Emailing blues

Everywhere says how easy it is to send out email newsletters with php.

Must be me, then, because I simply cannot find a successful way to send emails to a group of friends who I have in a mysql database.

I have the sql code, like

$result = @mysql_query("SELECT email FROM mates");



and then the php code



<?php
mail('mates@friends.net', 'Subject', 'My message.');
?>



But how can I make perhaps a variable of the sql code to get it to supply the address for the mail function, please?

And how can I get the function to send me a BCC of each message?

Guidance would be appreciated very much.

You need to supply more info about your database if you want help

hi goughy000

The code links to the mysql db and the table - "contacts" - has fname, sname, email and a few other fields. Mostly for this project, I just want to use the email addresses. (It would be great if I could start the email, Dear fname sname, but that isn't vital.)

And that's it. I enter the message in a message variable, I have a subject line, I have my email address as the from, and I ask for a copy of each email to come to me.

Cheers

Is this what you are looking for...



<?php
// Set Variables

$mysql_server = "localhost";
$mysql_username = "zonkd";
$mysql_password = "psswd";
$mysql_database = "contactdb";


// Mysql conection
mysql_connect("$mysql_server", "$mysql_username", "$mysql_password");
mysql_select_db("$mysql_database");

// Mysql Query
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM contacts");

// Goes through each result sending them the message
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$subject = "Subject Here";
$message = "Dear $row[fname] $row[sname], bla bla";
mail("$row[email]", "$Subject", "$message");
}

// End code
?>


About the BCC... no idea, sorry

Havnt tested above code, you need to set the variables at the top of the code

That looks really encouraging, goughy000. Will try it and report back. Many thanks and cheers.

Nit picking but you should use quotes around your variable name.


mail("$row[email]", "$Subject", "$message");


Seeing as though your string is wrapped in double quotes then use single quotes around the variable.


mail("$row['email']", "$Subject", "$message");


Not using the quotes means you are defining it as a constant.

Worked well, thanks, goughy000, with a bit of a tweak here and there.

Oddly, degsy's suggestion didn't work. Well, it wouldn't accept it. Thanks, degsy, but couldn't follow through there.

Cheers, goughy000.

I see what degsy is getting at, but can't see why its needed :confused:

zonkd.. happy to help :) you can PM me if you ever want help directly

Sorry, that should have been

mail($row['email'], $Subject, $message);


$row[email] (no quotes) defines a constant.
$row['email'] or $row["email"] defines a variable. The quotes you use depends on your code.

e.g. you could also use


mail("{$row['email']}", "$Subject", "$message");

Although there is really no point.

Many thanks, degsy, all noted. Thanks for making it clearer.

$row[email] (no quotes) defines a constant.

That is just not proper syntax. It doesn't define anything.

<?php
$arr = array();

$arr[foo] = 'bar'; // Here you get an undefined constant notice.

var_dump(defined('foo')); // gives bool(false)
?>

Define was the wrong word. If you have a variable in the form of
$foo[bar] then PHP will first look for a constant before looking for a variable.

http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/using-strings.php?article=using-strings&kind=t&id=2569&open=1&anc=0&view=1#nonquoted

It's incorrect syntax but its not incorrect inside of a string. Becuase everything is a string, the value between [ and ] is also considered to be a string and as such wont cause any errors if you dont have quotes. I prefer using braces ({}) and quotes becuase it looks better to me, but theres nothing wrong with either method IMO.

Using non-quoted strings gives you a notice... if you don't consider that as an error you shouldn't do it anyway. Defining a constant may make your script stop working as expected.

Using non-quoted strings gives you a notice... if you don't consider that as an error you shouldn't do it anyway. Defining a constant may make your script stop working as expected.

If you use that within a string, eg:


<?php
$var = "$variable[var]";
?>


I have never got an error, on E_ALL error reporting. I will do a couple of tests though.

I have never tried to do that inside a string... I concate everything. I'll test too!
Just tested that. PHP won't register that as an array call. It'll just see $variable and omit the [var] part". After adding the brackets PHP will see it as an array call it but will still give a notice :)

No it works. Zend's IDE coloring isn't perfect.

Myself, i can see why it works but am surprised that it does. Myself I prefer either enclosing array variables in braces or using concatentation (think I spelt that wrong, long day, dont blame me :P).

But this works fine under E_ALL error reporting on PHP 5.1.2:

<?php

$var = array( "test" => "Hello" );
echo "$var[test]";

?>

I'm surprised aswell. It shouldn't, but it somehow does. I can't spell that damn word either :D .

Concatenate. I might not be all that good of a programmer...but I did win a spelling bee.:p