How Do I select thr "From" field?

Attila7

Help!!
I have a form that was converted from CGI to PHP, I am very new to PHP and am trying to learn it, however my forms are important to a group site and I can't get the from field to display who the email is from? Presently the form works right except that it shows the servers email address in the "From" field of the received message. Can this form be made to show the entered email address in the "From", this is important because the receiving computer sends out a confirmation of receipt to the email address that is entered in the email blank. Presently that confirmation is being sent to the server? Any suggestions? I have tried several things but all have failed? Here is a snippet of working code. Tnx

<?php
$date = date("m/d/y hⓂs A");
if(isset($Submit))
{
if($name != "" && $seniority != "" && $employee != "" && $email != "")
{
$message = "Weekly Bid

Name: $name 
Employee#: $employee 

Seniority#: $seniority 
Email: $email 
Sent: $date

thorpe

to get the value of the 'from' field of your form you would;

$from = $_POST['from'];

i dont understand how the servers email address could get in the form. could we see your form code?

Attila7

Thanks for the reply!
Where do I insert that line? I tried a similar line but it blanked out all of the following data, I know I had it in the wrong place and tried moving it but kept getting the same problem? As for your question did you want the entire page posted?

Weedpacket

As thorpe said, we need to see your code: the relevant bit would be best (we don't need to see all your HTML, for example). Like: where did you try that "similar line" and just how similar was it?

(By "CGI" I presume you mean Perl.)

Attila7

Yes Perl is right, my host felt PHP was more secure and requested that I change. Is this the code you are looking for? Everything below this is htm

<?php
$date = date("m/d/y hⓂs A");
if(isset($Submit))
{
if($name != "" && $seniority != "" && $employee != "" && $email != "")
{
$message = "Weekly Bid

Name: $name 
Employee#: $employee 

Seniority#: $seniority 
Email: $email 
Sent: $date

Bid 1: $one Perm: $Perm1 Vacy: $Vacy1 
Bid 2: $two Perm: $Perm2 Vacy: $Vacy2 
Bid 3: $three Perm: $Perm3 Vacy: $Vacy3 
Bid 4: $four Perm: $Perm4 Vacy: $Vacy4 
Bid 5: $five Perm: $Perm5 Vacy: $Vacy5 
Bid 6: $six Perm: $Perm6 Vacy: $Vacy6 
Bid 7: $seven Perm: $Perm7 Vacy: $Vacy7 
Bid 8: $eight Perm: $Perm8 Vacy: $Vacy8 
Bid 9: $nine Perm: $Perm9 Vacy: $Vacy9 
Bid 10: $ten Perm: $Perm10 Vacy: $Vacy10 
Bid 11: $eleven Perm: $Perm10 Vacy: $Vacy11 
Bid 12: $twelve Perm: $Perm12 Vacy: $Vacy12 
Bid 13: $thirteen Perm: $Perm13 Vacy: $Vacy13 
Bid 14: $fourteen Perm: $Perm14 Vacy: $Vacy14 
Bid 15: $fifteen Perm: $Perm15 Vacy: $Vacy15 
Bid 16: $sixteen Perm: $Perm16 Vacy: $Vacy16 
Bid 17: $seventeen Perm: $Perm17 Vacy: $Vacy17 
Bid 18: $eighteen Perm: $Perm18 Vacy: $Vacy18 
Bid 19: $nineteen Perm: $Perm19 Vacy: $Vacy19 
Bid 20: $twenty Perm: $Perm20 Vacy: $Vacy20";

mail("attila@shaw.ca,$email","Weekly Bid",$message,"Content-Type: text/html");

header("Location: bidresp.htm");
}
else
{
$error = "y";
}
}
?>

thorpe

we need to see the html that makes your form.

if all this code;

Name: $name<br>
Employee#: $employee<br>
Seniority#: $seniority<br>
Email: $email<br>
Sent: $date<br><br>

is collecting data from your form, you really should be using the post vars.

eg;

Name: $_POST['name']<br>
Employee#: $_POST['employee']<br>
Seniority#: $_POST['seniority']<br>
Email: $_POST['email']<br>
Sent: $_POST['date']<br><br>

thorpe

ooh, i just noticed another thing that would be causing you issues. the # character is another comment character in php.

see my post above with the syntax highlighting? everything in orange is considered to be a comment. you'll need to either get rid of the # symbol, or jump in and out of php to get around it.

Name: $_POST['name']<br>
Employee: $_POST['employee']<br>
Seniority: $_POST['seniority']<br>
Email: $_POST['email']<br>
Sent: $_POST['date']<br><br>

thorpe

actually, disregard my last post. i see whats going on there now.

im only a newb too, so take my advice with cautions :-P

rehfeld

i dont think he meant the servers email address was getting into the actual message body of the email, i think he meant the email headers.

if so, 2 ways to solve it




ini_set('sendmail_from', $email);



// or

$headers = "Content-Type: text/html\n";
$headers .= "From: $email\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: $email\n"; // optional

mail("attila@shaw.ca,$email","Weekly Bid",$message,$headers);

Attila7

Yes the message header is what concerns me. When the message is received it shows the servers email address not the senders, the auto response is not sending the reply to the sender. I must have something wrong, I tried both ways to correct this but the servers email address is still coming up not the senders? And yes this form is collecting data from the htm that is below the php code.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by Attila7
Yes the message header is what concerns me. When the message is received it shows the servers email address not the senders, the auto response is not sending the reply to the sender.

Not clear about whose addresses in which header you're talking about here (apostrophes might help). Do you mean the From: header in the received email is that of the server, and not the one supplied by the person using the form (for which, incidentally, you really ought to check that it really is an email address before you use it)?

Can we see the code where you're specifying the contents of the From: header?

Attila7

Thanks for your help guys. A suggestion fron rehfeld was the solution. I had tried it before but messed up somewhere, after reading thru some php docs and going back I found my errors, corrected them and rehfelds suggested snippets worked perfectly. The form now shows the senders email address.
Thanks again!

Attila7

Weedpacket brought up a valid point earlier: a check should be done to ensure that the email address entered is valid. How do I go about doing this?