Cannot send emails to CC recipients

Question

I have searched for similar duplicated about this question and nothing works.

Here is my code to automate a email. I have initiated the data and the method as follow,

<?php


$reportdate=date('Y-m-d',strtotime("-1 days"));

  $To = 'abc@gmail.com';
$Cc = 'xyz@dialog.lk';

$Subject = 'Data as at '.$reportdate;



//this functin processes the server return codes and generates errors if needed
function server_parse($socket, $expected_response)
{
    $server_response = '';
    while (substr($server_response, 3, 1) != ' ')
    {
        if (!($server_response = fgets($socket, 256)))
            echo 'Couldn\'t get mail server response codes. Please contact the forum administrator.', __FILE__, __LINE__;
                        //exit;
    }

    if (!(substr($server_response, 0, 3) == $expected_response))
        echo 'Unable to send e-mail. Please contact the forum administrator with the following error message reported by the SMTP server: "'.$server_response.'"', __FILE__, __LINE__;
                //exit;
}

//
// This function was originally a part of the phpBB Group forum software phpBB2 (http://www.phpbb.com).
// They deserve all the credit for writing it. I made small modifications for it to suit PunBB and it's coding standards.
// -------> This message is from punBB developer
//
function smtp_mail($to,$cc, $subject, $message, $headers = '')
{
    $recipients = explode(',', $to);
         $recipientscc = explode(',', $cc);
    $user = '<your mail id>';
    $pass = '<your password>';
    $smtp_host = 'xxx@dy.lk';
    $smtp_port = 25;


    if (!($socket = fsockopen($smtp_host, $smtp_port, $errno, $errstr, 15)))
        echo "Could not connect to smtp host '$smtp_host' ($errno) ($errstr)", __FILE__, __LINE__;

    server_parse($socket, '220');

    fwrite($socket, 'EHLO '.$smtp_host."\r\n");
    server_parse($socket, '250');

    // fwrite($socket, 'AUTH LOGIN'."\r\n");
    // server_parse($socket, '334');

    // fwrite($socket, base64_encode($user)."\r\n");
    // server_parse($socket, '334');

    // fwrite($socket, base64_encode($pass)."\r\n");
    // server_parse($socket, '235');


    fwrite($socket, 'MAIL FROM: <sss@xc.lk>'."\r\n");
    server_parse($socket, '250');

    foreach ($recipients as $email)
    {
        fwrite($socket, 'RCPT TO: <'.$email.'>'."\r\n");
        server_parse($socket, '250');
    }



    fwrite($socket, 'DATA'."\r\n");
    server_parse($socket, '354');

   // fwrite($socket, 'Subject: '.$subject."\r\n".'To: <'.implode('>, <', $recipients).'>'."\r\n".$headers."\r\n\r\n".$message."\r\n");
//fwrite($socket, 'Subject: '.$subject."\r\n".'To: <'.implode('>, <', $recipients).'>'."\r\n".'cc: <'.implode('>, <', $recipientscc).'>'."\r\n".$headers."\r\n\r\n".$message."\r\n");
   fwrite($socket, 'Subject: '.$subject."\r\n".'To: <'.implode('>, <', $recipients).'>'."\r\n".'cc: <'.implode('>, <', $recipientscc).'>'."\r\n".$headers."\r\n\r\n".$message."\r\n");

    fwrite($socket, '.'."\r\n");
    server_parse($socket, '250');

    fwrite($socket, 'QUIT'."\r\n");
    fclose($socket);

    return true;
}



$headers= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers.= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" . "\r\n";
$headers.= "From: <cc@xyz.lk>" . "\r\n";


$messagenew='Dear All,';

$messagenew.=nl2br(" \r\n \r\n");




$messagenew.=nl2br(" \r\n \r\n");
$messagenew.='Best Regards,';
$messagenew.=nl2br(" \r\n");
$messagenew.='This is an automated email, Please do not reply ... ';





// Send the mail
if(smtp_mail($To,$Cc, $Subject, $messagenew, $headers))
{
$pieces = explode(",", $To);
$NumofMails=count($pieces);
}
else
{
    echo "Some error occurred";
}
?>

This works fine. But I am not getting any email to Cc recipients. Can someone help me?I have tried by replacing the headers as well. But when I copy all the Cc recipients to $TO this works fine as well.

Answer 1

For the record, I am no expert on the SMTP protocol, however it seems you are missing to actually send out the CC recipients.

Try adding another foreach loop like this:

foreach ($recipients as $email)
{
    fwrite($socket, 'RCPT TO: <'.$email.'>'."\r\n");
    server_parse($socket, '250');
}

foreach ($recipientscc as $email)
{
    fwrite($socket, 'RCPT TO: <'.$email.'>'."\r\n");
    server_parse($socket, '250');
}

According to a quick google search on the matter, the difference between 'To', 'CC' and 'BCC' is actually just in the headers, just like the subject.

Please refer to https://mailtrap.io/blog/cc-bcc-in-smtp/ for the details I found. (It's not much, but it's something)