Trying to send email to multiple addresses at once

[jerbecca]

Hello. I am trying to put together a form that will send email to several people at once. The email addresses, to which a prewritten message will be sent, will be specified by the site visitor. I am using this for a "Refer your friends to this website" type of purpose. The visitor will put in several names and corresponding email addresses (up to about 8 to 10) and I want the mail to all go out at the same time when the visitor hits the "submit" button. How can I do this? Below is the script I have so far.

Thanks, in advance, for the help.

Jeremy

<?php
$ToEmail = "$emailFriend1"; //The first of several, hopefully
$ToName = "$nameFriend1"; //The first of several, hopefully
$ToSubject = "Did this work?";
$EmailBody = "The following individual thought you would like to check out our website.\n\nName: $txtName\nEmail: $txtEmail\nURL: $txtURL\nComments:\n$txtComments";
$EmailFooter = "\n\nMessage Complete";
$Message = $EmailBody.$EmailFooter;
mail($ToEmail, $ToSubject, $Message, "From: $txtEmail");
Print "_root.form.txtStatus=Complete - Your mail has been sent!";
?>

[johany]

This is from
http://se.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php

/* recipients */
$to  = "Mary <[e-mail]>" . ", " ; //note the comma
$to .= "Kelly <[e-mail]>";

Good luck

[stuartc1]

Personanly I would use a loop, so that each email is sent individually (the to part in the email will be personal).

like this:

$to = array();

// then put all the email addresses in the array
$to[0] = "[e-mail]";
$to[1] = "[e-mail]";

// loop the array
foreach( $to_email as $to) {
mail($to_email, $ToSubject, $Message, "From: $txtEmail");
}

🙂

[bakertrg]

Mail () with a loop is very inefficient from the standpoint of system resources as each pass must open a new socket if I'm not mistaken. This probably doesn't matter for two addresses but if you are sending to hundreds it certainly might.

B

[jerbecca]

Thanks for the help everyone.

Johany, I couldn't seem to figure that example out. I may try that next, but I'm going to attempt to get this array thing going.

Stuartc1 (or anyone else who may read this),

Using the array method, what have I gotten wrong in this script? I still can't get it to work. No mail is sent at all. I must be missing something. Can someone spot my error?

Thanks again,

Jeremy

<?php
$to = array();
$to[0] = "emailFriend1";
$to[1] = "emailFriend2";
$ToSubject = "Did this work?";
$EmailBody = "Message from Refer Friends Form\n\nName: $txtName\nEmail: $txtEmail\nURL: $txtURL\nComments:\n$txtComments";
$EmailFooter = "\n\nMessage Complete";
$Message = $EmailBody.$EmailFooter;
for( $ToEmail = $to) {
mail($ToEmail, $ToSubject, $Message, "From: $txtEmail");
}
Print "_root.form.txtStatus=Complete - Your mail has been sent!";
?>

[payjo]

You have two options:

1) If the user is giving the email address of the people that they want to send it to just put a message of your website that tells them to separate each email address with a comma.

2) If you want to use an array do this:
$to = array();
$to[0] = "emailFriend1";
$to[1] = "emailFriend2";

$ToEmail = implode(",", $to);

Assuming that the $to array contains a valid email address ([e-mail]) then this will send the email to everyone in the array.

Look at on the php.net website for details about the implode() function.

Hope this helps!! 🙂

[jerbecca]

OK. Thanks for that. However, I actually have seperate form fields, each of which will collect a separate email address from the visitor. I have assigned a unique variable to each of the "friends" form fields. I just need a way to take these several email variables and note in the PHP script to email to all of them upon clicking the "submit" button once.

Here is a sample form I'm using right now to test things:

http://www.dwellingproductions.com/lm/forum/referfriends/referfriends.html

You can take a look at this to visualize the potential interface.

Thanks. I hope everyone will continue to be patient with me while I'm learning. 🙂

Jeremy

[sarahk]

Hi Jeremy

Johnay and payjo both had the right idea.

Just check (using isset()) that the email address for each of 1-10 exists and add to the $to string or array and then send.

Personally, if there are only 10, I would personalise the email and create a function for sending each so you don't have to repeat your send code over and over.

[jerbecca]

OK... I'm getting closer.

Sarahk,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I think they did have the right idea. I just couldn't get them working.

Below is my latest incarnation based on Johany's suggestion and some things I read in the online manual. The problem I'm having with doing it this way is that all (both in this case) of the "$to"names and addresses are showing up in the "to" area of the email receiving program. Also, I can't insert the $to variable into the generic "you were referred by" message and get only the name that belongs with the respective email that goes out.

In other words, I need to have it run this process entirely for each recipient so that they each get an email that is personalized to them. Does that make sense? How can this be done?

Thanks again everyone. I'm eagerly awaiting any further help anyone may have.

<?php
$to = "\"$nameFriend1\"<$emailFriend1>" . ", " ;
$to .= "\"$nameFriend2\" <$emailFriend2>";
$ToSubject = "Did this work?";
$EmailBody = "Message from Refer Friends Form\n\nName: $txtName\nEmail: $txtEmail\nURL: $txtURL\nComments:\n$txtComments";
$EmailFooter = "\n\nMessage Complete";
$Message = $EmailBody.$EmailFooter;
mail($to, $ToSubject, $Message, "From: $txtEmail");
Print "_root.form.txtStatus=Complete - Your mail has been sent!";
?>

[stuartc1]

Hi again,

what about this:

<?php

// create the arrays (email, name)
$email = array();
$name = array();

//find out if the form fields (email, name) have values
if(isset($name1)) {
$name[0] = $name1
$email[0] = $email1
}
if(isset($name2)) {
$name[1] = $name2
$email[1] = $email2
}

// find out the number in the array
$arr_num = count($email);

// loop that amount
for ($i=0; $i<=$arr_num; $i++) {

$to = '"$name[$i]"<$email[$i]>';
$EmailBody = "Message from Refer Friends Form\n\nName:
$txtName\nEmail: $txtEmail\nURL:
$txtURL\nComments:\n$txtComments";
$EmailFooter = "\n\nMessage Complete";
$Message = $EmailBody.$EmailFooter;
mail($to, $ToSubject, $Message, "From: $txtEmail");

}

Print "_root.form.txtStatus=Complete - Your mail has been sent!";
?>

hope this helps, BTW opening a mail socket in a loop will be fine in this scale.🙂

p.s. the error on my older post ("for" should have been "foreach"). oops

[jerbecca]

Stuartc1,

Thanks again for your help. Here's where I'm at. I'm getting a response from the script that the mail has been sent. However, nothing actually gets sent. So, obviously the syntax is legal enough to return the "print" statement. But, for some reason, the script is not executing as desired. Can you double check the script below to see if there an error in syntax? Otherwise, the method seems to be exactly what is needed in this situation. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why it's not actually sending the emails.

I truly appreciate everyone's assistance. We're almost there!!! 🙂

Jeremy

<?php

// create the arrays (email, name)
$email = array();
$name = array();

//find out if the form fields (email, name) have values
if(isset($emailFriend1)) {
$name[0] = $nameFriend1;
$email[0] = $emailFriend1;
}
if(isset($emailFriend2)) {
$name[1] = $nameFriend2;
$email[1] = $emailFriend2;
}

// find out the number in the array
$arr_num = count($email);

// loop that amount
for ($i=0; $i<=$arr_num; $i++) {
$to = '"$name[$i]"<$email[$i]>';
$ToSubject = "Did this work?";
$EmailBody = "Message from Refer Friends Form\n\nName: $txtName\nEmail: $txtEmail\nURL: $txtURL\nComments:\n$txtComments";
$EmailFooter = "\n\nMessage Complete";
$Message = $EmailBody.$EmailFooter;
mail($to, $ToSubject, $Message, "From: $txtEmail");
}

Print "_root.form.txtStatus=Complete - Your mail has been sent!";
?>

[jerbecca]

hmmm... I'm still trying to get this to work, to no avail.

If someone gets a chance, could you please look at the code above (from my last post) and see if you can spot a syntax error or something that would keep the mail from being sent? It returns the confirmation message fine, but no mail is ever sent.

Thank you so much, everyone. I'm sorry to be such a bother. I'm still learning.🙁

Jeremy

[dragonfly4]

Ok, I'm getting my e-mails out of a mysql database but perhaps you have something about it.

Since I only have about 15 e-mails to send I also use a loop:

<?php
// start session and clear all values
session_start();
session_unset();

// define the vars for the sessions
$sesTitle = $txtTitle;
$sesBody = $txtBody;

// register the sessions
session_register("sesTitle");
session_register("sesBody");

// check if fields were entered
If ((empty($txtTitle)) || (empty($txtBody))) {
	header("LOCATION: emails_add.php?errorNr=20");
	exit();
}

$sqlEmails = "SELECT member_email FROM eie_member";
$resultEmails = mysql_query($sqlEmails,$conn);

$message = "$txtBody";
$message .= "$mailfooter";

// sql query for the INSERT
$sql = "INSERT INTO eie_sendedemails 
(sendemails_title,sendemails_body,sendemails_date) 
VALUES 
('$txtTitle','$message','$todayDate')";
// execute the query
$result = mysql_query($sql,$conn);

// check if INSERT was successfull
if (!$result) {
	header("LOCATION: emails_add.php?errorNr=11");
	exit();
}

// loop thrue the addresses and send the E-Mails
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($resultEmails)) {		
	if (!mail($row[0],$txtTitle,$message,"From: $clantag - Admin <NoReply>" )) {
		echo "<FONT class=error>ERROR: Mail not sent to " . $row[0] . "</FONT><BR>\n";
	} else {
		echo "<FONT class=news>Mail sent to " . $row[0] . "</FONT><BR>\n";
	}
}

// destroy session
session_destroy(); 
?>

I'm also a beginner so please no laughs about my code. It's perhaps simple but it works for me so...
I'm just trying to help 😉

[jerbecca]

Thanks for the response. Actually, I just got this to work with the script I posted just previous to this. It turns out I had some variable problems (misnamed, or something). Anyway, it works now. (If anyone is reading through this later and needs code for a similar type of function, use the last code I posted or the one dragonfly just posted.)

I do appreciate your posting this code, however. I am planning to do some integration with MySQL very soon, so I'm sure this will help me a bunch. Thanks again!

Jeremy