How to download file and immediately export as email attachment - php

Question

I have a web app where users can click a button to download a PDF report.
My users requested that when the PDF is downloaded, it's immediately opened as an email attachment (sort of like when a mailto anchor is clicked).
Is this even possible? I was thinking maybe using js to generate an anchor tag behind-the-scenes but I read that mailto doesn't really support attachments.
If this matters, the PDF is generated server side using PHP mPDF set to download output mode.

Answer 1

mailto supports attachment if the file is available locally. You can use the attach parameter to specify that.
e.g. mailto:lastname.firstname#xxx.com?subject=Test&attach=C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\username\Desktop\foldername\file.extn
However, I'm unsure how you would use this in your code as users can download the file to any location on their machine. If it's of any use, the attach parameter supports shared drive locations if the user has appropriate access.

Answer 2

For this you have to separate process in two step.
Generate PDF on server in some directory using http://wkhtmltopdf.org/
Send generated pdf as part of email attachement using https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer
configure both the service will help you achieve your task.
Below is the sample code which will help you
//generate PDF file for bill and send it in email
public function sendInvoiceInEmail($register_no, $html_string, $guest_email_id)
{
//create mailer class
$mail = new PHPMailer;
//remove old invoice file if exist at public/doc
// here i have used my path you have to use your path
if(file_exists(__DIR__.'/../../public/docs/invoice.pdf')){
unlink(__DIR__.'/../../public/docs/invoice.pdf');
}
// You can pass a filename, a HTML string, an URL or an options array to the constructor
$pdf = new Pdf([
'commandOptions' => [
'useExec' => false,
'escapeArgs' => false,
'procOptions' => array(
// This will bypass the cmd.exe which seems to be recommended on Windows
'bypass_shell' => true,
// Also worth a try if you get unexplainable errors
'suppress_errors' => true,
),
],
]);
$globalOptions = array(
'no-outline'
);
$pdf->setOptions($globalOptions);
$pdf->addPage($html_string);
//for Windows in my system i have setup wkhtmltopdf here
$pdf->binary = '"C:/Program Files/wkhtmltopdf/bin/wkhtmltopdf.exe"';
// for linux when you will host you have to setp on linux abd comment windows path and uncomment below line
//$pdf->binary = '/home/username/wkhtmltox/bin/wkhtmltopdf';
if (!$pdf->saveAs(__DIR__.'/../../public/docs/invoice.pdf')) {
throw new Exception('Could not create PDF: '.$pdf->getError());
}
//now send email and attach invoice.pdf file from public/doc/invoice.pdf
//$mail->SMTPDebug = 3; // Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); // Set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = 'hostname'; // Specify main and backup SMTP servers
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = 'username'; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'password'; // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls'; // Enable TLS encryption, `ssl` also accepted
$mail->Port = 587; // TCP port to connect to
$mail->setFrom('from_email_address', 'From Name',FALSE);
$mail->addAddress('to_email_address'); // Add a recipient
$mail->addAttachment(__DIR__.'/../../public/docs/invoice.pdf'); // Add attachments
$mail->isHTML(true); // Set email format to HTML
$mail->Subject = 'Subject';
$mail->Body = 'email message body';
$is_email_sent = false;
if(!$mail->send()) {
// echo 'Message could not be sent.';
// echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
$is_email_sent = false;
} else {
// echo 'Message has been sent';
$is_email_sent = true;
}
return true;
}