PHP automatic emails

for a site I'm doing my client wants an automatic email sent to the user when they register, and a follow-up email sent 3-4 days after a specified time (the client sells meal plans for endurance athletes - he wants to check how the user is doing after their race).

Is there any way possible for PHP to do stuff like send emails without having a browser actually access the script?

Or, PHP isn't the only option, just the preferable one as that's what the rest of the site is being coded in. If you guys know any other methods of accomplishing this I'd be glad to hear it

thanks in advance

I would use cron if you have linux hosting, look on cPanel or plesk if you have it.

The first email should be sent out when the user registers, just tag a mail function onto the register script. Record the date of registration.

Then create a php script which creates a list of all the users who registered 3 days ago, the script will then send the followup email to each of these users.

Finally set cron to run this followup php script everyday.

really? cool. I had noticed the cron jobs button but never knew what it was for. Thanks amnezia

Amnezia said it all, but just to put things in perspective, cron's on *nix are similar the scheduled tasks on windows. the cron simply runs a task at a given time with various options.

PHP has a Command Line Interface (CLI) and the cron just executes your scripts via CLI when called.

Amnezia said it all, but just to put things in perspective, cron's on *nix are similar the scheduled tasks on windows. the cron simply runs a task at a given time with various options.

PHP has a Command Line Interface (CLI) and the cron just executes your scripts via CLI when called.


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