php to append emails to text file

[ice9]

I'm looking for a simple modification to register.php that will append the email addresses of newly registered users to a text file for addition to my mailing list (lyris). I looked through the hack archives, and found some other more robust mailing list features, but I'm looking for something a lot simpler. I'm coming from a perl background, and am relatively new to php.

I just need a plain checkbox on my registration form "check here to receive our newsletters, etc.", that will append the email to a text file. Then, I'll just cron something nightly to add the email addresses to my lyris list. I don't need to check it against a list to see if they are already subscribed.

[Gavin B.]

in register somewhere (I'd suggest just below the insert database query around line 459 in register.php


$fp = fopen("emails.txt", "a");
fwrite($fp, "$email\r\n");
fclose($fp);


That directory will have to be chmod'ed for writing (777) however. You may wish to stick the text file somewhere below root level :)

[noppid]

PHP can access anywhere in the file system if I'm not mistaken. So put your mailing list ABOVE the web root folder in a writable folder. It's safe from hackers and you don't have to have a public writable folder.

[Gavin B.]

I think that's what I meant ;) The path would be something like:
/home/username/emails.txt

[ice9]

Thanks -- that was easy :). Is there a simple way to only append the email to the text file if a checkbox was checked? This way, I can keep my list opt-in only.

[noppid]

Try this.

in the register templates add...
<tr>
<td bgcolor="{firstaltcolor}"><normalfont><b>Join our mailing list?</b></normalfont><br>
<smallfont>Selecting yes will add you to our mailing list.</smallfont></td>
<td bgcolor="{firstaltcolor}"><normalfont>
<input type="radio" name="wantsmail" value="yes"> yes
<input type="radio" name="wantsmail" value="no" checked> no
</normalfont></td>
</tr>

in register.php at around line 350 add

$maillist=iif($wantsmail=="yes",1,0);

then wrap the append code in an if()...

if($maillist) {
$fp = fopen("emails.txt", "a");
fwrite($fp, "$email\r\n");
fclose($fp);
}

This is not tested.

[ice9]

Thanks noppid -- worked perfectly :).