I need to embed an image in e-mail. How do I do it?
I do not want to use third party tool, nor am I interested in language specific answer (but it is PHP, in case you are wondering).
I am merely interested in format of resulting e-mail body.
As you are aware, everything passed as email message has to be textualized.
You must create an email with a multipart/mime message.
If you're adding a physical image, the image must be base 64 encoded and assigned a Content-ID (cid). If it's an URL, then the <img /> tag is sufficient (the url of the image must be linked to a Source ID).
A Typical email example will look like this:
From: foo1atbar.net
To: foo2atbar.net
Subject: A simple example
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="boundary-example"; type="text/html"
--boundary-example
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
... text of the HTML document, which might contain a URI
referencing a resource in another body part, for example
through a statement such as:
<IMG SRC="cid:foo4atfoo1atbar.net" ALT="IETF logo">
--boundary-example
Content-Location: CID:somethingatelse ; this header is disregarded
Content-ID: <foo4atfoo1atbar.net>
Content-Type: IMAGE/GIF
Content-Transfer-Encoding: BASE64
R0lGODlhGAGgAPEAAP/////ZRaCgoAAAACH+PUNv
cHlyaWdodCAoQykgMTk5LiBVbmF1dGhvcml6ZWQgZHV
wbGljYXRpb24gcHJvaGliaXRlZC4A etc...
--boundary-example--
As you can see, the Content-ID: <foo4atfoo1atbar.net> ID is matched to the <IMG> at SRC="cid:foo4atfoo1atbar.net". That way, the client browser will render your image as a content and not as an attachement.
the third way is to base64 encode the image and place it in a data: url
example:
<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" width="32" height="32">
Here is how to get the code for an embedded image without worrying about any files or base64 statements or mimes (it's still base64, but you don't have to do anything to get it). I originally posted this same answer in this thread, but it may be valuable to repeat it in this one, too.
To do this, you need Mozilla Thunderbird, you can fetch the html code for an image like this:
Copy a bitmap to clipboard.
Start a new email message.
Paste the image. (don't save it as a draft!!!)
Double-click on it to get to the image settings dialogue.
Look for the "image location" property.
Fetch the code and wrap it in an image tag, like this:
You should end up with a string of text something like this:
<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" alt="" height="211" width="213">
You can wrap this up into a string variable and place this absolutely anywhere that you would present an html email message - even in your email signatures. The advantage is that there are no attachments, and there are no links. (this code will display a lizard)
A picture is worth a thousand words:
Incidentally, I did write a program to do all of this for you. It's called BaseImage, and it will create the image code as well as the html for you. Please don't consider this self-promotion; I'm just sharing a solution.
Correct way of embedding images into Outlook and avoiding security problems is the next:
Use interop for Outlook 2003;
Create new email and set it save folder;
Do not use base64 embedding, outlook 2007 does not support it; do not reference files on your disk, they won't be send; do not use word editor inspector because you will get security warnings on some machines;
Attachment must have png/jpg extension. If it will have for instance tmp extension - Outlook will warn user;
Pay attention how CID is generated without mapi;
Do not access properties via getters or you will get security warnings on some machines.
public static void PrepareEmail()
{
var attachFile = Path.Combine(
Application.StartupPath, "mySuperImage.png"); // pay attention that image must not contain spaces, because Outlook cannot inline such images
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application outlook = null;
NameSpace space = null;
MAPIFolder folder = null;
MailItem mail = null;
Attachment attachment = null;
try
{
outlook = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application();
space = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI");
space.Logon(null, null, true, true);
folder = space.GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderSentMail);
mail = (MailItem) outlook.CreateItem(OlItemType.olMailItem);
mail.SaveSentMessageFolder = folder;
mail.Subject = "Hi Everyone";
mail.Attachments.Add(attachFile, OlAttachmentType.olByValue, 0, Type.Missing);
// Last Type.Missing - is for not to show attachment in attachments list.
string attachmentId = Path.GetFileName(attachFile);
mail.BodyFormat = OlBodyFormat.olFormatHTML;
mail.HTMLBody = string.Format("<br/><img src=\'cid:{0}\' />", attachmentId);
mail.Display(false);
}
finally
{
ReleaseComObject(outlook, space, folder, mail, attachment);
}
}
Actually, there are two ways to include images in email.
The first way ensures that the user will see the image, even if in some cases it’s only as an attachment to the message. This method is exactly what we call as “embedding images in email" in daily life.
Essentially, you’re attaching the image to the email. The plus side is that, in one way or another, the user is sure to get the image. While the downside is two fold. Firstly, spam filters look for large, embedded images and often give you a higher spam score for embedding images in email (Lots of spammers use images to avoid having the inappropriate content in their emails read by the spam filters.). Secondly, if you pay to send your email by weight or kilobyte, this increases the size of your message. If you’re not careful, it can even make your message too big for the parameters of the email provider.
The second way to include images (and the far more common way) is the same way that you put an image on a web page. Within the email, you provide a url that is the reference to the image’s location on your server, exactly the same way that you would on a web page. This has several benefits. Firstly, you won’t get caught for spamming or for your message “weighing” too much because of the image. Secondly, you can make changes to the images after the email has been sent if you find errors in them. On the flip side, your recipient will need to actively turn on image viewing in their email client to see your images.
Generally I handle this by setting up an HTML formatted SMTP message, with IMG tags pointing to a content server. Just make sure you have both text and HTML versions since some email clients cannot support HTML emails.
Related
I am sending email using PHPmailer and tying to embed image in mail body (using CID method <img src="cid:qrcode" />) but it always attaching image instead of embedding.Can anyone tell me what's wrong with my code (commented lines in code, already tried. ).
Here is the screenshot of my code
First of all you're using a very old version of PHPMailer, and have based your code on a very old example. Get the latest.
The other obvious problem is that while you're putting HTML into Body, you've commented out the call to isHTML(), so your message is being sent as plain text, which has no concept of displaying images inline. Uncomment this line:
$mail->isHTML();
Also bear in mind that in MIME there is essentially no difference between attachments and inline images - everything is an attachment, it's just that some attachments may be referred to from HTML parts, and HTML-capable clients can make use of that linkage.
If Outlook is removing src attributes, that's clearly not your sending code's problem. Outlook does some very unpleasant things to email.
One other minor thing: instead of dirname(__FILE__) you can use __DIR__ in any current version of PHP.
just as an assistance I encountered the same problem and after much mumbling arrived at a solution which might help others.
Tried dumping the image in the same folder - nope
Tried DIR variable to dynamicalyly pull in the image - nope
Finally, hardcoded the path to the folder in which my embedded image lived, hurrah
Magic forumla for me (using PHPmailer v5.5) - note I'm using Plesk so your definitive path may differ, use mine as a guide...
$mail->AddEmbeddedImage("/var/www/vhosts/{domainname}/httpdocs/{foldername)/image.jpg", "emailimg", "image.jpg");
I note that when calling in the image as an embedded image that i had to use the same filename as I think PHPmailer uses the structure:
embedded-img-name source, reference id, embedded-img-name within the internal AddEmbeddedImage call
Hope it helps someone!
Try this code i think it will work for you
$mail->AddEmbeddedImage('img/2u_cs_mini.jpg', 'logo_2u');
and on the tag put src='cid:logo_2u'
I'm trying to send a .png image to my user via phpmailer. The image is shown when I use <img> tags, but I want it to display as a real attachment that the user can open/save/print (like in this screenshot). I read that I can use $mail->addStringAttachment for this. So I tried this, and it does send an attachment with the email, but when I try to open it, it says that Windows Picture Viewer can't open the file. Also saving to my computer and then opening with Paint doesn't work, it tells me thats not a valid file or something. I think this is because it's no static image, but an image generated by an API, namely:
$qr = 'http://api.qrserver.com/v1/create-qr-code/?data=' . $guid . '&size=250x250';
So this image should be sent as an attachment. Does anyone know how I can make this work?
I got it to work fine as an attachment by doing the following:
$qr = file_get_contents("https://api.qrserver.com/v1/create-qr-code/?size=150x150&data=Example");
$mail->addStringAttachment($qr, "qr.png");
The reason it's failing is that you're trying to attach the URL as image data. You need to fetch the data from the URL first, then attach it to something.
Go one step at a time - make sure that you're getting back valid image before trying to email it - e.g.
file_put_contents('qr.png', file_get_contents($qr));
and make sure you get a valid image saved in there. When you know that's working, then try and email it with
$mail->addStringAttachment(file_get_contents($qr) 'qr.png');
Though perhaps with a bit more error checking!
I have a question. I would like to add rotating links inside my email signature to
track results on my site. I can make these dynamic tracking urls on google as you may know
but I would like to rotate them inside my email signature to see which text draws the most
conversions or returning visitors.
Is this possible?
I found this for instance:
$mybanners[1] = '<img src="banner1.jpg">';
$mybanners[2] = '<img src="banner1.jpg">';
$id = rand(1,2);
echo $mybanners[$id];
But when I look into my windows live mail I can only upload html files.
Does someone know how to do this?
You can't provide PHP scripts in a mail, since it is a server-side language and it will be opened by a mail client. Even Javascript is very often blocked for security reason.
What you can do is make a "fake" image which will be in fact generate by a PHP script. YOu can find inspiration by looking to script made for forum avatar rotation. The idea is to generate an image, which will be displayed to the client but, in the same time, save some data about the user who requests the image if you want:
<?php
// Save whatever you want about the user
file_put_content("log/user.txt", $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);
// Render a valid PNG image
header('Content-Type: image/png');
readfile("/path/to/banner.png");
?>
This script should be used as a standard image (with, if you want, a nice URL rewrite to make a .png link):
<img src="http://www.example.com/my_super_banner.php" />
where my_super_banner.php is the script described before.
This question already has answers here:
How to embed images in email
(6 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
Duplicates:
How to embed images in email
How to embed images in html email
Embed images for use in email message using PHP?
I am sending HTML emails using php. I want to use embedded images in the HTML. Is it possible? I have tried lot of different methods, but none are working. Is anyone able to help me please?
Thanks
You need to provide the whole url where your image resides
example:
<img src='http://www.mydomain.com/imagefolder/image.jpg' alt='my-image' width='' height=''>
This isn't really trivial, but with a couple of tries doable.
First of all, learn how to build a multipart email, that has the correct images attached to it. If you can't attach the images, they obviously won't be in the email. Make sure to set the type to multipart/related.
Secondly, find out how to set the cid references, in particular the Content-ID header of the attachment.
Third, glue it all together.
At each step, do the following:
look at the result
send the email to yourself, and compare it to what you received
compare it to a working example email
I find the best way to send images via email is to encode them with base64.
There are loads of links and tutorials on this but here is this code for Codeigniter should suffice:
/* Load email library and file helper */
$this->load->library('email');
$this->load->helper('file');
$this->email->from('whoever#example.com', 'Who Ever'); // Who the email is from
$this->email->to('youremailhere#example.com'); // Who the email is to
$image = "path/to/image"; // image path
$fileExt = get_mime_by_extension($image); // <- what the file helper is used for (to get the mime type)
$this->email->message('<img src="data:'.$fileExt.';base64,'.base64_encode(file_get_contents($image)).'" alt="Test Image" />'); // Get the content of the file, and base64 encode it
if( ! $this->email->send()) {
// Error message here
} else {
// Message sent
}
Here is a way to get a string variable without having to worry about the coding.
If you have Mozilla Thunderbird, you can use it to fetch the html image code for you.
I wrote a little tutorial here, complete with a screenshot (it's for powershell, but that doesn't matter for this):
powershell email with html picture showing red x
And again:
How to embed images in email
I am generating images dynamically at run time with php and have them displayed in base 64 through the browser.
This same page/html document I need emailed but this method to show images does not work through email.
I have found two code igniter libraries to try and help me with this task two of which do not work
http://thecodeabode.blogspot.com/2010/11/codeigniter-and-php-howto-embedding.html
http://codeigniter.com/wiki/Richmail/
The first one gives me
Unable to send email using PHP mail().
Your server might not be configured to
send mail using this method.
From: "SystemDDX" Return-Path:
Reply-To: "internal-33e#google.com"
X-Sender: internal-33ek#google.com
X-Mailer: CodeIgniter X-Priority: 3
(Normal) Message-ID:
<1d42c5c99deeb#google.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
The second one is extremely outdated
The only method which I've managed to get working so far is using the code igniter
$this->email->attach("C:\myfile.jpg")
and then in my html reference using <img src='cid:myfile.jpg' />
The problem is my image is in base64 as I'm generating it dynamically so if I can't figure out anything else, how can I revert base 64 to a specific file name while keeping it in memory.
Please any tips and help would be greatly appreciated
The only method which I've managed to get working so far is ... <img src='cid:myfile.jpg' />
Good, because that's the way it should be done. As you have discovered, inlined base64 images are very poorly supported outside of bleeding-edge browsers.
The problem is my image is in base64 as I'm generating it dynamically so if I can't figure out anything else, how can I revert base 64 to a specific file name while keeping it in memory.
Well, how are you converting that image to base64 to begin with? You're certainly using base64_encode on the image's data, right?
Well then, don't do that!
Instead, write the image data to a new file on disk, and then reference that new image file when attaching it to the outgoing mail. Problem solved!
This assumes that the attachment method in your chosen email library only accepts real files -- read the docs, I'll bet that you can pass the image data directly and give it a "fake" file name at the same time.
You might want to consider using another modern mail library, like SwiftMailer. It can attach dynamic content smoothly and easily.
I'm generating sparklines graphics dynamically and using this to get the content:
function OutputToDataURI() {
ob_start(NULL,4096);
$this->Output();
header('Content-type: text/html');
return "data:image/png;base64,".base64_encode(ob_get_clean());
}
In that case, this will get your raw image data:
public function GetImageData() {
ob_start();
$this->Output();
return ob_get_clean();
}