HTML Email Creation in PHP

marcphisto · 15-04-2005 3:10pm #1

Hi,

I have written a html email system for a websites newsletter which works as follows.

The person chooses how many paragraphs will be in the newsletter and then fills out a heading and a content section for each one. This is added to a content variable.

They then get an opportunity to view the email as a web page before sending it. This uses a different template to the one that generates the actual mail.

So far so good.

My problem is this.

I send the content variable to a file that puts the whole of my html code into an email variable like so

[PHP]
<?php

$email = <<<END

<html>
<head>
<title>Pat Falvey Newsletter</title>
</head>

<body style="margin:2px;" bgcolor="#4a65b5">

<style>

</style>

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="567" colspan="2" style="border:1px solid #ffffff;"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/header.jpg" width="567" height="59"></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td width="443" align="center" valign="top" style="border-left:1px solid #ffffff"><br>
<?=$content;?>
</td>

<td width="124" valign="top"><br>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td><a href="http://www.patfalvey.com/adventure_travel.htm"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/irishandworld.gif" border="0"></a><br><br></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.patfalvey.com/corporate.htm"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/corporate.gif" border="0"></a><br><br></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.patfalvey.com/lectures.htm"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/lectures.gif" border="0"></a><br><br></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.patfalvey.com/mountain_lodge.htm"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/mountainlodge.gif" border="0"></a><br><br></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.irisheverest2004.com/beintro.html"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/beyond_endurance.gif" border="0"></a><br><br></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.irisheverest2004.com"><img src="http://www.patfalvey.com/m/images/everest.gif" border="0"></a><br><br></td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="unsubscribe">
To unsubscribe from the Pat Falvey Mailing List,
visit<br> <a href="http://www.patfalvey.com/unsubscribe.php" class="link">www.patfalvey.com/unsubscribe.php</a>
</td>
</tr>

</table>

</body>
</html>

END;

?>
[/PHP]

This an external file that is required if the person chooses to send the mail.

[PHP]
if ( $action === "send" )
{
$content = $_POST;
require("mail/mailcontent.php");

$to = "";
$subject = "";

mail($to,$subject,$email,"MIME-Version: 1.0\r\nContent-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\nFrom: From<info@from.com>\r\n");

$maintable .= "

<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 width=413>
<tr>
<td width=413 class=\"maintext\">
Mailshot Sent to $i People
</td>
</tr>
</table><br><br>

";

require('inc/template.php');

}// end send
[/PHP]

When I go to generate my email a stray ?> creeps into the code and throws the whole thing out of shape. It is the ?> that is after <?=$content and I cannot for the life of me figure out why it is doing this. If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate your input.

marcphisto · 15-04-2005 3:16pm

doh, me stupido stupido

this
[PHP]
<td width="443" align="center" valign="top" style="border-left:1px solid #ffffff"><br>
<?=$content?>
</td>
[/PHP]

should read
[PHP]
<td width="443" align="center" valign="top" style="border-left:1px solid #ffffff"><br>
$content
</td>
[/PHP]

HTML Email Creation in PHP

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