Sending mail with a Php with a pdf attachment - php

I'm trying to send an email from the php mail command. I've been able to what I've tried so far, but can't seem to get it to work with an attachment. I've looked around the web and the best code I've found led me to this:
$fileatt_name = 'JuneFlyer.pdf';
$fileatt_type = 'application/pdf';
$fileatt = 'JuneFlyer.pdf';
$file = fopen($fileatt,'rb');
$data = fread($file,filesize($fileatt));
$data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
$MAEmail = "myemail#sbcglobal.net";
mail("$email_address", "$subject", "$message",
"From: ".$MAEmail."\n".
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n".
"Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1".
"--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
"Content-Type: {$fileatt_type};\n" .
" name=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" .
"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" .
" filename=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" .
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" .$data. "\n\n" );
There are two problems when I do this. First, the contents of the email dissappear.
Second, there is an error on the attachment. "Adobe Reader could not open June_flyer.pdf because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded)"
Any ideas of how to deal with this?
Thanks,
JB

The very best way how to deal with mail and php is use a reliable well tested library - email with attachments can easily get very nasty. I personally recommend SwiftMailer.

may be problem is within header. if you want to learn the hard way then figure out how you can configure diffrent mimetypes with headers and do the stuff.
or else easy way is use PHPmailer or other email libraries which will do the hard part for you.

One process to learn the correct email format for sending attachments is to try sending yourself an email (with attachment) using Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
Then view the source of that email. Try copying and pasting that message source into your PHP code (with a little trimming of headers like To and From and Subject that the mail() function already handles) and bada-bing, you have all you need right in front of you.
You can make it dynamic by replacing the chunks of stuff (HTML part, Text part, attachment) with your unique chunks or variables.
Then no fancy library is needed.

Related

PHP mail(): PDF won't be decoded from Base64

I'm working on building a mailing script in PHP. I have this code:
$mime_boundary = "---".md5(time());
$message = 'Content-Type: application/pdf;name="datenschutz.pdf";charset=utf-8\n';
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n";
$fileContents = file_get_contents("/datenschutz.pdf");
$message .= chunk_split(base64_encode($fileContents)) . "\r\n\r\n";
$message .= "--$mime_boundary--";
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
I'm aware that PHPMailer exists, alongside other libraries which would make this easier, but the problem is that I want to sell this software eventually and host it on different servers, so installing a library every time wouldn't be optimal. Therefore, I want to mostly use built-in PHP features.
I do recieve the email, and there is a PDF file attached to it, but neither Browsers nor Adobe Reader can open it.
I personally believe that it is because of the Base64 encoding, since I decoded the file once on a webpage and it worked just fine.
How Am I able to tell the Email program/Adobe Reader to decode the file from base64?
Thanks in advance
Edit: I replaced all different linebreaks with \n\n and redesigned the Content-Type strings so that they are strings with double-quotes. Sadly, it still does not work.

Send mail with embeded image without a library in php?

I'm sending mail with the mail() function of php. I embed image using base64 encoding inside the html code, but in gmail for example it doesn't show.
I read that a best way to do that is to use cid in the html code and attaching the image but I find only codes using phpmailer which I would like to avoid but the question is, is it possible with the php mail function or is there some simple classes to simplify the process ?
$message = $html_mail;
$headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'To: '. $to . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'From: My website <'.$admin_mail.'>' . "\r\n";
$response = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
Instead to using base64_encode image you should use html image tag with src path of your server, so it will download from your server.
<img src="http://www.yourserver.com/myimages/image1.jpg">
As your mail is having text/html header image will automatically parse via email client.
If you look at the "Original Source" in Gmail, you may find that gmail is editing the html to remove the image. idk if it does that or not though. I would try copying the html from the email in gmail and putting it in an html file and see if it loads in a browser correctly. Then you'll know for sure if gmail is messing it up or if it's a bug in another place.
FYI, sending html emails that work in all email clients can be a huge PAIN. The best guide I know of is this - https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-code-html-email-newsletters/ . SitePoint also sells a book about it that is the gold standard IMO.
Good luck!

using PHP to return an image in a base64 encoded email

I'm working on an email send and tracking application, but I'm running into a problem that I just can't figure out. I want to us a tracking image in my emails but I'm getting some strange behavior. Currently, I'm sending out emails encoded in base64. In the body of the HTML message I'm using an HTML image tag with a link to a PHP file on my server. That file sends back an image using the following PHP code:
header("Content-Type: image/png");
readfile("full-server-path-to-image.png");
This is where it gets strange. If I view the message in the Outlook email client the image will not display (just shows red "X" image icon). Other normally linked images will display just fine though. If I view the same message in Gmail I am able to see all of the images. It's really weird that the image serves up just fine in some email clients but not all of them.
I noticed this problem started when I changed to encoding my messages in base64. Before I started encoding my messages I was able to view all images in any email client. My gut is telling me this has something to do with the content-encoding-type, but I have no idea how to fix it. Any help would be appreciated!
Here is the PHP code I'm using to send out messages:
$myHTMLmessage = chunk_split(base64_encode('
<html><head></head><body>
<img src="https://www.my-web-site.com/openTrack.php?t={trackerid}"></a>
</body></html>'));
$boundary = uniqid('np');
$to = "somebody-else#another-web-site.com"
$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "From: somebody#my-web-site.com\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative;boundary=" . $boundary . "\r\n";
$message = "This is a MIME encoded message.";
$message .= "\r\n\r\n--" . $boundary . "\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Type: text/plain;charset=UTF-8\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
//Plain text body
$message .= "some plain text";
$message .= "\r\n\r\n--" . $boundary . "\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
//Html body
$message .= $myHTMLmessage;
$message .= "\r\n\r\n--" . $boundary . "--";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
Just in case anyone runs into something like this I figured out it all boils down to how email clients encode urls. In my original code I am using a url with 2 parameters inside my image src attribute. Like this:
http://www.my-web-site.com/page.php?pram1=something&pram2=something
When Outlook processes this url it get changed to:
http://www.my-web-site.com/page.php?pram1=something&pram2=something
Other email clients are smart enough to leave the & symbol the way it is without converting it to &
In my live code I needed to $_GET both url parameters and process them. If my script couldn't process both parameters then it wouldn't even get to the line where it would send back an image. The best workaround I could come up with was adding this code in my page.php file:
$pram1 = $_GET['pram1'];
$pram2 = $_GET['pram2'];
if(!isset($pram2)){
$pram2 = $_GET['amp;pram2'];
}
// now regardless of the email client both parameters contain a value to process
if((isset($pram1)) && (isset($pram2))){
header("Content-Type: image/png");
readfile("full-server-path-to-image.png");
}
I know is sounds pretty simple, but I had been scratching my head over this for way too long. Originally, I was convinced it was something to do with how the message was encoded before it was sent out. Never thought it would be Outlook changing my code. On second though Microsoft never likes to make things easy.....never gets old...lol

Sending attachment from file input in form

Hello I have a simple form which collect files. What I mean is that user should be able to put a file into the field and then by submitting the form mail should be sent to the address which is predefined and hardcoded.
here is my form:
<form action='/?page=admin-send' method='post' class='asholder' enctype=\"multipart/form-data\">\n";
<input type='file' name='file' id ='file'/><button name='accept' value='".$ssl->id."' type='submit'>Send</button>
</form>
And now using Php I want to collect this file and put it into email attachment.
$file = $_FILES["file"]["name"];
$filename = basename($file);
$file_size = filesize($file);
$content = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($file)));
$uid = md5(uniqid(time()));
$msg = "Hello, this is email with attachment!";
$mail = new HTMLMail();
$mail->from = 'DO NOT REPLY';
$mail->to = 'tstmail#testhost.com';
$mail->subject = 'admin warrning';
$mail->importance = 'Low';
$mail->body = "<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE=\"Tahoma\">$msg</FONT></P>";
$mail->headers = "From: ".$from."\r\n"
."MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"
."Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$uid."\"\r\n\r\n"
."This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\r\n"
."--".$uid."\r\n"
."Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$filename."\"\r\n"
."Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n"
."Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$filename."\"\r\n\r\n"
.$content."\r\n\r\n"
."--".$uid."--";
$mail->send();
And here is the scenario I have problem with:
I put file with name of xyz.pdf which is some document the most important thing is that this document is all right. When I submit my form I am getting the email. Email has attachment which name is xyz.pdf but when I am trying to open this file I am getting the message that the file is borken.
Can anyone point me what I am doing wrong?
I have done the same kind of task, i expect that my answer will help you for sure.
You are letting user 1. upload a file > *2.* process it at your server side using PHP > *3.* and them you are using HTML mail class to send your mail.
The problem is in third step. If the class does not provide you with sufficient function of mail, then it is not worth using. Writing mail HEADERS by yourself poses a lot of complexity and we as a developer should not go that inside.
I recommend you to use PHPMailer 5.1.2, to do this job. This is very simple and is of not more than 80KB (the core files, excluding demos, guides).
With this you can attach multiple files of any mime type(pdf, jpeg, doc etc.) without worrying about headers. This is very simple and i have tested , the attachments are readable at the mailbox.
If you download complete package with demos, you will see how easy it is to implement with PHP.
PHPMailer is the best free php class to send mails on the net(i think) with no bugs.
I haven't used HTML Mail class what you are using, so don't know whether it has functions for attaching files. But writing mail headers is not good. If you are using it by your wish after knowing all this, then i am sorry for posting this answer.

generating PDF on the fly using TCPDF

i'm using TCPDF library to generate a PDF (bill) on the fly and send it via email. It all works but i have a weird problem. When i send the email to a gmail account everything is fine, but when i send it to my mail server i get the email with the pdf but when i open it it doesn't open and i get a message "Adobe reader could not open file.pdf because it's either not a supported format or because the file has been damaged." (the pdf in the email is blank).
I save the PDF into a string like so:
$attachment = $pdf->Output("mypdf.pdf","E");
$attachment = chunk_split($attachment);
and send it via email like so:
$header .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$header .= "Content-Type: application/pdf; name='mypdf.pdf'".$eol;
$header .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64".$eol;
$header .= "Content-Disposition= attachment".$eol.$eol;
$header .= $attachment;
i'm sending the email with php mail function.
The funny thing is if i force the download of the pdf, like so:
$attachment = $pdf->Output("mypdf.pdf","D");
the file is OK and opens without a problem! But if i change it back to "E" it doesn't work.
The other weird thing is that some times i can open the pdf (that i got on my mail server) without a problem, but the next time it wont work (even if i send the exact same email).
Does any one have any idea what is going on? I would like to avoid saving the pdf on the local server.
Why you avoid saving pdf file? You can save it with "F" parameter. After mail has sent you can delete it with unlink function
I see some minor flaws:
Content-Disposition= should be Content-Disposition:
You should end your attachment with "--".$separator."--"
I'm not sure, if this fixes your problems. Anyway I think it's quite complicated to create all the headers manually. I use PEARs Mail_Mime for this task since years and you will find a lot of simple ready to use solutions.

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