If you want to validate a form and you have to check if all variables are set you have to keep a few things in mind:

a) If you disable a input field so users can only see the content you will not be able to fetch the value via $_POST

disabled=”disabled” if you add this to a input field and you submit the form you won’t be able to fetch it via $_POST

Instead use readonly=”true”

b) Textareas are slightly different. You will first have to strip all slashes if you want to fetch the real value of it.