email header

[techmeister]

Hi all:

I would like to know how I can define the 'from' section' of an email sent using php4.

At present all emails that arrive from my php website are from 'Nobody'??

Is this a variable I can set in the script like I do for the 'subject' etc, or do I alter something in my php.ini file??

(I looked here though and nothing seems to be obviousely for this purpose..)

Any suggestions are well-received!
Cheers:

Russ

[Anon]

In the email header section, put

From: [e-mail]

You can also add other variables like CC, BCC, etc, separated by \n.

mail (to_email, email_subject, email_body, From: [e-mail]\nbcc: [e-mail]);

[techmeister]

Hiya:

I get an error message for that: PHP doesn't like the 'From: $from' bit where $from is a an email address ina avariable.

mail($to, $subject, $msg, From: $from);

I also tried:

mail($to, $subject, $msg, "From: $from");

Which PHP disn't mind, only it echoed this at the top of the body of the email ass oppopsed to the 'from' section.

Russ

[Anon]

What you need to fix this problem is to add "\r\n" after the $from variable.
i.e.
mail($to, $subject, $msg, "From: $from\r\n");

[Anon]

I just did a test, and just a \n will work.

<?
$mail_to="[e-mail]";
$subject="From test";
$body="blah blah blah";
$email="[e-mail]\n";

mail("$mail_to","$subject","$body","From: $email");
?>

[Anon]

That's true. But it is safer to use "\r\n" because some mail servers wouldn't take just "\n".

[sarah]

Are \n and \r similar to a soft return vs. a hard return?

[techmeister]

Hi all thanks for your efforts:

But NONE of these solutions do anything? Why place \r's and \n's etc? All they do is drop some text down a line or two!!? and have nothing to do with achieving the desired effect.

I have tried all of the following resulting in the $from variable placing itself within the body of the email:

I am using php4.0.3pl1:

<?php
$from = "[e-mail]";
mail($to, $subject, $msg, "From: $from");
?>

<?php
$from = $another_variable;
mail($to, $subject, $msg, "From: $from");
?>

<?php
$from = "[e-mail]";
mail($to, $subject, $msg, From: $from);
//ie: No quotes around 'From'.
?>

<?php
$from = "[e-mail]";
mail($to, $subject, $msg, "FROM: $from");
//ie: 'FROM' in caps.
?>

and placing the \n and \r's in various formats around the "From $from" section.

Does anyone have a definitive solution, indeed is there one??

Many thanks again for everyone's efforts.
Still going though 😉

Russ

[sarah]

I am certain that this works. Replace my email address with yours and try it again.

<?
$mail_to="[e-mail]";
$subject="From test";
$body="blah blah blah";
$email="[e-mail]\n";

                          mail("$mail_to","$subject","$body","From: $email"); 
                          ?>

[techmeister]

Hi there:

I will try out your idea as soon as I get sendmail up and runing again on my rh box!

Don't s'pose y'know the correct ownerships for the sendmail dir do you?? chgrp + chown?

Thanks v.much though for replying to an 'old' thread.

Russ 🙂

[sarah]

I asked someone here, and they said that the ownership is "root". I don't know if that is just our servers or everywhere.

[Anon]

Pretty much. I have come across with some messages that some email servers would need both "\n\" and "\r" to work properly. You could check with RFC to find out more about this.

[Anon]

I couldn't get "BCC" to work properly. Is there any trick? I mean, I have:
<?php
mail($mail_to,$subject,$body,"From: $email\r\n bcc:$bcc_email\r\n");
?>
I have tried a couple of combinations, such as "Bcc", "BCC" and "bcc". Any idea? Any comment is appreciated.

[sarah]

Just like a man...You get the "From" statement working, and now you want to bcc too.

I have no clue if this will make a difference, but try removing the space before the bcc and putting a space after it (after the 🙂.

[Anon]

Well, men are usually greedy ...
But I did try and still couldn't make it work. Have you had any problem using bcc before ?

[sarah]

I've only used it once, but it worked just fine. Are you using some weird email client?

[techmeister]

Hi Sarah:

I tried your method and it worked! Thanks for that, but as the body of the email is dynamically generated I'm using a while loop within the whole thing and this may be messing it up - why should it though?

Code is as below:

<?php
//Start off email body:

$bullet_body = "Someone has just signed-up";
$bullet_body .= "\nUsername: $username\n";
$bullet_body .= "Events signed up for:"\n\n";

/
Start off SQL query - inserting available values into table:
/

while(list($key) = each($signup)) {
$query = mysql_query("INSERT INTO $table_ifchk (username,email,signedup4) VALUES ('$username','$email','$key')");

$list = "<p align=\"center\">";
$list .= "<b>'</b>";
$list .= "$key";
$list .= "<b>'<b><br>";
$list .= "</p>";

//Display choices on page
echo $list;

//Continue with dynamic part of email body:

$bullet_body .= "* ";
$bullet_body .= $key;
$bullet_body .= "\n\n";
}
//end while loop

//Continue with rest of email body footer:

$bullet_body .= "User $username, is now waiting for confirmation";

//use php's mail() function to do the rest!

$mail_to = "[e-mail]";
$subject = "Sign-up confirmation\n";
$body = $bullet_body;
$from = "[e-mail]\n";
mail("$mail_to","$subject","$body","From: $from");

?>

Like I said - your way worked but because mine involves this loopy stuff - php doesn't wanna know. Any ideas anyone?

Cheers again for everyone's efforts! 🙂
Russ

[sarah]

Whenever I have a million things going on and something doesn't work, I break it down into a series of little tests.

Are the variables getting into the database?
What happens when you print $bullet_body?
What happens when you print $list?
What happens when you print $body?

If something doesn't print correctly, it could explain why things aren't working right.

I am certain that you can use the .= variable definitions. (I don't know what it's called. Concantonation?)

[Anon]

Hi,

you have to define the Header like this:

"From: $from_name <$from_email>"

and if you don't have an email:

"From: $from_name <>"

That should do it (or I misunderstood the problem 😉

[Anon]

I have been following you guys' messages, and I have run into a similar problem. When I am defining $message - this is the problem I have.

A lot of the data for $message is generated dynamically. So I have PHP code within the definition. For example -

$message='

<b>This is a test for
$sSQL="SELECT NewsID,NewsHeading FROM tblNews WHERE NewsDate > $yesterday;";
$result=mysql_query($sSQL, $db);
while ($GetNews=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$Name
}
'

Since the code is between the '' it does not execute, it simply echos to the screen or does nothing or gives an error. How can I execute PHP code within the ''??? I am relativly new to PHP, and this is a crazy problem! Please help!