Creating attributes

While we can take advantage of the built-in attributes, we can also create our own attributes to further personalize our e-mails. Let's create a new, optional attribute for the movie genre preference:

Creating subscribe page

Let's create a new subscribe page by clicking on subscribe pages from the right-hand navigation bar and then on the add a new one link at the bottom of the list of subscribe pages:

Customizing title and text

Name the new page Movie Buffs and enter custom intro text:

We can also customize the thank you page and the welcome/confirmation messages, but we'll leave them to the phpList default in this example.

Customizing the HTML header and footer

Make a few minor adjustments to the HTML for the header and footer. In the following example, we will change the table width from 710 to 410 in the header, and add a custom H3 section "Your number #1 source for movie rentals!" to the footer:

Customizing delivery options

As we intend to deliver bright and colorful e-mails to our customers, let's set the default e-mail format to HTML, but allow the subscriber to opt for plain text e-mails with a checkbox:

Selecting attributes

Under the attribute selection section, select the Name, Country, and Movie Genre attributes:

Selecting list

Finally, select the list to which this subscribe page will apply and Save and Activate your new list!

View your new custom subscribe page to confirm that it looks as you want it to:

Protecting your subscribe page from spammers

A major problem with online forms is the propensity of automated spam-bots to target them and fill your database or inbox with annoying false subscriptions and messages.

phpList includes a basic built-in level of spam protection, which is enabled by default. (See the USE_SPAM_BLOCK and NOTIFY_SPAM values in config/config.php).

To add an additional layer of spam-protection, we can incorporate reCAPTCHA (http://www.google.com/recaptcha), a free service that both serves to protect online forms from spammers and to help digitize books, newspapers, and so on.

if (USE_SPAM_BLOCK)

// Insert reCAPTCHA if library exists and webserver has permission to read it
if (file_exists('admin/recaptchalib.php') && is_readable('admin/recaptchalib.php')) {
require_once('admin/recaptchalib.php');
$publickey = "your_public_key "; // you got this from the signup page
$html .= recaptcha_get_html($publickey);
}

Modifying admin/subscribelib2.php

Edit admin/subscribelib2.php and search for spambot. There is a line that reads:

// anti spambot check

Insert the following code above this line:

// Confirm reCAPTCHA was successfully entered
if (file_exists('admin/recaptchalib.php') && is_readable('admin/recaptchalib.php')) {
require_once('admin/recaptchalib.php');
$privatekey = "your_private_key ";
$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,
$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"],
$_POST["recaptcha_challenge_field"],
$_POST["recaptcha_response_field"]);
if (!$resp->is_valid) {
$missing = 'Please try typing the two words again';
$allthere = 0;
}
}

Tip

Downloading the example code for this book

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.PacktPub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.PacktPub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

This will generate a reCAPTCHA input box on your subscribe form, and will return an error if a user tries to subscribe without correctly filling out the reCAPTCHA: