Add auto reply to php code for contact form

Question

When a user fills the form I receive the details via mail using my code. That seems to be working fine but my concern is how do I set auto mail reply in my code? Whenever user submits the form he should get a automated reply like "Thanks for contacting". How do i achieve that?

<?php
    if(isset($_POST['email'])) {

        $email_to = "demo@xyz.com";
        $email_subject = "Contact Form Details";

        function died($error) {
            echo "We are very sorry, but there were error(s) found with the form you submitted. ";
            echo "These errors appear below.<br /><br />";
            echo $error."<br /><br />";
            echo "Please go back and fix these errors.<br /><br />";
            die();
        }

        if(!isset($_POST['name']) ||
            !isset($_POST['subject']) ||
            !isset($_POST['email']) ||
            !isset($_POST['phone']) ||
            !isset($_POST['message'])) {
            died('We are sorry, but there appears to be a problem with the form you submitted.');       
        }



        $first_name = $_POST['name']; // required
        $last_name = $_POST['subject']; // required
        $email_from = $_POST['email']; // required
        $telephone = $_POST['phone']; // not required
        $comments = $_POST['message']; // required

        $error_message = "";
        $email_exp = '/^[A-Za-z0-9._%-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$/';

      if(!preg_match($email_exp,$email_from)) {
        $error_message .= 'The Email Address you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
      }

        $string_exp = "/^[A-Za-z .'-]+$/";

      if(!preg_match($string_exp,$first_name)) {
        $error_message .= 'The First Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
      }

      if(!preg_match($string_exp,$last_name)) {
        $error_message .= 'The Last Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
      }

      if(strlen($comments) < 2) {
        $error_message .= 'The Comments you entered do not appear to be valid.<br />';
      }

      if(strlen($error_message) > 0) {
        died($error_message);
      }

        $email_message = "Form details below.\n\n";


        function clean_string($string) {
          $bad = array("content-type","bcc:","to:","cc:","href");
          return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
        }



        $email_message .= "First Name: ".clean_string($first_name)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Subject: ".clean_string($last_name)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($email_from)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Telephone: ".clean_string($telephone)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($comments)."\n";

    $headers = 'From: '.$email_from."\r\n".
    'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
    'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
    @mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers);  
    ?>



    Thank you for contacting me. I will be in touch with you very soon.

    <?php

    }
    ?>

Also how to reset the form after successful submit? Even if this is not done its okay but auto reply is very important for me.

Answer 1

Just send a second email, one to you with details and one to the sender with auto response message.

//your existing code
$headers = 'From: '.$email_from."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
@mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers); 

 //add this
 $headers = 'From: '.$email_to."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$email_to."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
 @mail($email_from, "Thanks For reaching Out", "Auto Reply - Do Not Respond", $headers);