Converting PHP script for generating email to work with variable rows in form

Question

I am using a PHP script to generate an email based on the information from a form. The form has a variable number of rows.

I have converted the names of the inputs in each row in the form to an array, by adding [] after the name, so that the data in all of the rows is available for generating the email.

However, what I don't know how to do is how to construct the PHP so that it can generate an email with just the right number of rows in the email.

At the moment I have just set the PHP to read the first 5 items in the array for each input, and construct the body of the email using these. The problem with this approach is that if the user adds more than 5 rows data will be lost, and if there is less than 5 rows, there will be unnecessary text in the email for 'name, email, telephone'.

I wonder if there is a way of getting the PHP to read the array for any number of rows, and generate an email with just the correct number of rows? I have included the PHP as it stands below.

Thanks,

Nick

<?php

$EmailFrom = "";
$EmailTo = "";
$Subject = "";
$Name = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][0])); 
$Email = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][0])); 
$Telephone = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][0]));
$Name2 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email2 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone2 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][1]));
$Name3 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email3 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone3 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][2])); 
$Name4 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email4 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone4 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][3])); 
$Name5 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email5 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone5 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][4])); 

// validation
$validationOK=true;
if (!$validationOK) {
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=error.htm\">";
  exit;
}

// prepare email body text
$Body = "New bookings have been made for the Ajahn Amaro Retreat as follows:";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name2;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email2;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone2;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name3;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email3;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone3;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name4;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email4;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone4;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name5;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email5;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone5;
$Body .= "\n";

// send email 
$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");
// redirect to success page 
if ($success){
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=payment.html\">";
}
else{
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=error.htm\">";
}
?>

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 15 '11 at 16:51

2

Do something like this, iterating over one of the arrays of data:

foreach($_POST['name'] as $i => $name){
   echo $name;
   echo $_POST['email'][$i];
   echo $_POST['telephone'][$i];
}

Except instead of printing the data, add it to the string that will be your email's body.

answered May 15 '11 at 16:51

Sam Magura

850
8
18

I do not like this use of the foreach loop. Also, this throws a nasty error if the array is empty. So you need to check for it before starting the `foreach` loop. – KyleWpppd May 15 '11 at 17:05

KyleWpppd · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-15T20:27:34.487

1

Instead of assigning each one to a unique variable, just put them in an array.

$body = '';
$row_count = count($_POST['name']);

for($i = 0; $i < $row_count; $i++)
{
  // variable sanitation...
  $name = trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][$i]));
  $email = trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][$i]));
  $telephone = trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][$i]));

  // this assumes name, email, and telephone are required & present in each element
  // otherwise you will have spurious line breaks. 
  $body .= $name . "\n\n" . $email . "\n\n" . $telephone . "\n\n";
}

// send email 
$success = mail($emailTo, $subject, $body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

Also on a purely stylistic note, your variables should begin with lower-case letters.

edited May 15 '11 at 20:27

answered May 15 '11 at 17:03

KyleWpppd

2,010
2
16
16

1

Use `var_dump()` and see what isn't set as you think. I changed the case on `$body`, `$emailTo`, and `$subject`. If you copy & pasted, this could be a potential source of error. – KyleWpppd May 15 '11 at 19:57
@KyleWpppd Thanks Kyle, that looks like it should do what I am looking for, but for some reason it isn't quite working. I tried it with a form with 2 rows and got an email that just contained '0' – Nick May 15 '11 at 19:57
@KyleWpppd I was just editing my comment when your comment came through. Yes, I noticed you changed the case, so I have accounted for that. The issue seems to be with the body variable. All the other variables return the last value correctly, but `var_dump($body)` just returns `string(0) ""` – Nick May 15 '11 at 20:08
@KyleWpppd I noticed the + sign before = sign and removed this, and now the email contains the last row of the form only, which is progress, but... – Nick May 15 '11 at 20:12
1

Sorry, I gave you the wrong concatenation operator. Change the `+=` to `.=` and it should work. I'm updating my answer. Using `+=` as I did makes the strings evaluate to an integer which will not work. – KyleWpppd May 15 '11 at 20:27
@KyleWpppd Excellent, thanks Kyle, that was the issue, and all works well. I appreciate your help. Nick – Nick May 15 '11 at 20:48

Converting PHP script for generating email to work with variable rows in form

2 Answers2

Linked