Let's begin by setting some limits. If you're like me, you like to keep it simple. All we're doing is collecting email addresses together for our mailing list, so biochemical engineering is out the window. If you're using Thunderbird (or that MS product), you can send nicely formatted newsletters out and retain all of the other awesome features of your email program so there's really no need for databases, logins, or pretty much anything else. We're going to stay far away from anything non-essential.
To keep it simple, I'll assume you have Dreamweaver or a comparable WYSIWYG composer; however, if you are editing source code you can click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code. Also, I've assumed that you have an extremely basic familiarity with PHP. If not, please begin by reading this click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code (for absolute beginners).
There are only 3 steps we're going to need:
Marching on, we need to put some HTML on our page to let the visitor enter in their name and email address. To do this using Dreamweaver, you'll need to create a form with the POST method, a text input named visitor_name, a text input named visitor_email, and a submit button.
We now have our excellent mailing list form up and you should check to make sure that it ended up where you planned. At this point, you may need to make another slight change. If the file's extension is not php, php3, php4, or phtml you should change the file's extension to php. Now, you will need to be careful here as file extensions are extremely important, so you may lose functionality when you change the file's extension. If this is the case, click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code and find a tutorial for the language.
Take a breather and get ready for step 2. Since this is a PHP tutorial, we're going to take a closer look at the PHP code used to send us the email. Being a language, we'll need to learn enough of the PHP vernacular to 1) use the information the user submitted, 2) create the body of the email, and 3) send the email.
The form we created sends 2 pieces of information: visitor_name and visitor_email. When PHP receives them it realizes that someone POSTed some information and to make it easy for you to get ahold of it creates a couple of special "things" you can use to refer to what the user entered: $_POST['visitor_name'] and $_POST['visitor_email']. Why does it call them by funny names? Well the $_POST part assures you that it was information that was submitted by your visitor and not some other PHP somewhere on your page. The part in quotes allows you to pick which piece of information was submitted by your visitor (don't stress on the brackets - they just separate the two pieces of information).
Great! We now have our visitor's information, so let's send it to ourselves. Sending email in PHP almost seems too easy. We just need to modify this line mail(TO, SUBJECT, MESSAGE); by replacing each of the bold capitalized words and adding this inside of PHP tags to our page. Replace TO with your email address in quotes. Replace SUBJECT with the subject you want to appear on the email inside of quotes. In an effort to keep it simple, replace MESSAGE with "{$_POST['visitor_name']} at {$_POST['visitor_email']} would like to subscribe to your mailing list." By now, the MESSAGE replacement is probably self-explanatory except for the curly braces. The curly braces just reassure PHP that the information inside of them really does refer to something it should already know (in this case what our visitor submitted).
Now we just need to include our modified line in the HTML page. Here's the whole modified line (don't forget the PHP tags!):
mail("MY EMAIL ADDRESS","Newsletter Subscription","{$_POST['visitor_name']} at {$_POST['visitor_email']} would like to subscribe to your mailing list.");
If you're a really observant reader, you're already wondering how PHP knows to wait until someone's submitted a subscription request. Well, in the example above, it doesn't. It's also missing some kind of message to inform your subscriber that their request was successful. Since this is introductory material and already lengthy, I'll save that explanation for another article. Just follow everything you've learned above and use this line of code instead (I've bolded my special addition), substituting the success message for one of your own:
if (isset($_POST['visitor_email'])) { mail("MY EMAIL ADDRESS","Newsletter Subscription","{$_POST['visitor_name']} at {$_POST['visitor_email']} would like to subscribe to your mailing list."); echo "Subscription Complete. Thank you!"; }
Er, that's all folks! You'll start receiving emails which you can then add to a mail list in Thunderbird. To manage unsubscription requests, just have a little note at the end of your mailing list saying to reply to the email to be removed and then edit your mailing list.
Jeremy Miller - Webmaster of click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code - The *NEW* PHP Reference & Tutorial Site For Non-Programmers
no-contract cleaning service Des Plaines ..More and more businesses are recognizing the importance of content... Read More
Yahoo has long offered email, an online calendar, notes, bookmarks,... Read More
What to do if you are an artist after you... Read More
Let's begin by setting some limits. If you're like me,... Read More
Why do some sites succeed while the vast majority of... Read More
Before you jump into spending coutnless hours on designing and... Read More
Some left shoes are in isle 5, while the right... Read More
I've heard several prominent web marketers mention in their classes... Read More
A system development process can follow a number of standard... Read More
Have you ever wondered what challenges are faced by other... Read More
Although CSS layouts have been around for years, they haven't... Read More
A company must earn and keep trust or sales don't... Read More
Creatively marketing your corporate site takes time in the set... Read More
"What's in it for me?" you ask. "Why should I... Read More
I'm one of those people that always wanted a website,... Read More
A lot has changed in the way sites are optimized... Read More
I'm a freelance programmer and somehow I managed to get... Read More
This simple question can take on several different forms, but... Read More
1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and... Read More
There are many elements that are key to successful web... Read More
A lot of people these days are interested in getting... Read More
1. SiteSpinner V2 - On Sale www.deprice.com/sitespinner.htmSiteSpinner is a user-friendly... Read More
Designing and creating your own website does not have to... Read More
When I set up my website I felt paypal was... Read More
The big thing these days is your ability to capture... Read More
bathroom cleaning service Lake Forest ..The Internet is a remarkable publishing medium. With just a... Read More
The following is a list of patterns that many visitors... Read More
Your business website is a critical aspect of being able... Read More
If you ever want to create a state directory, article... Read More
Many of site owners still don't realize all advantages of... Read More
In my previous life.....Actually, my previous JOB life, I was... Read More
Understanding and using web analytics.In recent years, website marketers were... Read More
You've decided to create a website to market your products... Read More
The growth in Internet usage around the world is astounding... Read More
Any new website competing on the internet, needs to take... Read More
1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and... Read More
While studying online for IT investment opportunities, I found that... Read More
Project Safekids provides webmasters a valuable tool which could save... Read More
URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce... Read More
Functions and Subroutines in ASP If you read... Read More
1. The first page appears quickly.It's a good way to... Read More
Can you imagine the hypocrisy of spending thousands of dollars,... Read More
The big thing these days is your ability to capture... Read More
So you have decided that you want to do freelance... Read More
When you publish a content site there are times when... Read More
You have seen those web pages where they have the... Read More
Installment 1Developing State-enabled Applications With PHPWhen a user is browsing... Read More
I can't think of any business alive today that couldn't... Read More
Dan Kennedy once said that if you can't make money... Read More
No matter what browser you may want to use, you... Read More
Web Development |