Chapter 1. Add Life to your Static Pages: It’s Alive

You’ve been creating great web pages with HTML, and a sprinkling of CSS. But you’ve noticed that visitors to your site can’t do much other than passively look at the content on the pages. The communication’s one-way, and you’d like to change that. In fact, you’d really like to know what your audience is thinking. But you need to be able to allow users to enter information into a web form so that you can find out what’s on their minds. And you need to be able to process the information and have it delivered to you. It sounds as if you’re going to need more than HTML to take your site to the next level.

HTML is static and boring

HTML’s great for creating web pages, that much we already know. But what about when you need web pages that actually do something? Suppose you need to search a database or send an email... what then? HTML falls short because it’s a pretty lifeless language, designed for displaying information that never changes.

With pure HTML web pages, the server simply serves up static HTML that can only display content.

The web server’s a big part of the problem with lifeless HTML since it serves as nothing more than a boring delivery mechanism. A browser requests a page, the server responds with HTML, end of story. To turn web sites into interactive web applications, the web server has to take on a new, more dynamic role... a role made possible by PHP.

PHP brings web pages to life

Note

With a little help from the server!

PHP allows you to manipulate web page content on the server just before a page is delivered to the client browser. It works like this: A PHP script runs on the server and can alter or generate HTML code at will. An HTML web page is still delivered to the browser, which doesn’t know or care that PHP is involved in tweaking the HTML on the server.

With PHP in the mix, the web server is able to dynamically generate HTML web pages on the fly.

Dogs in space

Meet Owen. Owen’s lost his dog, Fang. But finding his dog isn’t just a matter of searching the neighborhood. You see, Fang was abducted by aliens, which expands Owen’s search to the entire galaxy. Owen knows some HTML and CSS, and he thinks a custom web site may help solve his problem by allowing other people to share their own alien abduction experiences.

But to get information from others, Owen’s going to need a web form that’s capable of receiving user input, lots of it, and notifying him about it. Not a problem—HTML has plenty of tags for whipping together web forms.

A form helps Owen get the whole story

Owen’s new web site, AliensAbductedMe.com, aims to connect Owen with alien abductees who might be able to shed some light on Fang’s disappearance. Owen knows he needs an HTML form to solicit abduction stories from visitors and that it must find out if they’ve run into Fang during their interstellar journeys. But he needs your help getting it up and running. Here’s what he has in mind for the form.

What do you think of Owen’s HTML form?

Can you think of any problems Owen might face when he tries to gather alien abduction data using this form? Go ahead, jot down your thoughts.

__________________________________________

Forms are made of HTML

Owen’s Report an Abduction form is built entirely out of HTML tags and attributes. There are text fields for most of the questions, radio buttons to find out if his visitor saw Fang, and a text area for additional comments. And the form is set up to deliver form data to Owen’s email address.

Test Drive

Try out the Report an Abduction form.

Download the code for the Report an Abduction web page from the Head First Labs web site at www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfphp. It’s in the chapter01 folder. The folder contains Owen’s web form in report.html, as well as a style sheet (style.css) and an image of Fang (fang.jpg).

Open the report.html page in a text editor and change Owen’s email address to yours. Then open the page in a web browser, enter some alien abduction information in the form, and click the Report Abduction button.

So, what do you think? Did you receive the form data as an email message in your Inbox?

The HTML form has problems

Owen’s Report an Abduction form is up and running, but he doesn’t get much information from users. Is Fang’s abduction really such an isolated incident... or is something wrong with his form? Let’s see what the users have to say about it.

What’s going on here? Do you have any ideas about how to fix the form?

Yes. The HTML form code is fine, but mailto isn’t a good way to deliver form data.

Owen’s form is perfectly fine until the user clicks the Report Abduction button. At that point you rely on mailto to package up the form data in an email. But this email doesn’t get sent automatically—it’s created in the default email program on the user’s computer instead. And the real kicker... the user has to send the email themselves in order for the data to get sent to you! So you have no control over the email delivery, meaning that it may or may not successfully make the trip from your web form through their browser to their email client and back to you as an email message. Not good.

You need a way to take control of the delivery of the web form. More specifically, you need PHP to package the form data into an email message, and then make sure it gets sent. This involves shifting your attention from the client (HTML, mailto, etc.) to the server (PHP).

HTML acts on the CLIENT

Owen’s form is written in pure HTML with a mailto form action that attempts to send the form data via email. Although the report.html web page comes from a web server, it’s filled out and processed entirely on the user’s web browser.

The server’s role here is limited to just delivering the web page to the browser. When the user submits the form, the browser (client!) is left to its own devices to work out how to get the form data sent via email. The client isn’t equipped to deliver form data—that’s a job for the server.

PHP acts on the SERVER

PHP lets you take control of the data a user types into the form by emailing it to you transparently. The user types his abduction story into the form, hits the Report Abduction button, and he’s done! The PHP code creates the email message, sends it to you, and then generates a web page confirmation for the user.

Check the boxes for where you think a PHP script belongs:

Client

Server

Both

Neither

PHP scripts run on the server

PHP code runs on the server and is stored in PHP scripts that usually have a .php file extension. PHP scripts often look a lot like normal HTML web pages because they can contain both HTML code and CSS code. In fact, when the server runs a PHP script the end result is always pure HTML and CSS. So every PHP script ultimately gets turned into HTML and CSS once it’s finished running on the server.

Let’s take a closer look at how a PHP script changes the flow of Owen’s web form.

PHP is a server-side programming language - it runs on a web server.

A form element’s action attribute is what connects a form to a PHP script, causing the script to run when the form is submitted.

Forms are created using the HTML <form> tag, and every <form> tag has an action attribute. Whatever filename you set the action attribute to is used by the web server to process the form when it is submitted. So if Owen’s PHP script is named report.php, then the <form> tag that connects it to the form looks like this:

When the user clicks the Report Abduction button in the form, the form action causes the report.php script to be run on the server to process the form data.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: What does PHP stand for?
A:
A: PHP is an acronym that originally stood for Personal Home Pages. Somewhere along the way the acronym was changed to mean PHP: Hypertext Processor. The latter is considered a recursive acronym because it references itself—the acronym (PHP) is inside the acronym. Clever? Confusing? You decide!
Q:
Q: Even though my web browser shows that a web page has a name that ends in .php, it’s still pure HTML? How is that?
A:
A: It’s possible because the page originates as PHP code on the server but is transformed into HTML code before making its way to the browser. So the server runs the PHP code and converts it into HTML code before sending it along to the browser for viewing. This means that even though a .php file contains PHP code, the browser never sees it—it only sees the HTML code that results from running the PHP code on the server.
Q:
Q: But don’t all web pages originate on the server, even pure HTML pages in .html files?
A:
A: Yes. All of the files for a web site are stored on the server—.html, .css, .php, etc. But they aren’t all processed by the server. HTML and CSS files, as well as image files, are sent directly to the client browser without worrying about what’s actually inside them. PHP files are different because they contain code that’s processed and run on the web server. It’s not the PHP code that’s sent to the browser, it’s the results of running the PHP code that are sent, and these results are pure HTML and CSS.

Use PHP to access the form data

So Owen needs a PHP script that can get the alien abduction form information to him more reliably than the mailto technique. Let’s create it. Don’t worry about understanding everything yet—we’ll get to that:

Test Drive

Change Owen’s form to use a PHP script to process the form data.

Create a new text file called report.php, and enter all of the code on the facing page. This is the script that will process Owen’s web form.

The PHP script isn’t connected to the form yet, so open the report.html page in a text editor and change the form action to report.php instead of mailto.

<form action = "report.php" method = "post">

Open the report.html page in a web browser, enter some alien abduction information in the form, and click Report Abduction.

Do you think this is how the PHP script is supposed to work? Write down why or why not, and what you think is going on.

__________________________________________

PHP scripts must live on a server!

Unless you happen to have a web server running on your local computer, the report.php script can’t run when you submit the Report an Abduction form. Remember, PHP is a programming language, and it needs an environment to run in. This environment is a web server with PHP support. PHP scripts and web pages that rely on the scripts must be placed on a real web server, as opposed to just opening a script directly from a local file system.

Note

If you do have a web server installed locally and it has PHP support, then you can test out PHP scripts directly on your local computer.

Web browsers know nothing about PHP and, therefore, have no ability to run PHP scripts.

Web servers with PHP support are equipped to run PHP scripts and turn them into HTML web pages that browsers can understand.

PHP scripts must be run on a web server or they won’t work.

Get your PHP scripts to the server

It’s perfectly fine to create and edit PHP scripts on your local computer. But you need to put the files on a web server to run them. PHP files are often placed alongside HTML files on a web server. There’s nothing magical about putting PHP scripts on a web server—just upload them to a place where your web pages can access them. Uploading files to a web server requires the help of a utility, such as an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) utility.

Uploading your PHP scripts to a web server isn’t enough—that web server must also have PHP installed on it. Some web servers include PHP by default, some don’t.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: How do I know if my web server has PHP installed?
A:
A: You could ask your web administrator or web hosting company, or you could just perform a little test yourself. Create a text file called test.php and enter the following code into it:
Now upload test.php to your web server, and then enter its URL into a web browser. If PHP is installed on your server, you’ll see lots of detailed information about PHP, including its version. Bingo!
Note
Remember to delete phpinfo() script when you’re done, so no one else can see it.

Relax

If you don’t have PHP installed on your web server, check out Appendix B.

You’ll find instructions here for getting PHP up and running on your web server.

That’s right. The report.php script’s still missing code to email the alien abduction data to Owen.

But that’s not a problem because PHP offers a function, a pre-built chunk of reusable code, that you can use to send email messages. You just need to figure out what the email message needs to say and then use PHP to create and send it.

It’s true. Doing more with PHP requires knowing more about PHP.

So in order to add email functionality to Owen’s report.php script, you’re going to have to dig a little deeper into PHP and get a solid handle on how the script works up to this point.

The server turns PHP into HTML

A big part of understanding how a PHP script works is getting a handle on what happens to the script when it runs on the server. Most PHP scripts contain both PHP code and HTML code, and the PHP’s run and turned into HTML before the server passes the whole thing off as HTML to the client web browser. In Owen’s report.php script, PHP code generates most of the HTML content in the body of the confirmation page. The HTML code surrounding it is delivered unchanged.

Deconstructing Owen’s PHP script

The report.php script is triggered by the Report an Abduction form, and its job (at the moment) is to take the form data and generate a confirmation web page. Let’s see how.

The first chunk of code is pure HTML. It just sets up the page we’re building, including a few HTML tags required of all pages.

Here’s where things start to get interesting. We’re ready to break out of HTML code and into PHP code. The <?php tag opens a section of PHP code—everything following this tag is pure PHP.

This code grabs the form data and stores it away in individual variables so that we can easily access it later. PHP variables allow you to store values, be they numbers, text, or other kinds of data.

Now we’re talking! Here the variables we just created are put to work by inserting them into dynamically generated HTML code. The echo command outputs HTML code that gets returned directly to the web browser.

The ?> tag matches up with <?php and closes up a section of PHP code. From here on, we’re back to normal HTML code.

Now wrap up the page by closing out the HTML tags we opened earlier.

A few PHP rules to live code by

Owen’s report.php script reveals a few fundamental rules of the PHP language that apply to all PHP scripts. Let’s take a look at them.

Given the variables used in the report.php script, do you see any other PHP rules pertaining to variables? Write ‘em down!

__________________________________________

Finding the perfect variable name

In addition to starting with a $, PHP variable names are also case-sensitive. But that’s not all—there are other important rules governing how you name variables. Some of these rules are syntax rules, meaning your code will break if you ignore them, while other rules are just good ideas passed down from wise old PHP coders.

Let’s start with the official rules that will absolutely cause problems if you ignore them when naming variables. Follow these rules to create legal variable names.

A variable is a container that you can store data in, and every variable has a unique name.

	The first character must be a dollar sign (`$`). Note Got it!
	A variable name must be at least one character in length. Note Not counting the $ character, which is required of every variable name.
	The first character after the dollar sign can be a letter or an underscore (`_`), and characters after that can be a letter, an underscore, or a number.
	Spaces and special characters other than `_` and `$` are not allowed in any part of a variable name.

These rules will stop your code working if you don’t follow them, but there are a couple more rules that are good to follow as more of a coding convention. These rules help make PHP code a little more consistent and easier to read.

	Use all lowercase for variable names.
	Separate words in a multi-word variable name with underscores.

PHP variable names must begin with a dollar $ sign, and cannot contain spaces.

These last two rules won’t break your code if you ignore them, and you’ll certainly run across PHP code that doesn’t adhere to them yet works just fine. This is because they are just a stylistic convention—but they will serve you well as you begin creating and naming variables of your own.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: Does it matter whether I put PHP commands in uppercase or lowercase?
A:
A: Yes and no. For the most part, PHP isn’t case-sensitive, so you can get away with mixing the case of most commands. That means you can use echo, ECHO, or EchO when echoing content. However, as a matter of convention, it’s a very good idea to be consistent with case in your scripts. Most PHP coders prefer lowercase for the vast majority of PHP code, which is why you’ll see echo used throughout the example code in the book.
Q:
Q: So even if it’s a bad coding convention, I can mix and match the case of PHP code?
A:
A: No, not entirely. The huge exception to the case insensitivity of PHP is variable names, which apply to data storage locations that you create. So let’s take the $email variable used in the Report an Abduction script as an example. This variable name is case-sensitive, so you can’t refer to it as $EMAIL or $eMail. All variable names in PHP are case-sensitive like this, so it’s important to name variables carefully and then reference them consistently in your code. More on variable names in just a moment.
Q:
Q: Is it really OK to put both PHP and HTML code in the same file?
A:
A: Absolutely. In fact, in many cases it’s absolutely necessary to do so.
Q:
Q: Why would I want to do that?
A:
A: Because the whole idea behind a web server is to serve up HTML web pages to browsers. PHP doesn’t change that fact. What PHP allows you to do is change the HTML content on the fly with things like today’s date, data pulled from a database, or even calculated values such as the order total in a shopping cart. So PHP allows you to manipulate the HTML that goes into web pages, as opposed to them just being created statically at design time. It’s very common to have HTML code for a page with PHP code sprinkled throughout to plug in important data or otherwise alter the HTML programmatically.
Q:
Q: Does PHP code embedded in an HTML file have to be on its own line, or can I embed it in an HTML line, like as part of an HTML tag attribute?
A:
A: Other than needing to place your PHP code within the <?php and ?> tags, there are no restrictions in how you embed it in HTML code. In fact, it’s often necessary to wedge a piece of PHP code into the middle of HTML code, like when you’re setting the attribute of an HTML tag. This is a perfectly legitimate usage of PHP.
Q:
Q: I’ve seen PHP code that’s enclosed by <? as the start tag instead of <?php. Is that right?
A:
A: Not really. Technically speaking, it’s legal, but it isn’t recommended. A server setting must be enabled for the short open tag (<?) to work. The usual <?php tag always works, so it’s better to use that and know that your code will just work.
Q:
Q: If a web server always returns pure HTML code to a client browser, why do URLs show the PHP script name, like webpage.php?
A:
A: Remember that every web page is the result of a two-sided communication involving a request from the client browser and a response from the web server. The URL is the basis of the request, while the content returned from the server is the response. PHP scripts are requested just like normal HTML web pages through URLs entered into the browser or linked from other pages, or as form actions. That explains why the URL for a PHP “page” shows the name of the PHP script.
The other half of the equation is the response from the server, which is the resulting code that’s generated by the PHP script. Since most PHP scripts generate HTML code, it makes sense that the code is HTML and not PHP. So it’s no accident that a URL references a .php file on a server, which causes PHP code to be executed on the server, ultimately resulting in pure HTML content being returned to the browser.
Q:
Q: Can PHP variables store any other kinds of data?
A:
A: Absolutely. You can use variables to store Boolean (true/false) data. And numeric data can be either integer or floating-point (decimal). There are also arrays, which store a collection of data, as well as objects, which associate a collection of data with code that is used to manipulate the data. Arrays are covered a little later in this chapter, while objects are tackled in Chapter 13. There is also a special data type called NULL, which represents no value. For example, a variable that hasn’t been assigned a value is considered NULL.

Variables are for storing script data

PHP variables are storage containers that store information kinda like how a cup stores a beverage. Since the $alien_description variable is empty, we know that the form data is never making its way into it. So the $alien_description variable remains empty despite our attempt to assign data to it.

One way to fix the script would be to just assign the exact string we’re expecting to the $alien_description variable, like this:

This code works in that it most definitely stores the text 'little green men' in the $alien_description variable. But we solved one problem by creating another one—this code causes the alien description to always be the same regardless of what the user enters into the form.

Brain Power

Somehow the assignment of alien description form data to the $alien_description variable is coming up empty.

$alien_description = $_POST['description'];

What do you think this code is doing wrong?

The problem does have to do with $_POST, which is a mechanism used to pass along form data to a script.

The dollar sign at the beginning of $_POST is a clue... $_POST is a storage container! More specifically, $_POST is a collection of storage locations used to hold data from a web form. In Owen’s case, it holds all the data that gets sent to our report.php script when someone fills out the form and clicks the Report Abduction button. So in order to access the form data and do anything with it, we have to go through $_POST. Remember this code?

So the data in each field of the Report an Abduction form is accessed using $_POST. But what exactly is $_POST... a variable?

$_–POST is a special variable that holds form data

$_POST is a special variable that is known as a superglobal because it is built into PHP and is available throughout an entire script. $_POST already exists when your script runs—you don’t create it like you do other PHP variables.

The $_POST superglobal is directly tied to the form submission method used by the HTML form. If the method’s set to post, then all of the form data gets packaged into the $_POST superglobal, where each piece of data can be plucked out and used as needed.

Brain Power

How do you think the $_POST superglobal works? How can it store multiple values from all those text boxes on Owen’s form?

$_–POST transports form data to your script

$_POST is a special kind of PHP storage container known as an array, which stores a collection of variables under a single name. When someone submits Owen’s form, the data they’ve typed into the form fields is stored in the $_POST array, whose job is to pass the data along to the script.

Each element in the $_POST array corresponds to a piece of data entered into a form field. To access the data for a specific form field, you use the name of the field with $_POST. So the duration of an abduction is stored in $_POST['howlong']. The HTML code for Owen’s form reveals how form names relate to data stored in $_POST.

The $_POST array is filled with the values the user entered into the form.

Sharpen your pencil

There’s some data entered into Owen’s Report an Abduction form that we aren’t currently using. Remember, this data contains vital information about an alien abduction that could lead Owen back to his lost dog, Fang. So we need to grab all of the abduction data and store it away in PHP variables.

Write PHP code to create four new variables that store the missing form data: $name, $how_many, $what_they_did, and $other. Hint: Create the $name variable so that it stores the user’s full name.

__________________________________________

Your work is not quite done. The confirmation web page generated by the PHP script needs to use those new variables to display more information about the alien abduction.

Using all of the variables you just created except $name, finish the missing code below that generates a more informed confirmation page.

Note

The user’s name isn’t critical to the confirmation page, although we’ll need it later when we send an abduction email to Owen.

echo 'Thanks for submitting the form.<br />';
echo 'You were abducted ' . $when_it_happened;
echo ' and were gone for ' . $how_long . '<br />';
______________________________________________________________
echo 'Describe them: ' . $alien_description . '<br />';
______________________________________________________________
echo 'Was Fang there? ' . $fang_spotted . '<br />';
______________________________________________________________
echo 'Your email address is ' . $email;

Sharpen your pencil Solution

Your work is not quite done. The confirmation web page generated by the PHP script needs to use those new variables to display more information about the alien abduction.

Using all of the variables you just created except $name, finish the missing code below that generates a more informed confirmation page.

Note

The user’s name isn’t critical to the confirmation page, although we’ll need it later when we send an abduction email to Owen.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: What actually happens when I concatenate multiple strings together using periods?
A:
A: Concatenation involves sticking more than one string together to form a completely new string. The end result of concatenating strings is always a single string, no matter how many strings you started with. So when you concatenate strings as part of an echo command, PHP combines the strings together into one first, and then echoes that string to the browser.
Q:
Q: When I concatenate a variable with a string, does the variable have to contain text?
A:
A: No. Although concatenation always results in a string, variables don’t have to contain strings in order for you to concatenate them. So say a variable contains a number, PHP converts the number to a string first and then concatenates it.
Q:
Q: What happens to PHP code on the browser?
A:
A: Nothing. And that’s because PHP code is never seen by a browser. PHP code runs on the server and gets turned into HTML code that’s sent along to the browser. So the browser is completely unaware of PHP’s existence—web pages arrive as pure HTML and CSS.
Q:
Q: OK, so how exactly does the server turn PHP code into HTML and CSS code?
A:
A: First off, remember that by default the code in a PHP script is assumed to be HTML code. You identify PHP code within a script by placing it between <?php and ?> tags. The server sees those tags and knows to run the code inside them as PHP, and all of the code outside of those tags is passed along to the browser as HTML.
Q:
Q: Right. But that still doesn’t explain how the PHP code gets turned into HTML/CSS code. What gives?
A:
A: Ah, that’s where the echo command enters the picture. You can think of the echo command as outputting information beyond the confines of the <?php and ?> tags. So the echo command is the key to PHP’s ability to dynamically generate HTML/CSS code. By concatenating strings of text with PHP variables, you can construct HTML code on-the-fly, and then use echo to output it to the browser as part of the resulting web page. A good example of this is in Owen’s report.php script when the <br /> tag is tacked on to the end of a piece of text to generate a line break in HTML.

The PHP script still needs to email the form data to Owen.

As it stands, the report.php script is grabbing the data from the Report an Abduction form and generating an HTML confirmation page for the user. But it’s not yet solving the original problem of emailing a message to Owen when the form is submitted. He just wants to receive a simple text email message that looks something like this:

Alf Nader was abducted last November and was gone for 11 hours.

Number of aliens: dozens

Note

Similar to the confirmation web page, this email message consists of static text combined with form data.

Alien description: little green men

What they did: asked me about UFO regulations

Fang spotted: no

Other comments: Please vote for me.

This email message can be generated from PHP code by putting together a string that combines static text such as "Other comments:" with form field data stored in variables.

Write down how you’d put together an email message string from static text and PHP variables.

__________________________________________

Creating the email message body with PHP

You’ve already seen how a period can be used in PHP code to concatenate multiple strings of text together into a single string. Now you need to use concatenation again to build an email message string with variables sprinkled in among static text.

One problem with building such a large string is that it requires a huge line of PHP code that’s difficult to read and understand. You can break the PHP code across multiple lines to make it easier to follow. Just make sure to separate the code in spots where the spacing doesn’t matter, like between two concatenated strings, not in the middle of a string. Then put a semicolon at the end of the last line of the code to finish the PHP statement.

A long line of PHP code can be spanned across multiple lines as long as you’re careful about how you break up the code.

Yes. Just because the PHP code is organized nicely doesn’t mean its output will automatically look good.

Organizing PHP code so that you can better understand it is completely different than formatting the output of PHP code that users will see. You’ll normally use HTML tags to format the output of PHP code since in most cases PHP is used to dynamically generate a web page. But not in this case.

Here we’re generating an email message, which is plain text, not HTML. We need to deal with the fact that the message currently looks like this:

Alf Nader was abducted last November and was gone for 11 hours. Number of aliens: dozensAlien description: little green menWhat they did: asked me about UFO regulationsFang spotted: noOther comments: Please vote for me.

Note

Ouch! This is NOT what Owen had in mind for his Abduction Report email messages.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: Is there a way to use HTML formatting in emails you send from a PHP script?
A:
A: There is. But it requires an additional step that involves setting the content type header for the message. Headers and content types are a bit beyond the scope of this discussion, which is why we’re sticking with pure text email messages for Owen’s email responses. You’ll learn more about headers in Chapter 6, so you’ll definitely gain the knowledge to revisit HTML emails later.

Brain Power

How would you reformat the plain text email message so that it is easier to read?

Even plain text can be formatted... a little

Since Owen’s sending email messages as plain text with no HTML formatting, he can’t just stick in <br /> tags to add line breaks where the content’s running together. But he can use newline characters, which are escaped as \n. So wherever \n appears in the email text, a newline will be inserted, causing any content after it to start on the next line. Here’s the new email message code with newlines added:

Escape characters in PHP start with a backslash (\).

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: What exactly is an escape character?
A:
A: An escape character is a character that’s either difficult to type or would otherwise cause confusion in PHP code. You may be familiar with escape characters from HTML, where they’re coded a little differently, like © or © for the copyright symbol. PHP has a very small set of escape characters that are helpful for escaping things that might be confused with the PHP language itself, such as single quotes (\'), double quotes (\"), and of course, newlines (\n).

Newlines need double-quoted strings

The problem with Owen’s code is that PHP handles strings differently depending on whether they’re enclosed by single or double quotes. More specifically, newline characters (\n) can only be escaped in double-quoted strings. So the Abduction Report email message must be constructed using double-quoted strings in order for the newlines to work.

But there’s more to the single vs. double quote story than that. Single-quoted strings are considered raw text, whereas PHP processes double-quoted strings looking for variables. When a variable is encountered within a double-quoted string, PHP inserts its value into the string as if the strings had been concatenated. So not only is a double-quoted string necessary to make the newlines work in the email message, but it also allows us to simplify the code by sticking the variables directly in the string.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: If double-quoted strings are so cool, why have we used mostly single-quoted strings up until now?
A:
A: Well, keep in mind that single-quoted strings are not processed by PHP in any way, which makes them ideal for strings that are pure text with no embedded variables. So we’ll continue to use single-quoted strings throughout the book unless there is a compelling reason to use a double-quoted string instead. The most important thing about using single vs. double quotes around strings is to try and be as consistent as possible.
Q:
Q: What happens if I need to use a single quote (apostrophe) within a single-quoted string, as in 'He's lost!'?
A:
A: This is where escape characters come in handy. To use a single quote inside of a single-quoted string, just escape it as \', like this: 'He\'s lost!'. The same applies to a double quote inside of a double-quoted string—use \". You don’t have to escape quotes when they don’t conflict, such as a single quote inside of a double-quoted string: "He's lost!".
Q:
Q: So single-quoted strings support \' but not \n. How do I know what escape characters I can use within single quotes?
A:
A: Single-quoted strings only allow the \' and \\ escape characters—all other escape characters can only be used in double-quoted strings.

Assemble an email message for Owen

With the body of the email message generated as a string, you can move on to assembling the rest of Owen’s email. An email message is more than just a message body—there are several different parts. Although some are optional, the following pieces of information are used in pretty much all emails:

The message body. Already done!
The message subject.
Note
Anything you want can go here - it’s what will appear as the subject of the email in Owen’s inbox.
The sender’s email address (who the message is FROM).
Note
The user’s email address
The recipient’s email address (who the message is TO).
Note
Owen’s email address

This is the kind of email message Owen hopes to receive upon someone submitting an alien abduction report.

This sample email message reveals that most of the content is in the body of a message, which you’ve already finished. All that’s left is coming up with a message subject, “from” and “to” email addresses... and of course, somehow using PHP to actually send the message!

Variables store the email pieces and parts

We already have the message body stored in $msg, but we’re still missing the message subject and “from” and “to” email addresses. The subject and the “to” email address can just be set as static text in new variables, while the “from” email address is already stored away in the $email variable thanks to the form-handling code we wrote earlier in the chapter.

The message body.
The message subject.
The sender’s email address (who the message is FROM).
Note
All the email information’s gathered and ready to go!
The recipient’s email address (who the message is TO).

Sending an email message with PHP

So you’re ready to write the PHP code to actually send the email message to Owen. This requires PHP’s built-in mail() function, which sends a message based on information you provide it.

The PHP mail() function sends an email message from within a script.

These three pieces of information are required by the mail() function, so you always need to provide them. The “from” email address isn’t required but it’s still a good idea to include it. To specify the “from” field when calling the mail() function, an additional function argument’s required, along with some string concatenation.

There are no Dumb Questions

Q:
Q: Is there anything else that can be specified as part of an email message in addition to the “from” email address?
A:
A: Yes. You can also specify “copy” and “blind copy” recipients in the same way as the “from” recipient—just use 'Cc:' or 'Bcc:' instead of 'From:'. If you want to specify both a “from” and a “copy” recipient, you must separate them with a carriage-return newline character combination (\r\n), like this:
Note
That’s right, two escape characters back-to-back!

Just add the code that calls mail() to your script.

The line of code that calls the mail() function is all you need to send the email message. Make sure this code appears in the script after the code that creates the email variables, and you’re good to go. Here’s the complete code for Owen’s report.php script, including the call to the mail() function.

Test Drive

Finish up Owen’s script and then try it out.

Add the three new email variables ($to, $subject, and $msg) to the report.php script, as well as the call to the mail() function. Make sure the $to variable is set to your email address, not Owen’s! Upload the script to your web server, open it in your browser, and fill out the form with alien abduction information. Click the Report Abduction button to submit the form. Wait a few seconds and then go check your email Inbox for the message.

Watch it!

You may need to configure PHP on your web server so it knows how to send email.

If the mail() function doesn’t work for you, the problem may be that email support isn’t properly configured for your PHP installation. Check out www.php.net/mail for details on how to configure email features on your web server.

Owen starts getting emails

Owen is thrilled that he’s reliably receiving alien abduction information from a web form directly to his email Inbox. Now he doesn’t have to worry if he hears that someone saw his dog because he’ll have email addresses from everyone who contacts him. And even better, he’ll be able to look through the responses at his leisure.

Owen starts losing emails

The good news is that Owen’s getting emails now. The bad news is that he’s getting lots and lots of emails. So many that he’s having difficulty keeping track of them. His Inbox is packed, and he’s already accidentally deleted some... Owen needs a better way to store the alien abduction data.

Who Does What?

Got aliens on the brain? Shake them loose by matching each HTML and PHP component to what you think it does.

HTML	A software application for viewing and interacting with web pages that acts as the client side of web communications.
PHP	A PHP command that is used to output content, such as pure text or HTML code.
web form	These tags are used to enclose PHP code so that the web server knows to process it and run it.
browser	A built-in PHP array that stores data that has been submitted using the “post” method.
<?php ?>	A programming language used to create scripts that run on a web server.
variable	All strings must be enclosed within these.
quotes	A software application for delivering web pages that acts as the server side of web communications.
echo	A markup language used to describe the structure of web page content that is viewed in a web browser.
$_POST	A name used to describe built-in PHP variables that are accessible to all scripts.
web server	A series of input fields on a web page that is used to get information from users.
array	A built-in PHP function that sends an email message.
superglobal	A storage location in a PHP script that has its own unique name and data type.
mail()	A type of PHP data storage that allows you to store multiple pieces of information in a single place.

Your PHP & MySQL Toolbox

In Chapter 1, you learned how to harness PHP to bring life to Owen’s web form. Look at everything you’ve learned already...

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Chapter 1. Add Life to your Static Pages: It’s Alive

HTML is static and boring

PHP brings web pages to life

Note

Dogs in space

A form helps Owen get the whole story

Forms are made of HTML

The HTML form has problems

HTML acts on the CLIENT

PHP acts on the SERVER

PHP scripts run on the server

Use PHP to access the form data

PHP scripts must live on a server!

Note

Get your PHP scripts to the server

Note

Relax

The server turns PHP into HTML

Deconstructing Owen’s PHP script

A few PHP rules to live code by

Finding the perfect variable name

Note

Note

Variables are for storing script data

Brain Power

$–POST is a special variable that holds form data

Brain Power

$–POST transports form data to your script

Note

Note

Note

Creating the email message body with PHP

Note

Brain Power

Even plain text can be formatted... a little

Newlines need double-quoted strings

Assemble an email message for Owen

Note

Note

Note

Variables store the email pieces and parts

Note

Sending an email message with PHP

Note

Watch it!

Owen starts getting emails

Owen starts losing emails

Your PHP & MySQL Toolbox

Don’t leave empty-handed

It’s yours, free.

Check it out now on O’Reilly

$_–POST is a special variable that holds form data

$_–POST transports form data to your script