send html emails using a view as the content
In my base controller I have this code which checks if there is a view and then displays it. I want to modify this to use for sending an email. I basically want to create views which contain html content for sending the mails. But trying to access it normally as if I were displaying a view doesn't quite work. This is the code for displaying the views on the website.
To display a view, I would just do this in my controller:
When I am trying to send email, I want to just send the view into the email body.
Doing this fails. I think I need to just return the view but not sure how to do this.
public function view($view, $data = []) {
// check for view file
if(file_exists('../app/views/' . $view . '.php')) {
require_once '../app/views/' . $view . '.php';
} else {
die('View does not exist');
}
}To display a view, I would just do this in my controller:
$this->view('pages/contact-us');When I am trying to send email, I want to just send the view into the email body.
$html = $this->view('pages/email');
//other variables go here
$send = new Email();
$send->sendMail($html, $subject, $setFrom, $addReplyTo, $addAddress, $altBody);Doing this fails. I think I need to just return the view but not sure how to do this.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
That's because file_get_contents() doesn't actually execute PHP - it just returns the contents of the file as text. You should still continue to use require/include to make sure the code runs. Any variables in the calling scope should be available within the file, which means accessing $data directly should work fine.
ASKER
I took a look at ob_start() and got it to work by doing this. Is it an acceptable way?
I would have preferred to do what you said here but couldn't figure out how.
public function getView($view, $data = []) {
if(file_exists('../app/views/' . $view . '.php')) {
ob_start();
require '../app/views/' . $view . '.php';
return ob_get_clean();
} else {
die('View does not exist');
}
}I would have preferred to do what you said here but couldn't figure out how.
Edit the view class to support the separate rendering function. If this is your framework, this would be my recommended path. If this is a third-party framework, you should think long and hard about doing this.
Based on your usage of require/include to create your view output, I'm guessing you don't have an actual view class. That would make it much harder to pursue that option.
Your ob_start() example is right on the nose.
Your ob_start() example is right on the nose.
ASKER
Before you answered, I had progressed slightly. I created a new method in my core controller like this.
Open in new window
And then did this in the controller:
Open in new window
The plain html content is now displaying in the emails which is great but not the php. If I try this in the view:
Open in new window
nothing shows up php wise, just the html and missing gaps where there should be dynamic values.
$data is just the values from the form in an array eg:
Open in new window