[RESOLVED] New to PHP and need a little help

PCGuy

I am new to PHP and have been doing some reading and searching to try and get this correct, but I am running short on time to get it working properly. It is not quite finished for I still have to enter the code to email the people when they subscribe or unsubscribe. The problems I am having are:

1) getting the unsubscribe to work properly
2) keeping the "Thank you for joining" from showing up in the other messages

3) getting rid of the extra character at the end of the email address in the .txt file
4) making sure that when people unsubscribe they are removed form the .txt file.

If there is anything else that missed please let me know. The code below is what I currently have and the display messages and file locations are generic for testing purposes. Some of the code I have written myself and some of it I have gotten from reading various posts and tutorials. This is for a form that is on a website for users to subscribe/unsubscribe their email address for a newsletter. I have gotten the subscribe to work and it will write to a file.

------Form----- this is only in its basic form to test with

<html>

<head>
<title>Sign up for Newsletter</title>
</head>

<body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="blue" vlink="purple" alink="red">

<form action="subscribe.php" method=post>
<center>Your Email Address: <input type=text name="address" size=37></center>
<center><input type=radio name=action value=subscribe checked> Subscribe                         <input type=radio name=action value=unsubscribe> Unsubscribe </center>
<center><input type="submit" value="Submit"></center></form>

</body>

</html>

------PHP script-----


<?php

$subscribe = $_GET['subscribe'];
$unsubscribe = $_GET['unsubscribe'];
$address = $_POST['address'];

if ($subscribe = "subscribe")
{
  if (ereg('^[a-zA-Z0-9 \._\-]+@([a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\-]*\.)+[a-zA-Z]+$', $address))
  {
   echo ("<HTML><BODY>Thank you for joining.</BODY></HTML>");
  }
   else
  {  

   echo ("<HTML><BODY><b>$address</b> &nbsp;not a valid email address. Please try again.</BODY></HTML>");
  }
 if(file_exists("email_list.txt"))
 {
 $newfile = fopen("email_list.txt", "r");
    while(!feof($newfile))
   {
     $duplicate = fgetss($newfile, 255);

    if(eregi("$address", $duplicate))
   {
   echo ("<HTML><BODY><b>$address</b>&nbsp;is already in the database.</BODY></HTML>");

     fclose($newfile);
     exit;
   }
}
  fclose($newfile);
  $addemail = fopen("email_list.txt", "a");
  fputs($addemail, "$address\n");
  fclose($addemail);
 }
 else
 {

   $newfile = fopen("email_list.txt", "a");
   fputs($newfile, "$address\n");
   fclose($newfile);
 }

if ($unsubscribe = "unsubscribe")
 {
 $emails = file("email_list.txt");
  for($index = 0; $index < count($emails); $index++)
  {
    if(ereg("$unsubscribe", $emails[$index]))
    {
      $emails[$index] = "";
      $thefile = fopen("email_list.txt", "w");
         for($newindex = 0; $newindex <count($emails); $newindex++)
        {
          if($emails[$newindex] != "")
          {
            fputs($thefile, "$emails[$newindex]");
          }
        }
      fclose($thefile);
      echo("<HTML><BODY><b>$address</b>&nbsp;has successfully been removed from the database.</BODY></HTML>");
    }
  }
 }
}
?>

Rodney_H_

PCGuy wrote:

<form action="subscribe.php" method="post">

------PHP script-----

<?php
$subscribe = $_GET['subscribe'];
$unsubscribe = $_GET['unsubscribe'];
$address = $_POST['address'];

For starters, tHis is incorrect. You are saying the form's method is post, yet you are trying to "GET" the values.

Leave the form method as post, but change the php to;

<?php
$action = $_POST['action'];
$address = $_POST['address'];

if ($action == 'subscribe') {
// do subscribe action here
}

else {
// do unsubscribe here
}
?>

Rodney_H_

There are some things in your code that are inconsistent or out of order with what you are trying to do. That is why things were getting executed at the wrong time. I have put together something very similar to what you have so you can look at it and change yours around to get it to work.

I am not saying this is the best or the only way, cos it's not, but it works, so it would be a good starting point for you to do the upgrades on your script.

-cheers!

<html>
<head>
<title>Sign up for Newsletter</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php
if (!isset($_POST['submit'])) {
?>
<form action="<?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
<input type="text" name="address" size="37" /> Your Email Address
<br />
<input type="radio" name="action" value="subscribe" checked="checked" /> Subscribe 
<input type="radio" name="action" value="unsubscribe"> Unsubscribe
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" />
</form>
<?php
}
/* Else submit button was clicked, process form */
else {
$action = $_POST['action']; // action, subsribe or unsub.
$address = strtolower(trim($_POST['address'])); // email address
$file = 'email_list.txt'; // define file
// if address isn't acceptable
if (!ereg('^[a-zA-Z0-9 \._\-]+@([a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\-]*\.)+[a-zA-Z]+$', $address)) {
echo $_POST['address'] . ': is not a valid email address. Please try again.' . "<br />\n";
exit;
}

/* SUBSCRIBE */
if ($action == 'subscribe') {
if(!file_exists($file)) {
echo 'Cannot open file (' . $file .  ')';
exit;
} 
// else file exists
else {
$continue = 1; // file exists
$handle = fopen($file, 'r');
// Check for duplicate records
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($file));
if(eregi($address, $contents)) {
echo $address . ' is already in the database.' . "<br />\n";
fclose($handle);
$continue = 0; // record already exists
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // address is not in db yet
fclose($handle);
// check to make sure file is writable
if (!is_writable($file)) {
echo 'The file ' . $file . ' is not writable.';
}
else {
$continue = 1; // file is writable
if (!$handle = fopen($file, 'a')) {
echo 'Cannot open file (' . $file . ')';
$continue = 0; // can't create file handle
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // file is open
$add = $address . "\n";
if (!fwrite($handle, $add)) {
echo 'Cannot write to file (' . $file . ')';
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // file has been appended
echo 'Success, your email address, ' . $address . ', has been added to our database.';
fclose($handle);
}
}
}
}
}
}

/* UNSUBSCRIBE */
elseif ($action == 'unsubscribe') {
if(!file_exists($file)) {
echo 'Cannot open file (' . $file .  ')';
$continue = 0; // can't open file
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // file exists
// Create a file handle
$handle = fopen($file, 'r');
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($file));
fclose($handle);
$newcontents = str_replace($address, '', $contents); // replace address with '' (nada)
// check to make sure file is writable
if (!is_writable($file)) {
echo 'Cannot write to file (' . $file . ')';
$continue = 0; // not writable
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // file is writable
if (!$handle = fopen($file, 'w')) {
echo 'Cannot open file (' . $file . ')';
$continue = 0; // file handle doesn't exists
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // filehandle exists
if (!fwrite($handle, $newcontents)) {
echo 'Cannot write to file (' . $file . ')';
$continue = 0; // file wasn't written
exit;
}
else {
$continue = 1; // file was written, address removed
echo 'Your email address, ' . $address . ', has been removed from our database.';
fclose($handle);
}
}
}
}
}
}
?> 

</body>
</html>

PCGuy

Thanks for the help Rodney( told ya I was new to PHP 😃 ). Guess I got in a little over my head when I took on this task :o . I took what you put up and made changes where I needed them and have gotten it to work. The form is already part of a web page which is why I posted as a separate part. I just needed to get the PHP script to work with the form. Now I get the nice task of adding the emailing portion to the script to email the folks that subscribe or unsubscribe. I am glad to have found this forum. Now I have even more good reading besides the books I have gotten for PHP 😃 .

Rodney_H_

Great, PCGuy. Glad that helped and that you found and enjoy this forum, too.

Take care, and have fun.

ps (if this thread is resolved, please go to the top right of the page, see 'Thread Tools', and click on 'Mark This Thread as Resolved'. 🙂 )