Hello; The most effective and direct way to do form input screening is with javascript. It can also play a sound an/ or just thow up some disturbing text style sheet styles to inform the user of unacceptible input. As far as PHP is concerned, it can do all the screening. But the user input does have to get to the server unscreened if you do not use javascript or html5 regex imbedded in the text input element to prescreen it. The downside of javascript has been that the user can turn it off in the browser or use a client that does not have javascript. Php also cannot play sounds in the browser (if you want to use sounds). It can serve sounds but javascript is needed to play them for the user. I have been doing web design and development for some time and have seen that well known browsers have all made it fairly difficult to turn javascript off if you do not have development sophistication and many sights use it extensively. Particularly commercial sights use it to fetch, load and display ad content. It also means that you have another programming language to get to know and be confortable with. The best and most comprehensive text I know of is OReilly publications Javascript: The Definitive Guide. The latest version is the 7th edition. But I would also get access to the 6th edition becuase there are significant differences in the language in the 7th edition and the 6th edition will give a better perspective on what the differences are. Something to be aware of: Javascript is NOT java. It is a scripted language that needs a javscript interpreter to run it. It has been developed from the start to be used in web browsers. But it can also be used in PDF (not well known, and Adobe implementation has its own quirks). Google has also developed a server side version of javascript: node.js. I have rudimentary experience with it and understand it to be fairly widely accepted and used. One thing to come to terms with regarding web development: NOTHING is really simple. So expecting simplicity will compromise effectiveness and efficiency. Best; Jeff K. > On Dec 30, 2022, at 9:39 PM, Deliberatus Freeman <deliberatus@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi. I'm a recent adopter of php, and I am coming to love it. > > I am building a website. I need to accept a form, and it is to accept ONLY letters and numbers; just 1 char of anything else and it must bark like a rabid duck and abort the process. whats the simple reliable way to do this? > > PS: I rent a slice off the end of the box, and cannot play around with configuring things. > > > > Salute! > -Kirk Bailey > It is an ill wind that blows no minds.
