Question

I have this form. Basically what I want is to send a auto-response with a different URL based on what the user picks in the “attn” picklist. I’ve been thinking I could have a different variable for each drop down value. It will then pass this variable on to the mail script that will choose which URL to insert inside the auto response that is sent. It gives me a headache thinking about it sometimes. What’s the easiest way to accomplish this?

Am I making more work for myself? I really don’t know because I’m no programmer. Thanks in advance!

Here is the form:

<form name="contact_form" method="post" action="sendemail_reports.php" onsubmit="return validate_form ( );">
      <div id='zohoWebToLead' align=center>
      <table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="txt_body">
      <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 width=480 style='border-bottom-color: #999999; border-top-color: #999999; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 2px; background-color:transparent;'>
        <tr>
          <td width='75%'><table width=480 border=0 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 style='border-bottom-color: #999999; border-top-color: #999999; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 2px; background-color:transparent;'>
            <input type="hidden" name="ip" value="'.$ipi.'" />
            <input type="hidden" name="httpref" value="'.$httprefi.'" />
            <input type="hidden" name="httpagent" value="'.$httpagenti.'" />
            <tr></tr>
            <tr>
              <td colspan='2' align='left' style='border-bottom-color: #dadada; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 2px; color:#000000; font-family:sans-serif; font-size:14px;'><strong>Send us an Email</strong></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td nowrap style='font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold' align='right' width='25%'> First Name   : </td>
              <td width='75%'><input name='visitorf' type='text' size="48" maxlength='40' /></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td nowrap style='font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold' align='right' width='25%'>Last Name   :</td>
              <td width='75%'><input name='visitorfl' type='text' size="48" maxlength='80' /></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td nowrap style=
        'font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold' align='right' width='25%'> Email Adress  : </td>
              <td width='75%'><input name='visitormail' type='text' size="48" maxlength='100' /></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td nowrap style='font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold' align='right' width='25%'> Phone   : </td>
              <td width='75%'><input name='visitorphone' type='text' size="48" maxlength='30' /></td>
            </tr>
            <td nowrap style='font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold' align='right' width='25%'> Subject   : </td>
              <td width='75%'><select name="attn" size="1">
                <option value=" Investment Opportunities ">Investment Opportunities </option>
                <option value=" Vacation Rentals ">Vacation Rentals </option>
                <option value=" Real Estate Offerings ">Real Estate Offerings </option>
                <option value=" Gatherings ">Gatherings </option>
                <option value=" General ">General </option>
              </select></td>
            <tr>
              <td nowrap style=
        'font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold' align='right' width='25%'> Message   :<br />
                <em>(max 5000 char)</em></td>
              <td width='75%'><textarea name='notes' maxlength='5000' cols="48" rows="3"></textarea></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td colspan=2 align=center style=''><input name='save' type='submit' class="boton" value=Send mail />
                &nbsp; &nbsp;
                <input type='reset' name='reset' value=Reset class="boton" /></td>
            </tr>
          </table></td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      </div>
    </form>

Here is the mail script:

    <?php
//the 3 variables below were changed to use the SERVER variable  
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];  
$httpref = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];   
$httpagent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];   

$visitorf = $_POST['visitorf'];   
$visitorl = $_POST['visitorl'];   
$visitormail = $_POST['visitormail'];   
$visitorphone = $_POST['visitorphone'];   
$notes = $_POST['notes'];  
$attn = $_POST['attn'];   

//additional headers   
$headers = 'From: Me <[e-mail]>' . "\n" ;  
$headers = 'Bcc: [e-mail]' . "\n";  


if (eregi('http:', $notes)) {
    die ("Do NOT try that! ! ");
}

if(!$visitormail == "" && (!strstr($visitormail,"@") || !strstr($visitormail,".")))  
{  
    echo "<h2>Use Back - Enter valid e-mail</h2>\n";  
    $badinput = "<h2>Feedback was NOT submitted</h2>\n";  
    echo $badinput;  
    die ("Go back! ! ");  
}  

if(empty($visitorf) || empty($visitormail) || empty($notes )) {  
    echo "<h2>Use Back - fill in all fields</h2>\n";  
    die ("Use back! ! ");  
}  

$todayis = date("l, F j, Y, g:i a") ;  
$subject = "I want to download the report about $attn";  
$notes = stripcslashes($notes);  
$message = "$todayis [EST] \nAttention: $attn \nMessage: $notes \nFrom: $visitorf   $visitorl ($visitormail) \nTelephone Number: $visitorphone \nAdditional Info : IP = $ip   \nBrowser Info: $httpagent \nReferral : $httpref\n";  

//check if the function even exists  
if(function_exists("mail"))  
{  
    //send the email  
    mail($_SESSION['email'], $subject, $message, $headers) or die("could not send   email");  
} else {  
    die("mail function not enabled");  
}  

header( "Location: http://www.domain.com/thanks.php" );  
?>  

Answer 1

I’m not entirely sure I understood your request correctly.
Let me get this straight: You want to write a certain url in the mail based on what the user picked from the dropdown menu?
If so, I would use something like this:

$lookup = array(
    'Investment Opportunities' => 'http://someurl.com/',
    'Vacation Rentals' => 'http://someotherurl.com/',
    // et cetera for your other values
);

$attn = trim($_POST['attn']);
$url = $lookup[$attn];

After this, you can use $url in your mail and it will be different, based on the dropdown value provided by the user.