Bug: Missing Validation and Error Handling for Invalid Support Ticket/Form Submissions #1519

Describe the bug

The support/help request workflow appears to allow incomplete or invalid form submissions without proper frontend and backend validation.

Users may currently:

• submit empty fields
• enter whitespace-only values
• provide malformed email/contact input
• trigger submissions with missing required information

This may lead to:

• broken support requests
• inconsistent stored data
• unclear backend errors
• poor user experience
• unnecessary processing/API calls

To Reproduce

1. Open the support/help request form
2. Leave required fields empty or enter only spaces
3. Submit the form
4. Observe system behavior

Example invalid inputs:

" "
invalid@email

Expected Behavior

The application should:

• validate required fields before submission
• reject whitespace-only input
• validate email/contact formats
• display inline validation errors
• prevent invalid requests from being processed

Example:

if (!message.trim()) {
  setError("Message cannot be empty");
}

Suggested Fix

Implement:

• frontend form validation
• trimmed input normalization
• backend validation checks
• descriptive inline error handling
• disabled submit state for invalid input

Optional improvements:

• character limits
• loading states
• validation helper utilities

Impact

Fixing this improves:

• user experience
• data quality
• support workflow reliability
• frontend/backend consistency
• contributor onboarding

Labels Suggested

• bug
• frontend
• backend
• validation
• GSSoC2026
• good first issue