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Tell A Friend Reporting

The Tell a Friend feature on osCommerce is a popular feature.
Is it? You don't really know, do you? And who is sending what?
And what are they saying?
Might be your competitor telling his buddies to adapt their price to 90% of yours?

A very simple but sufficient hack in /catalog/tell_a_friend.php will give the answers to all above questions.
And ofcoarse silently.. so the customer never knows, just like we SysGods like it

Changes to make

In /catalog/tell_a_friend.php (around line 139) where the tep_mail() function is called you add the following AFTER the tep_mail() line:



Things to remember
Note that if you use MIME e-mail you should change all occurances of "n" to "<br>".
Furthermore you should obviously change the e-mail address used to reflect your own.

Regards,

Mattice



PS:

Fantastic - many thanks

I am running MS1 loaded, and cannot seem to find the correct place to insert this code. Every natural break after TEP MAIL results in email going to receiver, but not a copy to my shop, and you never a "email sent" message on the store.

Could you show me the full phrase you need to insert this code after?

Thanks for any assistance - this sounds like a wonderful idea!!

Mattice!

Great snippet of code! Thanks!

Now we just need to feed the data in mysql and get some stats report out of it from the admin!

Jean

Okay, here's the snippet from the latest (v 1.35 ) /catalog/tell_a_friend.php which is in MS1,
this is line number 136 to 140:



Mattice

Why? Personally I do not see the benefit of storing the tell-a-friend copies in the database, I prefer to have them e-mailed, like any 'semi-security' report. But by all means feel free to write it!

Mattice

Thanks Mattice - got it working just great now! Fabulous feature!!

Excellent option ! Thanks for the quick mod

Works smoothly

Mattice...

Well getting these email everyday is nice to have immediate info and as you said make sure no one abuse the system.

But would not it be nice to see a report over a few months period with how may tell-a-friends/month, which items are the most suggested, ups and downs, etc.

I have a simillar system using a Perl based tell-a-friend, and I could not live without! At some point I will get used to PHP... for now I will probably interface it with a log file and a perl script...

Again thanks for your contrib. It's very motivating to get small snippet of codes and try to understand vs. going through the all oscommerce scripts!

Jean.

In /catalog/tell_a_friend.php (around line 139) where the tep_mail() function is called you add the following AFTER the tep_mail() line:

// Mail a (silent) report to the web owner:
if (CONFIG_SEND_TO_A_FRIEND == 'true') {

// get ip
if (getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR')) {
$ip=getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR');
} else {
$ip=getenv('REMOTE_ADDR');
}

// build report
$report = 'Here are the details of the T.A.F. submission by ' . $from_name . ' on ' . date("D M j G:i:s Y") . ':';
$report .= "nn" . 'Recipient details: ' . $HTTP_POST_VARS['friendname'] . ' - ' . $HTTP_POST_VARS['friendemail'];
$report .= "n" . 'Sender details: ' . $from_name . ' - ' . $from_email_address;
$report .= "n" . 'Sender ip address: ' . $ip;
$report .= "n" . 'Personal message: ' . "nn" . $HTTP_POST_VARS['yourmessage'];
$report .= "nn" . 'Product link: ' . HTTP_SERVER . DIR_WS_CATALOG . FILENAME_PRODUCT_INFO . '?products_id=' . $HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'];

// mail report
tep_mail('Tell A Friend', EMAIL_SEND_TO_A_FRIEND, '[ REPORT ] Tell a Friend Usage', stripslashes($report), '', $from_email_address);
}


insert into your MySQL database:

INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, last_modified, date_added, use_function, set_function) VALUES ('', 'Send To A Friend - Control ON/OFF', 'CONFIG_SEND_TO_A_FRIEND', 'true', 'Would you like to get an email when a visitor uses Send To A Friend ?', 12, 800, '2003-03-14 12:20:07', '2003-03-14 12:20:07', NULL, 'tep_cfg_select_option(array('true', 'false'),');
INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, last_modified, date_added, use_function, set_function) VALUES ('', 'Send To A Friend - Email', 'EMAIL_SEND_TO_A_FRIEND', 'your email', 'Send an Email to this address when someone uses Send to a friend option', 12, 801, '2003-03-14 12:20:07', '2003-03-14 12:20:07', NULL, NULL);



insert into your MySQL database:
this will put the config options in Admin > Configuration > E-mail options


thanks Mattice

oops

my mistake double posting

start at the
Code:

this is my line 136 to 140 where do i put the code

<td class="main"><?php echo FORM_FIELD_FRIEND_NAME; ?></td>
<td class="main"><?php echo tep_draw_input_field('friendname');?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="main"><?php echo FORM_FIELD_FRIEND_EMAIL; ?></td>

It is working great. I love it.
Thank you Mattice
OkayM.

I tried this on tell_a_friend.php,v 1.28 2002/10/08 and I had to stop my server.

It sent me one correct email and then it kept on creating emails from "Apache" and sending them to me without any information:

Here are the details of the T.A.F. submission by on Tue Apr 1 15:05:55 2003:

Recipient details: -
Sender details: -
Sender ip address: 66.82.9.32
Personal message:

Don't this code work with ver 1.28 or did I mess something up?

that must have been an April Fools joke from you or Apache

I wish it was... but it was not.
I tried two times and got around 100 emails before I stopped the server.

Sorry, but when I paste the code ?

This is my code from 129 to 159 line

You've gone past the relevant lines...

Do a search for the 'tep_mail' statement.


There should only be the one (two after you've complete the mod) 'tep_mail' in the file.
Once you find it, follow the instructions from there.

HTH,
Tony

I've pasted the code after this



But I've error in process page :cry:

What is the error??

Warren

I see the code in process page, last procediment :shock:

I too also only see the code outputed on the screen when I run this mod

Nice addition. Thank you Mattice!

i removed the tell-a-friend box from my store to make room for other things; is it really that popular?

for anyone who has made the silent email modification, any feedback on whether customers use it and how useful it is in generating leads?

Ben Daughtry
Dachitech Software
www.dtechsoftware.com

Mattice your help is great, thanks.

I am running on MS2, and in case some of you are also running on MS2 and not getting the personal message showing up in the "silent report", here is the simple fix.

In mattice code, change the the following line:



to




Hope this helps

Could somebody maybe want to update this so that those of us running MS2 will be able to use it?

As of right now, I have no clue where to add your code. The place where you say to add it, no longer exists in the MS2 code.

Thanks,
Priest

The following works for me, running current 2.2 CVS.

Find this in catalog/tella_friend.php: (Approx lines 77 - 80)
Add this after above:

Let me know how you go...
Tony

it works smoothly on MS 2.2

Thanks TB

Thanks for the feedback... glad to see it works for you.
All credit goes to Mattice for his original submission...

Tony

You can also show the name of the Product so you know which product they are talking about rather then clicking on the link and seeing.

here is the code again

Well, I have just added it and tried it on MS2.2 and although it does send to the other person, as expected, I do not receive a " Tell-a-Friend" usage email.

Is there maybe something else I need to turn on in the admin settings?

Thanks,
Priest

Did you replace this e-mail address here:

With your own?

If not... this could be a reason you're not getting the e-mails.

Cheers,
Tony

Yep, I changed the email address to my own, of course, but still no usage being sent to me. The Tell-A-Friend is being sent to the "friend" but the report isn't being sent to me.

~P~

Have you enabled Send Email Option in Admin



I am running the above code on my site, and I have tested it many times. Its working perfectly fine.

If its still not working for you, then enter this into your Database




Thanks to Druide for the above mysql code.

it will give you option under E-mail options in Configuration. You can enter the email where you want the report to be send.

Also, try to send the file "tell_a_friend.php" by email.

worked great mattice!! thanks!!

anyone have any idea why it isnt sending in HTML even though I have it specified to do so?

thanks in advance...

Just found this... very smooth. Yes I think we all like being "big daddy". SPOT ON!!

Mattice:

I was wondering if this mod had been packaged up and put in the contribs section (with compatibility for those of us on MS2 as well)? I'm totally php stupid and I'd need a line by line "Khim - do this... Khim.. do that" or I'd seriously screw it up.

If it has been added to the contribs area, what is the name of the contrib so I can get this and install it on my shop?

Thanks in advance for writing the mod and for any light you can shed on this subject :-)

Khim~

thx alot 4 this great extra.. clouldnt get 2 send the tekst.. but jbroomfield was right i had 2 change the "yourmessage" to "message" thx allot 4 this pointer

Hey Guys,

Now you can get some info about someone who sends an email from your store to tell a "friend" regarding your product. Is there any idea in how to deal with the one that sends out unfavored or false messages? Or better is there any way to stop sending out such message from your store before it damages or ruins your business? Thanks for sharing your tip.

KF

I am running MS1, with tell a friend 1.36 and when I add the code where Mattice said I get a parse error on the first line of code...

Anyone have any ideas?

Dude - thanks for this code!

Being a simple man, and also a beginner - I got confused with your blue addition, I thought it was speech marks rather than double apostrophe.

Any simple men like me should just copy the adjustment and paste it - works a treat then!

Again - I thank you!

Oh my!!!! I love it , works great and I like seeing what the item is too!!!! I am a newbie and I have to thank all you wonderful people for all your help and time you put into making things do able for us!

I simply use the email queue which saves all send emails.

Thank you Mattice for your wonderful addition. Also thank everyone else that added and enhananced the code for this thread. I really appreciate this forum and all of the members. I was so overwhelmed just 2 weeks ago that I almost gave up on a huge web project for a client and was going to turn it down and find a job bartending or something (Just kidding I love building websites) I knonw HTML pretty well, but php is way new to me. With this forum, I not only didn't give up, but so far have made major advancements on the site, have a very happy client with my progress and am very happy about the situation now. PEACE!

I just found this topic and it is great.

Tell a Friend is usually used by sites to gather emails for mailing lists as well i.e. the recipient. We are now starting to use more Tell A Friend type features on sites including an obvious share your wishlist (we have a couple more that are client specific)

Wouldn't it be better if this detail was put into a table in the database and there be a report?

Any thougths on that?

I tried this script. the tell a friend to recipient is working perfectly. But the email that send me a report has no message. Like this..

Here are the details of the T.A.F. submission by MY Name on Tue Jul 26 23:20:37 2005:

Recipient details: -
Sender details: MY Name - myname@mysite.com
Sender ip address: 99.99.19.7
Personal message:



Product link: http://www.mysite.com/product_info.php?products_id=36

--------------------

you will notice that there is no text or message after the word
Personal message:

What is the problem? How should I fixed it?

I coded this up myself quite some time ago and I found it quite useful. One thing that I found interesting was how much it actually wasn't being used. It doesn't actually get used all that much but those times it is used it's usually people telling their friends about the product in a good way. I don't think I have ever seen it being misused.

As an example here are a few examples of e-mails that I have received recently:





Here are the details of the Tell A Friend submission by Brett on Fri Jul 8 2:54:47 2005:

Sender details: Brett - ***********
Recipient details: ***********
Sender IP address: 61.88.36.65
Personal message:

Not sure if your still thinking it but i though i'd show this to you.
Product Name: ModYourCar Intercooler Kit - Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T (RB25DET)
Product link: http://www.modyourcar.com.au/product_info....roducts_id=3710






Here are the details of the Tell A Friend submission by graham on Fri Aug 5 20:08:59 2005:

Sender details: graham - ***********
Recipient details: doug - ***********
Sender IP address: 144.137.253.81
Personal message:

this exhaust system will suit a gt4 :-)
Product Name: Greddy Power Extreme II Exhaust System - ECR/BNCR33
Product link: http://www.modyourcar.com.au/product_info....products_id=783







Here are the details of the Tell A Friend submission by dale on Sat Jul 30 6:03:09 2005:

Sender details: dale - ***********
Recipient details: sue - ***********
Sender IP address: 144.139.39.149
Personal message:

look, i found it
Product Name: 'F*UCK' Sticker (300mm long)
Product link: http://www.modyourcar.com.au/product_info....roducts_id=3333

I just stumbled upon this mod...EXCELLENT! Thanks for the code Mattice!!!

Cheers,
Travis