Hi everybody,
I am asking this question second time in a different manner. I want to insert UIImages inside the composer sheet of MFMailComposerViewController.
Please note I dont want to attach them but I want to place them in a table using HTML code which will be the part of the email body.
I am really finding it difficult to find any help online, so if anyone come across any tutorial or any kind of info plz let me know.
Tnx in advance.
There are two ways to do this, depending on where the images are stored:
If the images are out on a server, then just include HTML <img> tags with the source URL set to the remote image. The user previewing the mail message is shown the image during composition and the receiver sees it when they open the message (unless they've disabled default image loading).
If the images are on the phone you could include them as 'inline' images. There are two steps to this. First you have to attach all the images you want to use as multi-part MIME attachments and they will need to be assigned a 'content ID' (aka cid), a filename, and Content-Disposition set to inline. Inside your HTML message body you can reference them like so:
<img src="cid:{messageid}/image.png" alt="My image" />
The bad news is, the standard iPhone mail composer mechanism doesn't allow adding this additional data to attachments. The second thing is to mark the email as having an "alternative" MIME content-type. Again, the mail composer doesn't let you do that.
The way around this is to either compose the message yourself then send it off to the mail server directly via SMTP, or have a server proxy do it for you via an SMTP relay. If you decide to go this way you might want to check out skpsmtpmessage on Google code or a service like AuthSMTP.
Once the user receives this message, however, they see a self-contained HTML message with all the inline images right there. But it's a lot of hassle to set up. The first method (putting images on server) is by far the easier way to go.
Hi Ramin,
I have the same problem as rkbang has. So is there really no way to have an HTML-Email with an inline image composed with the MFMailComposerViewController? As I said I have the same situation. I want to compose an HTML email witch basically contains an image with an image map. The image is stored in my app. Therefore I do the following:
MFMailComposeViewController *picker = [[MFMailComposeViewController alloc] init];
picker.mailComposeDelegate = self;
[picker setSubject:@"Image Mail"];
// Set up recipients
NSArray *toRecipients = [NSArray arrayWithObject:@"[email protected]"];
[picker setToRecipients:toRecipients];
// Attach an image to the email
NSBundle* bundle = [NSBundle mainBundle];
NSString* path = [bundle pathForResource:@"myImage" ofType:@"png"];
NSData* myData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
[picker addAttachmentData:myData mimeType:@"image/png"fileName:@"myImage.png"];
NSString *emailBody = @"<html>\n\
<head>\n\
<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\">\n\
<title></title>\n\
</head>\n\
<body>\n\
<img src=\"myImage.png\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" border=\"0\" usemap=\"#mail\"\n\
</body>\n\
</html>";
NSLog(@"%@", emailBody);
[picker setMessageBody:emailBody isHTML:YES];
[_viewController presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];
[picker release];
The result is a HTML mail with a broken link symbol at the image's place and the image shown as an attachment afterwards.
Can you please provide an example how to do the stuff with the cid for inline images? I have no clue how to achieve that via the API.
Maybe this'll work for you:
How to Embedd UIImage into a Mail Composer message body
Here's what it says:
Basically, you convert your image to base64 (the base64 attached below have to be shorten cause of the message length limit, so it's not a valid image) string and embed in the image tag. I remember I've stop working on this is because the embedded image(s) are only viewable from iPhone to another iPhone, I remember testing it with Gmail, our work Outlook client with no luck display the image, when I view source the data is there. So I don't think is the so much of a spam filter issue but email clients are just smarter. While I was research this, I actually found that this is how many spammers to blast out emails with image only info so it by passes the spam filter. Damn spammers, I was going to use it for good cause but since it was pretty much useless when I found out that most mail client won't display the image. For what it's worth, here is the code.
NSString *eMailBody = @"<html>Just convert your image file to base64 to embed into the email<img src="data:image/gif;base64,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"></html>";
NSString *encodedBody = [eMailBody stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString *urlString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"mailto:[email protected]?subject=ImageTest&body=%@", encodedBody];
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:urlString];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
(Unfortunately the following method doesn't work, but I'm leaving this post because the image URL path conversion string example is really helpful for other cases where you need HTML filepaths in your code. Please see my post on Base64Encoding for a way that does work.)
I ran into this issue myself, and I found a way that works. You CAN get the images to appear inline by using the full filepath to the image.
It takes a little conversion on your part, but use the normal methods for obtaining your app's directories (NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath], etc...), then convert the string to a literal URL. For example, the "path" string returned above will contain something like "/Users/Me/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/3.2/Applications/25ADA98D-8DF4-4344-8B78-C18BC757EBDC/MyEmailingApplication.app". You'll need to make this string into "file:///Users//Me//Library//Application%20Support//iPhone%20 Simulator//3.2//Applications//25ADA98D-8DF4-4344-8B78-C18BC757EBDC//MyEmailingApplication.app//" and then you can add your image filenames to the end. (this example points into the app resources, but the same applies for the tmp and documents directories).
You can do this string conversion with a combination of [NSString stringWithFormat:@"file:///%@//%@",path,myImageName] after using [path stringByReplacingOccurencesOfString:@"/" withString:@"//"] to fix the forward-slashes in "path", and [path stringByReplacingOccurencesOfString:@" " withString:@"%20"] to make the spaces HTML friendly. Now you can use this literal URL in your HTML encoded email body, like img src=\"",pathToMyImage,"\"
The example looks like a lot of work, but actually once you get it setup, it's not hard at all, and it works like a charm :-) Good luck!
Mike， I think you are right,
Can you share your source code at here ?
Thanks.
EDIT: What you're about to read DOESN'T work (yet)! Check my other post on Base64 Encoding your image which DOES work.
This one looks just fine in the email composition window, but the actual sent email doesn't include the pics (I just tested it on my phone). I mistakenly thought that the mail app would base64 encode the images itself (It does so for attached images). And, although it's a pain, you can get an email on the iPhone to insert multiple "flowed" inline images by going to your image folder, copying an image to the clipboard, going to your email, and pasting it where you want. You can write more text, save the email as a draft, and repeat the process with more images pasted into the same email. Send the email to yourself, then open it on your computer with Text Edit. You'll be able to see exactly the formatting that the email takes (including the base64 encoded images).
What strangely happens with my code below is that the text makes it into the email, but the images just disappear entirely (not even a dangling "broken" reference to them :-/ ). This makes me doubt that linking to the images on an external server would work. I'm going to continue working on this... I'm wondering if it will behave differently if I have the email launch in the mail app outside of my program. I'll keep coming back to update this as I figure more out... it just seems like this should be easier than Apple makes it :-/
This code is written for image files that you'd store in your "Documents" directory (so your app would have to be creating images that are stored there, and HTML code that references those images. For images that you have stored in the app bundle, use [[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath] for the initial path to the images).
- (void)createEmailWithInlineImages {
//get app Documents directory
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
//make spaces HTML friendly
documentsPath = [documentsPath stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@" " withString:@"%20"];
//make forward-slash into double-forward-slash for HTML file-URL comapatibility
documentsPath = [documentsPath stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"/" withString:@"//"];
//get the name for your image into the string however your app works
//create a string formatted like a literal HTML URL to the image, e.g.
//file:///myiPhoneFileSystemPath//MyApplication//MyApplicationDirectories//Documents//imageName.jpg
NSString *myHTMLImageName = @"myHTMLImage.jpg";
NSString *imagePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"file:///%@//%@",documentsPath,myHTMLImageName];
//this string is an example of your email body text with HTML formatting
NSString *emailText = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@%@",@"<html><head><title>My Inline Image Example Email</title></head><body><p>Here's some text before the inline image</p><p><img src = \"",imagePath,@"\"></p><p>Here's some text for after the inline image. You could add more inline images and text after this with the same kind of formatting.</p></body></html>"];
//create email
MFMailComposeViewController *emailDialog = [[MFMailComposeViewController alloc] init];
emailDialog.mailComposeDelegate = self;
[emailDialog setSubject:@"My Inline Image Email Document"];
[emailDialog setMessageBody:emailText isHTML:YES];
[self presentModalViewController:emailDialog animated:YES];
[emailDialog release];
}
Back again with a new answer. I'm still leaving my previous code up though, because I'm still not convinced that there's not a way to make use of it. I'll keep at it myself. The following code DOES work. Mustafa suggests base64 encoding the images, and says that they only work Apple to Apple, but that's not actually true. Base64 encoding does work with most mail clients now (IE previously didn't support it, but now it is supported for images up to a certain size, though I'm not sure exactly what the size is). The problem is that mail clients like Gmail would strip out your image data, but there's a simple workaround for that... just putting <b> and </b> tags around your <img ...> tag is all you need to do to keep it from getting stripped out. In order to get an image into your email, you need to get a base64 encoder into your project. There are several out there (mostly C though), but the simplest ObjC one I found was called NSData+Base64 by Matt Gallagher (I took the "+" out of the name after copying it in because it gave me problems). Copy the .h and .m files into your project and be sure to #import the .h file where you plan on using it. Then code like this will get an image into your email body...
- (void)createEmail {
//Create a string with HTML formatting for the email body
NSMutableString *emailBody = [[[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:@"<html><body>"] retain];
//Add some text to it however you want
[emailBody appendString:@"<p>Some email body text can go here</p>"];
//Pick an image to insert
//This example would come from the main bundle, but your source can be elsewhere
UIImage *emailImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"myImageName.png"];
//Convert the image into data
NSData *imageData = [NSData dataWithData:UIImagePNGRepresentation(emailImage)];
//Create a base64 string representation of the data using NSData+Base64
NSString *base64String = [imageData base64EncodedString];
//Add the encoded string to the emailBody string
//Don't forget the "<b>" tags are required, the "<p>" tags are optional
[emailBody appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"<p><b><img src='data:image/png;base64,%@'></b></p>",base64String]];
//You could repeat here with more text or images, otherwise
//close the HTML formatting
[emailBody appendString:@"</body></html>"];
NSLog(@"%@",emailBody);
//Create the mail composer window
MFMailComposeViewController *emailDialog = [[MFMailComposeViewController alloc] init];
emailDialog.mailComposeDelegate = self;
[emailDialog setSubject:@"My Inline Image Document"];
[emailDialog setMessageBody:emailBody isHTML:YES];
[self presentModalViewController:emailDialog animated:YES];
[emailDialog release];
[emailBody release];
}
I've tested this on the iPhone and sent lovely image embedded emails to myself on Yahoo, my personal website, and my MobileMe. I don't have a Gmail account, but the Yahoo worked perfectly, and every source I've found says that the bold-tags are all you need to make it work. Hope this helps all!