[RESOLVED] Need to Send a Complex Email

[easmith]

My problem is actually two-fold. I'm creating a new job application for our company. The initial page is a standard html form. Since this application will be going to the Partners and the HR department, it needs to be readable and (as much as possible) look like our hard-copy application. Transferring the form info into a new html page was easy enough (using echo mostly).

For example:

<ol>
	<li>
		<label for="name" class="textfield">Name: </label><input type="text" name="name" id="name" class="textfield_2"  />
	</li>
	<li>
		<label for="telephone" class="textfield">Telephone: </label><input type="text" name="telephone" id="telephone" class="textfield" />
		<label for="email" class="textfield_r">Email: </label><input type="text" name="email" id="email" class="textfield" />
	</li>
	<li>
		<label for="address" class="textfield">Address: </label><input type="text" name="address" id="address" class="textfield_2"  />
	</li>
	<li>
		<label for="city" class="textfield">City: </label><input type="text" name="city" id="city" class="textfield" />
		<label for="state" class="state">State: </label><select name="state" id="state" class="state">
			<option value="XX" selected="selected">-</option><?php include 'state.php';?></select>
		<label for="zip" class="textfield_z">Zip: </label><input type="text" name="zip" id="zip" class="textfield_z" />
	</li>
</ol>

populates:

<div id="main-address">
	<p class="name"><?=$name?></p>
	<p id="main-phone"><?=$telephone?></p>
	<p><a href="mailto:<?=$email?>"><?=$email?></a></p>
	<p><?=$address?></p>
	<p><?=$city?>, <?=$state?> <?=$zip?></p>
</div>

How do I get this new page (with the info from the form) to actually arrive in the email inbox of the HR department? Ideally, the applicant shouldn't see the second page (a simple "thank you" message is fine).

I have a feeling I'm over-thinking the problem. Is there a simple way to pull this off?

[coldwerturkey]

This is one of those situations, where I see somthing new and debate whether its some advance php techneques being used or whether the OP is really new to php... based on your Post count, I'll assume the latter:

What the heck is <?=$name?>? do you mean <?php echo $name; ?> ? when was $name and those other vars defined? What is that "=" doing there? Why aren't you using <?php ?

To gather data from a form (assuming its method=post) you use the reserved variable $_POST. You should clean this data with htmlspecialchars() so no malicious scripts can be added to the eventual email. You can then verify the data with a bunch of if statements and functions like empty(), strpos(), and/or/with operators. Then place your vars in the mail() function and send away. To have the result message, you can put the mail function in a var and then use an if statement on that var to see if it was true, if it was have your message apear, else, the error, or whatever.

a common (not the best) outline of a simple form below..

<?php
if(isset($_POST['form'])){
	//define, escape, & check vars
	if ($errors == 0) { //assuming you use an $errors var to record errors as they occure
		// send mail
		// thank you message
	} else {
		//display/report errors
	}
} else {
	//the form (action='')
}
?>

if you need more reference, read one of the trillion tutorials about php form emails online

[easmith]

<?=$name?> is a short-form echo statement. I'm not sure if it's "new" or "advanced," it just happens to be the one I always use. I didn't know it was radical. My $_POST data is cleaned at the top of my document using check_input (also an old trick)...

$name = check_input ($_POST['name']);
$telephone = check_input ($_POST['telephone']);
$email = check_input ($_POST['email']);
$address = check_input ($_POST['address']);
$city = check_input ($_POST['city']);
$state = check_input ($_POST['state']);
$zip = check_input ($_POST['zip']);
...

<?php
function check_input($data)
{
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    return $data;
}
?>

Thanks for the help, though. I should have been more clear. Since I can't trust email programs to render my CSS correctly, how do I get this actual HTML page sent, for example, as a file attachment? Or is there a more effective way to make sure the new page is coming through as it's intended? Again, I may be overthinking this.

[coldwerturkey]

easmith;10904896 wrote:

<?=$name?> is a short-form echo statement.

my humblest apologies then!

see Example #4 Sending HTML email in the mail() function for instructions; no attachment necessary.
If your css is external, I would import the .css document into the html message (with file_get_contents() or similar), wrapping it in <style> tags.

[easmith]

No worries.

Okay, using Example #4, would this be appropriate?:

<?php

$css = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/print.css');

$name = check_input ($_POST['name']);
$telephone = check_input ($_POST['telephone']);
$email = check_input ($_POST['email']);
$address = check_input ($_POST['address']);
$city = check_input ($_POST['city']);
$state = check_input ($_POST['state']);
$zip = check_input ($_POST['zip']);

// multiple recipients
$to  = '[e-mail]' . ', ';
$to .= '[e-mail]';

// subject
$subject = 'Job Application';

// message
$message = '
<html>
<head>
	<title>Job Application</title>
	<style type="text/css">
		$css
	</style
</head>
<body>
	<div id='main-address'>
		<p id='main-phone'>$telephone</p>
		<p><a href='mailto:$email'>$email</a></p>
		<p>$address</p>
		<p>$city, $state $zip</p>
	</div>
</body>
</html>
';

// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

// Additional headers
$headers .= 'To: HR <[e-mail]>, Partner <[e-mail]>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'From: Job Application <[e-mail]>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Cc: [email][e-mail][/email]' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Bcc: [email][e-mail][/email]' . "\r\n";

// Mail it
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

function check_input($data)
{
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    return $data;
}

?>

Which leads to two specific questions: First (I can probably google this), how do I then redirect the user to a thank you page. Second, and more importantly, how do I execute a code such as this in the message area:

<fieldset id='job_2' <?php if (empty($company_2)) echo "style='display:none;'";?>><legend>From: <?=$start_month_2?> <?=$start_year_2?> To: <?=$end_month_2?> <?=$end_year_2?></legend>

[coldwerturkey]

your $message var is wrong, when your echo '.. starts with a single quote, all single quotes need to be escape \' or use a doublequote, or else that statement is technically closing at the first quote and you'll just get errors, see php strings for more info

for a thank you message you could do something like like,

if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
  echo "thanks"; //or a header('Location:')/<meta> redirect or what
} else {
  echo "no dice";
}

to "execute a code" you would just break it down prior to the $message, put it in a var, then include that var in the message

$string = "<fieldset id='job_2'";
if (empty($company_2)) {
	$string .= " style='display:none;'"
} 
$string .= "><legend>From: {$start_month_2} {$start_year_2} To: {$end_month_2} {$end_year_2}</legend>";

[easmith]

After making the changes, I'm getting a new error that won't allow me to test. This:

$display_2 = "id='job_2'";
if (empty($company_2)) {
	$display_2 .= " style='display:none;'"
}

is returning an unexpected T_IF error. Is it something obvious I'm not seeing?

[coldwerturkey]

my bad, I forgot to close the statment.

$display_2 = "id='job_2'"; 
if (empty($company_2)) { 
    $display_2 .= " style='display:none;'"[B][COLOR="Red"];[/COLOR][/B]
} 

[Weedpacket]

easmith wrote:

<?=$name?> is a short-form echo statement. I'm not sure if it's "new" or "advanced," it just happens to be the one I always use

It's actually "old" and "not recommended". See http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phpmode.html. Has been so for about ten years now, which is why it's not commonly seen any more.

For one thing, it conflicts with XML (and, therefore, XHTML). <?php does not.

[easmith]

Weedpacket;10905376 wrote:

It's actually "old" and "not recommended". Has been so for about ten years now, which is why it's not commonly seen any more.

For one thing, it conflicts with XML (and, therefore, XHTML). <?php does not.

Yeah, but since this is a job application hosted on our own servers, I have no problems. Regardless, I've taken coldwerturkey's advice and am using ()mail which makes the whole thing moot anyway.

So far, the code has checked out fine, but I won't be testing it until today.

[Weedpacket]

easmith wrote:

I have no problems.

Yet.

[easmith]

Okay, it's working, but I have two major problems. First, the (truncated) code:

<?php

$today = date("j F Y");

$name = check_input ($_POST['name']);
$telephone = check_input ($_POST['telephone']);
$email = check_input ($_POST['email']);
$address = check_input ($_POST['address']);
...

$display_2 = "id='job_2'";
if (empty($company_2)) {
	$display_2 .= " style='display:none;'";
}

...

//Message Content

$to  = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'Job Application'; 
$message = "
<head>
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' />
<title>Graphic Products Application</title>
<style type='text/css'> 
body {
	font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;
	border: 0;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	}
...

// Our servers don't allow file_get_contents, so the CSS is here

</style>
</head>

<body>
		<fieldset id='personal_data'><legend>Graphic Products Employment Application v3.09</legend>

		<div id='main-address'>
			<p id='main-phone'>$telephone</p>
			<p><a href='mailto:$email'>$email</a></p>
			<p>$address</p>
			<p>$city, $state $zip</p>
		</div>
...
"
// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n"; 

// Additional headers
$headers .= 'To: easmith <[e-mail]>, TEST <[e-mail]>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'From: Job Application <[e-mail]>' . "\r\n";

// Mail it
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); 

function check_input($data)
{
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    return $data;
} 

if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
  echo "thanks"; //or a header('Location:')/<meta> redirect or what
} else {
  echo "no dice";
} 

?>

The code works fine and returns "thanks," but the email is being sent to me 4 times. I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Second, as expected, Outlook hammers the CSS. Is there a way to include this newly created html document as an attachment to a simple email?

[coldwerturkey]

It shouldn't be sending four times, but you have written it to send 2 emails

change

// Mail it 
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);  //<<<<<<< once

function check_input($data) 
{ 
    $data = trim($data); 
    $data = stripslashes($data); 
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data); 
    return $data; 
} 

if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {  //<<<<<<< twice
  echo "thanks"; 
} else { 
  echo "no dice"; 
} 

to something like

// Mail it 
$mail = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); 

if ($mail) { 
  echo "thanks";
} else { 
  echo "no dice"; 
} 

function check_input($data) 
{ 
    $data = trim($data); 
    $data = stripslashes($data); 
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data); 
    return $data; 
} 

as for sending an attachment with mail(), let me google that for you

[easmith]

Clever, but I have googled it. There are millions of examples of emailing an existing file, many examples that require accessing a database (which I'm not doing), a few examples of creating a PDF (which is unnecessary), even more examples that require updates to the server itself (like PHPMailer), and a bunch of examples of sending simple text as an attachment (which I'm way beyond).

[Weedpacket]

So .... what's the problem?

Emailing something as an attachment doesn't have anything to do with where it came from: wherever it was, it's still ends up just being a string.

[jmartinez]

I know PHP can take care of your solution, however if you are dead set in it needing to look like an application that already exists and sent in a readable/printable format via email then how come you are not using PDF? I mean I suppose you company does not have adobe PDF pro or can not afford it, but at the same time you most certainly could download the trail and knock out what you need..

just my 2 cents..

[easmith]

I have more than enough experience with PDF (and we use it for a lot of other applications here), but it's just not right for this job application. PDF forms are unwieldy at best. Making minor changes to the application would require a redesign. And aside from the various plugins that would be required to create, send, and view them, the entire process would have to use XFDF. That just creates another headache for some future designer.

In fact, our current application is a PDF form. It is a simple PDF that an applicant downloads, fills out, and sends back. That alone causes problems because it requires the user to have the latest update of Reader to fill it out (a low, low priority for, say, sales guys or warehouse staff). What happens more often then not is the applicant becomes frustrated, prints out the form, fills it out by hand, then faxes it to us. Then HR must scan it in so the digital copy can be emailed to the partners and managers. It's a pain.

Originally, we were going to create an online form that populated the existing PDF document, but it was a hokey solution. We eventually want to create a database of applicants that can be called up from the in-house CMS.

Using PHP from start to finish makes the application streamlined, easy to access, easy to update, and gives us a lot more control over the data.

[easmith]

I'm using this code to send the attached resume, which seems to work fine:

$mime_boundary="==Multipart_Boundary_x".md5(mt_rand())."x";

   $tmp_name = $_FILES['filename']['tmp_name'];
   $type = $_FILES['filename']['type'];
   $name = $_FILES['filename']['name'];
   $size = $_FILES['filename']['size'];

   $message = "..."; //already outlined in previous post

   if (file_exists($tmp_name)){
      if(is_uploaded_file($tmp_name)){
         $file = fopen($tmp_name,'rb');
         $data = fread($file,filesize($tmp_name));
         fclose($file);
         $data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
     }

  $headers = "From: $from\r\n" .
     "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n" .
     "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\r\n" .
     " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";

  $message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" .
     "--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
     "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" .
     "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" .
     $message . "\n\n";

  $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
     "Content-Type: {$type};\n" .
     " name=\"{$name}\"\n" .
     //"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" .
     //" filename=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" .
     "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" .
     $data . "\n\n" .
     "--{$mime_boundary}--\n";

The wall I'm running into is turning my existing message into an HTML file for attachment WITHOUT writing to a database (which we're not using) or saving the file to the server (which creates needless clutter). Is there a way to simply say turn $message into an html file and attach it.

Otherwise, everything is working very well. Thanks for all the support coldwerturkey.

[Weedpacket]

easmith wrote:

Is there a way to simply say turn $message into an html file and attach it.

See, what you're getting hung up on is "html file". You're not wanting an HTML file, you just want HTML.

$message_as_html = "<html><head><title></title><body>$message</body></html>";

Of course, you're have to do this while you still have the original message - before you overwrite it with the multipart MIME business.

         "--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
         "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" .
         "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" .
         $message_as_html . "\n\n";

[easmith]

I'm back! After getting sidetracked to other projects (which happens often), I'm back to our online job application. I'm still wrestling with my original question.

See, what you're getting hung up on is "html file". You're not wanting an HTML file, you just want HTML.

Actually, no. I want an html file. It currently sends perfectly fine as an HTML email. In Thunderbird, it looks fantastic. Unfortunately, our HR department uses Outlook 2007, which hammers the code (to put it mildly). Regardless, the job application needs to look and print the same from everyone's computer, regardless of email client. I wrote (but haven't yet tested) a method wherein I create a file (fopen) using the data from the form, save it to the server, then attach the newly created file to the email I'm trying to send. This seems like an incredibly hokey work-around.

So, the question is: Is it possible to simply (and immediately) send this info as an attachment rather than (or in addition to) a standard email.

Here is my (truncated) code as it exists:

<?php

$today = date("j F Y");

$name = check_input ($_POST['name']);
$telephone = check_input ($_POST['telephone']);
$email = check_input ($_POST['email']);
$address = check_input ($_POST['address']);
$city = check_input ($_POST['city']);
$state = check_input ($_POST['state']);
$zip = check_input ($_POST['zip']);
...

//Message Content

$to  = '[e-mail]>';
$subject = 'Job Application'; 
$message = "
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' />
<title>Application</title>
<style type='text/css'> 
body {
	font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;
	border: 0;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	}
...

</style>
</head>

<body>

<div id='pagewrap'>

	<fieldset id='personal_data'><legend>Employment Application v3.09</legend>

		<p class='name'>$name</p>
		<div id='main-address'>
			<p id='main-phone'>$telephone</p>
			<p><a href='mailto:$email'>$email</a></p>
			<p>$address</p>
			<p>$city, $state $zip</p>
		</div>

	</fieldset>
...

</body>
</html>
";

$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'From: ' . $name . ' <' . $email . '>' . "\r\n";

$mail = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

if ($mail) {
	echo "
		<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd'>
		<html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
		<head>
		<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' />
		<title>Employment Application</title>
		<link href='application.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />
		</head>

	<body>
	<table width='100%' border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0'>
		<tr>
			<td align='left' valign='top'>&nbsp;</td>
			<td class='main'><h1>THANK YOU</h1>
				<p>Thank you for your interest. Your application will receive consideration without regard to race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin or disability.</p>
			</td>
			<td valign='top'>&nbsp;
			</td>
		</tr>
	</table>
	</body>
	</html>
	";
} else {
echo "no dice";
} 

function check_input($data)
{
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    return $data;
} 

?>

Would it be against forum policy to offer a free pizza to anyone who can solve this for me? Probably.