mail($emailAddy, $subject, send an HTML Doc!!!!;

Lisa-Marie

Ok people,

I'm here today to ask you about the mail() function.

I realize I can send a message to someone's email address by using..

mail($emailAddress, $subject, $message);

where ... (obviously..)
$emailAddress = the address I would like to send it to
$subject = the subject of my email.. thank you
and
$message = the message I want to send..

BUT.. yes always.. always a butttt

how on earth do I store a "whole HTML page" within the $message variable? If I try to place the whole script for the page within the message variable, then php variables won't display their values but only their names

for example...

Hello <?php $userName ?>
would display as ..
Hello <?php $userName ?>
not..

Hello Lisa O' great one.. hahahah.. .... ahem

anyways...

someone pleeeeez help

thanx

Code_guy

try $message = eval($message);

Lisa-Marie

Welp..

I tried placing the whole HTML code within a $message variable.
I tried this...
<?php
$message =
"
HTML code
"
?>

Then I realized, I'm going to need escape characters in order to do this.. like everytime I use double quotes or single quotes they're going to need \ before them

Is there an easier way?

Code_guy

you can use here doc syntax

$message= <<<EOD
Hello $userName

How have you been....
...

see ya later
EOD;

MsShelle

that I am not just getting it.....

Since this was already posted and I am in the process of learning to do this, I thought I'd ask my question here....

Is there a way to just have the mail function to automatically link and send the file that is requested?

TIA
MsShelle

Lisa-Marie

Wouldn't that be great!

I'm not sure about this one, if someone answers that question it would save so much work!

rohithmr

@ & MsShelle,

What exactly do u mean by 'link and send the file that is requested'?

If u want a script to email u a certain file requested(thru the URL is one possibility) as an attachment, it will not b that hard to do.

Tell me if that what u wanted to knoe.

MsShelle

What I ultimately want to accomplish is that when there is an update to the db, I want that action to use a stored template (really a webpage) that displays the updated data and emails it to all subscribers. :rolleyes: ( I think?!?)

To give you a better idea of what I am talking about.....My site is a logistics/transportation site where agents can post their available freight loads. When they do that, I want that action to trigger an email alert using that template that I have stored containing the new information that was posted to the db.

Forgive me I am just learning all of this and as fun as it is; it is also complicated and challenging but can this be done like that?

Thanks for replying 🙂
MsShelle

Code_guy

This will send a file by email:

$htmlFile = "/path/myFile.html";
$fd = fopen ($htmlFile, "r");
$message = fread ($fd, filesize ($htmlFile));
fclose ($fd);
mail($emailAddress, $subject, $message);

If you want to send a php file, you can't use the local path to access the file. If you do it will not evaluate the php code, it will just send the file the way it is on your computer.
But if you use $htmlFile = "http://localhost/myFile.php" the php output of myFile.php will be sent by email.

myFile.php could be a email template that looks like this:

Hello <?= $userName ?> 

....

Then you could use a script like below to send email to an list of people.

// let's say you have an array $people of objects that each have
// a userName and email property

foreach ($people as $person){
     $htmlFile = "/path/http://localhost/myFile.php?userName=" . $person['userName'];
     $fd = fopen ($htmlFile, "r");
     $message = fread ($fd, filesize ($htmlFile));
     fclose ($fd);
     mail($person['email'], "News for " . $person['userName'], $message);
}

obviously you can pass more variables to the myFile.php by adding &var2=val2&var3=val3 etc...

cgraz

If you're going to be sending html emails, don't forget to use the following headers

$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";

Cgraz

MsShelle

This is why I am up half the night...just when I have given up, I read something that I have to try!!! 😃

Thanks, I'll let ya know how I make out.

MsShelle

Lisa-Marie

lol, I know what that's like MsShelle!

Lisa-Marie

$htmlFile = "/path/myFile.html";
$fd = fopen ($htmlFile, "r");
$message = fread ($fd, filesize ($htmlFile));
fclose ($fd);
mail($emailAddress, $subject, $message);

..so this code here, will send the whole php file, and display it within the prospect's email?

rupertbj

I had a kind of similar problem getting multiple entries from a form to be sent within an e-mail and solved it as follows:

<?php
$to = "rupertbj@tiscali.co.uk";
$subject = "email submission from rancone.co.uk";
$content = array ( $title, $name, $surname, $phone, $address, $message );
$val = implode("\n", $content);
mail( $to, $subject, $val, "$email\r\nX-priority: 1 (Highest)" ) or print "Error handling message. message not sent.";
?>

However, this doesn't exactly answer your question; except if you were to make content equal a file that could be uploaded into the e-mail, maybe that could work too?

But maybe not - I'm a newbie too!!!!!!!!!!

Code_guy

..so this code here, will send the whole php file, and display it within the prospect's email?

no, it will send the file as it is your your computer as I said in the post:

If you want to send a php file, you can't use the local path to access the file. If you do it will not evaluate the php code, it will just send the file the way it is on your computer.
But if you use $htmlFile = "http://localhost/myFile.php" the php output of myFile.php will be sent by email.

When you use [url]http://...[/url] to get the file, you get it from the webserver, which will evalueate the php code and send you the output.
Please read the post again.

cgraz is very right, you need those headers