Iki

Hi all, I've got this website where people who run online roleplaying games can post announcements that they are looking for players. It's all done automatically with PHP scripts that I wrote. What happens is, they submit their name, email, web site and announcement, and this information is stored in a MySQL database along with a unique numeric identifier (which I call their "key") assigned to that announcement. A confirmation email is then sent to them containing the "key" and they have to come back to the site and enter the "key" to approve their ad before it appears on the site. By requiring and checking the email addresses in this way, I get zero spam on the site, which is good. But, the game master's email addresses have to be included as part of their ad so interested players can contact them about joining their games. So basically, the site is full of valid email addresses... a spammer's dream come true. For every announcement posted, the site generates this "key", along with a randomly generated 15 digit alpha-numeric "code" which is stored in the database. This "key" and this "code" are only valid for 10 days - after 10 days an announcement is deleted from the site and the database. What I'd like is where their email is displayed on the site, if it said [key] @my domain .com, but when someone clicked that link to email them, if their real email would come up instead. I have no idea how to make that happen, where to start to looking for such a thing, or if it's even possible. Any ideas on where I can start? Thanks in advance, -Iki

This is great news since I had need to run a script earlier this year that only works in PHP5, and so had to go to a different hosting company. Now I can once again be ALL TCH ALL THE TIME!! Whee!

I'm no expert, but I did hear that the meta keywords tag is dead. I tend to visit Search Engine Watch for info on that sort of thing - most of it is a little over my head for my own personal sites, but some of it did come in handy for one I needed to show up on the engines. Search Engine Watch Good luck!

This is scary. Somebody hold me.

I'm about to do this same thing, except I've got 7 virtual accounts and who knows how many databases. If I have the help desk transfer these 1 at a time (which is great advice, thanks!), I'm wondering what happens to the databases? I'm guessing the usernames/database names won't be the same as they are now, and that's going to completely disable most of the sites. Would it be better just to take a database backup of each site, have it transfered and then import the database myself?

Perfect, thanks! The submitted code bits in the online manual are all waaaaaayyyy more complicated than I needed to get me started, and surprisingly the O'Reilly Programming PHP book doesn't even address fopen except from a security standpoint. Thanks again for the example!

Hi all, Need some input on where to start with this. I've got a nightly CRON job set up that refers to a PHP file that goes through my database and deletes any entries that are over 10 days old. What I'd like it to do is write to a file how many entries were deleted. I'd like it to append the information to the end of the file so I'd have a running record of what was deleted each night. Eventually I'd like it to put today's date in the file, the titles of the entries over 10 days old, and then a confirmation line that those were deleted. For instance, I'd like the file to say something like: 2006-07-02: Entry Title1 Entry Title2 Entry Title3 Total of 3 entries deleted 2006-07-03: Entry Title4 Entry Title5 Total of 2 entries deleted 2006-07-04: Entry Title6 Entry Title7 Entry Title8 Entry Title9 Total of 4 entries deleted I can pull today's date and the entry titles that will be deleted out of the database, and then run the mysql delete command to get rid of them. I mean, I can set up the script to output this information in this format - what I'm not getting is how to send that information to a file. I'm guessing from my research so far I'll need to use fopen() to do it, but the examples I'm finding are WAY too complicated for my pea brain to process. Anyone got a sample SIMPLE fopen() example?

Just a heads up - this DOES work. I did get an "undeliverable" email a couple days ago from someone's input. So it is coming back to me now. Thanks again!

Excellent! Jumping off point, anyway. My return address was held in the variable $maili so it's: >mail($email, $subject, $message, $headers, "-f $maili"); or mail($email, $subject, $message, $headers, "-f$maili"); The space in there doesn't seem to matter, I get this either way. >Return-Path: <postings@pbem2.com> But putting that period in there gives me this in the headers: >Return-Path: <.postings@pbem2.com> If your return address isn't held in a variable, and say it's "return@me.com", you can just put it in there like this: >mail($email, $subject, $message, $headers, "-freturn@me.com"); and that works too. Either way, you're definitely going to need those quotes. Oh, have I mentioned this? ... I fired up this site last night and already have 5 or 6 people who aren't getting the emails... hopefully this will help them. Should have checked in here last night. (Although I can't help them with their spam filters or software... alas.) Many many thanks!

I can't even remember where I got those headers now. *lol* When I first made this function I was just using the from, subject, to, and message body variables. And still, it botched the return path: >Return-Path: <nobody@server98.tchmachines.com> Received: from mxsf30.cluster1.charter.net ([10.20.201.230]) by mtao02.charter.net (InterMail vM.6.01.05.04 201-2131-123-105-20051025) with ESMTP id <20060427065837.KZGU4189.mtao02.charter.net@mxsf30.cluster1.charter.net> for <myemail@charter.net>; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:58:37 -0400 Received: from mxip09a.cluster1.charter.net (mxip09a.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.139]) by mxsf30.cluster1.charter.net (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k3R6wILe016444 for <myemail@charter.net>; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:58:36 -0400 Received: from server98.tchmachines.com ([204.11.51.229]) by mxip09a.cluster1.charter.net with ESMTP; 27 Apr 2006 02:58:32 -0400 X-IronPort-AV: i="4.04,160,1144036800"; d="scan'208"; a="60988341:sNHT22002374" Received: from nobody by server98.tchmachines.com with local (Exim 4.52) id 1FZ0Sv-0005yh-4k for myemail@charter.net; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:59:05 -0400 To: myemail@charter.net Subject: Your Game Posting Announcement Number From: nobody@pbem2.com Reply-To: nobody@pbem2.com X-Mailer: PHP/4.4.2 Message-Id: <E1FZ0Sv-0005yh-4k@server98.tchmachines.com> Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:59:05 -0400 X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - server98.tchmachines.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - charter.net X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 99] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - server98.tchmachines.com X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir: I'd read somewhere that this "nobody" address was a spam trigger, so I went looking for some better headers in an attempt to stop the emails from going into people's spam folders. I'm thinking the "nobody@server98" thing is what happens when the email originates from PHP. You can reply to these emails, and they come back to me like they should. But bounced email must be going into a blackhole. And that's fine with me - I just don't want to wake up one day and find my TCH account suspended because of something to do with this mailer.

You're probably right. But my headers aren't putting that in the email; it's being added somewhere along the line. I'm specifying the return path right in my headers, but that line never makes it into the actual headers. I just deleted the first header line (the blank one) and put the return path line at the very top and it still doesn't make it into the actual email headers. Oh well. Thanks for trying!

I don't know where yours is, so I sent one to myself. Here's the headers: >Return-Path: <nobody@server98.tchmachines.com> Received: from mxsf41.cluster1.charter.net ([10.20.201.173]) by mtao01.charter.net (InterMail vM.6.01.06.00 201-2131-130-20051209) with ESMTP id <20060530220733.ISMG12200.mtao01.charter.net@mxsf41.cluster1.charter.net> for <myemail@charter.net>; Tue, 30 May 2006 18:07:33 -0400 Received: from mxip02a.cluster1.charter.net (mxip02a.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.132]) by mxsf41.cluster1.charter.net (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k4UM7Bpm024035 for <myemail@charter.net>; Tue, 30 May 2006 18:07:31 -0400 Received: from server98.tchmachines.com ([204.11.51.229]) by mxip02a.cluster1.charter.net with ESMTP; 30 May 2006 18:07:28 -0400 X-IronPort-AV: i="4.05,191,1146456000"; d="scan'208"; a="196301475:sNHT18154656" Received: from nobody by server98.tchmachines.com with local (Exim 4.52) id 1FlCN8-0007nO-F8 for myemail@charter.net; Tue, 30 May 2006 18:07:30 -0400 To: myemail@charter.net Subject: Key Code For Your Game Announcement X-Sender: myemail@charter.net <myemail@charter.net> From: "postings@pbem2.com" <postings@pbem2.com> Reply-To: "postings@pbem2.com" <postings@pbem2.com> Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 18:07:30 -0400 Message-ID: <20060530180730postings@www.pbem2.com> Subject: Key Code For Your Game Announcement Delivered-to: postings@pbem2.com <postings@pbem2.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain;charset=ISO-8859-9 X-Priority: 3 Importance: Normal X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: My Mailer With PHP! X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - server98.tchmachines.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - charter.net X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 99] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - server98.tchmachines.com X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir:

You can go try it at http://www.pbem2.com/add_game.php just fill in garbage in the fields but use your correct email address. (Make sure there's something in all the fields or you'll get a little smackdown. Can I add a cc: to the headers so I get a copy eveytime it sends an email?

You got spam filters? It might be in your trash.

Sorry it took so long. Nap time for the night shift worker. Email is coming your way.