Php mail: how to send html?

Question

The code below is sending an email correctly but for the body. I need to show html in the body of the message and I cannot make it. The examples in the web won't send the email :(

How can I fix my code to send the email with the html in the body?

Thanks a ton!

<?php

$to = 'mymail@mail.com';

$subject = 'I need to show html'; 

$from ='example@example.com'; 

$body = '<p style=color:red;>This text should be red</p>';

ini_set("sendmail_from", $from);

$headers = "From: " . $from . "\r\nReply-To: " . $from . "";
  $headers .= "Content-type: text/html\r\n"; 
if (mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers)) {

  echo("<p>Sent</p>");
 } else {
  echo("<p>Error...</p>");
 }

?>

+1 for question I had similarly question but this thread answers it ( from various angles ) — Sam, Mar 30 '11 at 01:55

helle · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-04T11:16:13.123

20

use this header for the mail:

 $header  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
 $header .= "Content-type: text/html; charset: utf8\r\n";

and for the content/body:

<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
... ... ...

it's important to use inline css commands and recommanded to use tables for the interface.

...

In your Mail-Body you than have to put HTML code with head and body

edited Feb 04 '11 at 11:16

answered Feb 04 '11 at 11:01

helle

11,183
9
56
83

Thanks helle, but error in the headers and no html in the body :( – lleoun Feb 04 '11 at 11:06
change your line to this as well. and close all tags you have opened. and use `` tag. `$headers .= "From: " . $from . "\r\nReply-To: " . $from . "";` – helle Feb 04 '11 at 11:09
Sorry, I'm not getting it: $headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"; $headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset: utf8\r\n"; sends the email with the text in read what is great. But in the from field is shown www-data .. how can I fix that? Once it is done it will be over. Thanks a lot – lleoun Feb 04 '11 at 11:21
@helle you mean its better to use tables than divs for layout? – Sam Mar 30 '11 at 01:57
2

@Sam in the case of mails: yes. – helle Mar 30 '11 at 16:52

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 04 '11 at 11:04

4

Have you looked at the headers of the incoming mail? It says

Reply-To: example@example.comContent-type: text/html

Simply add another \r\n here:

Reply-To: " . $from . "\r\n";

answered Feb 04 '11 at 11:04

Linus Kleen

33,871
11
91
99

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 04 '11 at 11:03

2

I recommend rather than messing around with doing this yourself you use one of the many free classes available all over the web to do it.

I would recommend: PHPMailer

edited Feb 04 '11 at 11:03

ThiefMaster

310,957
84
592
636

answered Feb 04 '11 at 11:02

James

2,609
3
20
27

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 18 '11 at 21:41

I found this works well!

Source

<?php
//define the receiver of the email
$to = 'youraddress@example.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; ?>  
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; ?>--
<?
//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";
?>

This relied upon the mail command. This command is present is most *NIX systems. — Paul Calabro, Apr 18 '12 at 18:01

ThiefMaster · Answer 5 · 2011-02-04T12:59:24.457

-3

Simple answer: Don't do it. HTML emails are evil and annoying. At least if there's no PROPER plaintext version included. Proper = same information like in the HTML version, not just a stupid comment about getting another email client or a link to the html version if it's available on the web.

If you really need it: http://pear.php.net/package/Mail_Mime

edited Feb 04 '11 at 12:59

answered Feb 04 '11 at 11:02

ThiefMaster

310,957
84
592
636

3

They can be annoying if being misused. Though, if used carefully, they are quite good. In my opinion, best practice is to send both plain/text and plain/html bodies, so user can chose which one he wants to see. – binaryLV Feb 04 '11 at 11:18

Php mail: how to send html?

5 Answers5

Linked

Related