Combine Ajax Contact form and php mailer in the same script - php

Question

I have created a contact form shortcode plugin for wordpress. However, the issue I am having is that I can't seem to echo the parameters of the shortcode in the php mailer file.
As an example my shortcode will look like this:
[vc-contact-form title="contact form" recipient_email="email#emailaddress.com]
The PHP code that generates this shortcode is here:
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
'el_class' => '',
'title' => '',
'subtitle' => '',
'recipient_email' => '',
), $atts));
$el_class = $this->getExtraClass($el_class);
$css_class = apply_filters(VC_SHORTCODE_CUSTOM_CSS_FILTER_TAG,$el_class, $this->settings['base']);
$subtitle = '<legend>'.$subtitle.'</legend>';
$recipient_email = '<input type="hidden" name="recipient_email" id="recipient_email" value="'.$recipient_email.'" /><br />';
$output .= '<div class="contact-form '.$css_class.'" >';
$output .= '<h4 class="form-title">'.$title.'</h4>';
$output .= '<div id="contact">
<div id="message"></div>
<form method="post" action="'. VCPB_PLUGIN_URL . 'contact.php' .'" name="contactform" id="contactform">
<fieldset>';
$output .= $subtitle;
$output .= '<label for="name" accesskey="U"><span class="required">*</span> Your Name</label>
<input name="name" type="text" id="name" size="30" value="" />
<br />
<label for="email" accesskey="E"><span class="required">*</span> Email</label>
<input name="email" type="text" id="email" size="30" value="" />
<br />
<label for="phone" accesskey="P"><span class="required">*</span> Phone</label>
<input name="phone" type="text" id="phone" size="30" value="" />
<br />
<label for="comments" accesskey="C"><span class="required">*</span> Your message</label>
<textarea name="comments" cols="40" rows="5" id="comments" style="width: 350px;"></textarea>
<p><span class="required">*</span> Are you human?</p>
<label for="verify" accesskey="V"> 3 + 1 =</label>
<input name="verify" type="text" id="verify" size="4" value="" style="width: 30px;" /><br /><br />
<input type="submit" class="submit" id="submit" value="Submit" />';
$output .= $recipient_email;
$output .= '</fieldset>
</form>
</div>';
$output .= '</div>'; /* END .contact-form */
return $output;
}
}
This shortcode will output the following html:
<div class="contact-form " >
<h4 class="form-title">Contact Form</h4>
<div id="contact">
<div id="message"></div>
<form method="post" action="http://www.skizzar.com/jsdrumming/wp-content/plugins/vc-contact-form/contact.php" name="contactform" id="contactform">
<fieldset><legend>Please fill in the form below to get in touch with me</legend><label for="name" accesskey="U"><span class="required">*</span> Your Name</label>
<input name="name" type="text" id="name" size="30" value="" />
<br />
<label for="email" accesskey="E"><span class="required">*</span> Email</label>
<input name="email" type="text" id="email" size="30" value="" />
<br />
<label for="phone" accesskey="P"><span class="required">*</span> Phone</label>
<input name="phone" type="text" id="phone" size="30" value="" />
<br />
<label for="comments" accesskey="C"><span class="required">*</span> Your message</label>
<textarea name="comments" cols="40" rows="5" id="comments" style="width: 350px;"></textarea>
<p><span class="required">*</span> Are you human?</p>
<label for="verify" accesskey="V"> 3 + 1 =</label>
<input name="verify" type="text" id="verify" size="4" value="" style="width: 30px;" /><br /><br />
<input type="submit" class="submit" id="submit" value="Submit" /><input type="hidden" name="recipient_email" id="recipient_email" value="sam#skizzar.com" /><br /></fieldset>
</form>
</div>
</div>
From this you can see it uses a php mailer (contact.php). The code in this is as follows:
<?php
if(!$_POST) exit;
if (!defined("PHP_EOL")) define("PHP_EOL", "\r\n");
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$phone = $_POST['phone'];
$comments = $_POST['comments'];
$verify = $_POST['verify'];
if(trim($name) == '') {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You must enter your name.</div>';
exit();
} else if(trim($email) == '') {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter a valid email address.</div>';
exit();
} else if(trim($phone) == '') {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter a valid phone number.</div>';
exit();
} else if(!is_numeric($phone)) {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Phone number can only contain digits.</div>';
exit();
} else if(!isEmail($email)) {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You have entered an invalid e-mail address, try again.</div>';
exit();
}
if(trim($comments) == '') {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter your message.</div>';
exit();
} else if(!isset($verify) || trim($verify) == '') {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter the verification number.</div>';
exit();
} else if(trim($verify) != '4') {
echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! The verification number you entered is incorrect.</div>';
exit();
}
if(get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
$comments = stripslashes($comments);
}
// Configuration option.
$address = 'THIS NEEDS TO BE THE EMAIL ADDRESS FROM THE SHORTCODE';
$e_subject = 'You\'ve been contacted by ' . $name . '.';
$e_body = "You have been contacted by $name, their message is as follows." . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL;
$e_content = "\"$comments\"" . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL;
$e_reply = "You can contact $name via email, $email or via phone $phone";
$msg = wordwrap( $e_body . $e_content . $e_reply, 70 );
$headers = "From: $email" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "Reply-To: $email" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "Content-type: text/plain; charset=utf-8" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable" . PHP_EOL;
if(mail($address, $e_subject, $msg, $headers)) {
// Email has sent successfully, echo a success page.
echo "<fieldset>";
echo "<div id='success_page'>";
echo "<h1>Email Sent Successfully.</h1>";
echo "<p>Thank you <strong>$name</strong>, your message has been submitted to us.</p>";
echo "</div>";
echo "</fieldset>";
} else {
echo 'ERROR!';
}
?>
What I am trying to do is grab the email address written in the shortcode (recipient_email) and place it in the contact.php script on this line:
$address = 'THIS NEEDS TO BE THE EMAIL ADDRESS FROM THE SHORTCODE';
I'm wondering if it's possible to combine the script that generates the shortcode html AND the php mailer, into one document as I can grab the email address easily within the shortcode script. Is this possible to do and what kind of modifications do I need to make to my script?