Send an HTML Email

Description: This WebSmart PHP example creates and sends an HTML email to the entered address. Any HTML code and text can be combined and inserted into an email for more dynamic presentation of content. In this example what you enter into the Body Text will be merged with some program-generated HTML to complete the message.

The main PHP function that is used is mail().

Note that this example only does basic email address format validation. Refer to Example 140 for more details on email validation.

Instructions: Enter a From Address, a valid To Address, a Subject, replace some Body Text and click Send Email to generate and send a sample HTML-based email.

Note that you can use any valid HTML tags within the Body Text (as shown):

From Address:
To Address:
Subject:
Body Text:	<b>Replace <i>this</i> text.</b> <ul> <li>List Item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ul> <span style="color:#F01515">Red Text.</span>

$val_msg

Open a new \'Simple Page\' template.

Add this code just below the \'require\' line in the PHP source-code:

// define global variables
global $val_msg, $valid, $custom_msg;

Add this task to the PHP source-code below the if($pf_task == \'default\') generic(); code:
```
if ($pf_task == \'sendEmail\')
	sendEmail();
                      
```

Add this function to the PHP source-code below the generic function:

              
function sendEmail()
{
	
	// Make all global variables available here
	foreach($GLOBALS as $arraykey=>$arrayvalue) 
	{
		if($arraykey[0]!=\'_\' && $arraykey != \'GLOBALS\')
			global $$arraykey;
	}
	
	//check for email validity
	if(validateEmail())
	{
		//retrieve the user-entered text
		$custom_msg = $_REQUEST["emailText"];
		
		if($custom_msg == "")
			$custom_msg = "The body text was blank.";
		
		//ob_start is the command to begin buffering
		ob_start();
		
		//wrtseg in this instance writes the segment to the buffer
		wrtseg("EmailSeg");
		
		//assign the value of the buffer to a variable
		$message .= ob_get_contents();
		
		//clear the buffer
		ob_end_clean();
		
		//retrieve the emails entered by the user
		$to = $_REQUEST["email"];
		$from = $_REQUEST["fromEmail"];
		
		if($from == "")
			$from = "websmart@sample.com";
		
		// for multiple recipients
		//$to  = \'test1@sample.com\' . \', \'; // note the comma
		//$to .= \'test2@sample.com\';
		
		// subject
		$subject = $_REQUEST["subject"];
		
		if($subject == "")
			$subject = "Blank subject";
		
		//to send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
		$headers  = \'MIME-Version: 1.0\' . "\\\\r\\\\n";
		$headers .= \'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\' . "\\\\r\\\\n";
		
		//additional headers
		$headers .= "From: " . $from . "\\\\r\\\\n";
		$headers .= "Reply-To: " . $from . "\\\\r\\\\n";
		
		//optional headers for Cc: and Bcc: options
		//$headers .= \'Cc: cc@sample.com\' . "\\\\r\\\\n";
		//$headers .= \'Bcc: bcc@sample.com\' . "\\\\r\\\\n";
		
		// send the compiled email
		mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);	
	}
	//re-write the main screen
	generic();	
}

Add this function to the PHP source-code below the previous step:

                   
function validateEmail()
{
  // Make all global variables available here
  foreach($GLOBALS as $arraykey=>$arrayvalue) 
  {
    if($arraykey[0]!=\'_\' && $arraykey != \'GLOBALS\')
    global $$arraykey;
  }

  //retrieve email to check formatting
  $email = $_REQUEST["email"];

  //check that email matches the basic email format
  if(!eregi("^[_a-z0-9-]+(\\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\\.[a-z]{2,3})$",$email))
  {
    $val_msg = "Please verify that your email address is correctly formatted.";
    $valid = FALSE;
  }
  else
  {
    $val_msg = "Your email has been sent.";
    $valid = TRUE;
  }
  return $valid;
}

Add this html to the main segment somewhere between the <body> and </body> tags:

                    
<div id="contents"> 
  <strong>Enter a valid email address to send a sample HTML-based email:</strong>
  <br><br>
  <form name="emailform" action="$pf_scriptname" method="POST">
    <input type="hidden" name="task" value="sendEmail">
    <table>
      <tr>
        <td>Email Address:</td><td><input type="text" name="email" size="30">
          <input type="submit" value="Send Email">
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table> 
  </form>
  <div align="left" style="color:red; margin-left: 100px; text-style:bold;">
    <b>$val_msg</b>
  </div>      
</div>

Create a new segment. From the menu select Attributes-->Segments and select Add. Name the Segment EmailSeg and the description Email Segment.

Paste the following code into EmailSeg:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif;font-size: 10px;background:#ffffff">
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td align="center">
        <img align="center" 
        src="http://esdi.excelsystems.com/websmart/Images/websmart-sample-app-255x96_80.gif" 
        alt="WebSmart Sample Application Image - If you are seeing this text 
        it is likely because your email client does not support HTML or is blocking 
        remote images." border="0">
      </td>
    </tr>
	<tr>
	  <td><h3>Everything between the lines is your custom text.</h3></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	  <td><hr size="2"></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	  <td>$custom_msg</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	  <td><hr size="2"></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
      <td>
        <div>
          BCD Software Support and Customer Service<br>
	        
          <a href="http://www.bcdsoftware.com/">http://www.bcdsoftware.com</a><br>
          <a href="mailto:excel@excelsystems.com">excel@excelsystems.com</a><br>
          (250) 655-1766<br>
          <br>
          Have you checked out our <a
          href="http://esdi.excelsystems.com/iseries400apps/KB_docs.pgm">Knowledge
          Base</a> yet?
        </div>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>

Save, generate and launch the program.

Enter valid information and click Send Email.

Check your email client to see the email that you have created.

Program Definition: wsphpemail.phw

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