Send attachments with PHP Mail()?

Question

I need to send a pdf with mail, is it possible?

$to = \"xxx\";
$subject = \"Subject\" ;
$message = \'Example message with html\';
$header         


        

Answer 1

After struggling for a while with badly formatted attachments, this is the code I used:

$email = new PHPMailer();
$email->From      = 'from@somedomain.com';
$email->FromName  = 'FromName';
$email->Subject   = 'Subject';
$email->Body      = 'Body';
$email->AddAddress( 'to@somedomain.com' );
$email->AddAttachment( "/path/to/filename.ext" , "filename.ext", 'base64', 'application/octet-stream' );
$email->Send();

Answer 2

To send an email with attachment we need to use the multipart/mixed MIME type that specifies that mixed types will be included in the email. Moreover, we want to use multipart/alternative MIME type to send both plain-text and HTML version of the email.Have a look at the example:

<?php 
//define the receiver of the email 
$to = 'youraddress@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: webmaster@example.com\r\nReply-To: webmaster@example.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('attachment.zip'))); 
//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"; 
?>

As you can see, sending an email with attachment is easy to accomplish. In the preceding example we have multipart/mixed MIME type, and inside it we have multipart/alternative MIME type that specifies two versions of the email. To include an attachment to our message, we read the data from the specified file into a string, encode it with base64, split it in smaller chunks to make sure that it matches the MIME specifications and then include it as an attachment.

Taken from here.

Answer 3

            $to = "to@gmail.com";
            $subject = "Subject Of The Mail";
            $message = "Hi there,<br/><br/>This is my message.<br><br>";

            $headers = "From: From-Name<from@gmail.com>";
// boundary
            $semi_rand = md5(time());
            $mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x";

// headers for attachment
            $headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" . "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" . " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";

// multipart boundary
            $message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" . "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\"\n" . "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" . $message . "\n\n";

                $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n";
                $filepath = 'uploads/'.$_FILES['image']['name'];
                move_uploaded_file($_FILES['image']['tmp_name'], $filepath); //upload the file
                $filename = $_FILES['image']['name'];
                $file = fopen($filepath, "rb");
                $data = fread($file, filesize($filepath));
                fclose($file);
                $data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
                $message .= "Content-Type: {\"application/octet-stream\"};\n" . " name=\"$filename\"\n" .
                        "Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" . " filename=\"$filename\"\n" .
                        "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" . $data . "\n\n";
                $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n";

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

Answer 4

For PHP 5.5.27 security update

$file = $path.$filename;
$content = file_get_contents( $file);
$content = chunk_split(base64_encode($content));
$uid = md5(uniqid(time()));
$name = basename($file);

// 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";
$nmessage .= "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$filename."\"\r\n\r\n";
$nmessage .= $content."\r\n\r\n";
$nmessage .= "--".$uid."--";

if (mail($mailto, $subject, $nmessage, $header)) {
    return true; // Or do something here
} else {
  return false;
}

Answer 5

Swiftmailer is another easy-to-use script that automatically protects against email injection and makes attachments a breeze. I also strongly discourage using PHP's built-in mail() function.

To use:

• Download Swiftmailer, and place the lib folder in your project
• Include the main file using require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';

Now add the code when you need to mail:

// Create the message
$message = Swift_Message::newInstance()
    ->setSubject('Your subject')
    ->setFrom(array('webmaster@mysite.com' => 'Web Master'))
    ->setTo(array('receiver@example.com'))
    ->setBody('Here is the message itself')
    ->attach(Swift_Attachment::fromPath('myPDF.pdf'));

//send the message          
$mailer->send($message);

More information and options can be found in the Swiftmailer Docs.

Answer 6

HTML Code:

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="POST" action=""> 
    <label>Your Name <input type="text" name="sender_name" /> </label> 
    <label>Your Email <input type="email" name="sender_email" /> </label> 
    <label>Your Contact Number <input type="tel" name="contactnumber" /> </label>
    <label>Subject <input type="text" name="subject" /> </label> 
    <label>Message <textarea name="description"></textarea> </label> 
    <label>Attachment <input type="file" name="attachment" /></label> 
    <label><input type="submit" name="button" value="Submit" /></label> 
</form> 

PHP Code:

<?php
if($_POST['button']){
{
    //Server Variables
    $server_name = "Your Name";
    $server_mail = "your_mail@domain.com";

    //Name Attributes of HTML FORM
    $sender_email = "sender_email";
    $sender_name = "sender_name";
    $contact = "contactnumber";
    $mail_subject = "subject";
    $input_file = "attachment";
    $message = "description";

    //Fetching HTML Values
    $sender_name = $_POST[$sender_name];
    $sender_mail = $_POST[$sender_email];
    $message = $_POST[$message];
    $contact= $_POST[$contact];
    $mail_subject = $_POST[$mail_subject];

    //Checking if File is uploaded
    if(isset($_FILES[$input_file])) 
    { 
        //Main Content
        $main_subject = "Subject seen on server's mail";
        $main_body = "Hello $server_name,<br><br> 
        $sender_name ,contacted you through your website and the details are as below: <br><br> 
        Name : $sender_name <br> 
        Contact Number : $contact <br> 
        Email : $sender_mail <br> 
        Subject : $mail_subject <br> 
        Message : $message.";

        //Reply Content
        $reply_subject = "Subject seen on sender's mail";
        $reply_body = "Hello $sender_name,<br> 
        \t Thank you for filling the contact form. We will revert back to you shortly.<br><br>
        This is an auto generated mail sent from our Mail Server.<br>
        Please do not reply to this mail.<br>
        Regards<br>
        $server_name";

//#############################DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE#############################
        $filename= $_FILES[$input_file]['name'];
        $file = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($_FILES[$input_file]['tmp_name'])));
        $uid = md5(uniqid(time()));
        //Sending mail to Server
        $retval = mail($server_mail, $main_subject, "--$uid\r\nContent-type:text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\r\n\r\n $main_body \r\n\r\n--$uid\r\nContent-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"$filename\"\r\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\nContent-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"\r\n\r\n$file\r\n\r\n--$uid--", "From: $sender_name <$sender_mail>\r\nReply-To: $sender_mail\r\nMIME-Version: 1.0\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"$uid\"\r\n\r\n");
        //Sending mail to Sender
        $retval = mail($sender_mail, $reply_subject, $reply_body , "From: $server_name<$server_mail>\r\nMIME-Version: 1.0\r\nContent-type: text/html\r\n");
//#############################DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE#############################

        //Output
        if ($retval == true) {
            echo "Message sent successfully...";
            echo "<script>window.location.replace('index.html');</script>";
        } else {
            echo "Error<br>";
            echo "Message could not be sent...Try again later";
            echo "<script>window.location.replace('index.html');</script>";
        }
    }else{
        echo "Error<br>";
        echo "File Not Found";
    }
}else{
    echo "Error<br>";
    echo "Unauthorised Access";
}