phpmailer with mysql results - php

Question

I'm trying to use phpmailer to send out emails to each email address found in the database, but as a unique email. For some reason, it's sending duplicate emails, and it sends it out in as many copies as my query returns rows. So, if my query returns 5 rows, each recipient will receive 5 email (total emails sent is 25). I can't use the same email for multiple recipients because the email content is personalized.
What am I doing wrong with my code? Please help...
Here's my code:
$customers_query = "SELECT customer_name, customer_email, customer_id FROM customers";
$customers = mysql_query($customers_query);
if (!$customers) {
$message = 'Error notice: ' . mysql_error() . "\n";
$message .= 'Whole query: ' . $query;
die($message);
}
require_once('class.phpmailer.php');
// create an instance
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($customers)) {
$email = $row['customer_email'];
$name = $row['customers_name'];
$id = $row['customer_id'];
$mail = new PHPMailer();
// use sendmail for the mailer
$mail->IsSendmail();
$mail->SingleTo = true;
$mail->IsHTML(true);
$mail->From = "noreply#domain.com";
$mail->FromName = "MyWebsite";
$mail->Subject = "Welcome to MyWebsite";
$mail->AddAddress($email);
$mail->Body = "Dear ".$name.", welcome to MyWebsite. Your ID is: ".$id.". Enjoy your stay.";
$mail->Send();
}
So, what am missing here? Why does it send that many emails?

Answer 1

Try this:
$mail->ClearAddresses(); after $mail->Send();

Answer 2

Try something like is below, you need to be counting your rows somehow so that it doesn't re-process them. Also, the AddAddress(); function is used to keep adding email addresses to the TO: field, so you need to call ClearAddresses(); in order to restart with a fresh set of recipients.
$customers_query = "SELECT customer_name, customer_email, customer_id FROM customers";
$customers = mysql_query($customers_query);
$count = mysql_num_rows($customers);
$result = mysql_fetch_array($customers);
$i = 0;
if (!$customers) {
$message = 'Error notice: ' . mysql_error() . "\n";
$message .= 'Whole query: ' . $query;
die($message);
}
require_once('class.phpmailer.php');
// create an instance
while ($i < $count) {
$email = mysql_result($result,$i,"customer_email");
$name = mysql_result($result,$i,"customers_name");
$id = mysql_result($result,$i,"customer_id");
$mail = new PHPMailer();
// use sendmail for the mailer
$mail->IsSendmail();
$mail->SingleTo = true;
$mail->IsHTML(true);
$mail->From = "noreply#domain.com";
$mail->FromName = "MyWebsite";
$mail->Subject = "Welcome to MyWebsite";
$mail->AddAddress($email);
$mail->Body = "Dear ".$name.", welcome to MyWebsite. Your ID is: ".$id.". Enjoy your stay.";
$mail->Send();
$mail->ClearAddresses();
$i++;
}

Answer 3

You can do one more thing, add one more extra field in the customer table, like is_email_sent, yes or no. Once sent email you can update specific row using primary key. so it will not send the same email to multiple time..