Calling mail() twice

[TracyJ]

I'm redesigning my company's web site and am just getting my feet wet with PHP. Most things are working fine so far, but I'm totally hung up on one problem.

We have numerous forms on our web site which generate an email to both our customer and to us -- but the content of the emails is different. That has been no problem with my old perl scripts, but in PHP when I try to do this, the first email gets sent, but any second call to mail() gets ignored.

How can I fix this or get around it? I'm completely frustrated and would greatly appreciate any help you can offer!

[LordShryku]

You'll need to show us the code. You should be able to cal mail as many times as you need. Try putting in some conditionals to see if they work or not. Make sure all of your variables are set.

[TracyJ]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have had this problem on more than one script, but here is the code for the one I'm presently working on::

---

if (isset($POST['submitted'])) {
if ( ($POST['Recipient'] == '') || ($POST['Contact'] == '') || ($POST['Email'] == '') || ($POST['Message'] == '') ) {
$incomplete = "We're sorry, you did not complete all of the required fields.";
} else {
$from = $POST['Email'];
$mailMessage = "Message from: ".$POST['Contact'].", ".$POST['Email'].".\n\n";
$mailMessage .= "Message: ".$_POST['Message']."\n";

	header('Location: [url]http://www.softrak.com/redesign/emailthanks.php[/url]');

	return mail($_POST['Recipient'], $_POST['subject'], $mailMessage, "From: ".$from);

	referMail();
}

}

---

The referMail() function code is as follows:

function referMail() {
$referFrom = $POST['Email'];
$referMessage = "FOR INTERNAL USE:\n\n";
if (($POST['Reference'] != "") || ($POST['OtherRefer'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareAdagio'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareAdagio'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareOtherSoftrak'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwarePlus'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareSimply'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareQuickBooks'] != "") || ($POST['OtherSoftware'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareOther'] != "")) {
$referMessage .= "How did you hear about us? ".$POST['Reference']."\n";
if ($POST['SearchEngineRefer'] != "" ) {
$referMessage .= " ".$POST['SearchEngineRefer']."\n";
}
if ($POST['WebSiteRefer'] != "" ) {
$referMessage .= " ".$POST['WebSiteRefer']."\n";
}
if ($POST['OtherRefer'] != "" ) {
$referMessage .= " ".$POST['OtherRefer']."\n";
}
$referMessage .= "\n";
if ($POST['SearchEngineTerms'] != "" ) {
$referMessage .= "Suggested search engine terms: ".$POST['SearchEngineTerms']."\n\n";
}
if (($POST['SoftwareAdagio'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareAdagio'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareOtherSoftrak'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwarePlus'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareSimply'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareQuickBooks'] != "") || ($POST['OtherSoftware'] != "") || ($POST['SoftwareOther'] != "")) {
$referMessage .= "The software I currently use is:\n";
if ($POST['SoftwareAdagio'] == "Yes" ) {
$referMessage .= " - Adagio\n";
}
if ($POST['SoftwareOtherSoftrak'] == "Yes" ) {
$referMessage .= " - Other Softrak Products\n";
}
if ($POST['SoftwarePlus'] == "Yes" ) {
$referMessage .= " - Accpac Plus\n";
}
if ($POST['SoftwareSimply'] == "Yes" ) {
$referMessage .= " - Simply\n";
}
if ($POST['SoftwareQuickBooks'] == "Yes" ) {
$referMessage .= " - QuickBooks\n";
}
if ($POST['SoftwareOther'] == "Yes" ) {
$referMessage .= " - Other:";
if ($POST['OtherSoftware'] != "" ) {
$referMessage .= " ".$POST['OtherSoftware']."\n";
} else {
$referMessage .= " Not specified\n";
}
}
}
return mail("[e-mail]", "Web Site Referrer Data", $referMessage, "From: ".$referFrom);
}
}

[TracyJ]

Just bumping this up... Can anyone help? 😕

[TracyJ]

Finally figured it out. I don't know why it makes a difference, but if I use "return mail()" it doesn't work. If I just call "mail()" it works.

[Frederick]

the return before the mail() function will cause your mail to stop. return is a function that is used inside of a function to stop process.
you can use as many mail() functions in a row.

mail("to1","subject1","message1","From: email1");
sleep(1);
mail("to2","subject2","message2","From: email2");
sleep(1);
mail("to3","subject3","message3","From: email3");

[TracyJ]

Thanks Frederick. I'm such a newbie that I didn't realize that "return" was the issue -- and when I did figure it out, I didn't exactly know why. But your explanation helps. I'm embarrassed at my ignorance, but I sure appreciate the information. One of these days I'll figure all of this stuff out. 🙂

[laserlight]

hmm... actually, using
return mail(arguments);
should be fine in your referMail() function.

mail() returns a boolean (i.e. true/false) value, stating whether it was accepted for delivery (though not whether the recipient accepted it, as that is a different matter).

return isnt a function, rather, it is a language construct. Still, you probably dont need to know the subtle differences between the 2 just yet.

When called from within a function (say function f()), it ends the function's execution, and returns its argument (parameter) to the caller, i.e. the function that called f().

When Frederick says that "the return before the mail() function will cause your mail to stop", he is referring to the other mail(), the one before referMail() was called.
Since a return statement was used there, the current function ended, so referMail() was never actually called.

[TracyJ]

Ahhhhh. I see! That completely clarifies things for me. Thank you!