Tell-A-Friend Link?

**dana22b** · Aug 8, 2002 21:53

Hi!

I was wondering what would be the best way to program
an email forwarding message about a site.

When people click on the link: "Tell A Friend!"

A new window would pop-up with the subject and message
already written in it. The address page would already be
inputted in the message as well. All the user would do is
simply provide the names and email addresses of the sender
and receiver.

Do you have any suggestion?

Thanks,

Dana22b

**saadatshah** · Aug 8, 2002 22:11

hi,
u should put ur subject and boday of message in some database table.....
when a user click ur tell a friend link...open a popup window from javascript(somefile.php)...and fetch the data for subject and body of email from the database...fill the data in appropriate input fields.....

the to and from field 'll b filled by the site user...on submit generate and send the mail....

thats it...

**Darin** · Aug 8, 2002 22:29

There are several things you can do. It is very easy to make this kind of script yourself. You can do what I do and simply send the URL without a title. If you are using a variable for your title, even better. You can echo that as well.

Use the following PHP code to grab the last URL the user came from:

PHP Code:


<? echo $HTTP_REFERER; ?>

Create a hidden field in your form and put the code above as the value. Then simply echo that value on your send page.

Create a form with an e-mail field, recepient e-mail, and a text field. Put whatever you'd like in the text field as a pre-message.

If you need more detailed help, just ask.

**Dean Wilson** · Aug 8, 2002 23:00

I had a request to make a Tell-A-Friend script just the other day, your welcome to use this one.

PHP Code:


<?php



## Start Config ##

$sitename = "Your Site Name";

$siteurl = "http://www.yourdomain.com";

$adminemail = "name@yourdomain.com";

$emailsubject = "The Subject Here";



$keywords = ""; // site keywords

$des = ""; // description of site



$textcolor = "000000";

$color1 = "#EAE3FD";

$color2 = "#DBE7FD";

$color3 = "#FEF3ED";



$footer = "header code";

$header = "footer code";



## Put your message here between "" marks ##



$msg = "put your email message here my message";



######### END CONFIG ####################



if ($submit){ 



// if email #1 and email #2 are empty, display error //

if ($email1 == "" || $email2 == "")    {

echo "<font size=3 face=Arial><B>ERROR!!</b></font><font size='2' face='arial'>Either <b>your email</b> or your <b>friends email</b> email</b> was left out, please go back and fill in the entire form. Thank you!</font>";exit;}



// Start Message to friend



$message = "This message is from your friend : $email1

----------

$msg

";



mail("$email2","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");

mail("$email3","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");

mail("$email4","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");

mail("$email5","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");





?>

<!-- Start Thank you -->

<body bgcolor="<?=$color3?>" text="<?=$textcolor?>"> 

    

<TABLE WIDTH="37%" ALIGN="CENTER">

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Your Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email1?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email2?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email3?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email4?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email5?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    </TABLE>

    

<font face="Arial" size="2"></form><br></font></div><div align="center"> 

<br></div>

<table width="600" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> 

 <tr>

  <td><hr size="2"></td>

  </tr>

</table>



<!-- End Thank you -->

<?php

}

## END OF SUBMIT ##

?>





<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE> <?=$sitename?> </TITLE>

<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="<?=$keywords?>">

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="<?=$des?>">

</HEAD>



<body bgcolor="<?=$color3?>" text="<?=$textcolor?>"> 

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

   <tr>

   <td><?=$header?></td>

   </tr>

</table>

  

  

<form action="<?=$PHP_SELF?>" method="post">

<table width="600" align="center">

<tr>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"> <div align="right"><font size="2" face="Arial"><b>Your Email</b></font></div></td>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"> <input type="text" name="email1" maxlength="100"></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"><div align="right"><font size="2" face="Arial"><b>Friends Email 1</b></font></div></td>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"><input type="text" name="email2" maxlength="100"></td>

</tr>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><DIV ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email 2</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="email3" MAXLENGTH="100"></TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><DIV ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email 3</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="email4" MAXLENGTH="100"></TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><DIV ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email 4</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="email5" MAXLENGTH="100"> </TD>

</TR>

<tr>

<td width="50%">&nbsp;</td><td width="50%"><input type="submit" name="submit" value="SUBMIT"></td>

</tr>

</table>

</form>



<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

  <tr>

  <td><?=$footer?></td>

  </tr>

</table>



</body>

</html>

**Jasonwcs** · Aug 9, 2002 06:03

Hi there,
Does anyone have a simple php tell-a-friend script which uses the <?_echo_$HTTP_REFERER;_?> and also possibly logs or notifies the webmaster when used? Thanks alot,
Jason.

**Jasonwcs** · Aug 9, 2002 06:05

Darin, I guess what I'm asking for is your help! Knowledge of php is very limited. Thanks. Jason.

**Darin** · Aug 9, 2002 12:26

Here is what I do. I don't have a variable for my title name, therefore simply send the URL alone.

PHP Code:


// tellafriend.php



You have selected to e-mail the following story:<br /><a href="<? echo $HTTP_REFERER; ?>"><? echo $HTTP_REFERER; ?></a><br /><br />Please provide Your e-mail and the Recipient e-mail addresses:<br /><br />



<form method=POST action="storysent.php">

<input type=hidden name="url" value="<? echo $HTTP_REFERER; ?>">

Your E-Mail: <input type=text name="fromemail" size="40"><br />

Recipient E-mail: <input type=text name="toemail" size="40"><br />

Comments: <textarea rows="4" name="comments" cols="40" maxlength="500"></textarea><br /><br />

<input type="submit" value="Send" name="submit" /> <input type="reset" value="Reset" name="reset" />



// stroysent.php

// You can check the fields before sending the e-mail, but I'll leave that up to you.



mail("$fromemail", "E-Mail Story Success", "Dear $fromemail,\n\nWe thank you again for using our form to recommend one of our links to a friend. This is a confirmation e-mail to ensure you that the receipent has successfully received the link.\n", "From: YOUR SITE NAME\nReply-To: YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS\nX-Mailer: PHP/");



mail("$toemail", "Check out this link", "Dear $toemail,\n\nThe following person: $fromemail, recommends you visit the link below. They thought you might find it interesting.\n\nURL: $url\n\nComments: $comments\n", "From: $fromemail\nReply-To: $fromemail\nX-Mailer: PHP/");

}

Edit the code above to suit your design needs. Very basic and simple.

**DirtDiga** · Aug 9, 2002 13:38

Hey Darin,

I tried your script but it doesn't work.

Now I don't know a thing about php but I have PHP installed.
and I would really like to use your script and learn how it works.

This is my Test page http://forums.belizeweb.com/testpage.htm

I also tried the script posted by Dean Wilson That did not work either.

http://forums.belizeweb.com/tellafriend.php

I get this Warning: "Undefined variable: submit in D:\wwwroot\tellafriend.php on line 26
footer code"

Can you help me please?

**Darin** · Aug 9, 2002 14:26

Try adding a </form> tag at the end of the form.

**Darin** · Aug 9, 2002 14:28

I just checked out your script. You have to indicate where the PHP code starts and where it ends. It should look something like this:

PHP Code:


<?php



mail()



blah blah other code here



?>

You should read a beginners tutorial on PHP.

**DirtDiga** · Aug 9, 2002 15:09

I'll try this. Thanks.

By the way it still works.

Despite the warnings.

**dana22b** · Aug 9, 2002 16:27

Wow Guys!

I have read your quick replies and they work very well!

Thanks a lot for your help!

Dana22b.

**Darin** · Aug 9, 2002 16:51

You're welcome!

**DirtDiga** · Aug 9, 2002 18:05

Could someone please test my script and tell me why I get this Warning.

Warning: Undefined variable: submit in D:\wwwroot\tellafriend.php on line 26

http://forums.belizeweb.com/tellafriend.php

Besides the warning it works pretty good.

Here is the code I am using.

PHP Code:


<?php



## Start Config ##

$sitename = "BelizeWeb";

$siteurl = "http://www.belizeweb.com";

$adminemail = "community@belizeweb.com";

$emailsubject = "First Ever Live Belizean Radio Station On The Internet";



$keywords = "Belize,Internet,Live,radio,"; // site keywords

$des = "BelizeWeb and Love FM has teamed up to bring you a Live Internet Broadcast of the Number One Radio station in Belize"; // description of site



$textcolor = "000000";

$color1 = "#517669";

$color2 = "#517669";

$color3 = "#D5EAD5";



$footer = "<br>";

$header = "<br><center><h1>Tell Your Friends About BelizeWeb</h1></center>";



## Put your message here between "" marks ##



$msg = "Live Internet Radio from Belize is finally here.  Belize Telecommunications Ltd. and the number one radio station in Belize, Love FM have teamed up to bring you the first ever live Internet radio broadcast from Belize!  visit [url]http://www.belizeweb.com[/url] and Listen to a special test broadcast.  It's Love FM LIVE!  Made possible by Belize Telecommunications Limited.  For Telecommunications....THINK BTL!";



######### END CONFIG ####################



if ($submit){ 



// if email #1 and email #2 are empty, display error //

if ($email1 == "" || $email2 == "")    {

echo "<font size=3 face=Arial><B>ERROR!!</b></font><font size='2' face='arial'>Either <b>your email</b> or your <b>friends email</b> email</b> was left out, please go back and fill in the entire form. Thank you!</font>";exit;}



// Start Message to friend



$message = "This message is from your friend : $email1

----------

$msg

";



mail("$email2","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");

mail("$email3","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");

mail("$email4","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");

mail("$email5","$emailsubject", $message, "From:$sitename <$adminemail>");





?>

<!-- Start Thank you -->

<body bgcolor="<?=$color3?>" text="<?=$textcolor?>"> 

    

<TABLE WIDTH="400" ALIGN="CENTER">

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Your Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email1?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email2?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email3?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email4?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    <TR>

    <TD WIDTH="45%"><DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email:</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

    <TD WIDTH="55%"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><?=$email5?></FONT></TD>

    </TR>

    </TABLE>

    

<font face="Arial" size="2"></form><br></font></div><div align="center"> 

<br></div>

<table width="600" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> 

 <tr>

  <td><hr size="2"></td>

  </tr>

</table>



<!-- End Thank you -->

<?php

}

## END OF SUBMIT ##

?>





<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE> <?=$sitename?> </TITLE>

<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="<?=$keywords?>">

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="<?=$des?>">

</HEAD>



<body bgcolor="<?=$color3?>" text="<?=$textcolor?>"> 

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

   <tr>

   <td><?=$header?></td>

   </tr>

</table>

  

  

<form action="<?=$PHP_SELF?>" method="post">

<table width="600" align="center">

<tr>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"> <div align="right"><font size="2" face="Arial"><b>Your Email</b></font></div></td>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"> <input type="text" name="email1" maxlength="100"></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"><div align="right"><font size="2" face="Arial"><b>Friends Email 1</b></font></div></td>

<td width="50%" bgcolor="<?=$color2?>"><input type="text" name="email2" maxlength="100"></td>

</tr>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><DIV ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email 2</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="email3" MAXLENGTH="100"></TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><DIV ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email 3</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="email4" MAXLENGTH="100"></TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><DIV ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial"><B>Friends Email 4</B></FONT></DIV></TD>

<TD WIDTH="50%" BGCOLOR="<?=$color2?>"><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="email5" MAXLENGTH="100"> </TD>

</TR>

<tr>

<td width="50%">&nbsp;</td><td width="50%"><input type="submit" name="submit" value="SUBMIT"></td>

</tr>

</table>

</form>





</body>

</html>

Thanks.

**Dean Wilson** · Aug 9, 2002 20:08

Line 26 is the if($submit){ which works fine on my server.

Which version of PHP do you have installed?
I'm guesing but your not using an linux are you? Not sure if that would make any differents though.

Originally posted by DirtDiga
Could someone please test my script and tell me why I get this Warning.

Warning: Undefined variable: submit in D:\wwwroot\tellafriend.php on line 26

http://forums.belizeweb.com/tellafriend.php

PHP Code:

<?php ######### END CONFIG #################### if ($submit){

**DirtDiga** · Aug 10, 2002 02:21

Perl 4, using Win2K,

is there anyway I could do without that line...I mean, the script works fine...it accomplishes its purpose but if I can only get rid of that warning it would be great.

What if I just hide the warning? Is there anyway I can do that? You know, like changing the font color to match the background color?

**Dean Wilson** · Aug 10, 2002 02:24

Perl? That is a PHP script, not Perl.

Try the Perl programming section.

http://www.sitepointforums.com/forum...?s=&forumid=36

Originally posted by DirtDiga
Perl 4, using Win2K,

**DirtDiga** · Aug 10, 2002 02:35

Sorry, I meant PHP 4, 4.1.2 to be exact. You have to excuse me, I just woke up.

I don't even work with Perl.

**DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR** · Aug 10, 2002 13:42

you're getting the undefined variable because your error_reporting is set too high. the default setting doesn't report those notices. you should set it to this in php.ini

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE

otherwise, in the script, you can't just do if ($submit), but need to use if (isset($submit)).

**Dean Wilson** · Aug 10, 2002 18:13

Originally posted by DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR

otherwise, in the script, you can't just do if ($submit), but need to use if (isset($submit)).

Is there a difference between them apart from the adjustment of the .ini ?

**DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR** · Aug 10, 2002 18:18

well

if ($submit)

is checking whether the variable that may or may not exist is true or false.

whereas

if (isset($submit))

is checking whether the variables exists.

**Dean Wilson** · Aug 10, 2002 18:34

OK. So it's better to use if(isset($submit). Thanks

**DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR** · Aug 10, 2002 18:39

i think so.

you could also use empty()

if (!empty($submit))

which would return true if the value isn't 0 or the empty string (just as if ($submit) would). however, unlike if ($submit), it won't generate the "Undefined variable" notice.

**DirtDiga** · Aug 12, 2002 00:51

Hey Guys,

Thanks a lot. I'll try it and see what happens.

**DirtDiga** · Aug 13, 2002 15:26

I get this

Parse error: parse error in D:\wwwroot\tellafriend.php on line 84

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