Email this website to a friend

Free tell-a-friend script

What you will need to ascertain first before going any further is whether your hosting plan supports PHP. If you're not sure, ask your web host to save yourself the frustration of guessing - only to find out that your plan doesn't support it.

If you are a FrontPage user, please remember to copy the code below to a text editor such as Notepad first and then copy and paste it from there into the FrontPage HTML source window. This will prevent FrontPage from trashing the code.

Part 1: The tell a friend processing script

Copy and paste the code below (from <?PHP to ?>) into Notepad and then save as "tellafriend.php". The only items you really need to change are the "$emailto" information, which is in bold. 

It's also advisable to edit the body text of the email (where indicated below)  sent out to recipients with further details about your site and to alter the subject line in the email the recipients will receive to suit your needs.

--- do not copy this line, start from next line

<?php


// This following statement must not be changed.
// Copyright (c) Michael Bloch and Taming The Beast.  
// Tell-A-Friend script V 2.1 Updated September 19 2006
// Taming the Beast.net - http://www.tamingthebeast.net
// Free Web Marketing and Ecommerce Resources and Tools
// By using this script you agree to indemnify Taming the Beast
// from from any liability that might arise from its use. 
// The preceding statement must not be changed. 

if(count($_POST)) {
# This part strips out nasty code that a malicious
# person may try to inject into the form

foreach(array('fmail1','fmail2','fmail3','email','name') as $key) $_POST[$key] = strip_tags($_POST[$key]);
if(!is_secure($_POST)) { die("Hackers begone");}

# This part submits a notification to you when 
# the form is submitted

// Email address for copies to be sent to - change to suit
$emailto = "you@yoursite.com"; 

// Notification email subject text for copies
$esubject = "Recommendation form submission"; 

// Email body text for notifications
$emailtext = "
$_POST[name] has used your recommendation form using an email address of $_POST[email]

The people the recommendation has been submitted to are:

$_POST[fmail1]
$_POST[fmail2]
$_POST[fmail3]

The page recommended:

$_POST[refurl]

";

# This function sends the email to you

@mail("$emailto", $esubject, $emailtext, "From: $_POST[email]");

# This part is the function for sending to recipients

// Page to display after successful submission
// Change the thankyou.htm to suit

$thankyoupage = "thankyou.htm"; 

// Subject line for the recommendation - change to suit

$tsubject = "A web page recommendation from $_POST[name]";

// Change the text below for the email 
// Be careful not to change anyt "$_POST[value]" bits

$ttext = "
Hi,

$_POST[name], whose email address is $_POST[email] thought you may be interested in this web page. 

$_POST[refurl]

$_POST[name] has used our Tell-a-Friend form to send you this note.

We look forward to your visit!

";

# This sends the note to the addresses submitted
@mail("$_POST[fmail1],$_POST[fmail2],$_POST[fmail3]", $tsubject, $ttext, "FROM: $_POST[email]");

# After submission, the thank you page
header("Location: $thankyoupage");
exit;

}

# Nothing further can be changed. Leave the below as is

function is_secure($ar) {
$reg = "/(Content-Type|Bcc|MIME-Version|Content-Transfer-Encoding)/i";
if(!is_array($ar)) { return preg_match($reg,$ar);}
$incoming = array_values_recursive($ar);
foreach($incoming as $k=>$v) if(preg_match($reg,$v)) return false;
return true;
}

function array_values_recursive($array) {
$arrayValues = array();
foreach ($array as $key=>$value) {
if (is_scalar($value) || is_resource($value)) {
$arrayValues[] = $value;
$arrayValues[] = $key;
}
elseif (is_array($value)) {
$arrayValues[] = $key;
$arrayValues = array_merge($arrayValues, array_values_recursive($value));
}
}
return $arrayValues;
}

?>

--- do not copy this line; finish copying at above line

Part 2: The tell a friend form

Copy and paste the code below and save it as recform.php. This is the submission form that your visitors will use to recommend your site. The file needs to be saved into the same folder as the tellafriend.php script. Customize the page to suit your site. 

<html>
<head>
<title>Recommendation form</title>
<script language="javascript">
<!--

function reset() {
document.tellafriend.name.value="";
document.tellafriend.email.value="";
document.tellafriend.fmail1.value="";
document.tellafriend.fmail2.value="";
document.tellafriend.fmail3.value="";
}

function validate() {


if (document.tellafriend.fmail1.value.length==0) {
alert("Oops! you'll need to enter a friend's email address");
return false;
}

if (document.tellafriend.email.value.length==0) {
alert("Oops! you forget to enter your email address");
return false;
}
if (document.tellafriend.name.value.length==0) {
alert("Oops! you forgot to enter your name");
return false;
}

document.tellafriend.submit()
return true;
}

//-->
</script>
</head>
<body onload="reset()" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0"> 
<p> 
<center>
</center>
<table width="450" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center">
<tr valign="top">
<td valign="middle" align="center">&nbsp;
Complete the details below to send a link to the page:<br>
<? $refurl = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; ?>
<? print $refurl;?>
<form name="tellafriend" action="tellafriend.php" method="post" onsubmit="return checkfields()">&nbsp;
<div align="center">
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td> *your name:</td>
<td>
<input size="30" name="name" maxlength="45">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>*your email:</td>
<td>
<input size="30" name="email" maxlength="45">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p align="center">Enter your friend's email addresses:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>*email 1:</td>
<td>
<input size="30" name="fmail1" maxlength="50">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>email 2:</td>
<td>
<input size="30" name="fmail2" maxlength="50">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>email 3:</td>
<td>
<input size="30" name="fmail3" maxlength="50">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p align="center">
The email that will be sent to will contain your name &amp; email address. <br>
<input onclick="validate();" type="button" value="click once to send">
<input type=hidden name=refurl value="<? print $refurl;?>"> 

</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
</form>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td valign="middle" align="center"> 
&nbsp;
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>


Once you have these two files ready to go, create a thankyou.htm page or specify another page to be used in part 1, upload the files to the same folder and you're done! When you create a link to the form, set it to open in a new window so your visitors don't lose the page they were on.

Troubleshooting the tell a friend script

The most common problems

• Your hosting plan not supporting PHP

• Permission error issues. If this occurs, set permissions to 755 or 750

• Changing ""$_POST[value]"" values

• Copying code directly from this page into FrontPage HTML source code. Copy to notepad first.

• Forgetting to change the "you@yoursite.com" for notifications.