Email a MySQL Query Results as a CSV File Attachment

About the PHP script to Email the Results of a MySQL Query as a CSV File Attachment

I created this code as a standalone PHP file that can be run by opening it in a web browser, or running it from a Cron Job. The source code in this PHP file is well commented and can be modified to fit your needs. The GNU GPL license gives you the room to adapt it to your project.

What it does:

1. Runs a MySQL query (that you define in the settings)
2. Builds a CSV file from the query results
3. Directly emails the CSV file as an attachment (this code doesn't save the results to a file on the server. If you are looking for that, try Google).

Some example of how others have used this file include:

• Automatically run at the end of every month as a Cron Job, to generate data for the accounting department to verify monthly sales.
• Turned into a class file to email all kinds of data results to different employees from an eCommerce site.
• Used to send violating data from a database when certain flags have been set off by web game players that could be potentialy cheating.

Requirements

A web server with PHP and a MySQL database.
You will need to know how to:

• Assign values to PHP variables
  • Samples and comments in the source code are provided to help in this process.
  • If you need more help with PHP. A good place to start is the PHP tutorials at W3schools.com: http://w3schools.com/php/php_variables.asp
• Write an SQL query
  • There are so many excellent resources online about writing SQL queries.
  • A great place to start is the SQL Tutorial at W3Schools.com :  http://www.w3schools.com/SQl/default.asp

How to Use

Step 1: Add your Server Information, and Personal Settings, to the Source Code

The source code is well documented and you will be able to figure out what to enter, and where to enter it, by following these directions:

1. Open the file email-query-results-as-csv-file.php
2. On line 33 you will see  a section called “Configure Your Personal Settings
3. Between lines 37 and 71, you will enter your MySQL server address and login, database name, the email addresses you want the email to be sent from and to, and an email message that is to be sent to describe the attachment.

Step 2: Upload the file to Your Web Sever

After you fill in your specific details, upload the file email-query-results-as-csv-file.php to your web server.

Setp 3: Run the File from a Web Browser

Run the file email-query-results-as-csv-file.php from a web browser. It will output messages of success or error at each step.

Support

If you have questions on using this tool, or have a comment, you can contact me or post a message into the comments section below.

If you need helping modifying this file for a particular purpose, or integrating it with another PHP program, and you don't have the coding skills, I will code for money. Contact me for a quote.

History

2009-NOV-11: v1.0
* Initial Public Release