php email attachment sends an empty file - php

Question

I'm trying to send an attachment via email but, even though the right file is saved in the server, the one attached to the email is empty (0 kb).
I'm using gmail to send the emails.
Here is the relevant part of my code:
if (empty($error)) {
//boundary
$semi_rand = md5(time());
$mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x$semi_randx";
//tell the headers about the boundary
$header .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" . "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" . " boundary=\"$mime_boundary\"";
//define the first part of the email, which is the text part
$message = "\r\n" . "--$mime_boundary\n" . "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" . "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\r\n" ;
//build the body of the 1st part of the email
$content_body = "
Email del formulario de contacto en ".home_url().": <br />
//whatever
";
$message .= $content_body . "\r\n";
$message .= "--$mime_boundary\n";
//define the second part of the email, which is the atachments
//if a file has been uploaded
if (!empty($_FILES['cv']['name'])){
// Open the file for a binary read
$file = fopen($temp_name,'rb');
// Read the file content into a variable
$data = fread($file,filesize($temp_name));
// close the file
fclose($file);
// Now we need to encode it and split it into acceptable length lines
$data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
// Actually build the second part of the email
$message .= "Content-Type: \"application/octet-stream\";\r\n name=\"" . $file_name . "\"\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n";
$message .= "Content-Disposition: attachment;\r\n filename=\"" . $file . "\"\r\n\r\n";
$message .= $data; //The base64 encoded message
$message .= "\n";
$message .= "--$mime_boundary--\n";
}
//send th email
mail( $receive_email, "Email del formulario de contacto en web", $message, $header);
$msg = $succesful_text;
}
My guess is that I'm doing something wrong here:
$message .= "Content-Type: \"application/octet-stream\";\r\n name=\"" . $file_name . "\"\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n";
$message .= "Content-Disposition: attachment;\r\n filename=\"" . $file . "\"\r\n\r\n";
$message .= $data; //The base64 encoded message
$message .= "\n";
$message .= "--$mime_boundary--\n";
But I have no idea what it can be.
I know I can use a library, but I would like to see what is wrong with my code just for the sake of learning.
Any help will be highly appreciated.
Sonia

Answer 1

Thanks Cherry and miken32 for your replies.
Finally I figured it out.
This is what happened, in case it can help somebody else in a future.
As there was no base64 encoded data in the text message, I thought the problem might no be in the $message text but in the actual handling of the file.
// Open the file for a binary read
$file = fopen($temp_name,'rb');
// Read the file content into a variable
$data = fread($file,filesize($temp_name));
// close the file
fclose($file);
// Now we need to encode it and split it into acceptable length lines
$data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
I realized the temp file was not being opened. I couldn't see why but I solved it by handling directly the file from the uploads folder.
Here is the fixed code:
// Open the file for a binary read
$file = fopen($server_file,'rb');
// Read the file content into a variable
$flsz=filesize($server_file);
$data = fread($file,$flsz);
// close the file
fclose($file);
// Now we need to encode it and split it into acceptable length lines
$data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
I also had to modify the filename in the $message text, using $file_name instead of $file because $file.
$message .= "Content-Disposition: attachment;\r\n filename=\"" . $file_name . "\"\r\n\r\n";