How to create a form that sends me an email?

[kickindaspeaker]

I know I can use CGI scripts for that but I'm wondering if this can't be done in PHP?

I want to create a form that collects data from users willing to subscribe to my mailing list and sends me an email with that data.

Let's start with something simple. Let's learn how to create a form with one field, "name", and one button, "submit". When a user click on submit, I want to receive an email with the name he filled out in the form.

So far, I have created a form on one page:
<form action="action.php" method="post">
Your name: <input type="text" name="name">
<input type="submit">
</form>

And then, the "action.php" page sends me an email using the php function mail(), like so:

<?php
mail("[e-mail]", "Subject", "Message");
?>

My question is: how do I include the variable "name" into the message of the email???! How do I "pass" that var from the form page to the action.php page?

Thanks!

[BuzzLY]

Because you used the post method, the name field is automatically passed to action.php. All you have to do is refer to that value in your code. If you have register_globals set to "on," then you can refer to $name for the value. Otherwise, use $_POST["name"]:

<?php 
$message = "Your name is " . $_POST["name"];
mail("[e-mail]", "Subject", $message); 
?>

[kickindaspeaker]

THANK YOU!!! I used $name successfully! I would never have guessed it could be THAT easy.

Thanks.

[BuzzLY]

You are welcome. Don't forget about $POST[] and $GET[]. I would recommend you use them, so that if your administrator ever turns off register_globals, or you upgrade to 4.2.x or higher, your pages will still work correctly. It's a little extra effort, but worth it for more robust code.

[kickindaspeaker]

OK. Thanks, that's great advice.

[kickindaspeaker]

Oh one last question: If it's so easy to accomplish with PHP, why would most people still use CGI scripts? What advantage do they offer?

[BuzzLY]

If they are using PHP, the only reason I could see is to save time coding, if the CGI script is already written. Otherwise, the only reason I can see is that they aren't using PHP.

[kickindaspeaker]

ok, great. Well one final thank you for all the help. My form works perfectly now and soon people are going to be able to subscribe to my mailing list from my web site.