Let's begin by setting some limits. If you're like me, you like to keep it simple. All we're doing is collecting email addresses together for our mailing list, so biochemical engineering is out the window. If you're using Thunderbird (or that MS product), you can send nicely formatted newsletters out and retain all of the other awesome features of your email program so there's really no need for databases, logins, or pretty much anything else. We're going to stay far away from anything non-essential.
To keep it simple, I'll assume you have Dreamweaver or a comparable WYSIWYG composer; however, if you are editing source code you can click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code. Also, I've assumed that you have an extremely basic familiarity with PHP. If not, please begin by reading this click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code (for absolute beginners).
There are only 3 steps we're going to need:
Marching on, we need to put some HTML on our page to let the visitor enter in their name and email address. To do this using Dreamweaver, you'll need to create a form with the POST method, a text input named visitor_name, a text input named visitor_email, and a submit button.
We now have our excellent mailing list form up and you should check to make sure that it ended up where you planned. At this point, you may need to make another slight change. If the file's extension is not php, php3, php4, or phtml you should change the file's extension to php. Now, you will need to be careful here as file extensions are extremely important, so you may lose functionality when you change the file's extension. If this is the case, click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code and find a tutorial for the language.
Take a breather and get ready for step 2. Since this is a PHP tutorial, we're going to take a closer look at the PHP code used to send us the email. Being a language, we'll need to learn enough of the PHP vernacular to 1) use the information the user submitted, 2) create the body of the email, and 3) send the email.
The form we created sends 2 pieces of information: visitor_name and visitor_email. When PHP receives them it realizes that someone POSTed some information and to make it easy for you to get ahold of it creates a couple of special "things" you can use to refer to what the user entered: $_POST['visitor_name'] and $_POST['visitor_email']. Why does it call them by funny names? Well the $_POST part assures you that it was information that was submitted by your visitor and not some other PHP somewhere on your page. The part in quotes allows you to pick which piece of information was submitted by your visitor (don't stress on the brackets - they just separate the two pieces of information).
Great! We now have our visitor's information, so let's send it to ourselves. Sending email in PHP almost seems too easy. We just need to modify this line mail(TO, SUBJECT, MESSAGE); by replacing each of the bold capitalized words and adding this inside of PHP tags to our page. Replace TO with your email address in quotes. Replace SUBJECT with the subject you want to appear on the email inside of quotes. In an effort to keep it simple, replace MESSAGE with "{$_POST['visitor_name']} at {$_POST['visitor_email']} would like to subscribe to your mailing list." By now, the MESSAGE replacement is probably self-explanatory except for the curly braces. The curly braces just reassure PHP that the information inside of them really does refer to something it should already know (in this case what our visitor submitted).
Now we just need to include our modified line in the HTML page. Here's the whole modified line (don't forget the PHP tags!):
mail("MY EMAIL ADDRESS","Newsletter Subscription","{$_POST['visitor_name']} at {$_POST['visitor_email']} would like to subscribe to your mailing list.");
If you're a really observant reader, you're already wondering how PHP knows to wait until someone's submitted a subscription request. Well, in the example above, it doesn't. It's also missing some kind of message to inform your subscriber that their request was successful. Since this is introductory material and already lengthy, I'll save that explanation for another article. Just follow everything you've learned above and use this line of code instead (I've bolded my special addition), substituting the success message for one of your own:
if (isset($_POST['visitor_email'])) { mail("MY EMAIL ADDRESS","Newsletter Subscription","{$_POST['visitor_name']} at {$_POST['visitor_email']} would like to subscribe to your mailing list."); echo "Subscription Complete. Thank you!"; }
Er, that's all folks! You'll start receiving emails which you can then add to a mail list in Thunderbird. To manage unsubscription requests, just have a little note at the end of your mailing list saying to reply to the email to be removed and then edit your mailing list.
Jeremy Miller - Webmaster of click here to see an expanded version of this article with source code - The *NEW* PHP Reference & Tutorial Site For Non-Programmers
Culver prom limo ..When I started my company in 2002, I knew I... Read More
How do you decide on the content, products and or... Read More
Customer service questionnaires can help your clients better understand their... Read More
The Internet is a remarkable publishing medium. With just a... Read More
What is the most important part of your online business?Many... Read More
Rosalind wants to share her inspirational poetry with a wider... Read More
Project Safekids provides webmasters a valuable tool which could save... Read More
Many web developers today are starting to KISS their website,... Read More
There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple... Read More
After deciding what kind of internet business you want to... Read More
Any new website competing on the internet, needs to take... Read More
You don't believe in astrology but you check your horoscope... Read More
Visitors to your site come looking for information or solutions... Read More
It amazes me how many people try to build serious... Read More
Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash -- Did... Read More
People like to get immediate responses to requests. Autoresponders are... Read More
In the time that I have been using the Internet,... Read More
Analyzing traffic to a site is a key factor in... Read More
If you have your own business website and you are... Read More
There are lots of HTML editors on the market, however,... Read More
The popular search engine Google indexes over 8 billion websites.... Read More
Although designing a great web site is an important part... Read More
What is SQL? SQL stands for Structured Query Language and... Read More
While creating a Web site may seem like... Read More
No matter what browser you may want to use, you... Read More
Wood Dale limo ..What is CSS?CSS is a simple file which controls the... Read More
The popular search engine Google indexes over 8 billion websites.... Read More
First, using a lot of web graphics, flash, banners and... Read More
Absolutely everything stems from the purpose of your website -... Read More
It's now easier than ever to take payments on the... Read More
Creatively marketing your corporate site takes time in the set... Read More
Keywords in Search Engine Optimizing and Search Engine Marketing are... Read More
Like wine cars get more attractive to collectors as years... Read More
1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and... Read More
Many executives and investors are skeptical that software products can... Read More
Web sites are an Ongoing Part of Business.All too many... Read More
Alternate medicine finds its own place in the hearts and... Read More
Creating a content management system either from scratch,... Read More
Every business needs to know how it is doing. That's... Read More
Looks like every client wants a Flash site these days... Read More
How popular is online shopping? And is there room for... Read More
A website is the most versatile and cost-effective marketing tool... Read More
First, an eye opener. Making your fortune through affiliate programs... Read More
Internet Marketing is not a miracle marketing strategy ? competition... Read More
Starting an internet business can be confusing to non-veterans. The... Read More
In a previous ezinearticles.com article,"I Need real visitors, Not Search... Read More
I've heard several prominent web marketers mention in their classes... Read More
If you are living in a country that its native... Read More
URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce... Read More
We've all seen those messages on some websites warning not... Read More
Web Development |