| Publishing Newsletter Using PHP & MySQL - 2 |
In the previous article
[http://www.bytesworth.com/learn/php00001.php] we
learnt how to create a database and then a
"subscribers" table where we'll store all the names
and emails of our subscribers who'll receive the
newsletter.
In this article we'll make a form that accepts name
and email. There'll be a JavaScript to check if valid
email has been entered. Let me point out that the
validation here is just going to be for illustration
purpose. Someday we'll discuss a complicated script to
check valid email addresses.
We'll add another field to the "subscribers" table,
named "active". This field will have either 0 or 1. We
want to make our newsletter list "double opt-in". When
we save the record for the first time, we set
active=0. After saving the record, an email will be
generated that will contain a Thank You message as
well a confirmation link. The confirmation link will
first check for the existence of the email address,
and if found, will set active=1. Sounds confusing? By
the time we're through with the article, everything
will be crystal clear.
In this article, we'll read till the generation of the
email message. In the next article, we'll see how that
email is validated.
So let us first alter the table to accommodate our
"active" field.
ALTER TABLE subscribers ADD COLUMN active TINYINT NOT
NULL
Now we have the requisite table definition to begin.
First we make the form that accepts the name and the
email:
<form name="toSub" method="post" action="subs.php"
onSubmit="return validate(this);">
<p>Name: <input type="text" name="name" size="15"
/><br />
Email: <input type="text" name="email" size="15" /><br
/>
<input type="submit" name="s1" value="Subscribe" />
</form>
The validation JavaScript follows:
<.script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function validate()
{
var res;
res=true;
if(document.toSub.email.value.length==0 ll
document.toSub.email.value==null)
{
alert("You cannot subscribe without submitting an
email address.";
res=false;
document.toSub.email.focus();
}
return res;
}
</script>
And now the PHP file -- subs.php -- that saves the
submitted information.
First we need to setup the database connection. As you
can recall from
http://www.bytesworth.com/learn/php00001.asp, we
created the database called newslet. I'll be putting
extra linespaces between the code just to make it
clear, you don't need to do that while writing your
own applications.
<?php
$user_name="your_user_name";
$pwd="your_password";
$db=mysql_connect("localhost", $user_name, $pwd) or
die("I cannot connect to the database because " .
mysql_error());
?>
The code above lets you connect to your database
server. There is nothing to worry about the ominous
sounding "die" function -- it just generates an error
if the MySQL command fails to carry out amicably. And
now the connection to the database and the subsequent
query to add the record.
<?php
mysql_select_db("newslet", $db);
if(strlen($name)==0)
{
$name="Friend";
}
// In case name was not entered.
$query="insert into subscribers (email, name, active)
values ('" . $email . "', '" . $name . "', 0)";
//Notice the single quotes that enclose
// email and name in the above
// SQL query.
$result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
?>
Here mysql_error() throws up an error if there are
duplicate entries.
According to the error status, we execute the
following code:
<?php
if(!mysql_error())
// No error
{
$tbody="Dear " . $name . ".\r\n\r\n";
$tbody.="Please click on
http://www.yoursite.com/vemail.php?vmail=" . $email .
".";
$headers="From: \"Your name\" <Your email>";
$subject="Please verify!";
mail($email, $subject, $tbody, $headers);
}
?>
The above code sends the email to the subscriber for
verification. In the next article, you'll see how this
email actually gets verified and the verified data is
then eventually stored to send the newsletter.
About the Author
==========================================================
Amrit Hallan is a freelance web developer. You can
checkout
his website at http://www.bytesworth.com.
For more such articles join BYTESWORTH REACHOUT at
http://www.bytesworth.com/br/default.asp or if you
have
a web dev related question then post it at
http://www.business180.com/index.php
==========================================================
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