Question

I am using a PHP script to generate an email based on the information from a form. The form has a variable number of rows.

I have converted the names of the inputs in each row in the form to an array, by adding [] after the name, so that the data in all of the rows is available for generating the email.

However, what I don’t know how to do is how to construct the PHP so that it can generate an email with just the right number of rows in the email.

At the moment I have just set the PHP to read the first 5 items in the array for each input, and construct the body of the email using these. The problem with this approach is that if the user adds more than 5 rows data will be lost, and if there is less than 5 rows, there will be unnecessary text in the email for ‘name, email, telephone’.

I wonder if there is a way of getting the PHP to read the array for any number of rows, and generate an email with just the correct number of rows? I have included the PHP as it stands below.

Thanks,

Nick

<?php

$EmailFrom = "";
$EmailTo = "";
$Subject = "";
$Name = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][0])); 
$Email = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][0])); 
$Telephone = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][0]));
$Name2 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email2 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone2 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][1]));
$Name3 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email3 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone3 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][2])); 
$Name4 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email4 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone4 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][3])); 
$Name5 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][1])); 
$Email5 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][1])); 
$Telephone5 = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][4])); 

// validation
$validationOK=true;
if (!$validationOK) {
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=error.htm\">";
  exit;
}

// prepare email body text
$Body = "New bookings have been made for the Ajahn Amaro Retreat as follows:";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name2;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email2;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone2;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name3;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email3;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone3;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name4;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email4;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone4;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "name: ";
$Body .= $Name5;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "email: ";
$Body .= $Email5;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "telephone: ";
$Body .= $Telephone5;
$Body .= "\n";

// send email 
$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");
// redirect to success page 
if ($success){
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=payment.html\">";
}
else{
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=error.htm\">";
}
?>

Answer 1

Instead of assigning each one to a unique variable, just put them in an array.

$body = '';
$row_count = count($_POST['name']);

for($i = 0; $i < $row_count; $i++)
{
  // variable sanitation...
  $name = trim(stripslashes($_POST['name'][$i]));
  $email = trim(stripslashes($_POST['email'][$i]));
  $telephone = trim(stripslashes($_POST['telephone'][$i]));

  // this assumes name, email, and telephone are required & present in each element
  // otherwise you will have spurious line breaks. 
  $body .= $name . "\n\n" . $email . "\n\n" . $telephone . "\n\n";
}

// send email 
$success = mail($emailTo, $subject, $body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

Also on a purely stylistic note, your variables should begin with lower-case letters.