I'm trying to make a basic contact form (using HTML and PHP). I usually host my websites as gh-pages on GitHub. However, the form won't work on GitHub as GitHub doesn't allow PHP because "GitHub Pages is a static site hosting service and doesn't support server-side code such as, PHP, Ruby, or Python."
My question is: how can I try out my code to see if it works?
This is the code.
Html:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<form action="send_form_email.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="name" placeholder="Full Name">
<input type="text" name="mail" placeholder="Your e-mail">
<input type="text" name="subject" placeholder="Subject">
<textarea name="message" placeholder="Message"></textarea>
<button type="submit" name="submit">Send e-mail</button>
</form>
</body>
</html>
PHP:
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
$name = $_POST['name'];
$subject = $_POST['subject'];
$mailFrom = $_POST['mail'];
$message = $_POST['message'];
$mailTo = "example@gmail.com";
$headers = "From: ".$mailFrom;
$txt = "You have received an e-mail from ".$name.".\n\n".$message;
mail($mailTo, $subject, $txt, $headers);
header("Location: index.php?mailsend");
}
PS. I know that I can use free services to make forms (such as http://www.enformed.io or https://formspree.io) but my question is whether there is a way to (even locally) check whether my code would work if I hosted it on a proper domain.
Thank you
You can install XAMPP and run your pages locally. This package has PHP, Sendmail and Apache server in it. As well as MySQL if you need it.
XAMPP Installer
You need to install a web server and PHP to test it locally. You can install PHP since it comes with a simple web server.
If instead you want more power over it you could easily install XAMPP.
If you don't want to install anything, the easiest thing is to use a web hosting where you can upload your code and test it there, but you won't have too much flexibility over it.
You can try Wamp service!
Have a look: Wamp
On Mac you can use MAMP for local
On WINDOWS you can use WAMP for local
If you have a domain and hosting you can upload to the domain and access the PHP directly with a browser to debug.
Browsers output the errors of PHP also you can check your log of your server
The easiest way out to your problem is downloading a package. There are a few packages that consist of all the components you will need to run your PHP files.
If you're a Windows user, you can either download XAMPP here https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html
or
WAMP here
http://www.wampserver.com/en/
I personally prefer XAMPP over WAMP due to easier user interface. But both of them are equally good for your purpose.
Otherwise, if you're a MAC user, you can go with downloading MAMP https://www.mamp.info/en/downloads/
Installation is pretty straight forward, then you can run the XAMPP/WAMP/MAMP control panel which will start PHP/Apache/mySQL.. for you. You can type in localhost in your browser and if you've installed everything correctly it will show you a related XAMPP/WAMP/MAMP page.
From there onward, you can setup and test your code. If you go with XAMPP/MAMP, you will place your code inside htdocs folder and type in localhost/foldername to access your code. So if you've installed XAMPP in C: drive, you will find htdocs inside your XAMPP folder in C.
For WAMP, you will have to find www folder inside WAMP folder.
Hope that helps.
You need to have a local server that can be best provided by WAMP. Try installing it and running your pages through it.
