php mass email system

corruption

I'm trying to develop a system to send mass emails to a group of people. The system involves a mySQL database and phpmailer, plus php and an html form.

I'm curious of a good way to get the addresses that are selected in from the form into an array or something that i can send emails through.

for starters i get the emails out of the database.

<?
$sql = "SELECT exec.position, exec.office_id, brothers.fname, brothers.lname, brothers.brother_id, brothers.email
        FROM exec
        LEFT JOIN brothers
        ON exec.brother_id = brothers.brother_id ORDER BY office_id ASC";

?>

then I create the form that displays the names of the people corresponding to the address.

$result = mysql_query($sql);
if ($result > 0 ){
//$i=0;

 while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
 	//if (!($i%2)) {
	//echo "<tr>";
	//}
 //$i++;

//}
echo "<td><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"email\" value=".$row['email']." />";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td>".$row['fname']." ".$row['lname'];
echo " - ".$row['position'];
echo "</td></tr>";
}
}
else {
echo "No Rows Returned";
}
?>
</table>
<br />
<br />
<table class="news_table">
<tr><td class="newstitle" colspan="4">All Other Active Brothers</td></tr>

From this form...(there is a submit button and all of that plus more address getting functions.)

I don't know a good way to get or maybe a better way to name each field so that the parameters are easier to get to in php. Currently i try to read the addresses selected into an array called $email but it just gives me the last address selected. Does anyone know of a better way? Please help me with this. Thank you in advance

Kudose

This should get you somewhere...

<?php
if(!$submit){
	$sql = "SELECT e.position, e.office_id, e.brother_id, b.fname, ";
	$sql .= "b.lname, b.brother_id, b.email FROM exec as e, brothers as b ";
	$sql .= "ORDER BY e.office_id ASC";

$query = mysql_query($sql);

if(mysql_num_rows($query) > 0){
	echo "<form action=\"".$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']."\" method=\"post\">";
	echo "<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\"><tr><td>Send</td><td>Last Name</td><td>First Name</td><td>Email Address</td></tr>"
	while(mysql_fetch_array($query) !== FALSE){
		echo "<tr><td><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"brother_id[]\" value=\"".$row['brother_id']."\"></td><td>".$row['lname']."</td><td>".$row['fname']."</td><td>".$row['email']."</td></tr>";
	}
	echo "<tr><td colspan=\"4\"><input type=\"submit\" name=\"submit\" value=\"Submit!\"></td></tr></table>";
	echo "</form>";
}
}

if($submit){
	$b_id = array();
	$b_id = $_POST['brother_id'];

foreach($b_id as $brother_id){
	$sql = "SELECT e.position, e.office_id, e.brother_id, b.fname, ";
	$sql .= "b.lname, b.brother_id, b.email FROM exec as e, brothers as b ";
	$sql .= "WHERE e.brother_id = ".$brother_id." AND b.brother_id = ".$brother_id." LIMIT 0,1";

	//write an email format script here or just send your email
	//you can pull all the info you need by calling
	//mysql_fetch_array($sql) and getting you values

}
unset($submit);
}
?>

corruption

could this be replaced

$sql = "SELECT e.position, e.office_id, e.brother_id, b.fname, ";
        $sql .= "b.lname, b.brother_id, b.email FROM exec as e, brothers as b ";
        $sql .= "WHERE e.brother_id = ".$brother_id." AND b.brother_id = ".$brother_id." LIMIT 0,1";

with

$sql = "SELECT e.position, e.office_id, e.brother_id, b.fname, b.lname, b.brother_id, b.email 
FROM exec as e, brothers as b WHERE e.brother_id = $brother_id ANDb.brother_id = $brother_id Limit 0,1";

???

Kudose

Yeah, but I tend to keep my code neat. Saves time and is easier to maintain, plus concat-ing things together saves from getting too long of strings and also prevents some common coding mistakes dealing with double and single quote marks and the likes...

To each thier own...

corruption

that's a good reason, I'm still new to coding so that's a good idea that i'll try out. Thank you for your help, I'll let you know how it works if i get to it later tonight.

joe2

Sorry for the little away question from the topic

Can anybody tell about the mass mail norms.
What is the proper procedure of mass mail, so that it wont considered as a spam .
What is the correct way of mass mail.

Thanks in advance.

Kudose

Dont spam.
Dont send people unsolicited emails.
I would reccommend sending one email at a time in a loop and do error reporting to a log file.

...my 2 cents...

joe2

Thanks Kudose

Is there any rules defined for the spam.
Or it is simply if you send mail without user subscription would be considered as Spam.

I think an humble thanks is more valuable than 2 cent 🙂

Kudose

Sending an unrequested piece of email is considered spam. Just like junk mail you get via snail mail.

🙂