bja888 — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 04:15:27 +0000

CptAwesome wrote: So, if the problem was cramming it all into one function, and that's what speed mail does. Sounds to me like simply a bias towards ASP.

Well I dident know that existed. I have seen many Jmail examples and odd enough I have never seen that used before. That's why I was supprised to see it. It is kind of funny though.

It seems useless if you tink about it. It would be for small amout of (text) data to be sent by e-mail. Which defeats the whole purpose of haveing to send a e-mail dot you think??

EGS — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 02:03:05 +0000

Well wish I knew what you guys are talking about. Are the codes posted in this forum good PHP form mail scripts? That's what I'm trying to look for..hehe

timjpriebe — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:58:44 +0000

Abhishek Reddy wrote: If you think all this is bad, try picking up functional programming (LISPs, etc) after only learning imperative languages (C, Java, etc).

You're absolutely right. Speaking as a CS graduate, LISP is from the devil...

Abhishek Reddy — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 03:36:20 +0000

I agree with Greg. I face this problem often as I like to learn as many languages (ways of thinking) as I can. And with every new language, there are new challenges.

What Bryan is taking issue with in this case is a difference between object-oriented programming and plain procedural programming. It can be difficult switching from strong OOP to procedural because it's not so much the style of programming that's new but the way you design it and visualise the flow of the program. I get the feeling you're probably shooting from the hip rather than planning your attack on paper first, so that only amplifies your problem. It's also difficult to pick up best-practices for the new approach quickly, so that too can reduce the quality of your work.

Fortunately, PHP (as of v5) -- unlike Java -- doesn't enforce either OOP or non-OOP discipline on you. You can choose either, even mix them. Whatever suits. Of course, you'd likely have to know how to write your own classes to take advantage of its OOP features. Depending on your situation, maybe PEAR can help too. (Btw, check out PEAR Mail).

If you think all this is bad, try picking up functional programming (LISPs, etc) after only learning imperative languages (C, Java, etc).

Greg K — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:06:54 +0000

I think that is natural when you are used to a language, no matter what is. If you know something inside and out, switching to something else can be hard, and will seem more complicated.

This is especially true when you come up against a feature/function that do the same taks, but are named and used differently. You go from your known language looking for what you know but it is handled differently in another.

This is why I never caught on to C++ years ago, I knew Visual Basic very well, and I would get frustrated and say screw it and get the job done in VB instead

-Greg

CptAwesome — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 18:25:42 +0000

Quote: I was just searching Jmail for a list of possable methods and I came across this...
http://dimac.net/Products/w3JMail/V...Speedmailer.htm

So, if the problem was cramming it all into one function, and that's what speed mail does. Sounds to me like simply a bias towards ASP.

bja888 — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:22:57 +0000

The only classes I have ever used/made are where in Java and I dont think that counts bacause all a Java file is, is a class. I need to look into writeing them for asp.

bja888 — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:20:39 +0000

I think this whole php mail think might of been one big waist of time. The host my client has doent allow sending e-mails.

The example I posted is etreamly simple.

I was just searching Jmail for a list of possable methods and I came across this...
http://dimac.net/Products/w3JMail/Version43/Examples/Speedmailer.htm

Greg K — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:20:09 +0000

Off the top of my head, and after finding an example of ASP's way, I made the following you can try:

<? // saved as MailMessage.class.inc
  
  class MailMessage
  {
  	var $toField;
  	var $fromField;
  	var $subjectField;
  	var $bodyField;
  	var $mailerName;
  	
  	function MailMessage($mailerName="phpMailClass 2005.06.07")
  	{
  		$this->mailerName = $mailerName;
  	}
  	
  	function setFrom($fromName)
  	{
  		$this->fromField = $fromName;
  	}
  	
  	function setTo($toName)
  	{
  		$this->toField = $toName;
  	}
  	
  	function setSubject($subject)
  	{
  		$this->subjectField = $subject;
  	}
  	
  	function setBody($body)
  	{
  		$this->bodyField = $body;
  	}
  
  	function send()
  	{
  
  		// Unless you are sure about its use, add code here to check 
  		// to make sure the variables have been set and are valid
  		// (ie. the to/from field looks like e-mail addresses)
  		
  		$headers  = "From: " . $this->fromField . "\r\n";
 		$headers .= "Reply-To: " . $this->fromField . "\r\n";
 		$headers .= "X-Mailer: " . $this->mailerName;
  	
 		return $mail($this->toField, $$this->subjectField, $this->bodyField, $headers);
  	}
  }
  	
  ?>

'
You can then use it similar to what you are used to:

<?
  
   	require_once ('MailMessage.class.inc');
 
  	$Mail_Obj = new MailMessage;
  	// To specify your own value for the X-Mailer field
  	// in the message use the line below instead
  	// $Mail_Obj = new MailMessage("My Mailer");
  	
  	$Mail_Obj->setFrom("this@that.com");
  	$Mail_Obj->setTo("this@that.com");
  	$Mail_Obj->setSubject("you get that thing I sent you?");
  	$Mail_Obj->setBody("Depite the subject sounding like a spam subject, this isnt!");
  	
  	$Mail_Obj->send();
  ?>

As mentioned in the class, there is no error checking in the thing, for production use, should either have error checking in the function or somewhere.

IMO, classes are not always the best answer for simple things. (my boss keeps saying "won't it be easier to put it all in a class, everything should be in a class nowadays".

-Greg

CptAwesome — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 08:15:18 +0000

Greg K's example doesn't exactly 'cram everything in one function', and seems like it offers a little more flexibility than the ASP object model. If you really wanted to though, you could write a php mail class that mimicked the ASP one exactly.