How do I do this? I want a simple form on my website where people can sign up to our emailing list, using phplist. Right now I just have a link to their page they set up for you... when I want a form.

Here's the website I'm working on.
www.polkadotrefugees.com

Thanks for your help!

I would have a database table for the email list that stores everyone that wants to be on the list.

So the form would look something like...

<form action="email_signup.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="email">
<input type=submit" value="sign me up baby!">
</form>

then on the post page

PHP Code:

$mail = $_POST['email'];
// I'm not gonna write it, Google searches will quickly give the result but...
// validate email by making sure it's a valid email format
// make sure this email already isn't in the database table, this can actually //be done by restricting the email field in the table to be unique, then the //insert statement will just fail if that email is already on the list
// if this all passes...then....
$insert = "INSERT INTO email_list (email) VALUES ('$email')";
if(!mysql_query($insert))
{
 echo "failed to add to mailing list";
}
else
{
echo "Email added to mailing list!";
} 


It would be something similar to that.

Ok I found a php validation code... here's what I have.

PHP Code:

$mail = $_POST['email'];
$email = 'test@domain.com';

if(verify_email($email)){

    // E-mail address looks to be in the proper format
    // lets check the MX records

    if(verify_email_dns($email)){

        // E-mail passed both checks
        echo 'Success - E-mail address appears to be valid.';

    } else {

        // E-mail is invalid, no MC record
        echo 'Error - E-mail domain does not have an MX record.';

    }

} else {

    // E-mail inst formatted correctly
    // so we don't even check its MX record
    echo 'Error - E-mail address appears to be invalid.';

}

// Our function to filter our bogus formatted addresses
function verify_email($email){

    if(!preg_match('/^[_A-z0-9-]+((\.|\+)[_A-z0-9-]+)*@[A-z0-9-]+(\.[A-z0-9-]+)*(\.[A-z]{2,4})$/',$email)){
        return false;
    } else {
        return $email;
    }
}

// Our function to verify the MX records
function verify_email_dns($email){

    // This will split the email into its front
    // and back (the domain) portions
    list($name, $domain) = split('@',$email);

    if(!checkdnsrr($domain,'MX')){

        // No MX record found
        return false;

    } else {

        // MX record found, return email
        return $email;

    }
}
$insert = "INSERT INTO email_list (email) VALUES ('$email')";
if(!mysql_query($insert))
{
 echo "failed to add to mailing list";
}
else
{
echo "Email added to mailing list!";
} 


Will this all work together? Also, wouldn't I have to put the mysql database name, username, and password somewhere? Where would I put that, if I have to? Thanks for the help!

Theoretically it should work. And yes, you are correct, you would need a connect statement at the top of the page, connecting to the database.

http://us3.php.net/function.mysql-connect

Well technically, you would just have to connect to the database before you execute any queries (insert in this case)

Ugh, I give up. Nothing works. I have no idea what I'm doing. I spent a good 45 minutes fumbling around. >_<

Php makes no sense to me..

do you have a php server? do you have a mysql server? or are you using xampp or something like that?

Can you not connect to the database?

Do you have a database created with tables in them?

php is a really friendly "loose" language that isn't entirely too picky.

I'm more then willing to assist you further if you wanted to post your code or tell us where you're getting your errors. I'm also here at work for 5 more hours, and my works consists of me sitting at a computer and doing what ever I want to do...since calls are always scarce.

And I am pretty bored, so lay it on me

Thanks for your patience, I just freaked out for a second there... the world needs more people like you.

Ok. So, I have this page:
http://polkadotrefugees.com/email_signup.php
And on http://polkadotrefugees.com/ I have the form. It connects to the database, and it can verify the email address properly, but I get a couple of errors in which I have no idea what they mean..

PHP Code:

<?php
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mydatabase_user', 'mydatabase_pass');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);


$mail = $_POST['email'];


if(verify_email($email)){

    // E-mail address looks to be in the proper format
    // lets check the MX records

    if(verify_email_dns($email)){

        // E-mail passed both checks
        echo 'Success - E-mail address appears to be valid.';

    } else {

        // E-mail is invalid, no MC record
        echo 'Error - E-mail domain does not have an MX record.';

    }

} else {

    // E-mail inst formatted correctly
    // so we don't even check its MX record
    echo 'Error - E-mail address appears to be invalid.';

}

// Our function to filter our bogus formatted addresses
function verify_email($email){

    if(!preg_match('/^[_A-z0-9-]+((\.|\+)[_A-z0-9-]+)*@[A-z0-9-]+(\.[A-z0-9-]+)*(\.[A-z]{2,4})$/',$email)){
        return false;
    } else {
        return $email;
    }
}

// Our function to verify the MX records
function verify_email_dns($email){

    // This will split the email into its front
    // and back (the domain) portions
    list($name, $domain) = split('@',$email);

    if(!checkdnsrr($domain,'MX')){

        // No MX record found
        return false;

    } else {

        // MX record found, return email
        return $email;

    }
}
$insert = "INSERT INTO mydatabase_name (email) VALUES ('$email')";
if(!mysql_query($insert))
{
 echo "failed to add to mailing list";
}
else
{
echo "Email added to mailing list!";
}  
?>

Edit: Oh, here's the errors:

Warning:  mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Access denied for user 'endeavor'@'localhost' (using password: NO) in /home/endeavor/public_html/polkadotrefugees/email_signup.php on line 68

Warning:  mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: A link to the server could not be established in /home/endeavor/public_html/polkadotrefugees/email_signup.php on line 68

Well, I guess I know what they mean, but I don't know how I could fix them. I do have a PHP server. Before all of those errors though, I do see "Connected successfully", so... it's strange.

Ok I think this is actually a pretty simple fix. Obviously your connect statement isn't failing because it echo's connected successfully.

But right after that you are closing connection via (mysql_close($link)), so when you try and execute the queries below you have no service to the database.

So I'm confident the only thing you need to do is take out the line

PHP Code:

mysql_close($link); 


and honestly, you don't need that anywhere on your page. As soon as all scripts are done running (the page loads) it automatically disconnects from the server (equivalent to closing it yourself)

Cool! That got rid of the errors, but there's still one more thing that's being goofy...

"failed to add to mailing list"

change

PHP Code:

if(!mysql_query($insert))
{
 echo "failed to add to mailing list";
}
else
{
echo "Email added to mailing list!";
} 


to

PHP Code:

if(!mysql_query($insert))
{
die("failed to add to mailing list, insert-> $insert :: error-> " . mysql_error());
}
else
{
echo "Email added to mailing list!";
} 


And then post the output of what die() is printint out.

Here's the result.

Connected successfullySuccess - E-mail address appears to be valid.failed to add to mailing list, insert-> INSERT INTO endeavor_polkamaillist (email) VALUES ('testing@domain.com') :: error-> No database selected

ahh yes...after the connect you need to select the database that the table is in for the insert statement.

http://us3.php.net/mysql_select_db

that page has a good example of the whole procedure, with connection and selection of database.

Alrighty, this is what it spits out. It's a little different..I mean, it has more information on to what the problem is.

Success - E-mail address appears to be valid.failed to add to mailing list, insert-> INSERT INTO email (email) VALUES ('testing@domain.com') :: error-> Unknown column 'email' in 'field list'

that just means you don't have a field named 'email' in teh table 'email_list'

Which... to create one I would use this code?

PHP Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "database_user", "database_pass") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("my_databasename") or die(mysql_error());

// Create a MySQL table in the selected database
mysql_query("CREATE TABLE email(
id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, 
PRIMARY KEY(id),
 name VARCHAR(30), 
 age INT)")
 or die(mysql_error());  

echo "Table Created!";

?>

You only need to create the table once. then you can insert to it as much as you want

How do I create a field...

that's from the create table statement

mysql code:

create table (
field_name1 field_attributes1,
field_name2 field_attributes2,
etc.
);

do you have access to phpmyadmin?

Alright man, thanks for the help... I'm going to take a break from it for now. I really appreciate your patience.

It's not worth the effort that both you and I are putting into it, people can just sign up at the templated page. Phplist says nothing about forms on websites, so I don't even know if it's possible.

Thanks again.