"use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer" not working - php

Question

I am trying to make a form that can contact me via email with PHP. I am new to PHP so after watching a couple of videos I am making with PHPMailer. After I downloaded the zip file from GitHub and installing composer and these things, the code shows some errors. When I declare "use\PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer," it says Unexpected, 'Unknown'.
My code is this
<?PHP
//Import PHPMailer classes into the global namespace
//These must be at the top of your script, not inside a function
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
//Load Composer's autoloader
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
//Instantiation and passing `true` enables exceptions
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
try {
//Server settings
$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_SERVER; //Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); //Send using SMTP
$mail->Host = 'smtp.example.com'; //Set the SMTP server to send through
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; //Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = 'user#example.com'; //SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'secret'; //SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS; //Enable TLS encryption; `PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMTPS` encouraged
$mail->Port = 587; //TCP port to connect to, use 465 for `PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMTPS` above
//Recipients
$mail->setFrom('from#example.com', 'Mailer');
$mail->addAddress('joe#example.net', 'Joe User'); //Add a recipient
$mail->addAddress('ellen#example.com'); //Name is optional
$mail->addReplyTo('info#example.com', 'Information');
$mail->addCC('cc#example.com');
$mail->addBCC('bcc#example.com');
//Attachments
$mail->addAttachment('/var/tmp/file.tar.gz'); //Add attachments
$mail->addAttachment('/tmp/image.jpg', 'new.jpg'); //Optional name
//Content
$mail->isHTML(true); //Set email format to HTML
$mail->Subject = 'Here is the subject';
$mail->Body = 'This is the HTML message body <b>in bold!</b>';
$mail->AltBody = 'This is the body in plain text for non-HTML mail clients';
$mail->send();
echo 'Message has been sent';
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: {$mail->ErrorInfo}";
}
?>
The code is from the GitHub page I just copied and pasted it to test it. I edited the JSON file and all of them but it doesn't work.
Appreciate the help from everyone. Thank you

Answer 1

The most likely explanation is that you are running PHP that’s older than version 5.3, which is when namespaces and the use statement were introduced. Upgrade your PHP - any new development should be using 8.0.

Answer 2

Move your autoload to the top of the file, using PSR4 before the autoload is in wont work.
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
//Import PHPMailer classes into the global namespace
//These must be at the top of your script, not inside a function
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
...
Though you should really keep your autoloader in a seperate file. e.g. a index.php and create a Mailer class of your own.
How you would go about doing this would be adding an autoload to your composer.json
{
"name": "acme/app",
"type": "project",
"authors": [
{
"name": "some name",
"email": "email#example.com"
}
],
"require": {
"phpmailer/phpmailer": "^6.4"
},
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {"Acme\\": "src/"}
}
}
Creating a src folder with a file named App.php
<?php
namespace Acme;
class App
{
public static function boot()
{
echo 'works'; // Do what ever you want.
}
}
Create a index.php in the root
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
Acme\App::boot();
then run composer install or composer du and run php index.php and your set.

Answer 3

I have seen cases where the classes were placed inside a PHP function. That will throw an error.
From the documentation:
These must be at the top of your script, not inside a function
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;