using variables in a text of body message

Helaman

I have seen many examples of sending form data to a php script for processing.
What I can't find is how to insert variables in the body of the form and have them sorted out and sent out with the real value from a database.

I have a form I want to email to members of a group and I want to be able to include some of their information in the database to have them verify the info.

I have seen other sites where this can be done, but I can see the php script naturally.

example of text of body: "Hello $fname, this is your shipping address in our records $street, $city, $st, $zip. will you please check...."

How do you pull that info from the form since they are not in a field per say.

I know this must be a no brainer but I can't get anything to work, I keep just sending the variable as it is in the body.

Thank
Helaman

Houdini

OK here's a quick example using the variables mentioned in your post.
HTML form

<html>
	<body>
		<form method='post' action='process.php'>
			First Name: <input type = 'text' name = 'fname'  /><br />
			Last Name: <input type = 'text' name = 'lname'  /><br />
			Street Address: <input type = 'text' name = 'street'  /><br />
			City: <input type = 'text' name = 'city'  /><br />
			State: <input type = 'text' name = 'state'  /><br />
			Zip Code: : <input type = 'text' name = 'state'  /><br />
			<input type = 'submit' value ='Enter Data'>
		</form>
	</body>
</html>

process.php

<?php 
if(!empty($_POST['enter'])){
//make some short variables from $_POST variables  

$fname = $_POST['fname'];
$lname = $_POST['lname'];
$street = $_POST['street'];
$city = $_POST['city'];
$state = $_POST['state'];
$zip = $_POST['zip'];
echo "Hello $fname $lname our records now show your shipping address as: <br />";
echo "$street<br />$city<br />$state $zip";
}
	else{
	  echo"You must have manually entered the url for this page, there is nothing here!";
	}
 ?>

Helaman

Thanks for Looking, but I guess I didn't explain myself well enough.

The form is used by an administartor to send messages to members.
The form is fairly average containing the fields: from_name, from_email, subject, message/body (SUBMIT).

once submit is click, these four data fields are passed to a php (phpmailer) script to send out the email to all the members. (btw, the script works fine)

What I need is to be able to allow the admin to use variables (based on the actual database) inside the message "textarea" box which can be parsed out and replaced with the data from the database.

example from another web site

//snip snip
FROM NAME :

FROM EMAIL :

You can use the following to insert variables in your message and subject : $ID, $intgold, $password, $referrer, $duedate, $startdate, $firstname, $lastname, $email, $phone

SUBJECT:
MESSAGE: //snip snip

Their form which I can view shows no hidden fields for these variables, it is just a basic form setup the standard way to pass the four fields.

I have been trying diffenert techniques I have seen but not working. I have seen some forms that allowed for variables to be used in the body/textarea so It must be possible. How do you insert variables into a message field and then parse them out later in the script??

I think that explains it...

Helaman

I believe I have figured out half my problem. by using eval(eval("\$body = \"$body\";")😉, it will run through the body and find variables and replace them.
I have place the eval() function just before the $mailer->Body = $body; line.

It works in that it pulls the first users data and then includes that same data in every email. How can I get it to loop through foreach user pulling his/hers data respectivly. It is the login and passwd I am using in the textarea.

"I know I could just write a static form and hard code the body, but I intend to use more various variables in the future and this form is for a club who's officers who are non-techies and hand coding a body text would make them faint. Its all about learning how"

thanks in advance

$query = "SELECT fname, lname, email, login, passwd FROM clients WHERE status ='paid' ORDER BY lname ASC"; 
$result = @MYSQL_QUERY($query) or die(mysql_error()); ; 
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array ($result)) 
{ 
$fname = $row['fname']; 
$lname = $row['lname']; 
// Send the emails in this loop. 
$member_name = $fname . ' ' . $lname; 
$mailer->FromName = $from_name; 
$mailer->From = $from_email; 
$mailer->Subject = $subject; 

$login = $row['login']; 
$passwd = $row['passwd']; 

eval("\$body = \"$body\";"); 

$mailer->Body = $body; 

$mailer->AddAddress($row["email"] , $member_name); 
if(!$mailer->Send()) 
{ 
echo "There has been a mail error sending to " . $row["email"] . "<br>"; 
}else { 
echo "Your Mail has been sent<br />";