Emailing a dynamically created image

Question

I need to create an image dynamically then email it to the person. Here is the image creation script:

//Get the blank coupon
$rImg = ImageCreateFromJPEG('coupon.jpg');

$color = imagecolorallocate($rImg, 0, 0, 0);

imagestring($rImg,5,135,140,'$first_name', 'black');
imagestring($rImg,5,135,160,'$last_name', 'black');
imagestring($rImg,5,135,180,'$email_address', 'black');

From there I want to take that image and email it to the person. Can I just include it in attachment of the email or do I actually have to write it to the server?

I have tried doing this:

function email_coupon($first_name, $last_name, $email_address){
//Get the blank coupon
$rImg = ImageCreateFromJPEG('coupon.jpg');

$color = imagecolorallocate($rImg, 0, 0, 0);

imagestring($rImg,5,135,140,'$first_name', 'black');
imagestring($rImg,5,135,160,'$last_name', 'black');
imagestring($rImg,5,135,180,'$email_address', 'black');

//define the receiver of the email
$to = '$email_address';
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Your coupon';
//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
ob_start();
imagejpeg($rImg);
$i = ob_get_clean();
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($i));
//define the body of the message.
ob_clean();
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: image/jpeg; name="coupon.jpg" 
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( $email_address, $subject, $message, $headers );
//if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed"
 if($mail_sent == true) {
    echo 'sent';
 } else {
    echo 'failed';
 };

};

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You don't need to write anything to your server/a file, but imagejpeg with one argument will print out the image to the browser automatically. To get it in a variable, use ob_start and ob_get_contents:

ob_start();
imagejpeg($rImg);
$i = ob_get_contents();
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($i));
// clear the buffer, but don't destroy it
ob_clean();
// echo out mail like usual
echo("Mail body here");
$message = ob_get_clean();

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.outcontrol.php

For your code:

function email_coupon($first_name, $last_name, $email_address){
//Get the blank coupon
$rImg = ImageCreateFromJPEG('coupon.jpg');

$color = imagecolorallocate($rImg, 0, 0, 0);

imagestring($rImg,5,135,140,'$first_name', 'black');
imagestring($rImg,5,135,160,'$last_name', 'black');
imagestring($rImg,5,135,180,'$email_address', 'black');

//define the receiver of the email
$to = '$email_address';
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Your coupon';
//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
ob_start();
imagejpeg($rImg);
$i = ob_get_contents();
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($i));
//define the body of the message.
ob_clean();

?>
--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: image/jpeg; name="coupon.jpg" 
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( $email_address, $subject, $message, $headers );
//if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed"
 if($mail_sent == true) {
    echo 'sent';
 } else {
    echo 'failed';
 };