send email with pdf attachment

Question

I'm trying to send an email using the mail() function in php with a pdf attachment. I'm running the script on localmachine. I set up the smtp ip in php.ini . I can send a text email perfectly but with an attachment I get the following error:

Warning: mail() [function.mail]: SMTP server response: 503 Unexpected command or sequence of commands in C:\AppServ\www\PhpProject1\CV-Generator\testemail2.php on line 55

Can anyone tell me what's wrong please?

Here is my code:

<?php
// download fpdf class (http://fpdf.org)
require('./pdf/fpdf.php');

// fpdf object
$pdf = new FPDF();

// generate a simple PDF (for more info, see http://fpdf.org/en/tutorial/)
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont("Arial","B",14);
$pdf->Cell(40,10, "this is a pdf example");

// email stuff (change data below)
$to = $_GET['send']; 
$from = "info@asaltechd.com"; 
$subject = "send email with pdf attachment"; 
$message = "<p>Please see the attachment.</p>";

// a random hash will be necessary to send mixed content
$separator = md5(time());

// carriage return type (we use a PHP end of line constant)
$eol = PHP_EOL;

// attachment name
$filename = "example.pdf";

// encode data (puts attachment in proper format)
$pdfdoc = $pdf->Output("", "S");
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($pdfdoc));


// main header (multipart mandatory)
$headers  = "From: ".$from.$eol;
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0".$eol; 
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$separator."\"".$eol.$eol; 
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit".$eol;
$headers .= "This is a MIME encoded message.".$eol.$eol;

// message
$headers .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"".$eol;
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit".$eol.$eol;
$headers .= $message.$eol.$eol;

// attachment
$headers .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$headers .= "Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$filename."\"".$eol; 
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64".$eol;
$headers .= "Content-Disposition: attachment".$eol.$eol;
$headers .= $attachment.$eol.$eol;
$headers .= "--".$separator."--";

// send message
mail($to, $subject, "", $headers);

?>

Answer 1

I use PHP's SwiftMailer (http://swiftmailer.org/):

require_once('../lib/swiftMailer/lib/swift_required.php');

...


$body="Dear $fname,\n\nPlease find attached, an invoice for the period $startDate - $endDate\n\nBest regards,\n\nMr X";

$message = Swift_Message::newInstance('Subject goes here')
    ->setFrom(array($email => "no-reply@mydomain.com"))
    ->setTo(array($email => "$fname $lname"))
    ->setBody($body);
$message->attach(Swift_Attachment::fromPath("../../invoices_unpaid/$id.pdf"));

$result = $mailer->send($message);

Answer 2

The attachment doesn't go in the headers: They should only declare the MIME headers:

// main header (multipart mandatory)
$headers  = "From: ".$from.$eol;
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0".$eol; 
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$separator."\"".$eol; // see below 
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit".$eol;


// message
$msg = "--".$separator.$eol;
$msg .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"".$eol;
$msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit".$eol.$eol;
$msg .= $message.$eol.$eol;

// attachment
$msg .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$msg .= "Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$filename."\"".$eol; 
$msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64".$eol;
$msg .= "Content-Disposition: attachment".$eol;
$msg .= $attachment.$eol;
$msg .= "--".$separator."--".$eol;

// send message
mail($to, $subject, $msg, $headers);

Note also that you should NEVER have 2 consecutive line terminations within the headers - SMTP uses a blank line as the seperator between headers and the body.

Also, the EOL should NOT be the default on your operating system - it should be the EOL sequence as defined by SMTP - ie CR+LF

Answer 3

I would suggest that you use PHP Mailer to send emails from your PHP. I've used it with great success on many different configurations. The class has all necessary methods for handling encodings, attachments, custome headers, sending via sendmail, etc., etc.