Attachment uploads but how do I email it? - php

Question

I have the php code working up to the point where I need the image to get attached to a variable and i gets emailed with the rest of my form. I get 2 errors. One error is telling me that $messageImage in undefined on line 75? and the other is: Call to a member function addAttachment() on a non-object on line 75.
can someone explain the proper way of declaring the variable and making sure it is an object so that addAttachment works. Thank You
//copy the temp. uploaded file to uploads folder
$upload_folder = 'uploads/';
$path_of_uploaded_file = $upload_folder . $name_of_uploaded_file;
$tmp_path = $_FILES["uploaded_file"]["tmp_name"];
if(is_uploaded_file($tmp_path)) {
if(!copy($tmp_path,$path_of_uploaded_file))
{
$errors = '\n error while copying the uploaded file';
}
}
$to = "example#gmail.com"; // this is your Email address
$from = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL); // this is the sender's Email address
$first_name = filter_var($_POST['first_name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$story = filter_var($_POST['message'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$subject = "subject";
$subject2 = "Thank You for submitting";
$messageImage->addAttachment($path_of_uploaded_file);
$message = $first_name . " wrote the following:" . "\n\n" . $story;
$message2 = "Here is a copy of your story " . $first_name . "\n\n" . $story;
$headers = "From:" . $from;
$headers2 = "From:" . $to;
mail($to,$subject,$message,$messageImage,$headers);
mail($from,$subject2,$message2,$headers2); // sends a copy of the message to the sender

Answer 1

'$messageImage' is an object in your code and it is not define.
You can check this with simple if check like below,
if ($messageImage) {
// do something
}
Following code can work for you,
//copy the temp. uploaded file to uploads folder
$upload_folder = 'uploads/';
$to = "example#gmail.com"; // this is your Email address
$from = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL); // this is the sender's Email address
$first_name = filter_var($_POST['first_name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$story = filter_var($_POST['message'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$subject = "subject";
$subject2 = "Thank You for submitting";
$message = $first_name . " wrote the following:" . "\n\n" . $story;
$message2 = "Here is a copy of your story " . $first_name . "\n\n" . $story;
$headers = "From: $from";
// boundary
$semi_rand = md5(time());
$mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x";
// headers for attachment
$headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" . "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" . " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";
// multipart boundary
$message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" . "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" . "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" . $message . "\n\n";
$message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n";
$content = '';
$tmp_path = $_FILES["uploaded_file"]["tmp_name"];
if($tmp_path) {
$filename = $_FILES["uploaded_file"]["name"];
$path_of_uploaded_file = $upload_folder . $filename;
if(!copy($tmp_path, $path_of_uploaded_file))
{
$errors = '\n error while copying the uploaded file';
}
$file_size = filesize($path_of_uploaded_file);
$handle = fopen($path_of_uploaded_file, "rb");
$content = fread($handle, $file_size);
fclose($handle);
$content = chunk_split(base64_encode($content));
}
// if attachment
if ($content) {
$message .= "Content-Type: {\"application/octet-stream\"};\n" . " name=\"{$filename}\"\n" .
"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" . " filename=\"{$filename}\"\n" .
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" . $content . "\n\n";
$message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n";
}
$headers2 = "From:" . $to;
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
mail($from, $subject2, $message2, $headers2); // sends a copy of the message to the sender

Answer 2

In your code, $messageImage is not being set. Since it is not set, it is NULL, causing the next error, you are trying to refer to the method of an object, but it is null.
To send a message with attachments, you need to set email headers, and the image is base64 encoded in the message. I would look at this other StackOverflow answer:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/17371739/2832264
To make a simple object:
$obj = new stdClass();
Otherwise, you would create a class, make sure it is included in your script, and create a new instance of that:
$obj = new Person();
I would read the official PHP documentation on classes.