PHP mail function - attachment coming as text - php

Question

I know there are lot posts related to PHP mail function. But seriously i couldn't figure out what's wrong with my code below:
$subject = "New article submitted.";
$message = "You've received this e-mail through your website's write an article form: \n";
$message .= "Name: {$data['username']} \n";
$message .= "E-mail: {$data['email']} \n";
$message .= "\nRegards,\nAakriti \n";
$headers = "From: {$data['name']} <{$data['email']}> \n";
// Boundary
$semi_rand = md5(time());
$mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x";
// Add the headers for a file attachment
$headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" .
"Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" .
" boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";
// Add a multipart boundary above the plain message
$message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" .
"--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
"Content-Type: text/plain;\n charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" .
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" .
$message . "\n\n" .
"--{$mime_boundary}\n";
// preparing attachments
for($i=0;$i < count($_FILES['articledata']['name']); $i++) {
// store the file information to variables for easier access
$tmp_name = $_FILES['articledata']['tmp_name'][$i];
$type = $_FILES['articledata']['type'][$i];
$name = $_FILES['articledata']['name'][$i];
$size = $_FILES['articledata']['size'][$i];
$file = fopen($tmp_name,"rb");
$attachment = fread($file,filesize($tmp_name));
fclose($file);
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($attachment));
print_r($attachment);
//$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($tmp_name)));
$message .= "Content-Type: {$type};\n" .
" name=\"{$name}\"\n" .
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n" .
"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" .
" filename=\"{$name}\"\n\n" .
$attachment . "\n" .
"--{$mime_boundary}\n";
$message .= "--\n\n";
}
$headers .= "Reply-To: <{$data['email']}>";
if (mail($recipient,$subject,$message,$headers)) {
echo "<p>Thank you! Your mail was successfully sent to the webmaster. Thank you for your time.</p>";
} else {
echo "<p>Sorry, there was an error and your mail was not sent. Please find an alternative method of contacting the webmaster.</p>";
}
It just doesn't work as intended. Attachment is comes out as some binary text. Take a look below:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="==Multipart_Boundary_xf6a3dd3e1c0c1f9233b8c66ce2a73e3ex"Reply-To: <test03#gmail.com>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--==Multipart_Boundary_xf6a3dd3e1c0c1f9233b8c66ce2a73e3ex
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
You've received this e-mail through your website's write an article form:
Name: Johnson
E-mail: test#gmail.com
Regards,
Aakriti
--==Multipart_Boundary_xf6a3dd3e1c0c1f9233b8c66ce2a73e3ex
Content-Type: image/jpeg;
name="599307_322143481199958_2058932593_n.jpg"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="599307_322143481199958_2058932593_n.jpg"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: Finally got it fixed after breaking my head for hours..
there were couple of problems:
As pointed out by asachanfbd mime
boundary was not properly nested.
This was one is silly & yet it was the main culprit - extra line breaks at below line of code:
$message .= "\nRegards,\nAakriti \n";
$headers = "From: {$data['name']} <{$data['email']}> \n";
Thanks everyone!

Answer 1

Not much of an answer to your question, but
you could have a look on PHPMailer and on its example.
It is pretty easy to add attachments with PHPMailer.

Answer 2

In a mail mime boundary is used to enclose different part of the mail. In your implementation you did not enclosed body of the mail in required mime type. Also keep in mind that mime boundary for the mail needs to be same for entire mail.
You can use these set of functions for easy implementation.
http://pastebin.com/AbZjzYdv