feedback form mail problem

[music_man]

Hi

I have a problem with the $_POST variable in my feedback form. The form sends the data ok but it wont mail properly.

Here is the code of feedback.php

<?php

ini_set ('display_errors' ,1);
error_reporting (E_ALL & ~E_NOICE);

if (empty ($name)) {

print 'You did not enter a name...';

}

if (empty ($comment)) {

print 'You did not enter a comment...';

}

$body = "comment on $story";

$story = $_POST['story'];

mail ('[e-mail]', 'comment on $story', $body, 'From: sender');

print "Thank you <b>$name</b> for your feedback on the story&nbsp;<b>$story</b>";

print "<br /><br />";

print "Your comment was <b>$comment</b>";

?>

Any ideas please?

[bubblenut]

Does the mail function fail or does the email just not arrive? You can check if the mail function is failing by wrapping the call in an if statement. If the function is failing I would guess that the mailserver isn't set up correctly with php. Try to get in contact with your host to see what's going on. If the function is completing successfully but the email is arriving I would first try sending it to an email account on the same domain as the web site and see if that get's through.

If it turns out that your host has emailing switched off you could try using PEAR Mail package which allows you to send emails directly via SMTP, bypassing the PHP set up.

[music_man]

The mail arrives fine but it sends "$name" and not e.g. "Fred". I think it must be something to do with $_POST but each time I try and put that in the code I get errors. Is this because of global registers?

[bubblenut]

You're not sending $name in the email, regardless, judging by your current subject line I think I know what the problem is. Single quotes do not get parsed for variables, if you want to use single quotes you have to break out of them to use variables like this

echo 'I am not parsed so '.$name.' has to break';

alternatively use double quotes.

[kburger]

Several problems here, in addition to what bubblenut said. I've commented your code.

<?php

ini_set ('display_errors' ,1);
error_reporting (E_ALL & ~E_NOICE);

if (empty ($name)) {
// OK.  We're validating it.  But we're sending the mail regardless.
print 'You did not enter a name...';

}

if (empty ($comment)) {

print 'You did not enter a comment...';

}

$body = "comment on $story";
// In the line above, $story has no value.
$story = $_POST['story'];
// Now it does.  Better swap those 2 lines.

mail ('[e-mail]', 'comment on $story', $body, 'From: sender');
// either use " instead of ' or concat like bubblenut suggested

print "Thank you <b>$name</b> for your feedback on the story&nbsp;<b>$story</b>";

print "<br /><br />";

print "Your comment was <b>$comment</b>";

?>