Stopping empty form submission PHP

Question

I have been trying to implement server validation to prevent blank emails in my contact us page, but I am not sure on how to do it in PHP, here is my code:

Answer 1

just test the variable for "emptiness" and exit early. Something like this:

if(empty($field_email)) {
    // maybe show the user a reason why this was rejected...
    return;
}

You probably want to do this for just about all the input fields.

In addition, you can use JavaScript (jQuery has some nice plugins) to prevent the user from submitting invalid data in the first place. This won't remove the need to do it server side (since they can just disable JS, or someone malicious might intentionally bypass this measure), but it can make it a more user friendly experience.