[CODE SPOT] PHP TUTORIALS

Making Our E-Mail More Advanced

We're going to take our previous script (simple_mailer.php - part 3) and add some extra input fields into the user form, so that they can control their MIME preferences and attach files. We are going to add 3 new functions:

· mail_type - To specify whether the message contains a text/plain (default) or text/html media type, which allows the user to send an HTML e-mail. If the user attaches a file to the e-mail, the form will default to text/plain regardless of the user's choice.
· mail_encoding - To specify whether the message contains 7bit (default) or 8bit data.
· userfile - To allow the user to upload a file from their computer and attach it to an e-mail.

Modifying the Original Code

As we modify the code from the mail_form() function, save the newly modified script as adv_mail.php.

function mail_form()
{
global $PHP_SELF;
?>
<FORM METHOD="POST" ENCTYPE="MULTIPART/FORM-DATA"
      ACTION="<?php echo $PHP_SELF ?>">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="action" VALUE="send_mail">
<div align="center">
<table cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" width="90%" border="1">
<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">To</th>
<td width="70%"><input name="mail_to" size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">Cc</th>
<td width="70%"><input type="mail_cc" size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">Bcc</th>
<td width="70%"><input type="mail_bcc" size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">From</th>
<td width="70%"><input type="mail_from" size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">Reply-To</th>
<td width="70%"><input type="mail_reply_to" size="20"></td>
</tr>

New Code:

<tr> 
<th align="center" width="30%">Attachment</th> 
<td width="70%"><input type="file" name="userfile"></td> 
</tr> 
 <tr> 
<th align="center" width="30%">Type</th> 
<td width="70%"> 
<input type="radio" value="text" name="mail_type" checked>TEXT
<input type="radio" value="html" name="mail_type">HTML</td> 
</tr> 
<tr> 
<th align="center" width="30%">Encoding</th> 
<td width="70%"> 
<input type="radio" value="7bit" name="mail_encoding" checked>7BIT 
<input type="radio" value="8bit" name="mail_encoding">8BIT</td> 
</tr>

<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">Subject</th>
<td width="70%"><input type="mail_subject" size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" width="30%">Body</th>
<td width="70%"><textarea name="mail_body" rows="16" cols="70"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" width="100%" colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Send" name="submit">
<input type="reset" value="Reset" name="reset">
</th></tr></table></div></form>
<?php
}

Now our new interface looks like this:

Screenshot of the Advanced E-Mail form

Launch this page

Next we have to modify the send_mail() function to include our new variables in the $mail_parts associative array. We also have to add MIME-specific headers and content to correspond to the options specified on the form by the user. The new code will look like this:

function send_mail() 
{
   global $mail_to, $mail_cc, $mail_bcc, $mail_from, $mail_reply_to;
   global $mail_body, $mail_subject;
   global $userfile, $userfile_type, $userfile_name, $userfile_size;
   global $mail_type, $mail_encoding;

   $mail_parts["mail_type"] = $mail_type;
   $mail_parts["mail_encoding"] = $mail_encoding;

   $mail_parts["userfile"] = $userfile;
   $mail_parts["userfile_type"] = $userfile_type;
   $mail_parts["userfile_name"] = $userfile_name;
   $mail_parts["userfile_size"] = $userfile_size;


   $mail_parts["mail_to"] = $mail_to;
   $mail_parts["mail_from"] = $mail_from;
   $mail_parts["mail_reply_to"] = $mail_reply_to;
   $mail_parts["mail_cc"] = $mail_cc;
   $mail_parts["mail_bcc"] = $mail_bcc;
   $mail_parts["mail_subject"] = trim($mail_subject);
   $mail_parts["mail_body"] = $mail_body;

   if(my_mail($mail_parts))
      user_message("Successfully sent an e-mail titled '$mail_subject'.");

   else error_message("An unknown error occurred while attempting to
                                 send an e-mail titled '$mail_subject'.");
}

function my_mail($mail_parts) 
{
   $mail_to = $mail_parts["mail_to"];
   $mail_from = $mail_parts["mail_from"];
   $mail_reply_to = $mail_parts["mail_reply_to"];
   $mail_cc = $mail_parts["mail_cc"];
   $mail_bcc = $mail_parts["mail_bcc"];
   $mail_subject = $mail_parts["mail_subject"];
   $mail_body = $mail_parts["mail_body"];

   $mail_type = $mail_parts["mail_type"];
   $mail_encoding = $mail_parts["mail_encoding"];

   $userfile = $mail_parts["userfile"];
   $userfile_type = $mail_parts["userfile_type"];
   $userfile_name = $mail_parts["userfile_name"];
   $userfile_size = $mail_parts["userfile_size"];

   if(empty($mail_to)) error_message("Empty to field!");
   if(empty($mail_subject)) error_message("Empty subject!");
   if(empty($mail_body)) error_message("Empty body! ");

   $mail_to = str_replace(";", ",", $mail_to);

   $mail_headers = '';

   if(!empty($mail_from)) $mail_headers .= "From: $mail_from\n";
   if(!empty($mail_reply_to)) $mail_headers .= "Reply-to: $mail_reply_to\n";
   if(!empty($mail_cc))
            $mail_headers .= "Cc: " . str_replace(";", ",", $mail_cc) . "\n";
   if(!empty($mail_bcc))
            $mail_headers .= "Bcc: " . str_replace(";", ",", $mail_bcc) . "\n";

   $mail_subject = stripslashes($mail_subject);
   $mail_body = stripslashes($mail_body);

   if($userfile_size > 0)
   {
      $mail_boundary = md5(uniqid(time()));
      $mail_headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
      $mail_headers .= "Content-type: multipart/mixed;
                                      boundary=\"$mail_boundary\"\r\n\r\n";
      $mail_headers .= "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\r\n\r\n";

      $fp = fopen($userfile, "r");
      $file = fread($fp, filesize($userfile));
      $file = chunk_split(base64_encode($file));

      $new_mail_body = "--$mail_boundary\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= "Content-type:text/plain;charset=$mail_charset\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= "Content-transfer-encoding:$mail_encoding\r\n\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= "$mail_body\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= "--$mail_boundary\r\n";
      if(!empty($userfile_type)) $mime_type = $userfile_type;
      else $mime_type = "application/octet-stream";

      $new_mail_body .= "Content-type:$mime_type;name=$userfile_name\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= "Content-transfer-encoding:base64\r\n\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= $file . "\r\n\r\n";
      $new_mail_body .= "--$mail_boundary--";
      $mail_body = $new_mail_body;
   }
   else if($mail_type == 'html')
   {
      $mail_headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=$mail_charset\r\n";
      $mail_headers .= "Content-transfer-encoding:$mail_encoding\r\n\r\n";
   }
   else
   {
      $mail_headers .= "Content-type: text/plain; charset=$mail_charset\r\n";
      $mail_headers .= "Content-transfer-encoding:$mail_encoding\r\n\r\n";
   }

   return mail($mail_to,$mail_subject,$mail_body,$mail_headers);
}

So there you have it! An advanced e-mail form that can handle headers, content types, file attachments, and messages of unlimited length.

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