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Comments on PHP variables aren't expanded when inside HTML which is by itself inside PHP
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PHP variables aren't expanded when inside HTML which is by itself inside PHP
I transfer emails from my Right To Left (RTL) contact form → to my local email box (powered by Roundcube).
Emails reach my email box (inbox) just fine but I have a problem were PHP variables aren't expanded inside the string of the $message variable so I get the literal variables instead their values sent via the form → although I have tried various ways to escape them as PHP in HTML which is by itself in PHP (I might have made a mistake somewhere along the way).
PHP code
<?php
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$phone = $_POST['phone'];
$topic = $_POST['topic'];
$date = $_POST['date'];
$time = $_POST['time'];
$notes = $_POST['notes'];
$to = 'example@example.com';
$subject = 'הודעת אימייל חדשה מאת: ' . $name;
$message = '
<html>
<body dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;">
<b>שם: </b> $name <br>
<b>אימייל: </b> $email <br>
<b>טלפון: </b> $phone <br>
<b>פנייה בנושא: </b> $topic <br>
<b>יום רצוי לפגישה מרחוק (אם יש): </b> $date <br>
<b>שעה רצויה לפגישה מרחוק (אם יש): </b> $time <br>
<b>הערות (אם יש): </b> $notes <br>
</body>
</html>
';
$headers[] = 'MIME-Version: 1.0';
$headers[] = 'Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8';
mail($to, $subject, $message, implode("\r\n", $headers));
?>
Current Output
שם: $nameאימייל: $email
טלפון: $phone
פנייה בנושא: $topic
יום רצוי לפגישה מרחוק (אם יש): $date
שעה רצויה לפגישה מרחוק (אם יש): $time
הערות (אם יש): $notes
Desired output:
שם: שם_רלוונטיאימייל: אימייל_רלוונטי
טלפון: טלפון_רלוונטי
פנייה בנושא: נושא_רלוונטי
יום רצוי לפגישה מרחוק (אם יש): SOME_DATE
שעה רצויה לפגישה מרחוק (אם יש): SOME_HOUR_AND_MINUTE
הערות (אם יש): הערה_רלוונטית
My question
As a non PHP programmer I ask how would you suggest to solve that problem?
Post
In PHP the single quotation mark ('x') is reading the content as raw values. This means, that escape sequences, such as \n, or variable interpolation, such as $x, is not supported.
There are three possible ways to resolve that issue:
-
String concatenation. You can concatenate strings with the
.operator:$name = 'JohnDoea'; 'hello ' . $name == 'hello JohnDoea' -
Double-quote string. Instead of using a single-quotation mark, you can use double-quoted strings (
"x"). They support escape sequences and variable interpolation:$name = 'JohnDoea'; "hello $name" == 'hello JohnDoea'In this syntax, you need to keep in mind, though, to escape the double quotes in the HTML with a backslash (
\"). -
Heredoc syntax. PHP also has a string format called Heredoc. This allows you to easily include long strings with escape sequences and variable interpolation:
$name = 'JohnDoea'; $string = <<<LABEL hello $name LABEL; $string == 'hello JohnDoea'
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