mailing list script

[James Smith]

I am making a simple mailing list script.

I have a table in 1 database called "newsletter", with a column called "email" which contains the newsletter sign ups. I also have a table in another database called "user" with a column also called "email" with the users email addresses from my forums.

Now, I have a question :

How would I go about in the sign up process of checking BOTH databases to check if the email address already exists, then displaying the appropriate message?

Thanks
James.

[Kevin Yank]

It would make more sense to combine your two tables into one, with columns to indicate whether a particular user is a newsletter subscriber, a forum user, or both.

Better yet, unify the sign-up process so that anyone who signs up to your newsletter becomes a forum user and vice versa.

[James Smith]

Well I can't really make anyone who signs up to the mailing list a forum member, because the only info they input is their address. However, what I'm trying to do is as you said, also email the newsletter to all of my forum members.

I cannot store all of the sign ups from the newsletter form in the forum table, as this table contains info like "user name", "no. of posts" etc etc.

How should I solve this ?

Thanks
James

[hstraf]

You could create your newsletter table(s) in the forum database.

The forum script won't even know that the new table(s) are there...

[James Smith]

yes i realised that, but my orignial question is stil unanswered....

how can i check if someone is on EITHER of the lists ?

What im saying is i dont want forum members to be able to sign up to the newsletter email list cos it will be going out to them twice if they do

j

[hstraf]

OK, well.. if you insist on having two databases then your script will have to:

1)Take the email address from the user after submission and store it into a $email variable.

2)Log into the *other* database, and do a SELECT * from database_name WHERE email=$email. If the query returns a row, then you already have the email in the other database.

[Kevin Yank]

Well I can't really make anyone who signs up to the mailing list a forum member, because the only info they input is their address.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you want forum members, right? Also feel free to tell me I'm off my rocker, but newsletter subscribers are a good thing, right?

So why wouldn't unifying the signup process for these two services be a good thing? The way I see it, you'll get a) more forum members, b) more newsletter subscribers, and c) a more efficient database design. What's wrong with that?

[James Smith]

as sitepoint has, a "newsletter sign up" box on every page, i am gonna have one as well.

to sign up for the forums, info such as username, password, blah blah blah is needed. all i want for the user to have to input to sign up for the Mailing list is their email address.

j

[Kevin Yank]

Okay, okay, I give up.

Try something like this:

SELECT count(*) FROM newsletter, forums WHERE newsletter.email = '$email' OR forums.email = '$email'

If the above query returns anything other than zero, then the person is already registered.

[James Smith]

thanks for your help.

how would i test the result of this query ?

$result = SELECT count(*) FROM newsletter, user WHERE newsletter.mail = '$email' OR user.email = '$email'

is wrong

thanks
j

[freddydoesphp]

$result = SELECT count(*) FROM newsletter, user WHERE newsletter.mail = '$email' OR user.email = '$email'

if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
do something
}

[Kevin Yank]

First, don't forget the quotes around your query. Second, this query will always return one row. It's the value that's returned that matters.

$result = "SELECT count(*) FROM newsletter, user ".
"WHERE newsletter.mail = '$email' OR user.email = '$email'";

if (mysql_result($result,0,0) > 0) { 
do something 
}

<Edited by kyank on 01-24-2001 at 06:04 PM>

[freddydoesphp]

and the mysql_query() function

$result = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM newsletter, user WHERE newsletter.mail = '$email' OR user.email = '$email'");

if (mysql_result($result,0,0) > 0) {
do something
}

[Kevin Yank]

Wow, are we brain dead today or what??