Problems with mail( ) function

[said_r3000]

Hi,

I get the following error message with PHP:

Warning: Bad Message destination in c:\web projects\web site\html\scripts\tellfriend.php on line 111

I've done a for loop as follows:

for ($i = 0; $i <= 6; $i++) {

$to = $friendemail[$i];
$friend = $friendname[$i];

mail("$friendemail[$i]", "Your friend $yourname recommends this Web site" , "Hello $friend,\nYour friend $yourname thought you might be interested in http://www.all-about-making-money-online.com","From:$yourname <$youremail>");
}

where the email address ($friendemail) is in an array, and gets retrived as the loop is run.

When instead of the array I put a normal variable or fixed value (in the "to" area of the mail function), then there are no problems.

The problem seems to occur only when I use the array.

What could be wrong? I aint got a clue.

[lordstjohn]

----CODE----
echo "&info=Mail sent. Thank you. A confirmation email will be sent. &";
$confirm_to = $name."<$from>";
$confirm_header = "From: Customer Service<[e-mail]>";
$confirm_message = "Your message has been sent.\nTo: $to\nSubject: $subject\n";
$confirm_subject = "Email Confirmation";
@mail($confirm_to, $confirm_subject, $confirm_message, $confirm_header);
----CODE----

I don't know but I use @mail...

[Anon]

In the for-loop:
for ($i = 0; $i <= 6; $i++)

You use a fixed value to limit the number of loops. It would be much better to use count($array) or something similar. That would eliminate the possibility of an invalid array index. Even experienced programmers sometimes mess array indexes, eg. forget that the last index is count($array) - 1, not count($array).

Also, the additional From-header lacks the newlines. Separate each extra header with a newline, the last one should be followed by two newlines. The from-address in is the "name <address>" format. Is that the case with the recipient, too? I don't know if mail accepts such recipients, but try it out. However, mail() doesn't care about the additional headers so it's okay in the from-header anyway.

Try simple debugging, for example print out the addresses instead of mailing, just to see if there's something weird going on. Check if the for-loop is within a user-defined function and ensure that necessary variables are either passed to it as parameters or declared global. Store everything passed to mail() in a variable to keep the stuff passed to mail() simple, for example: "mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)".

Keep everything as simple as possible.

-jani

[Anon]

mail("$friendemail[$i]",

--> correct this to

mail($friendemail[$i],

[said_r3000]

It still doesn't work. I tried debugging before sending my message by printing out the contents of the array, and it worked fine. It seems to be the array used in conjunction with the mail() function that is causing trouble.

By the way, here's how I set up my array:

$friendemail = array("$emailfriend1","$emailfriend2","$emailfriend3","$emailfriend4","$emailfriend5","$emailfriend6");

Any errors in there (this is the first time I'm using PHP arrays)?

[said_r3000]

Hey, that did it!

The @ before mail() made the error message go away!

Thanks a lot!

Sometimes it's crazy how a simple problem wastes so much of your time ;-)

BTW, what is the significance of the @ before mail()?

[Anon]

Putting @ before the mail makes the error message go away. That's all. It doesn't stop the error from happening it just stops PHP from telling you about it.

Like Matjaz said, I would suggest you replace
mail( "$friendemail[$i]", "Your ...
with
mail( $friendemail[$i], "Your ...

Mike

[Anon]

hi
could you pls tell me how to send html page with mail() function
thanks

[Anon]

Yeah, that's the solution to your problem.

When you check the syntax of the mail() funtion, at www.php.net, you will see that the parameters of the mail() functions are all STRINGS, and not array's.

So if you wanna use a array, first fetch it into a string and put the string in your mail() function. Or do it the way matjaz says, it's the same butt more direct.

Greetz, Storm