Really really quick PHP mail question. URGENT! Thanks!

dreamcaster

Hey everyone, quick question. I want to send an email to someone using
the mail function in PHP, but the From: is a variable. However, will
not work.

If I do this:

$fromAddress = "someone@somewhere.com";
mail ($Email, $Main, $Main, "From: $fromAddress");
Then it is sent fine.

However if I do this:

mail ($Email, $Main, $Main, "From: $fromAddress");
and $fromAddress is a variable from a form input, the email is not
sent. What could possibly be the problem? Do I have to do something
weird so that the $fromAddress can be ready as a variable from a form
input?
Thank you so much!

PHPdev

Could be a global variables issue... try replacing $fromAddress with $_POST["fromAddress"] or $HTTP_POST_VARS["fromAddress"]

That should work

PHPdev

jeremuck

here's an extra tip... be consistent in mixing strings and variables.

in your call to mail, you have all variables but then the last thing is a string mixed with a variable.

instead, why not prepare the whole FROM part as a string:

$FromStr = "From :" $FromAddr;

That way will make your code much easier to read because you won't be don't all sorts of crazy things in the function call.

oh, and when is it not "quick" and "URGENT!" ????????

dreamcaster

Thanks! I will give it a try once my hosting company comes back up. Just in case, can you think of any other reason it would not work? I have echo'ed out $fromAddress to make sure it has been set when it comes from the form page and it appears just fine. I even sent an email to the $fromAddress on the line before it, but it seems like From: has to be a string and cannot be a variable. Do you know if that part of the mail function has different access requirements than the rest?

dreamcaster

Originally posted by jeremuck
here's an extra tip... be consistent in mixing strings and variables.

in your call to mail, you have all variables but then the last thing is a string mixed with a variable.

instead, why not prepare the whole FROM part as a string:

$FromStr = "From :" $FromAddr;

That way will make your code much easier to read because you won't be don't all sorts of crazy things in the function call.

oh, and when is it not "quick" and "URGENT!" ????????

Thanks for the tip! I have tried that already and the same problem still happened. Any other ideas?

jeremuck

you have to follow the previous advice, too.
Depending on whether register_globals is on or off, you will have to access the variable a little differently.

If you are using post method, you will be able to use $POST['fromAddress'], if you are using GET you can use $GET['fromAddress'] where fromAddress is the name of the input in the form. Using it in that manner is also more secure.

once you have it, you can build the from string.

you can look up register globals setting, as well and POST and GET in the manual. www.php.net/manual/en

Here's another tip... whenever you seem to be having trouble accessing a variable, especially if it's coming from a form, do:

print_r($GLOBALS);

this wil show you ALL the variables in your script.

dreamcaster

Originally posted by jeremuck
you have to follow the previous advice, too.
Depending on whether register_globals is on or off, you will have to access the variable a little differently.

If you are using post method, you will be able to use $POST['fromAddress'], if you are using GET you can use $GET['fromAddress'] where fromAddress is the name of the input in the form. Using it in that manner is also more secure.

once you have it, you can build the from string.

you can look up register globals setting, as well and POST and GET in the manual. www.php.net/manual/en

Here's another tip... whenever you seem to be having trouble accessing a variable, especially if it's coming from a form, do:

print_r($GLOBALS);

Thanks again. I will try all of these things. I thought I read somewhere that certain headers in the mail functions were not allowed to be variables. Thanks for your advice!

this wil show you ALL the variables in your script.

Cogen

Okay, I've been out of PHP for about a year and am just getting back into it, so I'm very rusty, but maybe try this ...

Instead of ...

$FromStr = "From :" $FromAddr;

Do this ...

$FromStr = "From : ".$FromAddr;

I don't know if that's the problem, but worth a try I think. 🙂

jeremuck

yeah, getting the syntax correct is important.

dreamcaster

Thanks everyone for your help. It still did not work, but I did find a workaround.

$from = $POST["Email"];
$mailheaders = "From: $from <>\n\n";
$mailheaders .= "Reply-To: $POST[Email]\n\n";

This works. Just thought I would share!

jeremuck

what do you mean it didn't work? that's exactly what we suggested!

dreamcaster

When I mean it didn't work, I was referring to when I access a variable via $POST[variableName], it did not show up in the "From" field. But when I used $POST[variableName] in the Reply-To, then the variable show up. So I used "<>" in the From area to represent a blank email address, but then added a $from variable to the "From" area, which "fooled" the parser into allowing the email to be sent.

dreamcaster

I know my last post was confusing. So here is a link to the article I found about it:

http://www.thickbook.com/extra/php_email.phtml