Sending an email based on person selected

[alotofmath]

Hi all,
I have a form and want the email to be sent based on the person selected...so, if karen is selected, send the email to x address...here is the code

<?php
//process the email
if (array_key_exists('send', $_POST)) {

   if ($librarian == kim) {
	$to = '[e-mail];

$subject = 'Instruction Request';
$additionalHeaders = "From: Instruction Request<[e-mail]>\r\n";
}

elseif ($librarian == 'john') {
	$to = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'Instruction Request';
$additionalHeaders = "From: Instruction Request<[e-mail]>\r\n";


}

elseif ($librarian == 'alice') {
	$to = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'Instruction Request';
$additionalHeaders = "From: Instruction Request<[e-mail]>\r\n";


}

elseif ($librarian == 'robert') {
	$to = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'Instruction Request';
$additionalHeaders = "From: Instruction Request<[e-mail]>\r\n";


}

else {

$to = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'Instruction Request';
$additionalHeaders = "From: Instruction Request<[e-mail]>\r\n";



}

//list expected fields
	$expected = array('name', 'email', 'course', 'classlocation', 'daysmet', 'starttime', 'endtime', 'studentnumber', 'students', 'date1', 'classtime1', 'date2', 'classtime2', 'date3', 'classtime3', 'librarian', 'location', 'assignmentdate', 'assignment', 'outcomes', 'topic');

//required
	$required = array('name', 'email', 'course', 'classlocation', 'daysmet', 'starttime', 'endtime', 'studentnumber', 'date1', 'classtime1', 'date2',  'classtime2', 'librarian', 'location', 'assignmentdate', 'outcomes');

//build the message
	$message = "Name: $name\n\n";
	$message .= "Email: $email\n\n";
	$message .= "Course: $course\n\n";
	$message .= "Course Location: $classlocation\n\n";
	$message .=  "Days Met: $daysmet\n\n";
	$message .= "Start time: $starttime\n\n";
	$message .= "End time: $endtime\n\n";
	$message .= "Student Number: $studentnumber\n\n";
	$message .= "Students: $students\n\n";
	$message .= "Date 1: $date1\n\n";
	$message .= "Classtime: $classtime1\n\n";
	$message .= "Date 2: $date2\n\n";
	$message .= "Classtime: $classtime2\n\n";
	$message .= "Date 3: $date3\n\n";
	$message .= "Classtime: $classtime3\n\n";
	$message .= "Librarian: $librarian\n\n";

$message .= "Location: $location\n\n";

$message .= "Assignment Date: $assignmentdate\n\n";
$message .= "Assignment Description: $assignment\n\n";
$message .= "Outcomes: $outcomes";
$message .= "Topic: $topic";


...

<span class="heading">Preferred Librarian:</span><span class="boldInline">*</span><?php if (isset($missing) && in_array('librarian', $missing)) { ?>
								<span class="warning">Please select the preferred librarian who you would like to teach the seesion</span><?php } ?><br/>
								<strong>
								<select name="librarian" size="1" required="required">
								<option value="not selected" 
								<?php
								if (!$_POST || $_POST['librarian'] == 'not selected') { ?> selected="selected" <?php } ?>>Not selected</option>
								<option value="karen" <?php if (isset($missing) && $_POST['librarian'] == 'karen') { ?> selected="selected" <?php } ?>> Karen Albert (Science and Health)</option>
								<option value="stan" <?php if (isset($missing) && $_POST['librarian'] == 'stan') { ?> selected="selected" <?php } ?>>Stan Gorski (Fashion, Psychology and Health Sciences)</option>
								<option value="barbara" <?php if (isset($missing) && $_POST['librarian'] == 'barbara') { ?> selected="selected" <?php } ?>>Barbara Lowry (Engineering and Textiles; Business)</option>

							<option value="brynne" <?php if (isset($missing) && $_POST['librarian'] == 'brynne') { ?> selected="selected" <?php } ?> >Brynne Norton (Architecture and Design)</option>
							<option value="jordana" <?php if (isset($missing) && $_POST['librarian'] == 'jordana') { ?> selected="selected" <?php } ?>  >Jordana Shane (Liberal Arts)
							</option>

I'm printing the variable $librarian so I know the variable is being captured (i.e., kim is being output as the variable value if kim is selected), however, the email is still sent to me, which indicates, in the if clause, the if statements are not recognizing the librarian variable is kim, for instance.

Thanks for your help; I'll keep looking for an answer, too.

Alexa

[kpowning]

Why don't you use a case switch statement? Would be faster. Also where are you pulling $librarian from? Wouldn't it be:

if ($_POST['librarian']) == 'kim'){ do this } else { do that }

Should be calling this either by $_POST variable or $_GET variable right? echo and make sure your getting a result for $librarian.
You might also want to define the variables first example:

// define variables first
$librarian = '';
$to = '';
$email = '';
$name = '';

// switch statement
switch ($librarian) {
    case "mark":
        $to = "[e-mail]";
        break;
    case "kim":
        $to = "[e-mail]";
        break;
    case "sandy":
        $to = "[e-mail]";
        break;
   default:
        $to = "[e-mail]";
        break;
}

// proceed with email script

[alotofmath]

The librarian variable is being defined here:

//process the $_POST variables

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
	//assign to temporary variable and strip whitespace if not an array
	$temp = is_array($value) ? $value : trim($value);

	//if empty and required, add $missing array
   if (empty($temp) && in_array($key, $required)) {

		array_push($missing, $key);
		}
	//otherwise, assign to a variable of the same name as $key
	elseif (in_array($key, $expected)) {
		${$key} = $temp;
		}
	}
}

I'm doing this at the end of the code:

<pre>

			<?php if ($_POST) {print_r($librarian);} ?>

			</pre>

And the name selected (i.e., Kim) for preferred librarian is printed...maybe I need to have this foreach loop run before the email switch statement?

Michael

[bradgrafelman]

kpowning;11013059 wrote:

Why don't you use a case switch statement? Would be faster.

Says who? Got any empirical evidence to back that up?

Either way, I personally would use an array as a sort of look-up table, the keys being the expected values in the POST array.

alotofmath;11013061 wrote:

The librarian variable is being defined here:

... which is essentially duplicating the dreaded register_globals PHP directive; see the following manual page for reasons why you should never do that: [man]security.globals[/man].

[alotofmath]

Hi,
I didn't realize I was doing that (globals)...I'm referring to a reference manual which talks about avoiding those--perhaps the author was a bit errant in this code block..I have to be more critical of the author's work...

I'll try the array approach.

Thanks!

[alotofmath]

I see...it's because of that $temp variable; I hadn't thought of it; it's incredible the author would spend two pages talking about avoiding them, then have code that uses them...

I've got to be as critical of these books as I was in my literature courses 🙂 I think because it's a published book, and not some random thing I found on the interwebs, it's been edited and reviewed by experts.

[johanafm]

alotofmath;11013095 wrote:

I've got to be as critical of these books as I was in my literature courses 🙂 I think because it's a published book, and not some random thing I found on the interwebs, it's been edited and reviewed by experts.

Well, I'd say you need to be even more critical of these books than in a literature course, esp. since bad code may lead to security holes, which is something you do not risk when reading Paradise Lost 😉

You can't assume that a book is better than a web page. There are a lot of crap on both sides, and often enough web pages contain good resources. However, stay away from "w" followed by the numeral three followed by "schools", dot com. It has a tendency to show up at the top while searching for certain things, and it really shouldn't. Also, if you look for books teaching you to code PHP specifically, the book should at least be talking about PHP 5.3, probably even 5.4. Otherwise it is outdated.

If you want to read up on security, you could try "Essential PHP Security". Info on the book here.

You can often make assumptions about the quality of a book by looking at the kinds of misstakes present, along with the frequency of those misstakes. I don't know if you've missed when re-typing what's in the book or not, but if these are present in the book... I'd say there are too many errors that should not be there, just on these two lines.

# If error reporting (displaying or logging) is turned off, you won't see that PHP tells
# you about this error of type E_NOTICE:
#		Notice: Use of undefined constant kim - assumed 'kim'
if ($librarian == kim) {

# Thanks to the syntax highlighting, here it's easy to spot what makes up a string
# literal and not (colored red).
$to = '[e-mail];
$subject = 'Instruction Request'; 

Also note that the email message being constructed is NOT correct. The RFCs that define the syntax of an email message clearly states that lines end with CRLF (carriage-return + line-feed), which in PHP are the two characters "\r\n". From RFC 2822

2.3. Body

The body of a message is simply lines of US-ASCII characters. The
only two limitations on the body are as follows:

• CR and LF MUST only occur together as CRLF; they MUST NOT appear
  independently in the body.

• Lines of characters in the body MUST be limited to 998 characters,
  and SHOULD be limited to 78 characters, excluding the CRLF.

  Note: As was stated earlier, there are other standards documents,
  specifically the MIME documents [RFC2045, RFC2046, RFC2048, RFC2049]
  that extend this standard to allow for different sorts of message
  bodies.