Posting form to custom PHP script within Wordpress - php

Question

I added this contact form to a custom page template in wordpress:
<form id="contact_form" action="inc/mail.php" method="POST">
<input id="name" name="name" placeholder="Name">
<input id="email" name="email" placeholder="Email">
<input id="phone" name="phone" placeholder="Phone Number">
<textarea id="comments" name="comments" placeholder="Comments / Questions"></textarea>
<input class="button" type="submit" id="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
And I created a PHP page to handle the form once posted:
<?php
// Gather form data
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$phone = $_POST['phone'];
$comments = $_POST['comments'];
$client = "";
$clientname = "";
$password = "";
if($name && $email && $comments) {
// Create instance of PHP mailer
require("class.phpmailer.php");
$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->IsSMTP();
$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl'; // secure transfer enabled REQUIRED for GMail
$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';
$mail->Port = 465;
$mail->Username = $client;
$mail->Password = $password;
$mail->From = $client;
$mail->SetFrom($email, $name);
$mail->AddAddress($client, $clientname);
$mail->IsHTML(false);
$formcontent="From: \n $name \n\n Email: \n $email \n\n Phone: \n $phone \n\n Comments: \n $comments";
$mail->Subject = "Miss Mary's Inquiry";
$mail->Body = $formcontent;
if(!$mail->Send()){
echo "Message could not be sent. <p>";
echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
exit;
}
}
?>
The form and handler work perfectly outside of Wordpress, but I think Wordpress is preventing the PHP script (mail.php) from being accessed. Is there a way to post the form to my PHP script without Wordpress / htaccess interfering?
Thanks!

Answer 1

If you want to send mails in wordpress try using plugins. There are tons of wordpress plugins for that.
Conatact form 7 is the one which I like the most. Still you can develop your own but create it as plugin. You can convert the above code into a shortcode plugin. Check this link
wp_mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers, $attachments )
This function is normally used for sending mails in wordpress