need help with implementing a hidden multi select box of recipient on a mail form

[eric1]

I'm stating with php did a lot of reading and testing but need help.
I am trying to create a mail form that allow to send an email to any one of recipients within a list without showing the email address this from any where in the html site.

what I did up to now:
1) extrapolated from javascript procedure so I can pass a variable through a link from an html page without a form button:
<a href="mailer/scfm.php" onClick="this.href='mailer/scfm.php?' + 1">email 1</a>

2) in the php file I use $id = sprintf($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']); so I can handle the passed variable (here 1)

3) established a list as
$sendto = '';
$user[$id] = '';

$user[0] = "empty";
$user[1] = "[e-mail]";
$user[2] = "[e-mail]";
$user[3] = "[e-mail]";
$user[4] = "[e-mail]";
$user[5] = "";
$user[6] = "";
$user[7] = "";

4) create a variable holding the proper address:
$sendto = $user[$id];

5) now starts the problem
if I do a Echo ("$user[$id]") it prints to a page ok,
if I reassign to another variable $test = $sendto, Echo("$test") also works.
but in the mail script I'm working with this generated $sendto variable doesn't show while other as $yourname, $yoursubject, $yourmessage do and if I hardcode the email address as in $sendto = "[e-mail]"; then the form does send an email.

Please could you tell me how to make this work, and also explain why it doesn't as I did.

thanks
Eric

[devinemke]

if i understand what you are trying to do (send mail without revealing email addresses) then i think you are making this over complex. check this:

<?
if (!isset($_POST['submit']))
{
	echo '
	<form action="" method="POST">
	Please choose an email to send to:<br>
	<select name="email">
	';

for ($i = 1; $i <= 5; $i++)
{
	echo '<option value="' . $i . '">email ' . $i;
}

echo '
</select><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="send email">
</form>
';
}
else
{
	$email_array = array(
		1 => '[e-mail]',
		2 => '[e-mail]',
		3 => '[e-mail]',
		4 => '[e-mail]',
		5 => '[e-mail]'
	);

$to = $email_array[$_POST['email']];
$from = 'from: [email][e-mail][/email]';
$subject = 'this is a message from eric1';
$message = 'this is a message from eric1';

$mail_sent = @mail($to, $subject, $message, $from);

if ($mail_sent) {echo 'thank you for sending mail to email #' . $_POST['email'];}
else {echo 'mail send FAIL';}
}
?>

[eric1]

Thank you devinemke for your reply,

Yes as you said it is complicated but it is also what I need. Looking at your suggestion I went back to the manual and studied a bit more the array part.

Here is what I came with and it does work as long as action="" (no space)

<?php
$ids = sprintf($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);
/function to insert elements/
function addArray(&$array, $id, $var)
{
$tempArray = array( $var => $id);
$array = array_merge ($array, $tempArray);
}
/function to insert subarray/
function addArrayArr(&$array, $var, &$array1)
{
$tempArray = array($var => $array1);
$array = array_merge ($array, $tempArray);
}
/labels of our array for the headers/
$keyarr = array("name","email",);
/info that would be nice to read from a separate file/
$valarr0 = array('empty','empty',);
$valarr1 = array('First Name','[e-mail]',);
$valarr2 = array('Second Name','[e-mail]',);
$valarr3 = array('Third Name','[e-mail]',);
$valarr4 = array('Fourth Name','[e-mail]',);
/If read from a separate file should be easy to input automatically the number of lines/
$numofrows = 5;
/ now establishing the data/
$tmpArray = array();
for($i = 0; $i < $numofrows; $i++){
$tmp = "valarr$i";
$tmpvar = ${$tmp};
foreach( $keyarr as $key=>$value){

addArray($tmparr,$tmpvar[$key],$value);
}
addArrayArr($finalarr,$i,$tmparr);
if ($i == $ids){
$recname = (isset($recname) && $recname) ? $recname : $finalarr[$i]["name"];
$recmail = (isset($recmail) && $recmail) ? $recmail : $finalarr[$i]["email"];
}
}
$thanksmessage="Thank you! Your email has been sent, we will respond shortly."; //Your thank you message, displays after the email has been sent.
If($POST['submit']) {
extract($POST);
If ($yourname=="") {
$error = "1";
$error_text .= "You did not enter your name!<br />";
}

	If ($youremail=="") { 
		$error = "1";
		$error_text .= "You did not enter your email!<br />";
	}
	If($yoursubject=="") {
		$error = "1";
		$error_text .= "You did not enter your subject!<br />";
	}
	If ($youremail) { 
		If (!eregi("^([a-z0-9_]|\\-|\\.)+@(([a-z0-9_]|\\-)+\\.)+[a-z]{2,4}\$",$youremail)){
			$error = "1";
			$error_text .= "Invalid Email Address!<br />";
		}
	}

	If ($yourmessage=="") { 
		$error = "1";
		$error_text .= "You did not enter a message!<br />";
	}
If($error=="1") {
	$disperrors=$error_text;
} Else {
	$headers = "From: ".$yourname." <".$youremail.">\n";
	$headers .= "Reply-To: ".$yourname." <".$youremail.">\n";
	$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
	$headers .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n";
	$headers .= "X-Sender: ".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."\n";
	$headers .= "X-Mailer: Sunnymead Mailer\n"; 
	$headers .= "Return-Path: <".$recmail.">\n";

	$message .= "\n";
	$message .= "$yourmessage";
	$message .= "\n";

	If(!mail($recmail,$yoursubject,$yourmessage,$headers)) {
		exit("There has been an error, please contact the admin");
	}

	Echo("<div align=\"center\">".$thanksmessage."</div>");
	exit();
}

}
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled</title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center">
<?php Echo("<div align=\"center\"><b>".$disperrors."</b></div>"); ?>
<fieldset class="box" style="width: 80%;"><legend align="left"><span class="subtitle">contacting <?php Echo("$recname\n"); ?></span></legend>
<form action="" method="post">
<table border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" align="center">
<tr><td>
<fieldset class="box"><legend align="left">From whom:</legend>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td width="100" align="right">Your name:&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
<td><?php Echo("<input name=\"yourname\" type=\"text\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"50\" value=\"".stripslashes($yourname)."\" />\n"); ?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100" align="right">Your email:&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
<td><?php Echo("<input name=\"youremail\" type=\"text\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"50\" value=\"".stripslashes($youremail)."\" />\n"); ?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100" align="right"> Subject:&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
<td><?php Echo("<input name=\"yoursubject\" type=\"text\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"50\" value=\"".stripslashes($yoursubject)."\" />\n"); ?></td>
</tr></table>
</fieldset>
</td></tr>
<tr> <td align="center" valign="top">
<fieldset class="box"><legend align="left">Your message</legend>
<?php Echo("<textarea name=\"yourmessage\" rows=\"6\" cols=\"50\" style=\"width: 400px;\">".stripslashes($yourmessage)."</textarea>\n"); ?>
</fieldset>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send Email" class="input">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<input type="reset" name="reset" value="Reset Form" class="input"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</fieldset>
</div>
</body>
</html>

This does make a feedback form that I can call from anywhere without giving a name or an email address through a text link.

BUT, I still don't understand why the variables $rename or $recmail get empty if I use an action in the form statement. it would be nice if you or some one else could explain this to me.

Now, I tried to add a file attachement to this form and this loss of variables stops it from funtionning.

Other thing that I would like to learn would be to call the proper name and email address from an external file...

Please let me know how to keep those variables in memory as in the manual and example stated that this type of statement would make it GLOBAL as a $_POST statement.

Thanks again

Eric

[bretticus]

Well, I promise I read through all your code, but I still didn't quite get the gist. The reason being that I think you are making this overly complicated (no offense, just trying to help.)

I mean , if the main thing to accomplish here is to submit a name (select dropdown or whatever method) and have an associated e-mail address to send to, the following code should work.

if ($isset($_POST['sumbit'])) {
	$recipients['First Name'] = '[e-mail]';
	$recipients['Second Name'] = '[e-mail]';
	$recipients['Third Name'] = '[e-mail]';
	$recipients['Fourth Name'] = '[e-mail]';
	if (isset($recipients[$_POST['recipientName']])) {
	//...mail code...	
	$headers .= "Return-Path: <".$recipients[$_POST['recipientName']].">\n"; 
	//...mail code...
	If(!mail($recipients[$_POST['recipientName']],$yoursubject,$yourmessage,$headers)) {
	//...mail code...
}

As for reading it in from a file, you might try looking in to the PHP function: fscanf

[eric1]

Hi bretticus,
Thanks for your help and yes it might be overly complicated (no offence taken 🙂) but it could be due to the fact that I'm new to php, ways I see things and viewers not really knowing where I want to go. Sorry for the length of this post and bare with it through the longish explanation.
I work for a non profit organisation (co-founder) and we got this mandate because we have a good reputation and we are free... (no commercial software can be used and development budget is limited to my will to learn, no money).
I started learning about php in the past 3 weeks using ressources from php.net, phpbuilder.com plenty of scripts from hotscripts.com and php.resourceindex.com limiting my interest to GNU GPL licences (17 of those, none doing what I really want).
My project concerns an elementary school that is going online.
There will be 160 children of age ranging from 5 to 8 plus the teachers.
I don't want any spam engine or others to access to the names and addresses of the school (staff or kids) but I also don't want eventual visitors to have to sign up to visit and learn about the school profile or student activities.
Any of the student and teachers should be able to share info and exchange files. Any visitors should be able to contact the head office.

Eventually what I want is:
one congig file (url, language option, etc...)
one info file (either flat file or mysql)
the manipulation section
the form interface
(and considering adding modules that would banne bad words, use from undefined servers, etc...)

From the script hereover there is still a lot to do but the root is there
- one initial command line from a text link,
- establishing the grounds of a database
- querries through this database
- display the results
- implement action

In this script that works as is, I cannot attache a file, from another version I can attache a file as long as $recname and $recmail are hardcoded difference between both scripts is

here you have:
$recname = (isset($recname) && $recname) ? $recname : $finalarr[$i]["name"];
$recmail = (isset($recmail) && $recmail) ? $recmail : $finalarr[$i]["email"];
}
}

$thanksmessage="Thank you! Your email has been sent, we will respond shortly."; //Your thank you message, displays after the email has been sent.
If($_POST['submit']) {
...
<form action="" method="post">

and the other has:
$recname = "First Name";
$recmail = "[e-mail]";
$thanksmessage="Thank you! Your email has been sent, we will respond shortly.";
If($POST['submit']) {
....
<form action="$SERVER['PHP_SELF']" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
(here the action allows to know where the file is temporarly uploaded)

now from a comment in the manual
...
Checking both to see if $var is set, and that it equals something other than Null or False is something I find very useful a lot of times. If $var is not set, PHP will never execute the second part of "(isset($var) && $var)", and thus never generate an error either.
This also works very nice for setting variable as well, e.g.:
<?php
$var = (isset($var) && $var) ? $var : 'new value';
?>
...
therefore, using this method the variable should be set, why is it lost? From the example you are giving I should move the upper part of my coding within the if ($isset($POST['sumbit'])) {
as if I was opening a session with a logon:
session_start();
if (isset($SESSION["valid"]))
{
// all your program decisions and database interactions can go here
if (isset($POST["button_name"]))
{
...
}
...
}
elseif (isset($POST["submit_login"]))
{
if (($POST["username"] == "foo") AND ($POST["password"] == "bar"))
{
$_SESSION["valid"] = true;
...
}

I'll try it and thanks again,
Eric
If you want to have a look at the project here is the link http://www.sunnymead.org/wes and the worksheet is under http://www.sunnymead.org/wes/worksheet.html