How do I get php to echo value outside of loop? - php

Question

I want to be able to put the name of the person in the email. But I don't know how to retain the value outside the loop. Also, I'm wondering if this will work if there is more than one result.
Here is the php:
// WHO HAS BEEN A MEMBER FOR ONE YEAR
function joinDateFilter(){
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE date_joined = DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)");
$mail_to = "";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['email']."\n";
$mail_to = $row['email'].", ";
$name = $row['name'];
}
if (!empty($mail_to)){
sendEmail($mail_to);
}
}
// SEND EMAIL
function sendEmail($mail_to) {
$from = "webmaster#mydomain.com";
$message = "Happy Anniversary!";
$headers = 'From: '.$from."\r\n" .
'Reply-To:'.$_POST['email']."\r\n" .
"Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n".
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
mail($mail_to, "Congratulations ".$name."!", $message, $headers);
}
In that example above, the mail never reads their name, as the value seems to be forgotten outside of the while loop. Can someone help me?

Answer 1

Currently, your code overwrites the email id stored in $mail_to in each iteration of the while loop. So, it will have only the email id of the last user. And you need name of each user (stored in $name and used in the function). You need to send the email whenever a user is found. Try this:
// WHO HAS BEEN A MEMBER FOR ONE YEAR
function joinDateFilter(){
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE date_joined = DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['email']."\n";
$mail_to = $row['email'];
$name = $row['name'];
if (!empty($mail_to))
sendEmail($mail_to, $name);
}
}
// SEND EMAIL
function sendEmail($mail_to, $name) {
$from = "webmaster#mydomain.com";
$message = "Happy Anniversary!";
$headers = 'From: '.$from."\r\n" .
'Reply-To:'.$_POST['email']."\r\n" .
"Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n".
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
mail($mail_to, "Congratulations ".$name."!", $message, $headers);
}

Answer 2

To solve your problem you need to put the send mail function inside the loop and add a name parameter in the function since you are using it inside the function.
Something like this might do the trick:
// WHO HAS BEEN A MEMBER FOR ONE YEAR
function joinDateFilter(){
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE date_joined = DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)");
$mail_to = "";
$name = "";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['email']."\n";
$mail_to = $row['email'].", ";
$name = $row['name'];
if (!empty($mail_to) and !empty($name)){
sendEmail($mail_to, $name);
}
}
}
// SEND EMAIL
function sendEmail($mail_to, $name) {
$from = "webmaster#mydomain.com";
$message = "Happy Anniversary!";
$headers = 'From: '.$from."\r\n" .
'Reply-To:'.$_POST['email']."\r\n" .
"Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n".
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
mail($mail_to, "Congratulations ".$name."!", $message, $headers);
}

Answer 3

If you use the phpmailer, you could do some like:
function joinDateFilter(){
require_once("class.phpmailer.php");
$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->From = "webmaster#mydomain.com";
$mail->Subject = "Congratulations";
$mail->Body = "Happy Anniversary!";
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE date_joined = DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
$mail->AddBCC($row['email'],$row['name']);
}
$mail->Send();
$mail->ClearAddresses();
}
Or if you want to have diffrent Subjects than you could do this...
function joinDateFilter(){
require_once("class.phpmailer.php");
$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->From = "webmaster#mydomain.com";
$mail->Body = "Happy Anniversary!";
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE date_joined = DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
$mail->Subject = "Congratulations " . $row['name'];
$mail->AddAddress($row['email'],$row['name']);
$mail->Send();
$mail->ClearAddresses();
}
}
Anyway, you save 1 function and its kind of handy to :D
And its also very easy to add attachments or sending html emails and stuff like this. How to do most things can be googled. So you may need a small tutorial.
If you download the mailer pac, you really only need the class.phpmailer.php the rest is not necessary :)

Answer 4

This should work:
<?php
// WHO HAS BEEN A MEMBER FOR ONE YEAR
function joinDateFilter(){
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE date_joined = DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)");
$mail_to = "";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['email']."\n";
$mail_to = $row['email'].", ";
$name = $row['name'];
if (!empty($mail_to)){
sendEmail($mail_to, $name);
}
}
}
// SEND EMAIL
function sendEmail($mail_to, $name) {
$from = "webmaster#mydomain.com";
$message = "Happy Anniversary!";
$headers = 'From: '.$from."\r\n" .
'Reply-To:'.$_POST['email']."\r\n" .
"Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n".
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
mail($mail_to, "Congratulations ".$name."!", $message, $headers);
}
?>
Keep in mind that mail function can be sometimes problematic. Google about that issue. What you can use as an replacement for the mail function is SwiftMailer