Allow For Both Email and Database Entry On Submit - php

Question

Hi I've had this in place for sometime and have been doing things the hard way. It simply goes to the database and I check it frequently, but as you can assume this is a terribly tedious way of doing things. Here is my current code.
<?php
$name = "";
$email = "";
$msg_to_user = "";
if ($_POST['name'] != "") {
include_once "newsletter/connect_to_mysql.php";
// Be sure to filter this data to deter SQL injection, filter before querying database
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM newsletter WHERE email='$email'");
$numRows = mysql_num_rows($sql);
if (!$email) {
$msg_to_user = '<br /><br /><span style="font color="FF0000">Please type an email address ' . $name . '.</span>';
} else if ($numRows > 0) {
$msg_to_user = '<br /><br /><font color="FF0000">' . $email . ' is already in the system.</font>';
} else {
$sql_insert = mysql_query("INSERT INTO newsletter (name, email, dateTime)
VALUES('$name','$email',now() )") or die (mysql_error());
$msg_to_user = '<br /><br /><div style="color=#F47926;width:180px;">Thanks ' . $name . ', expect an email shortly!</div>';
$name = "";
$email = "";
}
}
?>
I'm trying to add a simple way to do send and email with the email and name to my own email address. This way I'd not have to do any frequent checks of the database itself, but rather view them as they appear in my email. I hope this makes sense.

Answer 1

It would be wise to do some additional checks to validate the data being passed through $_POST.
Something like this should get you started.
$email = filter_var($_POST['Email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);
Here is how you would send an email message.
$message = 'Name: ' . $_POST['name'] . ', Email: ' . $_POST['email'];
mail('your#email.com', 'A New User Has Signed Up', $message);
http://php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php
http://php.net/manual/en/function.filter-var.php

Answer 2

i dont really know what needs to be done, but if you are askng for improvements or suggestions...
instead of this:
$msg_to_user = '<br /><br /><span style="font color="FF0000">Please type an email address ' . $name . '.</span>';
you can do this:
$msg_to_user = "<br /><br /><span style='color:FF0000'>Please type an email address {$name}.</span>";
note: use double quotes.