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How to rewrite php code with function

I have some PHP code that sends email if certain criteria are met. It works fine. But I have to send to multiple recipients based upon different criteria, so I'm trying to move part of the code into a function that can be run each time any of the criteria are met.

Here's the code that works:

if ( ( something ) && ( somethingelse ) ) {

	// Start output buffering
	ob_start();  
	include '_notes/php/email-receipt/page.php';
	$buffer = ob_get_contents();
	ob_end_clean();
	
	$to       = "someone@school.edu>";
	$subject  = "New Online Enrollment";
	$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\n";
	$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" . "\n";
	$headers .= "From: " . "guy@domain.com" . "\n";
	$message  = $buffer;
	
	mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
}

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I'm trying to move the output buffering scheme into a function, but it's not working. Here's the reworked code I've tried:

getMailBody() {
	ob_start();  
	include '_notes/php/email-receipt/page.php';
	$buffer = ob_get_contents();
	ob_end_clean();
	return $buffer;
}

if ( ( something ) && ( somethingelse ) ) {

	$to       = "someone@school.edu>";
	$subject  = "New Online Enrollment";
	$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\n";
	$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" . "\n";
	$headers .= "From: " . "guy@domain.com" . "\n";
	$message  = getMailBody();
	
	mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
}

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Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

SOLUTION

gr8gonzo

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SOLUTION

Ray Paseur

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Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

Well, Ray, you certainly caught one obvious deficiency in my script: I didn't declare my function a function! (OK, I'm an idiot!)

I've made that correction. And I expected that would do it, but it's still not working, although I can see that the process is advancing further.

I realize "it's not working" doesn't provide much to go on. There are a number of scripts interacting here, and I'm afraid I haven't figured out a way to make the page I'm coding display its error message on the web page that results.

gr8gonzo, I don't think I used any global variables in _notes/php/email-receipt/page.php. I'm going to post the code of that page below.

The result of running this script is that an email is sent. The script that creates the email body is on _notes/php/email-receipt/page.php. When the script that this question is about is run, _notes/php/email-receipt/page.php queries my database, fills in a bunch of fields and creates the body of my email message. Done my original way, it works. Done this new way, with the output buffering moved into a function, the message body is still generated and the email sent, but it appears that the database is not being successfully queried, because all the expected fields are blank and all dates are December 31, 1969.

So I'm still at a loss as to what the problem is.

Following is the code from _notes/php/email-receipt/page.php, just in case that enables anyone to help me figure out what's going wrong.

Thanks very much!

<?php
error_reporting(0);
include_once('_notes/php/db.inc.php');

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE inv=".$myarray[7]);

while ( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result) ) {
	$policy 		= $row['polic'];
	$plan 			= $row['pla'];
	$underwriter 	= $row['underwrit'];
	$benefit 		= $row['benef'];
	$policy_info 	= $row['polic'];
	$ppo 			= $row['ppo'];
	$sch_yr 		= $row['school_yea'];
	$underwriter 	= $row['underwrite'];
	$lastname 		= $row['lastn'];
	$firstname 		= $row['firstn'];
	$middle 		= $row['mid'];
	$student_id 	= $row['student_i'];
	$school 		= $row['sch'];
	$pay_type 		= $row['pay_t'];
	$total_amount 	= $row['total_am'];
	$major_med 		= $row['optiona'];
	$ic_sports 		= $row['interco'];
	$category 		= $row['categ'];
	$stud_status 	= $row['stud_stat'];
	$spouse 		= $row['spous'];
	$child1 		= $row['chil1'];
	$child2 		= $row['chil2'];
	$child3 		= $row['chil3'];
	$cov_period 	= $row['coverage_p'];
	$eff_date 		= $row['eff_d'];
	$ter_date 		= $row['ter_d'];
	$rct_comment_1 	= $row['rct_comt_1'];
	$rct_comment_2 	= $row['rct_comt_2'];
}

setlocale(LC_MONETARY, "en_US");
$total_amount = money_format("%n",$total_amount);
$eff_date = date( "F j, Y",strtotime($eff_date) );
$ter_date = date( "F j, Y",strtotime($ter_date) );
$please_advise = "If we can be of further assistance, or if you find discrepancies<br />in the above information, please advise.";
?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>IFS Receipt</title>
</head>
<body>
<div style="margin: 10px auto;width: 580px;font-size: 15px;font-family: Times New Roman, Georgia, serif;">

<div id="heading" style="float: left;margin-top: 60px;">
  <span class="title" style='font-size: 32px;'>RECEIPT</span><br />
  <?php echo date("F j, Y") . "\n";?>
</div>
<?php
echo "<div id='plan_data' style='text-align: center;margin: 130px 0 0;font-size: 18px;font-weight: bold;'>\n";
echo "  <p>{$sch_yr} SCHOOL YEAR<br />\n";
echo "    {$plan} <br />\n";
echo "    POLICY # {$policy}\n";
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "  <p>POLICY UNDERWRITTEN BY<br />\n";
echo "    " . strtoupper($underwriter);
if ( !empty($ppo) ) {
	echo "<br />\n    {$ppo}\n";
}
else {
	echo "\n";
}
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";

echo "<div id='insured'><hr>\n";
echo "  <p><b>INSURED</b>: ";
echo "{$firstname} ";

if ( !empty($middle) ) {
	echo "{$middle}. ";
}
echo "{$lastname} <br />\n";
echo "    <b>STUDENT ID</b>: {$student_id}<br />\n";
echo "    <b>SCHOOL</b>: {$school}\n";
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";
echo "<div id='payment' style='margin: 12px 0 0;'>\n";
echo "  <p>\n    <b>PAYMENT RECEIVED</b>: ";
echo "{$pay_type} for {$total_amount}\n";
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";
echo "<div id='coverage' style='margin: 12px 0 0;'>\n";
echo "  <b>COVERAGE PURCHASED</b>:<br />\n";
echo "  <p style='margin: 6px 0 0 36px;'>";
if ( ( $plan != "Stetson University" ) && ( $plan != "Florida Atlantic University" ) ) {
	echo "{$plan}<br />\n";
}
if ( !empty($benefit) ) {
	echo "{$benefit}<br />\n";
}
if ( !empty($policy_info) ) {
	echo "{$policy_info}<br />\n";
}
if ( !empty($major_med) ) {
	echo "Optional Major Medical Coverage<br />\n";
}
if ( !empty($ic_sports) ) {
	echo "Optional Sports Rider<br />\n";
}
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";
echo "<div id='purchased_for' style='margin: 12px 0 0;'>\n";
echo "  <b>INSURANCE PURCHASED FOR</b>:\n";
echo "  <p style='margin: 6px 0 0 36px;'>";
if ( $plan == "Florida University" ) {
	if ( ( $category == "Domestic" ) || ( $category == "International" ) ) {
		echo "{$category} Student<br />\n";
	}
	else {
		echo "{$category}<br />\n";
	}
}
else {
	if ( !empty($stud_status) ) {
		echo "{$stud_status}<br />\n";
	}
	else {
		echo "Student<br />\n";
	}
}
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";
if ( ( !empty($spouse) ) || ( !empty($child1) ) || ( !empty($child2) ) || ( !empty($child3) ) ) {
	echo "<div id='dependents' style='margin: 12px 0 0;'>\n";
	echo "  <b>DEPENDENT COVERAGE</b>:";
	echo "  <p>\n";
	if ( !empty($spouse) ) {
		echo "    <b>Spouse</b>: {$spouse}<br />\n";
	}
	if ( !empty($child1) ) {
		echo "    <b>Child</b>: {$child1}<br />\n";
	}
	if ( !empty($child2) ) {
		echo "    <b>Child</b>: {$child2}<br />\n";
	}
	if ( !empty($child3) ) {
		echo "    <b>Child</b>: {$child3}<br />\n";
	}
	echo "  </p>\n";
	echo "</div>\n";
}
echo "<div id='period' style='margin: 12px 0 0;'>\n";
echo "  <b>PERIOD OF COVERAGE SELECTED</b>: {$cov_period}";
echo "</div>\n";

echo "<div id='cov_dates' style='margin: 12px 0 0;'>\n";
echo "  <b>DATES OF COVERAGE:</b>\n";
echo "  <p style='margin: 6px 0 0 36px;'>\n    <b>Effective Date</b>: {$eff_date}<br />\n";
echo "    <b>Termination Date</b>: {$ter_date}<br />\n";
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";

echo "<div id='note' style='margin: 18px 0 0;text-align: center;font-style: italic;'><hr>\n";
echo "  <p>{$please_advise}";
echo "  </p>\n";
echo "</div>\n";
?>
</div>
</body>
</html>

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Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

Hold on. I don't want to waste anyone's time, and I think I've found something else that may be causing the problem. Please, if anyone is interested in helping, hold off until I post again.

Ray Paseur

Please change line 2 from this:

error_reporting(0);

to this:

error_reporting(E_ALL);

Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

Please ignore my prior post at ID: 39285881. No additional cause of this problem was found. The status of this question is as it was at ID: 39285839.

Sorry for the confusion!

Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

Thanks, Ray. I did that, but I'm still not seeing an error message. The place where I'm supposing the error message would show up is in the resulting email, but there's none there.

Below is the resulting email. The first one is generated with my original code, the 2nd is generated with the output buffering moved into a function.

RECEIPT
June 28, 2013
My Company, Inc.
123 Main Street
Any Town, CA 12345
Phone: (222) 222-1234 / (800) 222-1234
Fax: (222) 222-1234

2012-2013 SCHOOL YEAR
International Student/Scholar Accident & Sickness Health Insurance Plan
POLICY # 0123-4567-2345

POLICY UNDERWRITTEN BY
AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY

INSURED: Jonathan A. Test
STUDENT ID: 12345678
SCHOOL: Some College

PAYMENT RECEIVED: Charge for $1,329.00
COVERAGE PURCHASED:

International Student/Scholar Accident & Sickness Health Insurance Plan
$250,000 Maximum Benefit per Injury/Sickness
Repatriation & Medical Evacuation provided by FrontMEDEX
INSURANCE PURCHASED FOR:

Student
PERIOD OF COVERAGE SELECTED: Annual
DATES OF COVERAGE:

Effective Date: August 21, 2013
Termination Date: August 20, 2014

If we can be of further assistance, or if you find discrepancies
in the above information, please advise.
___________________________________________________________________
RECEIPT
June 28, 2013
My Company, Inc.
123 Main Street
Any Town, CA 12345
Phone: (222) 222-1234 / (800) 222-1234
Fax: (222) 222-1234

SCHOOL YEAR

POLICY #

POLICY UNDERWRITTEN BY

INSURED:
STUDENT ID:
SCHOOL:

PAYMENT RECEIVED: for $0.00
COVERAGE PURCHASED:


INSURANCE PURCHASED FOR:

Student
PERIOD OF COVERAGE SELECTED:
DATES OF COVERAGE:

Effective Date: December 31, 1969
Termination Date: December 31, 1969

If we can be of further assistance, or if you find discrepancies
in the above information, please advise.

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Gary

I only had a quick look at your code, but you are using $myarray[7] (did not look for any other variables) in your email code, which is called from a function that does not have the variable.
Functions are localized. If you want to access a variable that exists outside the function you would have to use GLOBALS or pass the value into the function.

Ray Paseur

The error message would not show up in the email. It would show up in your error_log (or some file with a similar name on the server). You might want to ask the server administrator to be certain that the errors are being logged.

In software development there is a concept that we call the SSCCE. It is guidance that leads the developer in the direction of reducing the problem to isolate the point of failure. Once isolated, problems are easier to solve, or as Charles Kettering put it, "A problem well stated is a problem half solved."

You might find the easiest way to debug this would be to start over -- use something simple that meets a part of the needs, then gradually build the programming back up, step-by-step, to a fully-fledged application. Test each step along the way. As soon as you find a point of failure, you have something that you can attack.

Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

Thank you, Ray. There are error_log files in several directories, one dated only yesterday, but none in the directory where these two scripts reside. So it appears that errors are being logged, yet there's none for this script that I'm aware of. I'll have to look into that.

And thanks for taking a moment to educate me. I really appreciate that!

Gary, perhaps it's because of my relative inexperience with php, but my thinking is that since the function has no need for the data in the global variable $myarray[7], only for the data returned by the include page that it's calling, there's no need for the function to access that variable. Nevertheless, I placed 'global $myvariable;' within my function, which is I think what you were suggesting, but it made no difference.

Without a doubt, my lack of php expertise, as compared to many of you here on EE, is limiting my ability to comunicate effectively. But I guess all I can do is my best. Sorry if that results in your time being wasted, and I'm grateful for all the attempts at helping me that have been made!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Gary

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Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

Gary, thank you so much, it looks like that did it! I'm exhausted from many hours of writing code that's way above my pay grade (not to mention knowledge level), so I need to look it over in the morning to make sure I'm not hallucinating -- but I think I'm good!

Thanks, I'll be in touch tomorrow. And thanks so much for your explanation, it really helps.

Regards,
Jon

gr8gonzo

Gary elaborated on what I was trying to say initially about variable scopes, so it's good that that was the answer.

On a side note - if you have access to change the PHP.ini file and restart the web server, I usually find it useful to log my PHP errors to a file in case they are suppressed on the page or happen in a strange location. This is done with:

log_errors = On
error_log = C:\path\to\errors.log

Gary

gr8gonzo is correct I never noticed his comment/read it properly

Jonathan Greenberg

ASKER

I'm all set here, this is now working.

gr8gonzo, it wasn't lost on me that Gary was elaborating on your original point, which did seem to reflect my issue. It was my lack of knowledge that left me unable to take advantage of your earlier answer. When Gary pointed out in excruciatingly basic terms how to pass the value to the function, I was finally able to successfully test your solution.

Thanks, too, for your side note, which Ray_Paseur was similarly encouraging me to look into. I'm having a bit of a problem with configuring my php.ini file, but I'll address that in a separate question.

And it was Ray who pointed out in his code snippet my very first and most basic mistake, that I hadn't declared my function.

Thanks to Ray, Gary and gr8gonzo for some really helpful answers which have not only solved the immediate problem but also helped me to improve as a programmer. I wish I had more points to allocate. Heartfelt thanks to all!