Grappling with simple email

[zonkd]

I know they say mail() is simple, but I am not coping well with it.

I want to take email addresses out of a mysql db and give php

the message
the from address
and my email as a BCC for a copy of each email ...

but I can't get it to work.

Perhaps someone has some code they have used that does this sort of task. Grateful for guidance, Geeks.

[hennety]

Hi there,
Without rehashing a lot of what has already been said, your first port of call should be php.net, specifically, http://uk.php.net/manual/en/ref.mail.php, so this link should provide you with all the help you need.
The comments further down the page are usually pretty helpful and give good examples which you can usually use and manipulate for your own use.

Hope this helps.

[zonkd]

Many thanks, hennety, and that is the place to start, you are right.

The problem is that I'm not looking for all the bells and whistles, which unfortunately I am too new to the coding to comprehend.

I would like to be able to say to php, "Please do all and only what the mysql code seeks."

And all I want it to do is to send the message to all the addresses on the email address list that mysql is providing. "End of story, php."

So that's the simple all of it, hennety, and yet despite many searches, I can't find such basic code. Ug.

[hennety]

Hi zonkd,
If I understand you correctly, am I wrong in thinking you are looking for something along these lines then:

// Construct your SQL statement for retrieving a list of
// email addresses and execute the query at this point.
// assign it to $result for example (use mysql_fetch_array, I think, when retrieving from the database)

$list = array();
$subject = "The subject line of our email";
$message = "The main message body\n";
$headers .= "From: My Senders name<[e-mail]>\n";
$headers .= "X-Sender: <[e-mail]>\n";
$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP\n"; //mailer
$headers .= "X-Priority: 3\n"; //1 UrgentMessage, 3 Normal
$headers .= "Return-Path: <[e-mail]>\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n";

// Forgotten why I've added this to an array only to loop
// through it again, but perhaps it was for simplicity at the
// time.
foreach($result as $row){
$list[] = $row['db_column_name_that_holds_email_addresses'];
}

for($i=0;$i<count($list);$i++){
// mail the recipients, spinning this through a
// loop so that other users addresses don't show
// up in the To: fields. Could always just fire
// off one mail, but you never know how big the
// user list will be.

if(!mail($list[$i], $subject, $message, $headers)){
    // The $messages array is something I use throughout my code
    // for passing success/error messages around, but you could simply
    // print this back to the screen for each mail that failed, which,
    // depending on the size of your list, could be quite large!!
    $messages['mail_failed'] = "There was a problem sending the email to the users.\n";
}
else{
    $messages['mail_sent'] = "All ".count($list)." users have been mailed\n";
}

}

Keep in mind that the mail() function is a wrapper around your machines MTA (usually Sendmail I believe) and, if I remember correctly, goes through a series of processes whereby it waits for a response from the desitnation host before moving on the next recipient, so, with a large list of users to mail, this could lead to some noticeable delays while it waits for a response, but again, it could be quite nippy depending on how much of a queue the MTA can hold and how things are processed on your host server.

Anyhow, hope that is what you're looking for and gets the ball rolling.

[zonkd]

That looks exactly it, hennety. I am very grateful. Will try it and report back.

[hennety]

No problems. 8)