[Resolved] [Resolved] [Resolved] mail() info called from a database

dartcol

The form lists 50 products from the database. I get the name of the product and the variable name for the field for that product from the database. The user can decide how many of each product they wish by entering a number into the quantity text box provided.

After hitting submit they are taken to a new page that tells them that an email has been sent with the information to the appropriate department as well as displaying their selections for them to print off.

My question is how do I get the name of each product and the quantity of each product selected into the message part of the email? At the moment I only get the last product in the array.

This is the code I'm using to loop through the separate products from the form.

	foreach($_POST as $key => $val)
		{
		if ($val != '')
			{
			$sql = "	SELECT product_title, product_item
					FROM products
					WHERE product_vname='".$key."'";
			$result = mysql_query($sql);

		while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
			{
			extract($row);
			echo "
						<tr>
							<td><p>".$val."</p></td>
							<td align=left valign=top><p>".$product_title." ".$product_item."</p></td>
						</tr>";
			}
		mysql_free_result ($result);
		}
	}

I'm really stuck on this one. Thanks for any help.

dartcol

Would output buffering be a solution? I came across this in another thread but wasn't able to figure out how to use it? And if so, any ideas on how I would implement it?

Mordecai

Yeah, output buffering is what you need. Start buffering before the foreach, and end it after. You'll then need to grab the contents (do this before you ob_end_flush()) into a variable. The variable can then be used in the email. Ob_end_flush() will flush the object buffering, which means echo all content and delete it.

So, you'll have a site working just like you wanted.

dartcol

Thanks for the leg-up Mordecai. For others who find themselves with the same problem. I found everything I needed at php.net under object_start() and in a devshed article http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/OutputBuffering.

I also found out about strip_tags() at php.net for getting rid of all the html tags on the page before emailing the list as plain text.

A more than useful exercise that's prevented grey hairs as well as teaching me something.

Nice one.