Question: Handle multiple email receipients with checkmarks - Part Two

I am here again, just hang on, solution coming in

I see that you have used absolute url's for the images, in that case, you may delete this line, it is no longer required

$_=~s/grfx/..\/grfx/g;

for query (1), you will need to modify the html form like shown here below to include the names of the persons along with their emails addresses, splitting on the pipe character will be done by the cgi to send them in as two entities, please modify each of the checkboxes. The modified cgi below takes care of your requirement.

<input type="checkbox" name="checkbox1" value="Metropolitan Transportation Commission Chair Sharon. J. Brown|sharonsell@aol.com">

-----------------------

for query (2), add this to the form

<input type="hidden" name="todayDate">
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
     now = new Date()
     year = now.getFullYear()
     month = now.getMonth()
     month = month+1;
     if(month<10) month = "0" + String(month);
     day = now.getDate()
     if(day<10) day = "0" + String(day);
     today = (month+'-'+day+'-'+year)
     document.email_form.todayDate.value=today;
//-->
</script>

the changed cgi script as below will pick up this date and post to the database.

-----------------------

for query (3), just add this one hidden field to the form which is the count of checkboxes plus one in the form

<input type="hidden" name="mailHandler" value="25">

-----------------------

#!/usr/bin/perl

   $|++;
   use CGI;

   # this reads the form basic input
   $cgi=new CGI;
   $emailAddress=$cgi->param('emailAddress');
   $firstName=$cgi->param('firstName');
   $firstName=~s/'/''/g;
   $lastName=$cgi->param('lastName');
   $lastName=~s/'/''/g;
   $cityResidence=$cgi->param('cityResidence');
   $cityResidence=~s/'/''/g;
   $emailSubject=$cgi->param('emailSubject');
   $emailSubject=~s/'/''/g;
   $yourMessage=$cgi->param('yourMessage');
   $yourMessage=~s/'/''/g;
   $mailHandler=$cgi->param('mailHandler');
   $todayDate=$cgi->param('todayDate');

   # this section sends the notification email to you
   # that somebody has submitted the message
   open(MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t");
   print MAIL "From: $emailAddress\n";
   print MAIL "To: you\@yourDomain.com\n";
   print MAIL "Subject: $emailSubject\n";
   print MAIL "\n";
   print MAIL "$yourMessage";
   close MAIL;

   # this section sends the emails to the selected recipients
   for($e=1;$e<$mailHandler;$e++){
        $s="checkbox$e";
        $mailPerson=$cgi->param($s);
     @mailPerson=split('|',$mailPerson);
        if($mailPerson[1] ne ""){
             open(MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t");
             print MAIL "From: 'California Commuters Alliance'<you\@yourDomain.com>\n";
             print MAIL "To: $mailPerson[1]\n";
             print MAIL "Subject: $emailSubject\n";
             print MAIL "\n";
             print MAIL "$yourMessage";
             close MAIL;
             $mailedTo.="|$mailPerson[0]|$mailPerson[1]";
        }
   }

   # this displays the thanks page once the form has been submitted
   open (LOGG, ">>path to databases/bay-areaDb.txt");
   print LOGG "$emailAddress|$firstName|$lastName|$cityResidence|$emailSubject|$yourMessage$mailedTo|$todayDate\n";
   close (LOGG);

   print "Content-type: text/html \n\n";
   open(HANDLE, "path to thankyou/email_thankyou.html") || print "could not open thanks";
   while(<HANDLE>){
        print $_;
   }

Much appreciated!

Am at a client's and will install the code and the mdofications tonight.

Rowby

Hi, working on modifying the form now, and am adding the hidden fields, etc.

I would prefer not to have even the
<input type="hidden" name="mailHandler" value="25"> -- so I wouldn't even have to change that on the pages, whenever emails are added and removed.

But perhaps you can educate me on the necessity for that item. Is it for security reasons?

What would happen if I made the value to "100" for instance.

Thanks,


Rowby

Hi,

For some reason i'm getting an error message, which you can try for yourself by going to:

http://www.calcommuters.org//bay_area/email.html

You don't have to fill out anything in the form -- just  hit the submit button. (I have a hidden field called  <input type="hidden" name="checkbox24" value="Rowby Goren|rowby@rowby.com"> so I can receive all of the emails.)

The error message appears after the submit is hit:

User unknown /local/home/b1050/dead.letter... Saved message in /local/home/b1050/dead.letter Content-type: text/html


====
My client has said the site won't be live for a few more days, so it's no "crisis", but could you look at it and tell me what I might need to do.

ALSO, I don't *need* to have the names of the of People associated with their emails -- it's a nice feature, but not required -- and I'll keep it.  

What I need is the checkmarked email addresses (and the names of the recipients -- but not required) to be sent to the database so my client will know exactly to which government official the various emails were sent.  This can be either (or both) the name of the email recipient as well as their email address.

Just wanted to make it clear -- that your earlier form handler script only sent the name of the sender, their email address etc  to the database -- without the client knowing which government officials received those emails.

Not knowing perl, but looking at your latest script, it does not appear that the log is receiving the emails/names of the checkmarked recipients.

"$emailAddress|$firstName|$lastName|$cityResidence|$emailSubject|$yourMessage$mailedTo|$todayDate\n";
  close (LOGG);


THanks

$mailedTo does send the email addresses of all the recipients to the text database.

will it be possible for me to login to your server and correct the problem... it will be faster and simpler

dead.letter... every mail going out of the server needs to have a valid address else it bounces back to the server and gets saved as dead.letter

Yes.  Email me at rowby@rowby.com and I will send you the ftp info.

Rowby

after waiting for the ftp info by mail, i though i might as well make the clarifications here...

the first mail that goes out to you or the admin of the site stating that a form submission has taken place, should have the correct email inserted instead of you@yourDomain.com and don't forget the \ preceeding the @

  print MAIL "From: $emailAddress\n";
  print MAIL "To: you\@yourDomain.com\n";

the second set of mails that go out to the recipients

  print MAIL "From: 'California Commuters Alliance'<you\@yourDomain.com>\n";
  print MAIL "To: $mailPerson[1]\n";

should also have the necessary changes

i checked your form, some of the recipients do not have the name in the <input tag.... name|email>, rather the pipe is not there, and the script splits the info on the pipe character.

you will need the input tag mailHandler with the value set to the number of checkboxes so that the for loop does not waste time by doing extra loops... just give me a day, and i'll write a routine or rather optimize the script and the form. bye.

Hi,

It is always an educational experience for me at the Experts-Exchange. And as usual I'm the "DUH".  I should have seen those things I should have added.

But in any case, take the day and I'll wait for the optimized script.

In the meantime I'll fix those <input tag.... name|email>,
thingies.

And if you send me an email at rowby@rowby.com I'll give you the ftp info

Thanks again,

Rowby

FYI I will be fixing the HTML code early in the morning (Pacific Coast Morning)

Rowby

Raq2000:  "after waiting for the ftp info by mail, i though i might as well make the clarifications here.."

Hi I don't see your email address posted among the comments which is why I haven't you the ftp info.  My email address is rowby@rowby.com

I will be here to respond to your email request for the ftp info for about 3 more hours.

Anyway I'm going in now and fix the html and the perl based on your recent comments.

THanks

Rowby

creative@dte.vsnl.net.in
rag-2000@excite.com

Hi Here's the script that is installed and working.

And thanks for all your help!



    foreach $referer (@referers){
      if($ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}=~m|$referer|){
        $check_referer=1;
        last;
      }
    }
  }

  # if referer is invalid, access is denied
  if($check_referer!=1){
     print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
     print "<center><h1>Access Denied<\/h1><\/center>";
     exit;
  }

  # this reads the form basic input
  $cgi=new CGI;
  $emailAddress=$cgi->param('emailAddress');
  $firstName=$cgi->param('firstName');
  $lastName=$cgi->param('lastName');
  $cityResidence=$cgi->param('cityResidence');
  $emailSubject=$cgi->param('emailSubject');
  $yourMessage=$cgi->param('yourMessage');
  $mailHandler=$cgi->param('mailHandler');
  $todayDate=$cgi->param('todayDate');

  # this section sends the notification email to you
  # that somebody has submitted the message
  open(MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t");
  print MAIL "From: $emailAddress\n";
  print MAIL "To: Mobility2\@calcommuters.org\n";
  print MAIL "Subject: $emailSubject\n";
  print MAIL "\n";
  print MAIL "$yourMessage";
  print MAIL "\n\n";
  print MAIL "$firstName $lastName";
  print MAIL "$emailAddress";
  close MAIL;

  # this section sends the emails to the selected recipients
  for($e=1;$e<$mailHandler;$e++){
       $s="checkbox$e";
       $mailPerson=$cgi->param($s);
        @mailPerson=split("#",$mailPerson);
       if($mailPerson[1] ne ""){
            open(MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t");
            print MAIL "From: $emailAddress\n";
            print MAIL "To: $mailPerson[1]\n";
            print MAIL "Subject: $emailSubject\n";
            print MAIL "\n";
            print MAIL "$yourMessage";
            print MAIL "\n\n";
            print MAIL "$firstName $lastName";
            print MAIL "$emailAddress";
            close MAIL;
            $mailedTo.="|$mailPerson[0]|$mailPerson[1]";
       }
  }

  # this displays the thanks page once the form has been submitted
  open (LOGG, ">>/local/home/b345/domains/calcommuters.org/public_html/www.calcommuters.org/bay-areaDb.txt");
  print LOGG "$emailAddress|$firstName|$lastName|$cityResidence|$emailSubject|$yourMessage$mailedTo|$todayDate\n";
  close (LOGG);

  print "Content-type: text/html \n\n";
  open(HANDLE, "/local/home/b345/domains/calcommuters.org/public_html/www.calcommuters.org/email_thankyou.html") || print "could not open thanks";
  while(<HANDLE>){
       print $_;
  }

thanks for the opportunity to help

After the solution was posted Ran2000 made some futher enhancements of the script.  I am posting it below.  Included is the requirement that the script receive its call from a specificed url and the exporting of the database in a comma delimitated format for exporting into external database.

#!/usr/bin/perl

     $|++;
     use CGI;

     # list of valid referers
     @referers = ('http://www.calcommuters.org/bayarea/email.html');

     # the following checks to see if the call is coming from one of the vaild referers
     $check_referer=0;
     if($ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}){
          foreach $referer (@referers){
               if($ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}=~m|$referer|){
                    $check_referer=1;
                    last;
               }
          }
     }

     # if referer is invalid, access is denied
     if($check_referer!=1){
          print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
          print "<center><h1>Access Denied<\/h1><\/center>";
          exit;
     }

     # this reads the form basic input
     $cgi=new CGI;
     $emailAddress=$cgi->param('emailAddress');
     $firstName=$cgi->param('firstName');
     $lastName=$cgi->param('lastName');
     $cityResidence=$cgi->param('cityResidence');
     $emailSubject=$cgi->param('emailSubject');
     $yourMessage=$cgi->param('yourMessage');
     $yourMessage=~s/\s*\n\s*/ /g;
     $mailHandler=$cgi->param('mailHandler');
     $todayDate=$cgi->param('todayDate');

     # this section sends the notification email to you
     # that somebody has submitted the message
     open(MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t");
     print MAIL "From: $emailAddress\n";
     print MAIL "To: Mobility8\@commuters.org\n";
     print MAIL "Subject: $emailSubject\n";
     print MAIL "\n";
     print MAIL "$yourMessage";
     print MAIL "\n\n";
     print MAIL "$firstName $lastName";
     print MAIL "$emailAddress";
     close MAIL;

     # this section sends the emails to the selected recipients
     for($e=1;$e<$mailHandler;$e++){
          $s="checkbox$e";
          $mailPerson=$cgi->param($s);
          @mailPerson=split("#",$mailPerson);
          if($mailPerson[1] ne ""){
               open(MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t");
               print MAIL "From: $emailAddress\n";
               print MAIL "To: $mailPerson[1]\n";
               print MAIL "Subject: $emailSubject\n";
               print MAIL "\n";
               print MAIL "$yourMessage";
               print MAIL "\n\n";
               print MAIL "$firstName $lastName";
               print MAIL "$emailAddress";
               close MAIL;
          }
          $mailedTo.=",\"$mailPerson[0]\",\"$mailPerson[1]\"";
     }

     # this displays the thanks page once the form has been submitted
     open (LOGG, ">>/local/home/www/commuters.org/www.calcommuters.org/form-databases/datab.txt");
     print LOGG "\"$emailAddress\",\"$firstName\",\"$lastName\",\"$cityResidence\",\"$emailSubject\",\"$yourMessage\"$mailedTo,\"$todayDate\"\n";
     close (LOGG);

     print "Content-type: text/html \n\n";
     open(HANDLE, "/local/home/www/commuters.org/www.calcommuters.org/email_thankyou.html") || print "could not open thanks";
     while(<HANDLE>){
          print $_;
     }