Setting up phpmailer on iis7 - php

Question

I recently moved from windows shared hosting to a VPS. I'm struggling to get phpmailer to work for a contact form on my website.
The code for my site the sets up the email to send is:
$mail->IsSMTP(); // set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com"; // specify main and backup server or localhost
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // turn on SMTP authentication
$mail->SMTPSecure = "tls";
$mail->SMTPDebug = 1; // can vary the amount of debug info given on error
$mail->Username = "mail#mydomain.com"; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = "########"; // SMTP password
$mail->Port = 587;
This code worked on the old windows shared hosting. Also everything else is identical too with the site (the class.phpmailer.php file etc)
So I'm guessing it's something to do with my setup of iis or the server itself.
Connecting out works on port 587 according to my webhosts who checked that for me
I installed php using the Microsoft tool that does everything for you. the site is in php and is working, and it looks to my untrained eye like all is fine there.
I've checked that php_openssl.dll is enabled.
I've spent a long time reading around and fiddling with no luck. I'm really at a loss as what to look at next. Any ideas what it could be or what I should try?
thanks!
Phil.
EDIT:
The action on the php form is to go to contactprocessor.php.
That file contains this code:
<?
ob_start();
if(isset($_POST['btnSubmit']))
{
require("class.phpmailer.php");
$mail = new PHPMailer();
//Your SMTP servers details
$mail->IsSMTP(); // set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com"; // specify main and backup server or localhost
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // turn on SMTP authentication
$mail->SMTPSecure = "tls";
$mail->SMTPDebug = 1; // can vary the amount of debug info given on error
$mail->Username = "mail#mydomain.com"; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = "########"; // SMTP password
$mail->Port = 587;
$redirect_url = "http://www.mydomain.com/contact/contact_success.php"; //Redirect URL after submit the form
$mail->From = $mail->Username; //Default From email same as smtp user
$mail->FromName = "Website Contact Form";
$mail->AddAddress("mail#mydomain.com", "From Contact Form"); //Email address where you wish to receive/collect those emails.
$mail->WordWrap = 50; // set word wrap to 50 characters
$mail->IsHTML(true); // set email format to HTML
$mail->Subject = "From Contact Form";
$message = "FullName: ".htmlspecialchars($_POST['fullname'])." <br> <br>
\r\n <br>EmailAddress: ".htmlspecialchars($_POST['email'])." <br> <br>
\r\n <br>Phone Number: ".htmlspecialchars($_POST['mobile'])." <br> <br>
\r\n <br> Message: <br>".htmlspecialchars($_POST['message']);
$mail->Body = $message;
if(!$mail->Send())
{
echo "Sorry the message could not be sent. Please email mail#mydomain.com instead. Thanks<p>";
echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
exit;
}
echo "Message has been sent";
header("Location: $redirect_url");
}
?>
Instead of actually sending the email, it just seems to print the above to screen of the user as if it's a webpage. it's as if the server thinks it's a html page and is just serving it.

Answer 1

You wrote:
Instead of actually sending the email, it just seems to print the above [code] to screen of the user as if it's a webpage. it's as if the server thinks it's a html page and is just serving it.
I think your problem is unrelated to phpMailer, or indeed email at all.
This is almost certain to be simply a small difference between the PHP configuration on your old and new servers.
Your PHP code is using the short-style PHP tags -- ie starting with <?.
Many PHP servers are configured not to allow this short-style tag, and only run PHP code that starts with the full <?php tag.
Given what you stated in the remark I quoted above, I suspect this is your problem, because what you describe is exactly the symptom I would expect from that.
You have two options:
Change your code to use the long style <?php tag.
Change your server config to allow the short <? tag.
I would recommend taking option (1) if possible, because the long-form tags are considered best practice (the short form is not recommended because it can have a potential clash with the <?xml marker at the start of most XML documents).
If you have a lot of short-form <? tags (and assuming you're allowed to do so), changing the server config may be worth considering, but if it's easy enough to fix the problem by switching to long tags, I'd say that would be better.
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Thanks to Spudley for the answer. I had <? at the start (which is a shorthand that doesn't work on new php installations apparently). It should be <?php that's made it work. Thanks again.