mail() sending mail out twice

[asa_carter]

Hi,

I'm only calling mail() once and I dont have any iteration in my script but when I run the page, I recieve two emails.

I'm using sessions and this is the only thing I can think of that could be related.

Anybody got any idea why it could be doing this before I post any code.

Thanks,

Asa

[planetsim]

Besides looking at source the mail server before sending it out is making a copy and then sending it out twice or similar. The chances of this being the case is relatively slim, itd be good to see some code to be of more assistance.

[asa_carter]

Here is the contents of registerc.php the registration confirmation page. I have tested mail() on its own and it only sends mail once but with this script it sends it twice. $user is stored in a session upon successful completion of the registration form.

www.argyllnewmedia.co.uk/auction/register.php
www.argyllnewmedia.co.uk/auction/registerc.php

<? session_start();
if (session_is_registered("valid_user")) 
  header("location: index.php");
if (!session_is_registered("user")) 
  header("location: register.php");
include("connect.php");
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM personal_details WHERE userid='$user'");
  $p_row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM login WHERE userid='$user'");
  $l_row = mysql_fetch_row($result);

function email_in_use($email)
{
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT email FROM login WHERE email='$email'");
  if (!mysql_num_rows($result)) return 0;
    else return 1;
}
if ($action=='sent')
{
  if (!ereg("^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]+\.?[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]*@[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+$",$email))
    $err1=1;
  if (email_in_use($email))
    $err2=1;
}
if (($err1==0) && ($err2==0) && ($action=='sent'))
{
  $result = mysql_query("UPDATE login SET email='$email' WHERE userid='$user'");
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM login WHERE userid='$user'");
  $l_row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
}
include("header.php");
include("tab3.php");
$nav_title="Open An Account";
include("navbar.php");
?>
<div class="progressbar">
  <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px;">1. Enter Information</div>
  <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px;"><b>2. Verify Information</b></div>
  <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px;">3. Check Email</div>
</div>
<?
if (($err1==1) || ($err2==1))
  echo "<div class='ErrorLine'><img src='images/form_error.gif' align='absmiddle'> &nbsp;There is a problem with your form. 
  Please correct any highlighted fields and try again.</div>";
?>
<div class="content">
<h1>Verify Information</h1>
<div class="divider"></div>
<?
if (($err1==0) && ($err2==0))
{
  $body  = "Hello $p_row[1] $p_row[2], \n\n";
  $body .= "Click the link below to activate your Auction.Beta account: \n\n";
  $body .= "http://www.argyllnewmedia.co.uk/auction/validate.php?u=$l_row[0]&v=$l_row[3] \n\n";
  $body .= "If you're unable to click the link above, cut and paste it into your web browser. \n\n";
  $body .= "Should you forget your password, you can request a new one which will be sent to this email address. \n\n";
  $body .= "Thank you for registering. \n\n\n";
  $body .= "Auction.Beta Team \n\n";
  $from = "[e-mail]";
  $mailheader = "From: $from\r\n";
  mail("$l_row[2]","Auction.Beta Registration","$body","$mailheader");
  echo "We just sent an email to <b>$l_row[2]</b> to verify your registration. It contains a link you'll need to 
  follow to confirm your email address. Please check your email now.<br><br>";
}
?>
<a class="bluelink" onClick="document.getElementById('c_mail').style.display='block';"><b>Need to change your email address?</b></a>
<?
if (($action=='sent') && ($err1==1) || ($err2==1))
  echo "<div id='c_mail' style='display:block;'>";
else
  echo "<div id='c_mail' style='display:none;'>";
if (($err1==1) || ($err2==1))
  echo "<br><div style='color:#FF0000'><b>Email Address</b></div>";
else
  echo "<br><b>Email Address</b><br>";
?>
<form action="registerc.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="sent">
<input type="text" name="email" size="33" maxlength="40">
<input type="submit" value="Change Email">
<?
if ($err1==1)
  echo "<br><div style='color:#FF0000'>Please enter a valid email address.</div>";
elseif ($err2==1)
  echo "<br><div style='color:#FF0000'>You have already registered with us.</div>";
?>
</form>
</div>
<p>If you do not receive the message in the next 10 minutes, you can <b>
<a class="bluelink" href="registerc.php">request another verification email.</a></b></p>
<p>If you've been waiting for over 15 minutes:
<ol>
<li>Make sure you have entered the correct email address</li>
<li>Make sure your spam filter allows email from "[e-mail]"</li>
<li>Request the verification email again</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>For your records, here are your account details:</p>
<div class="inner_content">
  <div class="mailing"><b>Address</b><br><? echo "$p_row[1] $p_row[2]"; ?></div>
  <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[3]; ?></div>
  <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[4]; ?></div>
  <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[5]; ?></div>
  <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[6]; ?></div>
  <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[7]; ?></div><br>
  <div class="mailing"><b>User Name</b><br><? echo $l_row[0]; ?></div>
  <div class="mailing"><br><b>Password</b><br><? echo $l_row[1]; ?></div> 
  <div class="mailing"><br><b>Sectret Question</b><br><? echo $l_row[4]; ?></div> 	   

  <div class="mailing"><br><b>Sectret Answer</b><br><? echo $l_row[5]; ?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<? include("footer.php"); ?>

[asa_carter]

I've shortened the code a bit to try and figure out what's going on. I thought it might have fixed it but it's still sending the email twice. I have NO IDEA whats going on with this and driving me mad.

I am calling this page by

header("location: registerc.php");

Could this have something to do with it?

<? session_start();
include("connect.php");
$p_result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM personal_details WHERE userid='$user'");
$p_row = mysql_fetch_row($p_result);
$l_result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM login WHERE userid='$user'");
$l_row = mysql_fetch_row($l_result);
include("header.php");
include("tab3.php");
$nav_title="Open An Account";
include("navbar.php");
?>
<div class="progressbar">
  <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px;">1. Enter Information</div>
  <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px;"><b>2. Verify Information</b></div>
  <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px;">3. Check Email</div>
</div>
<div class="content">
  <h1>Verify Information</h1>
  <div class="divider"></div>
  <?
  $body  = "Hello $p_row[1] $p_row[2], \n\n";
  $body .= "Click the link below to activate your Auction.Beta account: \n\n";
  $body .= "http://www.argyllnewmedia.co.uk/auction/validate.php?u=$l_row[0]&v=$l_row[3] \n\n";
  $body .= "If you're unable to click the link above, cut and paste it into your web browser. \n\n";
  $body .= "Should you forget your password, you can request a new one which will be sent to this email address. \n\n";
  $body .= "Thank you for registering. \n\n\n";
  $body .= "Auction.Beta Team \n\n";
  $from = "[e-mail]";
  $mailheader = "From: $from\r\n";
  mail("$l_row[2]","Auction.Beta Registration","$body","$mailheader");
  echo "We just sent an email to <b>$l_row[2]</b> to verify your registration. It contains a link you'll need to 
  follow to confirm your email address. Please check your email now.<br><br>";
  ?>
  <p>If you do not receive the message in the next 10 minutes, you can <b>
  <a class="bluelink" href="registerc.php">request another verification email.</a></b></p>
  <p>If you've been waiting for over 15 minutes:
  <ol>
  <li>Make sure you have entered the correct email address</li>
  <li>Make sure your spam filter allows email from "[e-mail]"</li>
  <li>Request the verification email again</li>
  </ol></p>
  <p>For your records, here are your account details:</p>
  <div class="inner_content">
    <div class="mailing"><b>Address</b><br><? echo "$p_row[1] $p_row[2]"; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[3]; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[4]; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[5]; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[6]; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><? echo $p_row[7]; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><br><b>User Name</b><br><? echo $l_row[0]; ?></div>
    <div class="mailing"><br><b>Password</b><br><? echo $l_row[1]; ?></div> 
    <div class="mailing"><br><b>Sectret Question</b><br><? echo $l_row[4]; ?></div> 	   

    <div class="mailing"><br><b>Sectret Answer</b><br><? echo $l_row[5]; ?></div>
  </div>
</div>
<? include("footer.php"); ?>

[hrichman]

I too have mail() sending e-mail twice. I have resolved to the following code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<?PHP
session_start();
mail("[e-mail]", "test19", "test");
phpinfo();
?>
<body>
</body>
</html>

---

above code sends to e-mails to [e-mail]

only one e-mail is sent if session_start() commented out.

Anyone have ideas?

[asa_carter]

Hi,

I have found that the cause of the error is within IE 7 beta 2 and not the code but as yet I still do not have a fix.

I have left feedback for Microsoft so hopefully they will fix it for the next release.

Also, it seems to send further emails when other pages are clicked on that that have session_start() in them. This could be very annoying and lead to several problems for people using IE 7 beta 2.

[hrichman]

Aloha,

Wow, I don't quit understand how, but your write.  My code only sends two e-mails when the page is accessed by IE 7, beta 2, but not by IE 6 or firefox.  Since all of PHP is run on the server, the mail is sent before the browser even gets the requested page.   The only thing I can figure is that IE 7 is requesting the same page twice but only display one of the responses.   

If you hear anything further. Please let me know.

Thanks!!!
Hal

[MarkR]

Ensure that if you're doing an operation which CHANGES data (or indeed, sends an email), it is activated by a HTTP POST.

A browser SHOULD NOT repeat a HTTP POST without specific action by the user. Therefore, this is the Right thing to do.

An alternative is to log the fact that you've done it and ensure it can't happen a second time.

Mark