="addFriend" id="addFriend" value="Add <?php print $username ?> as a friend!"  />
</form>

Also I noticed that you are neither validating or sanitizing your variables before you insert them to the table

This is a very important security issue that you MUST concern.. I suggest using filter_var() for validation. You also need to read this article on how to prevent SQL injection How to prevent SQL injection?

Adding friend with verification message to inbox

1 Answers1