PHPMailer-FVE on the way!
PHPMailer-FVE is nearly here. The code is actually complete, we're just building a few sample forms and doing more testing along the way.
What is it? What is PHPMailer-FVE? All these acronyms ... FVE meansFormValidate andEmail. It combines two other of my projects (FormValidator and PHPMailer-FE - or Form2Mail).
It's actually ready now. We're just building a few sample forms that double-duty as extra testing at the same time. It should be available by the end of September 2024.
We've updated the validation rules to support eighteen character domain TLDs and a few extras. It's really simple to use: one single file (PHPMailer-FVE.php) with no dependencies (other than requiring PHP version 8.0 or higher). On the release date, we will only have english language support. Other languages, particularly french and spanish, will be added later.
Is Form Validation still necessary with HTML5 built-in validation?
Yes, it certainly is necessary. A determined hacker will not use an HTML5 browser. That means the built-in protection of HTML5 just isn't available.
Isn't Javascript used for Form Validation... isn't that enough?
Combined, HTML5 and Javascript are formidable. But both are running on the user's computer. That's front-end protection and can be easily manipulated by a user with hacking intentions.
PHPMailer-FVE is server-side protection
The only real solution is server based where it's more difficult, almost impenetrable, for a determined hacker.
PHPMailer-FVE sample forms will also show how a honey-pot can be used server-side to further prevent hackers and bots from taking over your forms.
Before we discuss the length of TLDs in a domain name, let's get straight on language. Using 'example.com' as an example, 'example' is the SLD and 'com' is the TLD. TLD means Top-Level Domain. SLD means Second-Level Domain.
As of Wednesday August 28 2024, the longest TLD is 24 characters. The longest TLD is 'XN--VERMGENSBERATUNG-PWB'. Anything starting with 'XN--' is an encoded TLD, meaning it is in a language (ie, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc) ... excluding the encoded TLD's, the longest TLD is 18 characters (TRAVELERSINSURANCE).
Based on this, PHPMailer-FVE now supports domain names with up to 18 character TLDs.
PHPMailer-FVE validation rules are discussed on thePHPMailer Pro website and examples are in each of the sample forms.
Once validated (by the way, that's optional, you can use it to just send the data from the forms without validation if you are using some other product or strategy) you can send the form data directly to an email address. The form-data to email component of PHPMailer-FVE does have a bit of "validation" in that it can determine if all required fields are completed. PHPMailer-FVE will use "sendmail" to send the data. Alternately, you can use SMTP with some basic configuration information.
The sample forms we are creating have some changes too. We are no longer using FontAwesome or Bulma CSS framework. We have some basic CSS rules for forms and use CSS Grid for columns and rows. We also have a customized icon font. Overall we have reduced the size of all the files for a faster more efficient display and processing of the forms.