[RESOLVED] big form, want to preview, then email

[technocure]

I have set up a rather large forum with lots of fields. It is then sent to a php page that just has an identical table with all of the fields echoed. What I'm not sure about is how to be able to have a submit button to print, and then one to email the page, without having to do a ton of coding. I know there has to be an easier way. I want to email to look just like the output page too.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[technocure]

So I dropped the idea of having the preview page to view the content entered.
Instead I am trying to make it email it directly after they enter it.
I set it up so the $message contains the same code that I had displaying the content entered (which was the echo of the form fields) . Form some reason I receive the form in my email when I send it, but if you enter any content I do not get that.
I think it has something to do with php inside the $message, is it? Here is my php code:

<?php_track_vars?>
<?php

//define the receiver of the email
$to = '[e-mail]';

$name1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name1']));
$dob1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['dob1']));
$sex1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['sex1']));
$sage1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['sage1']));
$child1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['child1']));
$zip1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['zip1']));
$salary1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['salary1']));
$cov1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['cov1']));
$stat1 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['stat1']));

$mime_boundary = "----KPI----".md5(time());
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Test HTML email';
//create a boundary string. It must be unique
//so we use the MD5 algorithm to generate a random hash
$random_hash = md5(date('r', time()));
//define the headers we want passed. Note that they are separated with \r\n
$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
$headers .= "From: KPI Quotes <[e-mail]\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=\"$mime_boundary\"\n"; 
//add boundary string and mime type specification

$message = "--$mime_boundary\n";
$message .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n\n";
$message .= '



<table width="750" border="1" cellspacing="1">
  <tr>
    <th scope="col">&nbsp;</th>
    <th scope="col">Name of Employee</th>
    <th scope="col"><p>DOB</p>
    <p>(mm/dd/yy)</p></th>
    <th scope="col">Sex</th>
    <th scope="col">Spouses Age</th>
    <th scope="col">Number of Children</th>
    <th scope="col">Zip Code</th>
    <th scope="col">Salary</th>
    <th scope="col">Coverage</th>
    <th scope="col">Employee Status</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th scope="row">1</th>
    <td>'.$name1.'</td>
    <td>'.$dob1.'</td>
    <td>'.$sex1.'</td>
    <td>'.$sage1.'</td>
    <td>'.$child1.'</td>
    <td>'.$zip1.'</td>
    <td>'.$salary1.'</td>
    <td>'.$cov1.'</td>
    <td>'.$stat1.'</td>
  </tr>


</table>

\\additional html can go here mine just had a table




</body>
</html>
';
$message .= "--$mime_boundary--\n\n";


$mail_sent = @mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers );
//if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed" 
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed";
?>

I have only named the $name1 at the beginning for sake of time. You can view the html at the link I have in the first post.

Please help!

*updated code to one that works

[technocure]

Ok maybe all of that above is kind of wordy, so to sum it up, here is my question: Why are my <?php echo $name; ?>, that are in the $message of the email, not showing up in the emails I receive? The html shows up perfectly, it's just that I see none of the echo's. It's driving me nuts, and I haven't found an answer anywhere. Somebody, please!

[bradgrafelman]

The email message in your code is stored in a string. Thus, you're telling PHP to place '<?php echo $name; ?>' in your message string - not the value of the $name variable.

Either use double quotes or use concatenation to concatenate the variables in the message - throwing PHP code in the $message variable won't make it magically evaluated!

[technocure]

I'm a noob, sorry. I have tried what you've said and have gotten some interesting results. I have updated the code above to the current one.

Here is what I've done, in between the two <td> </td>'s I tried the following:
.'$name1'. result----- Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_VARIABLE
."$name1". result------I get the email, but in that cell, what is displayed is the same as i entered- ."$name1".

I do not see why I get the T_VARIABLE error, because that means the variable is defined wrong, right?

I feel so close to getting this figured out!
Thanks bradgrafelman

EDIT***
figured out that I was doing the .''. wrong! should be '..' haha
updated the php code for anyone dumb as me, who needs it! (above ⁾

next time i'll make sure i post in the noob section 🙂 .

[bradgrafelman]

So does that mean your issue is resolved? If so, don't forget to mark this thread resolved.