Recommendations for script to "email page to friend"

[kenfused]

Would like to add a simple button to every page that emails the current page link to a friend.

Any idea on a simple to implement script?
Thanks

[hakre]

you want to send out text-only or html mails or both?

for standard mails (plain text) i tell you a neat trick you can use on *nix systems and non-framed pages:

just request the same adresse with a program called lynx. it's a text browser which can output your page as plain text with even a reference list for all links within the page. checkout the lynx commandline options (take some minutes to study all powerfull features available) to do whatever you want.

you just only need to mail the output of lynx afterwards.

and here comes neat trick number 2:

create a print version of your page first. if you use php as cms or template for your site you might be able to apply a different display of your content with ease. the print version then is a great base for the email version, too.

if all this is not possible to do, i would suggest the following:

1.) convert your pages into xhtml format (if not already done)
2.) check your page is valid xhtml with the w3c tools
3.) xhtml is xml and can be parsed with ease by php with it's various xml libs and you should be able to extract the content of your page with ease and make it email-ready.

at the moment this is all which comes to my mind. maybe there are some other approaches by others around?

[whoisgregg]

I think kenfused just wants to send a link to the page, not the actual page. There are probably hundreds of scripts out there to do this. When choosing one, consider:

1. Security - Does the script prevent spammers from using your site as an open relay? Is there a history of exploits (any script that has been around will have some) and quick patches?
2. Support - Does the developer (or the development community) respond to issues regarding the script?
3. Documentation - Is the functionality and installation of the script well laid out?

WebmasterWorld doesn't allow URL drops but hopefully with these things in mind, you can choose your own script. If you are having trouble even finding scripts to choose from a web search for "email friend script" will provide myriad options.

[kenfused]

Thanks for the tips.

I'll look around!

[henry0]

Hi Hakre,
<<<
you just only need to mail the output of lynx afterwards
>>>
Do you mean "copy and paste"
or do you mean that lynx output could be tied/incorporated to a PHP script (That would be great)

[hakre]

henry0:

Do you mean "copy and paste"
or do you mean that lynx output could be tied/incorporated to a PHP script (That would be great)

shure this is great (as most of the open source stuff is for programmers ;) ): lynx as a CLI (commandline) app and can be simply opened (as process) and it's output read in. dig up popen() [php.net] in the manual and you'll find more information and other similar php commands.

a litte example:

$handle = popen("/path-to/lynx params", "r");
echo "'$handle'; " . gettype($handle) . "\n";
$read = fread($handle, 2096);
echo $read;
pclose($handle);

for lynx in special you probably need to pass by a path to "your" lynx config. i really liked this approach of creating a nice plain text mail of my pages.

[henry0]

Thanks interesting approach