Using PHP code in the value of a variable - php

Question

I am trying to send an email in PHP where the content of the email has some conditional checks and some database query lookups.
What I would like to acheive is having my email code as a variable (similar to below) so that I can sent mail() the content to the relevant people.
$emailContent = "<p>My email content</p>";
However the value of this variable would have some code like this:
<table>
<?php
$get_course_units = "SELECT * FROM course_units where course_units.course_code = {$courseCodeExtract}";
$course_units_results = $conn->query($get_course_units);
if ($course_units_results->num_rows > 0) {
while ($courseUnits = $course_units_results->fetch_assoc()) {
?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $courseUnits["unit_code"]; ?> – <?php echo $courseUnits["unit_name"]; ?> </td>
</tr>
<?php
} //end loop for course units
} //end if for course units
?>
</table>
How should I continue?

Answer 1

Split up your script into an html template file and your php logic.
Use shortcodes in your templates where you want to have custom information and then use str_replace to replace that content with the actual values.
$template_string = file_get_contents('myfile.html');
$shortcodes = array("{{FNAME}}","{{LNAME}}","{{OTHER_STUFF}}");
for(/* all the people you want to mail */){
$custom_info = get_custom_info(/* person */); //eg returns assoc array
$result = $template_string;
foreach($shortcodes as $code){
$result = str_replace($code, $custom_info[$code], $result);
}
//do what you want with result and mail it
}
In the example above, get_custom_info would be returning an associative array with the same values as the shortcodes array, just for convenience.
Now anywhere I put {{FNAME}} in my html, it will be replaced with the value I get back from the custom info function.
You can easily extend this to scrape the template and look for {{ and }} (or whatever shortcode syntax you want) anddetermine what variables you will need from your custom info, shaping the query to only give you what you actually need.
Not sure if this is the best way, but it seems to work pretty well. (also best way is subjective, so might want to ask questions a little differently)