Trying to populate email variable after submit with variable from query

[jkirker]

I’m currently inserting a record into a database after submission.

After the insert I’m setting a variable using wpdb->insert_id, like:
$customer_appointment_id = $wpdb->insert_id;

I’m then trying to pass this into the notifications but I’m not having any luck. I’m stuck. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

What am I doing wrong?

add_filter( ‘gform_pre_send_email’, ‘before_email’ );
function before_email( $email ) {
$email[‘message’] = str_replace( ‘appt_id=0’, ‘appt_id=’.$customer_appointment_id, $email[‘message’] );
return $email;
}

[faisalahammad]

The problem you’re running into is that the $customer_appointment_id you’re trying to use in your before_email function is kind of like a stranger to that function. They haven’t met before, so before_email doesn’t recognize $customer_appointment_id when you’re trying to use it.

So how do you introduce them? Well, one way is by using a ‘global’ variable. It’s like making your secret public. After you insert a record and set the insert id, you can do this:

global $customer_appointment_id;
$customer_appointment_id = $wpdb->insert_id;

What this does is it shouts out $customer_appointment_id to the whole script, and then anyone (any function) who wants to use it can.

Then in your before_email function, you can bring it in like this:

add_filter('gform_pre_send_email', 'before_email');

function before_email($email) {
    global $customer_appointment_id;
    $email['message'] = str_replace('appt_id=0', 'appt_id='.$customer_appointment_id, $email['message']);
    return $email;
}

Here you’re saying, “Hey function, remember that $customer_appointment_id we made public? We’re going to use it here.”