Hello all,

Right now I'm trying to make a script that extracts e-mail addresses from my MySQL database and sends an e-mail to every one of them (there's around 500) with the information in my $body tag. I tried it with a test list from the database, and it worked fine, however that was just 15 e-mail addresses. When I put it into work and tried the full database, nobody received the e-mail. I was wondering if anyone could help me out with it or help me find another way to try this.

Here is the code I'm using:

PHP Code:

                $query = "SELECT * FROM `newsletter2` ORDER BY `emails` ASC";
                $result = @mysql_query($query)
                or die("Couldn't execute query: " . mysql_error());

                while ($array = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
                    $to = $array['emails'];

                $headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
                $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
                $headers .= 'From: newsletter@indianriverquilts.com' . "\r\n";

                $subject = "The Quilt House Newsletter";
                $body = "The following e-mail is from The Quilt House:<br/><br/>We have uploaded a new newsletter to the website.<br/><br/>You can view our current newsletter, or the rest of our website, by clicking <a href='http://www.indianriverquilts.com/newsletter.php' target='_blank'>here.</a><br/><br/>" . $description . "<br/><br/>Thanks, and we hope to see you in the shop!<br/><br/>-The Quilt House";
                mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);    
                
                } 


Thanks in advance!

-Jon Roost

the mail functions returns a status value, check the return value to be sure about the result, you will be able to guess the problem in this way.

Alright, I changed the code to this...

PHP Code:

                $query = "SELECT * FROM `newsletter2` ORDER BY `emails` ASC";
                $result = @mysql_query($query)
                or die("Couldn't execute query: " . mysql_error());

                while ($array = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
                    $to = $array['emails'];

                $headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
                $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
                $headers .= 'From: newsletter@indianriverquilts.com' . "\r\n";

                $subject = "The Quilt House Newsletter";
                $body = "The following e-mail is from The Quilt House:<br/><br/>We have uploaded a new newsletter to the website.<br/><br/>You can view our current newsletter, or the rest of our website, by clicking <a href='http://www.indianriverquilts.com/newsletter.php' target='_blank'>here.</a><br/><br/>" . $description . "<br/><br/>Thanks, and we hope to see you in the shop!<br/><br/>-The Quilt House";

                if (mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers) ) {
                    echo $to . "<br/>";
                } else {
                    echo "<strong>" . $to . "</strong><br/>";
                } 
                
                } 


Which would mean if the e-mail didn't send, it would make the e-mail it errored at bold. None of the e-mails are bold however, meaning it should have send out...

Any other ideas? I'm lost here.

First of all you need a code that will accept only valid e-mail addresses, 'couse this one will send an e-mail to whatever. If you have test added as e-mail, it will mail test.

This will send an e-mail to everyone. Maybe the problem is the number of the e-mails you are trying to send.
Try adding a sleep(5); after echo $to . "<br/>";.

Added a sleep into it. And there is already a valid e-mail checker earlier in the code. Still nothing sent out to my subscribers. Any other ideas before I give up?

Here is one I used a while back. I knew all the emails so I didnt validate and I havent checked it with a high number of emails but this might help:

<?php
include "variables.php";
/*$query   = "SELECT COUNT(userID) AS numrows FROM userdb WHERE emailupdate='1'";
$result  = mysql_query($query) or die('Error, query failed');
$row     = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
$numrows = $row['numrows'];*/
$count=0;
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM userdb WHERE emailupdate='1'") or die(mysql_error());
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
  if ($row['mlist']!=""){
  $to[$count]=$row['email'];
  $count+=1;
  }
  }
  
$message="RANDOM MESSAGE";
echo "Messages sent to " . $count . " people.<br />";
for ($i=0; $i<=$count; $i++)
	{
		mail($to[$i],"SUBJECT",$message,"From: WHOEVER <who@ever.com>");
		echo $to[$i]. "<br />";
	}
?>

Not the most efficient code in the world probably but it works

I havnt checked the code but just expanding slightly on what xmsmmgrs said, many hosts set limits on how many emails each account can send per hour.

This can be from something like 50 emails/hour to 1000's it depends entirely on how stupid the webhost is...

So first check with your host how many emails you can send an hour.
then you could get clever and have it send them in batchs with hour gaps in between. etc.

Also many hosts require you to send mass mailings in non-peak times IE 3am etc when the server is least used and it wont hog needed resources.

Hope this helps,
Dan

(Rep points apprieciated)