How can I use PHP to mail my an attachment?

Question

Hi all,

I have a basic form consisting of input fields as well as a file field. I have a few things that I want the form to do. Collect the information (obviously). There's also an option to upload a file, (probably .doc,.pdf,.docx), so I want to restrict the attached file only to those extensions and under 2MB. All I know is that I have to have my form "enctype=multipart", but that's all I know.

I have the following PHP code:

<?

$to = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'Contact from your website';
$message = 'From: ' . "\n\n" . 'Name: ' . $_REQUEST['name'] . "\n\n" . 'E-mail: ' . $_REQUEST['email'] . "\n\n" . 'Comments: ' . $_REQUEST['comments'];
$email = $_REQUEST['email'];
$headers = 'From: ' . $email . "\r\n" .
            'Reply-To: ' . $email . "\r\n" .
          'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1";    



$str = $_REQUEST['email'];

if( $str == "E-mail address" || $str == "" )
{
 echo "Please use your browser's back button enter a valid E-mail address";

} else {
 mail ($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
 header("Location: thankyou.html");
}  

?>

How can I tweak it to allow it to send the attached file?

If possible, I'd love to see examples. Please understand that I'm extremely new to PHP, and until now have not needed to send PHP web forms with an attachment. So all that I ask of you is that if you post an example, please try to clarify the respective HTML form code that will work with the example.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot, Amit

Answer 1

If you've access to the PEAR library, this'd make adding attachments a cinch. Have a look here.

Answer 2

To mail an attachment, you can either use framework methods, or write the method yourself. Some sample code can be a good point to start.

To get a file sent from the browser, you have to use FILE variable. PHP documentation explains quite well how to do it.

To restrict file types to .doc and .pdf, you have to read the beginning of the file and compare to a "real" .doc or .pdf. An easier way would be to compare file extension, but the user of your website can always rename virus.exe to document.pdf.

Answer 3

haven't tested but it should work in theory.

Use this code which uses buffers. (Code Source: http://www.webcheatsheet.com/PHP/send_email_text_html_attachment.php)

<?php
//define the receiver of the email
$to = '[email protected]';
//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: [email protected]\r\nReply-To: [email protected]";
//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";
?> 

Answer 4

Use PHPMailer. It's free, works well, and makes using attachments a snap. I've seen Swiftmailer mentioned a lot here on SO as well, but haven't used it myself so can't say much about it.