problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
This is a discussion on problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails within the PHP Language forums, part of the PHP Programming Forums category; Before I begin, I realise there's a big war regarding HTML in e-mails. Personally, I don't like ...
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01-21-2005
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problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
Before I begin, I realise there's a big war regarding HTML in e-mails.
Personally, I don't like it. Unfortunately, I'm being paid by my company to create an automated newsletter for our customers. I did all I could just to get them to allow me to have it sent in both plaintext and HTML so that the e-mail clients have a choice. Anyway. I've looked around the RFC's and the source of similar e-mails, and I'm certain I figured out how to do it...but there's still some problems I can't figure out. Below will be the PHP script I'm using to create the message. But what's happening is that it appears to work fine in the major E-mail clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, but doesn't work in Kmail or Evolution or other clients. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any advice! Liam <?php // PAGE CREATED 2004-06-01 by Liam /*################################################ ### DETERMINE DAY APPROPRIATENESS ################################################## */ $today_day = date("w"); // Day of the week numeric: Sun=0, Mon=1...Sat=6 $today = date("Y-m-d"); /*################################################ ### RUN PROCESS ################################################## */ $to="Recipient Name <my-email-addy>"; $from="Sender Name <another-addy>"; $subject="My first HTML E-mail"; $mime_boundary="==Multipart_Boundary_x".md5(mt_ran d())."x"; $headers = "From: $from\r\n" . "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n" . "Content-Type:multipart/alternative;\n" . " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\r\n\""; $headers.= "From: $from\r\n"; $message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" . "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . "Content-Disposition: inline\n". "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n". "Content-Type: text/plain\n\n". "The plaintext message goes here! " . "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . "Content-Disposition: inline\n". "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n". "Content-Type: text/html\n\n". "<html> <head> <title>HTML MSG HERE</title> </head> <body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"> </body> </html> ". "--{$mime_boundary}\n "; if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) echo "Message Sent!"; else echo "Failed to send message."; ?> 
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01-21-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
On 20 Jan 2005 15:41:50 -0800, news@celticbear.com
<news@celticbear.com> wrote: > Before I begin, I realise there's a big war regarding HTML > in e-mails. Personally, I don't like it. Unfortunately, I'm > being paid by my company to create an automated newsletter for > our customers. I did all I could just to get them to allow me > to have it sent in both plaintext and HTML so that the e-mail > clients have a choice. Good work there. I don't accept HTML mails, and I am hardly alone in this choice. In some cases, like an initial contact, I'll (my filter will) send the body through a utility to convert it into plain text, dumping images, soundfiles, and attachments. > > Anyway. I've looked around the RFC's and the source of similar > e-mails, and I'm certain I figured out how to do it...but > there's still some problems I can't figure out. > > Below will be the PHP script I'm using to create the message. > But what's happening is that it appears to work fine in the > major E-mail clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, but doesn't > work in Kmail or Evolution or other clients. > > What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any advice! Liam <snip> I don't read PHP, News, or generally send html mails, but here's a link to a post that you might find useful: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...oglegroups.com And here's all that's needed to send an in-line html mail: # # From: no_reply@domain.com # To: recipient@whatever.com # Subject: Whatever # Content-Type: text/html # Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit # Content-Disposition: inline # # <BODY> # # rest of the html # # # </BODY> # . # # AC -- Pro-Active Spam Fighter Pass-list --> Spam-Filter --> Challenge-Response http://tinyurl.com/2t5kp
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01-21-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
news@celticbear.com writes:
> Below will be the PHP script I'm using to create the message. > But what's happening is that it appears to work fine in the major > E-mail clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, but doesn't work in Kmail > or Evolution or other clients. > > What am I doing wrong? > "Content-Type:multipart/alternative;\n" . > " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\r\n\""; Bug #1. For starters, you're using LF everywhere else, and here you have CRLF. Furthermore, it's misplaced. It should be after the closing quote. You'll have to investigate whether PHP's mail() functions expects all lines to be terminated by LF, or CRLF. I don't recall offhand. Then you must change your code and use a consistent EOL. > <title>HTML MSG HERE</title> > </head> > <body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"> > </body> > </html> > ". > "--{$mime_boundary}\n > "; Bug #2. The closing boundary delimiter should have a trailing "--". -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBB8FTVx9p3GYHlUOIRAnjcAJ9zk5YHpb8DRelZplq/UzP5ayI5jwCZAT9v t8TQH2ZX8umJuK09IsGSRRQ= =En7E -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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01-21-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
Beavis writes:
> Good work there. > > I don't accept HTML mails, and I am hardly alone in this choice. Nobody asked you. > > In some cases, like an initial contact, I'll (my filter will) > send the body through a utility to convert it into plain text, > dumping images, soundfiles, and attachments. Nobody cares, Beavis. > <snip> > > I don't read PHP, News, or generally send html mails, but here's > a link to a post that you might find useful: > > http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...oglegroups.com > > And here's all that's needed to send an in-line html mail: Beavis, you ignorant slut. He wants to know how properly format multipart/alternative MIME content, and not just HTML mail. If you don't understand what someone's asking, just keep your yap shut and let your mental superiors handle it. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBB8FVex9p3GYHlUOIRArmuAJ9QquO3S1NuU9+lOfpwea GUvN7uqwCdHYmC VQIlhBv0lkmenYZcueRnOPg= =uTQz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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01-21-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
> Anyway. I've looked around the RFC's and the source of similar e-mails,
> and I'm certain I figured out how to do it...but there's still some > problems I can't figure out. Besides the technical side of creating the content, you should of course also test your output with a number of popular readers to see what it looks like! I would suggest, hotmail (web) gmail (web0 Outlook Eudora Pegasus Mail Mozilla Thunderbird It's a nagging problem with design for presentation... you had better really see what the result looks like :) -- Jem Berkes Windows, UNIX software and system design http://www.sysdesign.ca/
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01-21-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
Sam wrote:
> news@celticbear.com writes: > > What am I doing wrong? > > > "Content-Type:multipart/alternative;\n" . > > " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\r\n\""; > > Bug #1. For starters, you're using LF everywhere else, and here you have > CRLF. Furthermore, it's misplaced. It should be after the closing quote. > > You'll have to investigate whether PHP's mail() functions expects all lines > to be terminated by LF, or CRLF. I don't recall offhand. Then you must > change your code and use a consistent EOL. OK, Below is my updated script. \n is the appropriate EOL, so I've fixed that as well as where the quotes were. That was just bad on my part. > > ". > > "--{$mime_boundary}\n > > "; > > Bug #2. The closing boundary delimiter should have a trailing "--". And you'll see I added that too. I also looked around at more source code of my successfully received newsletter e-mails and am trying to emulate them, so I made a couple of other changes. And yet, still doesn't work. No matter what e-mail client I use, the source code for the e-mail looks fine, it's all there...but nothing is visible in the e-mail display. In Kmail, it show a brief summary of the parts the e-mail includes, and on mine it always says: e-mail type: multipart/alternative 8bit (that's odd considering I use 7bit in the code) 19.6 KB body part: Plain Text Document 0 KB E-mails that work always has a 2nd "body part" as HTML listed, and obviously, the appropriate size. Why mine seems to cut off detection at the plain text doc and not have the size, I can't fathom. Everything appears the same as working e-mails. Anyway, thanks for the replies, and any tips are appreciated! Liam <?php // PAGE CREATED 2004-06-01 by Liam $today_day = date("w"); // Day of the week numeric: Sun=0, Mon=1...Sat=6 $today = date("Y-m-d"); $to="Recipient Name <e-mail-addy>"; $from="Sender Name <another-email-addy>"; $subject="My first HTML E-mail"; $mime_boundary="Multipart-Boundary-".md5(mt_rand()); $headers = "From: $from\n" . "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" . "Content-Type:multipart/alternative;\n" . " boundary=\"--{$mime_boundary}--\"\n"; $headers.= "From: $from\n"; $message = "--{$mime_boundary}--\n" . "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n". "Content-Disposition: inline\n". "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n". "(PLAIN TEXT DOC GOES HERE)" . "--{$mime_boundary}--\n" . "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n". "Content-Disposition: inline\n". "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n". "<html> <head> <title>Welcome to E-Boot Camp Phase I</title> </head> <body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"> (HTML DOC GOES IN HERE) </body> </html> ". "--{$mime_boundary}---\n\n\n "; if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) echo "Message Sent!"; else echo "Failed to send message."; ?>
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01-22-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
news@celticbear.com said the following on 1/20/2005 6:41 PM:
> Before I begin, I realise there's a big war regarding HTML in e-mails. > Personally, I don't like it. Unfortunately, I'm being paid by my > company to create an automated newsletter for our customers. > I did all I could just to get them to allow me to have it sent in both > plaintext and HTML so that the e-mail clients have a choice. > > Anyway. I've looked around the RFC's and the source of similar e-mails, > and I'm certain I figured out how to do it...but there's still some > problems I can't figure out. > > Below will be the PHP script I'm using to create the message. > But what's happening is that it appears to work fine in the major > E-mail clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, but doesn't work in Kmail > or Evolution or other clients. > > What am I doing wrong? > Thanks for any advice! > Liam Liam - Why don't you take a look at phpmailer available at http://phpmailer.sourceforge.net/ ? It is a PHP class that helps you create MIME emails, including emails with HTML and also build an alternative plain text part for MUAs that do not read HTML. This class is good and will save you time building HTML emails. Of course, as Jem mentioned, test your sample emails with the prominent free email services. HTH. Thanks, --Kartic
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01-22-2005
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Re: problems with creating both HTML and plaintext emails
news@celticbear.com writes:
> >> > ". >> > "--{$mime_boundary}\n >> > "; >> >> Bug #2. The closing boundary delimiter should have a trailing "--". > > And you'll see I added that too. No you didn't. You added trailing --s to every boundary delimiter, not just the closing one. You should review the RFCs, and use this message as an example of how to correctly set the delimiters for a multipart MIME message. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBB8azqx9p3GYHlUOIRApYyAJ4lg8QhtXQxbEYSyYLOMk Wf1cUhOgCdFMzU /5B/TI6X+oeScmiCZwqglS0= =uWba -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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