PHP in Email template does not work when it should

Hello,

I have successfully used HTML email templates on form submission for some time and needed to do some dynamic stuff so changed to PHP.

Essentially I want to show one lot of text for condition A and another set of text for condition B. it works if I hardcode the values but not when the same value is pulled from a placeholder.

Here is my original version of the PHP:

Code (Text):

<?php
$confidentiality = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';
if ($confidentiality=='1')
    {
    echo 'You gave us permission to share information related to you and your support needs with people who, in the course of their work, have a valid reason to be informed.';
    }
else
    {
    echo 'You did not give us permission to share information related to you. As a result we may be unable to meet all of your support needs. <BR><BR> <a href="https://sss-vm.hull.ac.uk/webforms/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=form&fabrik=8&___first_name={first_name}&___family_name={family_name}&___DSQ_Address={DSQ_Address}&___DSQ_Telephone={DSQ_Telephone}&___DSQ_Email={DSQ_Email}&___d_o_b={d_o_b}&___dsq_courses={dsq_courses}&___dsq_ft_pt={dsq_ft_pt_raw}&___dsq_ug_pg={dsq_ug_pg_raw}&___applicant_number={applicant_number}&___dsq_disability={dsq_disability_raw}&___dsq_disability_details={dsq_disability_details}&___dsq_support_types_needed={dsq_support_types_needed}&___dsq_uoh_accomm={dsq_uoh_accomm}&___dsq_uoh_accomm_any_reqs={dsq_uoh_accomm_any_reqs}&___dsq_uoh_accomm_reqs={dsq_uoh_accomm_reqs}&___dsq_further_info={dsq_further_info}&___dsq_confidentiaity_share=Yes" style="color:#990000">Click here if you wish to resubmit your questionnaire changing this.</A>';
    }
?>

I then took a look at the debug.php and came up with this:

Code (Text):

<?php
$s1 = "{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}";
$s2 = "1";
if ($s1 == $s2) {?>
You gave us permission to share information related to you and your support needs with people who, in the course of their work, have a valid reason to be informed.
<?php } else {?>
You did not give us permission to share information related to you. As a result we may be unable to meet all of your support needs.
<?php }?>

I've tried several versions of the code, debugged it by echoing the values, removing the hyperlink, changed from using the normal value to a numeric raw value, but it always returns the else condition, unless I hard code the value of dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw

I know I could do several versions of the template and send them conditionally via a set of submission plugins but that would just be ugly!

Any ideas folks?

Many thanks ,

Jim

 

Maybe it's a problem with placeholders but just in case, are you sure it's "dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw" and not "dsq_confidentiality_share_raw"?

 

Sadly it is that badly spelled! I have echoed out the value returned an it is correct

On some further reading it may not be handling type juggling correctly. I'll test further...

 

I've just run this code:

Code (Text):

$conf_form = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';
$confidentiality = (int) $conf_form;
    echo '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';
    echo '<br> that was the fabrik variable, now echoing the PHP Variable:<br>';
    echo '$confidentiality';
    echo '<br> and now echoing the PHP Variable withouth quotes<br>';
    echo $confidentiality;
    echo '<br>and that is what kind of value?<br>';
    echo gettype($confidentiality);

Which returns the following:

I'm bamboozled by this, 1 is becoming 0.

Any thoughts welcome!

 

A bit more testing, I have tried using strpos and strcmp instead:

strpos:

Code (Text):

<?php
$confidentiality = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share}';
    echo '<BR><i>DEBUG INFO:<BR>';
    echo '{dsq_confidentiaity_share}';
    echo '<br> that was the fabrik variable, now echoing the PHP Variable:<br>';
    echo '$confidentiality';
    echo '<br> and now echoing the PHP Variable without quotes<br>';
    echo $confidentiality;
    echo '<br>and that is what kind of value?<br>';
    echo gettype($confidentiality);
    echo '<br><br></i>';
 
    if (strpos($confidentiality,'Yes') !== false)
    {
    echo 'You gave us permission to share information related to you and your support needs with people who, in the course of their work, have a valid reason to be informed.';
    }
    else
    {
    echo 'You did not give us permission to share information related to you. As a result we may be unable to meet all of your support needs. <BR><BR> <a href="https://sss-vm.hull.ac.uk/webforms/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=form&fabrik=8&___first_name={first_name}&___family_name={family_name}&___DSQ_Address={DSQ_Address}&___DSQ_Telephone={DSQ_Telephone}&___DSQ_Email={DSQ_Email}&___d_o_b={d_o_b}&___dsq_courses={dsq_courses}&___dsq_ft_pt={dsq_ft_pt_raw}&___dsq_ug_pg={dsq_ug_pg_raw}&___applicant_number={applicant_number}&___dsq_disability={dsq_disability_raw}&___dsq_disability_details={dsq_disability_details}&___dsq_support_types_needed={dsq_support_types_needed}&___dsq_uoh_accomm={dsq_uoh_accomm}&___dsq_uoh_accomm_any_reqs={dsq_uoh_accomm_any_reqs}&___dsq_uoh_accomm_reqs={dsq_uoh_accomm_reqs}&___dsq_further_info={dsq_further_info}&___dsq_confidentiaity_share=Yes" style="color:#990000">Click here if you wish to resubmit your questionnaire changing this.</A>';
    }
?>

Returns:

strcmp:

Code (Text):

<?php
$confidentiality = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share}';
    echo '<BR><i>DEBUG INFO: - strcmp version<BR>';
    echo '{dsq_confidentiaity_share}';
    echo '<br> that was the fabrik variable, now echoing the PHP Variable:<br>';
    echo '$confidentiality';
    echo '<br> and now echoing the PHP Variable without quotes<br>';
    echo $confidentiality;
    echo '<br>and that is what kind of value?<br>';
    echo gettype($confidentiality);
    echo '<br><br></i>';
 
    if (strcmp($confidentiality,'Yes') == 0)
    {
    echo 'You gave us permission to share information related to you and your support needs with people who, in the course of their work, have a valid reason to be informed.';
    }
    else
    {
    echo 'You did not give us permission to share information related to you. As a result we may be unable to meet all of your support needs. <BR><BR> <a href="https://sss-vm.hull.ac.uk/webforms/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=form&fabrik=8&___first_name={first_name}&___family_name={family_name}&___DSQ_Address={DSQ_Address}&___DSQ_Telephone={DSQ_Telephone}&___DSQ_Email={DSQ_Email}&___d_o_b={d_o_b}&___dsq_courses={dsq_courses}&___dsq_ft_pt={dsq_ft_pt_raw}&___dsq_ug_pg={dsq_ug_pg_raw}&___applicant_number={applicant_number}&___dsq_disability={dsq_disability_raw}&___dsq_disability_details={dsq_disability_details}&___dsq_support_types_needed={dsq_support_types_needed}&___dsq_uoh_accomm={dsq_uoh_accomm}&___dsq_uoh_accomm_any_reqs={dsq_uoh_accomm_any_reqs}&___dsq_uoh_accomm_reqs={dsq_uoh_accomm_reqs}&___dsq_further_info={dsq_further_info}&___dsq_confidentiaity_share=Yes" style="color:#990000">Click here if you wish to resubmit your questionnaire changing this.</A>';
    }
?>

Returns:

I'm stuck as it seems to be defying logic

 

Thanks Hugh, but this always returns the else statement.


I echoed the values to clarify this:

PHP:

if ((int)'{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}' == 1)
{
    echo 'You gave us permission to share information blah blah.';
}
else
{
    echo 'You did not give us permission to share information related to you blah blah';
}
echo '<BR><BR>';
echo 'This is being returned for dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw as an integer: ';
echo (int)'{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';
echo '<BR><BR>';
echo 'This the placeholder value for dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw : ';
echo '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';

This returns:

Any ideas?

 

Try

PHP:

echo (int){dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw};

 

I had to enclose the placeholder in quotes or it would not parse the PHP. This is the code I used:

PHP:

echo 'And now a var_dump:<BR>';
$confidentiality = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';
var_dump($confidentiality);

And this was the output:

 

Thanks troester. This is getting me somewhere!

I'm guessing the string is reporting as 30 characters as that is the length of the placeholder including the brackets: {dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}

I'll do some more experimenting and will post back!

 

It seems that the PHP is run before the value is inserted from the place holder, as evidenced:

PHP:

echo 'And now a var_dump:<BR>';
$confidentiality = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';
var_dump($confidentiality);
echo '<BR><BR>';
echo 'And now a var_dump of the trimmed variable:<BR>';
$trim_conf = substr($confidentiality,0,1);
var_dump($trim_conf);

Which outputs:

The output of the second var_dump shows that the PHP is run before the placeholder is replaced with its value.

I think this is a bug

 

Sorry Hugh, I don't think that's the issue, I've tested this as follows:

Following your suggestion I replaced {dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw} with {___dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}, I'm not storing the data in a table, simply sending it via email.

I've tried the place holder directly in the code, E.G. if ((int)'{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}' == 1) and loaded to a variable ($confidentiality = '{dsq_confidentiaity_share_raw}';). Neither works.

Data is being passed to the placeholder as a straightforward var_dump of the $confidentiality shows:

• Short element name returns: string(30) "1"
• Long element name returns: string(33) "1"

However if I use substr to trim the contents of the variable and then var_dump it exposes its real contents: string(1) "{"
Any ideas?
Jim

 

Not saving to the database may be the issue (although Rob did some fixing on recent GitHub).
I have not tested it in an email template but in a PHP form plugin, this works:

PHP:

$app = JFactory::getApplication();
$extension = $jinput->get('___extension_id', array(), 'array');

In my form, this code returns an array with the values of my databasejoin element "extension_id".
So you can try something along this way (Note : with arrays, you have to use "print_r()" instead of "echo" to print the data).

 

Thank you troester, this go me over the line!

The final code looks like this:

PHP:

$confidentiality = $this->data['___dsq_confidentiaity_share'];
if ($confidentiality == 'Yes')
    {
    echo 'You gave us permission to share information related to you and your support needs with people who, in the course of their work, have a valid reason to be informed.';
    }
else
    {
    echo 'You did not give us permission to share information related to you. As a result we may be unable to meet all of your support needs.';
    }

Putting $this->data['___dsq_confidentiaity_share'] within the if statement did not work, the result needs to be placed in a variable and the value of the variable then queried by the statement.

Thanks to all who helped with this