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Gaijin · (This post was last modified: 10-09-2009, 10:33 PM by Gaijin.)

Welcome and Enjoy!

About:
Newsletter is a great way to inform your visitors about Updates and Realeses on your Homepage.
I will show you how to create a Newsletter subscription for your Users, with two types of storing their E-Mails, 1 = Flat file database, 2 = MySql Database.

Requirements:

Basic understanding of PHP and it's Syntax
Host/Server with enabled mail() function.
For the second example you'll need an MySql database access. And you need to know how to work with it.

Files:

subscribe.php
send.php
subscribe.htm
send.htm

Functions:

Flat file:
- fopen()
- fwrite()
- feof()
- fgets()
- fclose()
MySql:

HTML files:
First let us create needed html files.

subscribe.htm

Code:
<html>

    <head>

        <title>Newsletter subscribe</title>

    </head>

    <body>

        <form action="subscribe.php" method="post">

            Email: <input type="text" name="email" maxlength="255" size="35" />

            <input type="submit" name="subscribe" value="Subscribe" />

        </form>

    </body>

</html>

send.htm

Code:
<html>

    <head>

        <title>Send E-Mails</title>

    </head>

    <body>

        <form action="send.php" method="post">

            <textarea cols="65" rows="20" name="mail"></textarea><br />

            <input type="submit" name="send" value="Send" />

        </form>

    </body>

</html>

Saving E-Mails:

Flat file:
This script isn't very long and it'S easy to understand.

subscribe.php

PHP Code:
if(!isset($_POST['subscribe']) || $_POST['email'] == "") {
    die("Failed to submit your E-Mail!"););
}elseif(!$handle = fopen("newsletter.txt", "a+")) {
    die("Failed to open newsletter.txt");
} 

In the first "if" block we check if "$_POST['subscribe']" was set. $_POST['subscribe'] is set when the user press Subscribe button in subscribe.htm, and we also check if "$_POST['email']" isn't empty.
In the second if block (elseif) we try to open newsletter.txt with the function "fopen" and if the file can not be opened or created we will output an error and let the script end with the "die" function.

PHP Code:
$mail = $_POST['email']."
";

fwrite($handle, $mail);
fclose($handle); 

Now we define "$mail" as the value wich the user has written in the input field in subscribe.htm
With "fwrite" we write the "$mail" into newly opened/created file "$handle"

MySql:

First you will need a database table, I've named mine "mails".

Code:
CREATE TABLE `mails` (

`id` SMALLINT( 6 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,

`mail` VARCHAR( 255 ) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL ,

PRIMARY KEY ( `id` ) ,

INDEX ( `id` )

) ENGINE = MYISAM

subscribe.php

PHP Code:
$db = array(
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'user' => 'root',
    'pass' => '',
    'base' => 'newsletter'
);

if($connect = mysql_connect($db['host'], $db['user'], $db['pass'])) {
    $select = mysql_select_db($db['base']);
}else{
    die("Connection failed!");
} 

This is used to connect to and select your database.
I will skip this since you can read more here .
http://www.supportforums.net/showthread.php?tid=116
Thanks to MyNameIs

PHP Code:
if(!isset($_POST['subscribe']) || $_POST['email'] == "") {
    die("Failed to submit your E-Mail!");
}

$sql = 'INSERT INTO `mails` (`id` ,`mail`) VALUES (NULL , \''.$_POST['email'].'\');';

if(!$query = mysql_query($sql)) {
    die("Could not save your E-Mail!");
}

mysql_close($connect); 

We set out mysql command to "$sql" variable.
Then with mysql_query we try to save the E-Mail to the databse, and if it fails we let the script end and output error message.

And lastly we close the connection with mysql_close()

Sending E-Mails:
Flat file:

And again we doe some chacking

PHP Code:
if(!isset($_POST['send'])) {
    die("Failed to submit your E-Mail!");
}elseif(!$handle = fopen("newsletter.txt", "r")) {
    die("Unable to read newsletter.txt");
} 

The main difference between this code and the one in subscribe.php is the mode used in fopen("newsletter.txt", "r");.
It is set to "r" wich opens the file for reading only.

Now we run a loop and send our mail to every one in the list with the mail() function

PHP Code:
while(!feof($handle)) {
    $mail = fgets($handle);
    if(!mail($mail, "Tutorial Newsletter (E-Mail subject)", $_POST['mail'], "From: your@mail.com")) {
        die("Unable to send mail to ".$mail);
    }
}

fclose($handle); 

This loop runs until the script reaches the file end (feof) and "!" in the front of feof means "not".
So on english "while not end of file do...".
If the mail() function fails to send the mail we output the error and let the script end.
And finally we "fclose()" the file.

MySql:
This part is explained above

PHP Code:
$db = array(
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'user' => 'root',
    'pass' => '',
    'base' => 'newsletter'
);

if($connect = mysql_connect($db['host'], $db['user'], $db['pass'])) {
    $select = mysql_select_db($db['base']);
}else{
    die("Connection failed!");
}

if(!isset($_POST['send'])) {
    die("Failed to submit your E-Mail!");
} 

Next we run a query with mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `mails`"), and if the query fails we let the script die.

PHP Code:
if(!$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `mails`")) {
    die("Query failed!");
} 

Now the loop for mysql

PHP Code:
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    if(!mail($row['mail'], "Tutorial newsletter subject", $_POST['mail'], "your@mail.com")) {
        die("Unable to send mail to ".$row['mail']);
    }
}

mysql_free_result($query);
mysql_close($connect); 

With mysql_fetch_array() we save data from the database to the variable $row, and send the mail.

Source Flat file (Click to View)

Source MySql (Click to View)

This code isn't a secure one, you should read how to secure your code.
http://www.supportforums.net/showthread.php?tid=700

Thank you for reading!

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