Email PDF Attachment with PHP Using FPDF - php

Question

I want to email a PDF as an attachment that was created using FPDF. My code looks like this, but the attachment never comes through.
<?php
require('lib/fpdf/fpdf.php');
$pdf = new FPDF('P', 'pt', array(500,233));
$pdf->AddFont('Georgiai','','georgiai.php');
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->Image('lib/fpdf/giftcertificate.jpg',0,0,500);
$pdf->SetFont('georgiai','',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
$doc = $pdf->Output('test.pdf', 'S');
//define the receiver of the email
$to = 'myemail#example.com';
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Test email with attachment';
//create a boundary string. It must be unique
//so we use the MD5 algorithm to generate a random hash
$random_hash = md5(date('r', time()));
//define the headers we want passed. Note that they are separated with \r\n
$headers = "From: reply#test.com\r\nReply-To: reply#test.com";
//add boundary string and mime type specification
$headers .= "\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"PHP-mixed-".$random_hash."\"";
//read the atachment file contents into a string,
//encode it with MIME base64,
//and split it into smaller chunks
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($doc)));
//define the body of the message.
ob_start(); //Turn on output buffering
?>
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>"
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hello World!!!
This is simple text email message.
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<h2>Hello World!</h2>
<p>This is something with <b>HTML</b> formatting.</p>
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: application/zip; name="attachment.zip"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment
<?php echo $attachment; ?>
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--
<?php
//copy current buffer contents into $message variable and delete current output buffer
$message = ob_get_clean();
//send the email
$mail_sent = #mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers );
//if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed"
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed";
?>
Anyone familiar with doing this? I'm hoping to use the PHP mail() function.

Answer 1

This ended up working for me:
<?php
require('lib/fpdf/fpdf.php');
$pdf = new FPDF('P', 'pt', array(500,233));
$pdf->AddFont('Georgiai','','georgiai.php');
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->Image('lib/fpdf/image.jpg',0,0,500);
$pdf->SetFont('georgiai','',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
// email stuff (change data below)
$to = "myemail#example.com";
$from = "me#example.com";
$subject = "send email with pdf attachment";
$message = "<p>Please see the attachment.</p>";
// a random hash will be necessary to send mixed content
$separator = md5(time());
// carriage return type (we use a PHP end of line constant)
$eol = PHP_EOL;
// attachment name
$filename = "test.pdf";
// encode data (puts attachment in proper format)
$pdfdoc = $pdf->Output("", "S");
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($pdfdoc));
// main header
$headers = "From: ".$from.$eol;
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0".$eol;
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$separator."\"";
// no more headers after this, we start the body! //
$body = "--".$separator.$eol;
$body .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit".$eol.$eol;
$body .= "This is a MIME encoded message.".$eol;
// message
$body .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$body .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"".$eol;
$body .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit".$eol.$eol;
$body .= $message.$eol;
// attachment
$body .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$body .= "Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$filename."\"".$eol;
$body .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64".$eol;
$body .= "Content-Disposition: attachment".$eol.$eol;
$body .= $attachment.$eol;
$body .= "--".$separator."--";
// send message
mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);
?>

Answer 2

if you use PHPMailer
$attachment= $pdf->Output('attachment.pdf', 'S');
$mailer->AddStringAttachment($attachment, 'attachment.pdf');
Enjoy

Answer 3

I think you have a superfluous command there. You are using the string variant of the Output() command:
$doc = $pdf->Output('test.pdf', 'S');
Then you are performing a file_get_contents() on it:
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($doc)));
It is not a file, it is a file in a string, as file_get_contents() would return if $doc was a filename.
Just reduce that down to:
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($doc));
Then see if any more errors occur.

Answer 4

Create one pdf file name as testing.pdf
<?php
//define the receiver of the email
$to = 'elangovan2me#gmail.com';
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Test email with attachment';
//create a boundary string. It must be unique
//so we use the MD5 algorithm to generate a random hash
$random_hash = md5(date('r', time()));
//define the headers we want passed. Note that they are separated with \r\n
$headers = "From: elangovan2me#gmail.com\r\nReply-To: meeetcity#gmail.com";
//add boundary string and mime type specification
$headers .= "\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"PHP-mixed-".$random_hash."\"";
//read the atachment file contents into a string,
//encode it with MIME base64,
//and split it into smaller chunks
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents('testing.pdf')));
//define the body of the message.
ob_start(); //Turn on output buffering
?>
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>"
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hello World!!!
This is simple text email message.
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<h2>Email Pdf File Attachements</h2>
<p>This is something with <b>HTML</b> formatting.</p>
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: application/pdf; name="attachment.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment
<?php echo $attachment; ?>
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--
<?php
//copy current buffer contents into $message variable and delete current output buffer
$message = ob_get_clean();
//send the email
$mail_sent = #mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers );
//if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed"
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed";
?>

Answer 5

None of these worked for me...but were close. This is what worked for me and within a WordPress Plugin
function mmd_CreatePDFTest()
{
require(plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ).'pdf/fpdf.php');
$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont("Arial","B",14);
$pdf->Cell(40,10, "this is a pdf example");
$pdfdoc = $pdf->Output("", "S");
$content = chunk_split(base64_encode($pdfdoc));
$filename = "test.pdf";
$file_name = "test.pdf";
$uid = md5(uniqid(time()));
$mailto = "recipient#gmail.com";
$from_mail = "office#yourdomain.com";
$replyto = $from_mail = "office#yourdomain.com";
$from_name = "YOUR COMPANY NAME | PDF Test";
$subject = "send email with pdf attachment";
$message = "<Please see the attachment.";
// header
$header = "From: ".$from_name." <".$from_mail.">\r\n";
$header .= "Reply-To: ".$replyto."\r\n";
$header .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$uid."\"\r\n\r\n";
// message & attachment
$nmessage = "--".$uid."\r\n";
$nmessage .= "Content-type:text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";
$nmessage .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\r\n\r\n";
$nmessage .= $message."\r\n\r\n";
$nmessage .= "--".$uid."\r\n";
$nmessage .= "Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$filename."\"\r\n";
$nmessage .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n";
$nmessage .= "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$file_name."\"\r\n\r\n";
$nmessage .= $content."\r\n\r\n";
$nmessage .= "--".$uid."--";
$returnpath = "-f" . $from_mail;
if (mail($mailto, $subject, $nmessage, $header, $returnpath))
return true;
else
return false;
} // function mmd_CreatePDFTest()