Sending HTML email from PHP

Question

I am trying to send a simple HTML e-mail from PHP. The code below simply results in a blank e-mail in GMail. It also has an empty attachment called 'noname', which is not at all what I want; though that might just be a symptom of it not working.

The code I am using is:

<?php
//define the receiver of the email
$to = 'morrillkevin@gmail.com';
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Test HTML email';
//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: webmaster@example.com\r\nReply-To: webmaster@example.com";
//add boundary string and mime type specification
$headers .= "\r\nContent-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=\"PHP-alt-".$random_hash."\"";
//define the body of the message.
ob_start(); //Turn on output buffering
?>
--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
MIME-Version: 1.0
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; ?> 
MIME-Version: 1.0
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; ?>--
<?
//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";

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '10 at 11:04

9

If possible use the PHPMailer class. It will greatly simplify your work.

answered Jun 17 '10 at 11:04

AntonioCS

8,335
18
63
92

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 17 '10 at 18:18

It turns out the key is the encoding type. Instead of:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I needed to use:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

It might depend on stuff as detailed as how you save the PHP file in your own text editor. I haven't looked into it, but the iconv function in PHP may have brought me some joy too. So I think this part is really sensitive.

Here is a better snippet of sample code that shows the whole thing end-to-end:

$notice_text = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.";
$plain_text = "This is a plain text email.\r\nIt is very cool.";
$html_text = "<html><body>This is an <b style='color:purple'>HTML</b> text email.\r\nIt is very cool.</body></html>";

$semi_rand = md5(time());
$mime_boundary = "==MULTIPART_BOUNDARY_$semi_rand";
$mime_boundary_header = chr(34) . $mime_boundary . chr(34);

$to = "Me <foo@gmail.com>";
$from = "Me.com <me@me.com>";
$subject = "My Email";

$body = "$notice_text

--$mime_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

$plain_text

--$mime_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

$html_text

--$mime_boundary--";

if (@mail($to, $subject, $body,
    "From: " . $from . "\n" .
    "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" .
    "Content-Type: multipart/alternative;\n" .
    "     boundary=" . $mime_boundary_header))
    echo "Email sent successfully.";
else
    echo "Email NOT sent successfully!";

exit;

-Kevin

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 17 '10 at 07:15

6

You have to specify the mime-type within the headers-parameter of the mail-function. Add this:

$header  .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$header .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

It's also shown in the PHP-Documentation for the mail-function. See example 4

answered Jun 17 '10 at 07:15

Fidi

5,754
1
18
25

This won't work, because I need a multi-part message with both test and HTML. I tried adding MIME to both, and that doesn't help, though I think you're right that it is required. So I must have an additional problem on top of that. – KevinM Jun 17 '10 at 17:00

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 17 '10 at 11:09

3

If using a library is not a problem just use Swift Mailer

answered Jun 17 '10 at 11:09

rmontagud

153
2
12

I tried Pear mail to no avail. I general I am trying to minimize dependencies and actually understand how this works. – KevinM Jun 17 '10 at 18:27
There are multiple examples on the Swift Mailer documentation. Unlike PEAR Mail It doesn't have dependencies – rmontagud Jun 17 '10 at 19:52

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 26 '12 at 11:14

There is something important I want to notice about charsets here:

"Content-Type: text/plain; charset = \"UTF-8\";\n"

is right and not only

"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"

Hope I could help other people who frustrate while searching the same mistake like me.

Remember also to write only \r for windows and not for Linux-Servers. And at the end of the header should be an extra blank line:

$headers .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset = \"UTF-8\";\n";
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n";
$headers .= "\n";

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 06 '18 at 04:01

0

Following code is working for me to remove HTML Tags in mail.

$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n";      
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";

answered Sep 06 '18 at 04:01

Seetha Ramanjaneyulu Mallipudi

33
1
10

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 17 '10 at 09:53

Hope this helps you in php

$fname=$_POST['FirstName'];
$lname=$_POST['LastName'];
$dob=$_POST['DOB'];
$name=$fname.'  '.$lname;


$HTML="
<style>
<!--
.form_tbl{ border:1px solid #bbbbbb; background-color:#eeeeee;}
.form_tbl td{
    font-size:12px;
    color:#555555;
    padding:5px 5px;
}
h3{ 
    font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;
    font-size:12px;
    font-weight:bold;
    color:#0099CC;
    margin:0;
    padding:0;
}
.form_tbl td select{ margin:0; padding:0;}
.tbl_brdr{ border-top:1px solid #bbbbbb; border-left:1px solid #bbbbbb;}
.tbl_brdr td{ border-bottom:1px solid #bbbbbb;  border-right:1px solid #bbbbbb; padding:5px 5px 5px 10px; }
-->
</style>

<table class='form_tbl' width='650' border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='3'>

    <tr>
      <td colspan='2'><strong>PERSONAL DETAILS:</strong></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width='250' > Name:</td>
      <td >".$name."</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td  valign='middle'>Date Of Birth:</td>
      <td  valign='top'>".$dob."</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
";

$from=$name;
$subject='Student Registration Form';
$to= 'yourmail@mail.com';
//$to='development@ezone.com.np';
function sendHTMLemail($HTML,$from,$to,$subject)
{
// First we have to build our email headers
// Set out "from" address

    $headers = "From: $from\r\n"; 

// Now we specify our MIME version

    $headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"; 

// Now we attach the HTML version

    $headers .= //"--$boundary\r\n".
                "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n";
                //"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n"; 
// And then send the email ....

    if (mail($to,$subject,$HTML,$headers)) 
{

  $_SESSION['msg']="Details successfully sent!";

} 
else 
{
  $_SESSION['msg']="Sending Failed! Please try again later.";

}
}
sendHTMLemail($HTML,$from,$to,$subject);
?>

This doesn't include a text part to the e-mail, so it won't work for what I need. — KevinM, Jun 17 '10 at 17:04

Sending HTML email from PHP

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