form / email help

Anon

Hi everyone,

I'm new to PHP. I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, but not enough to do what I need to do, so I'm sending out this request for any help or pointers.

What I have is a form that is currently running off of a CGI script which takes the results and emails them to the appropriate person. What I NEED to do is implement a PHP script which will take the form data, post it to an existing html file, replace the placeholders in the file with the form data, give the file a unique name, display the page to the user, AND email the actual html file to the party that the other script is emailing to.

I have searched a few PHP sites for something like this and have not found it. I did find a tutorial about MIME emailing with PHP on this site which I am reading, but not being a programmer, I'm having a tough time.

Can anyone help or is this impossible? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
THANKS in advance!

Dave Markowski
Web Manager
Albright College
Reading, PA 19612
http://www.albright.edu

Anon

Second thought, the html file doesn't have to be emailed, I just need it to give the files unique names and put them in a specified directory on the server for the end user to view.

Thanks!
Dave

amcgrath

ok, htis sohuld work:

Accept form data in a script.
Write the file to disk with a unique name (fpon(), fwrite(), fclose()....
Mail that page to whoever you want to mail it to. mail(), fread()....
Redirect the user to that page (header("Location:sdsdsds.php");

That sohuld work.

raveman

Thank you Allen. That gives me a place to start.

amcgrath

i misspelled a function, its fopen() not fpon()... Let me know if you need more help...

raveman

Allen,

I knew you meant fopen, that's okay.

I actually have everything working, but (please don't laugh) I don't remember how to get the form data to replace the placeholders in the form. I know that's basic stuff. I guess that's why I can't find it anywhere!

Would it help to have a look at my code?

amcgrath

Naw, not yet, why not just name the place holders either in a fashion that you can do an easy str_replace() on, or name them as variables... (This would mean making sure the web server will parse .html files for php, or just name the file .php)...

either way should work fine for you.

raveman

Allen,

Okay, I changed the file extension to .php for the created file and I made the placeholders into variables (i.e. "$name" etc.) but it's still not working.

The file is created, the user gets a confirmation, and the email is sent, but the file doesn't contain the form data.

I've spend all day on this between writing and testing the code and searching for what is wrong with it. Not a long time, but I've got a ton of other things piling up while I'm trying to figure this out.

Any ideas would be appreciated
THANK YOU

amcgrath

Ahh, yea, @!#$, I forgot you'll lose the variables if you redirect them... ok, no problem: instead of redirecting them, can you try including the new file? IE include("/path/to/new/file/$newfile");

raveman

Oh boy....I'm still not getting it. I have a feeling that I am so close, and then it doesn't work.

Anon

Allen could you pls send a whole code ??

amcgrath

Umm, I don't have the code, Dave is the person with the question...

raveman

Allen,

Okay, today's the day. I WILL get this today (well, at least I'm being positive about it)

I'm assuming that my syntax is correct since the script does everything it's supposed to, save for posting the form data and I'm not getting any error messages. I guess my problem is, I'm not familiar enough with PHP to be able to know what the problem is and look for a solution.

amcgrath

Dave, since you've been so tenacious, you can send me the scripts and I'll make it work (I'll comment well so you understand what I did)...