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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Sending out an email containing HTML from within a PHP page

The mail function in PHP allows you to send a plain text email in a single function call from within your script but please read the cautions at the end of this post before you do so!. How do you send out something in HTML format, though?

The mail function takes an additional (fourth) parameter of extra headers ... and one of the headers that you can use is a content-type: which lets you define the data type that's in the email - for example: text/html. There's an example showing how a message may be sent as both plain text and as HTML [here].

Email protocols are intrinsically line based, and 7 bit ... which means that what you send out needs to have a new line character at least once every 80 characters, and it cannot reliably contain high end (special) characters. In theory, that should not be a problem with HTML, but it could be a nuisance to have to split things down, and it could be more than a nuisance if you were sending out things like .jpg images. The solution here is to use a content-transfer-encoding header, with a base64 encoding - and of course to encode the data stream to suit. Full example [here].

Some Common Email Headers

The lines given here are examples of each of the most common types:

Supplied as parameters to the mail function:

To: Graham Ellis <graham@wellho.net>
Subject: A Demonstration of Email Headers

Supplied (if required) as part of the fourth (extra) parameter

From: Well House Consultants <info@wellho.net>
Reply-To: Lisa Ellis <lisa@wellho.net>
Cc: Gypsy <thedog@wellho.net>, Charlie <thecat@wellho.net>
Bcc: copybox@wellho.net, Audit <audittrail@wellho.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 14:30:27 +0000
Precedence: Bulk
Message-ID: 12345
In-Reply-To: wellho-5454
References: 12332, 11001, wellho-5420
MIME-Version: 1.0

A line like this sets up the document to be multipart if you wish:

Content-Type: multipart-alternative;boundary=00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff

The following can be supplied as part of the header or at the head of each section in a multipart email

Content-Type: text/html
Content-transfer-encoding: base64
Content-disposition: inline; filename="mypage.html"

The cautions at the end of this post

Before you start emailing from your server, consider the following:

a) Does the person your sending to REALLY want the email? (If it's confirming an order, the answer will be a resounding "YES", but if you're writing to tell him of your latest gizmo for sale, he might not be so keen!)

b) You're sending out an automated email from your server ... so it may look rather like other automated emails that people send out in bulk from servers (a.k.a. "spam") to many automated filters. How are you going to make your message special enough to be delivered?

c) Check that you are not providing an open emailing platform - that a user of your site is NOT able to enter a recipient's email address and message and use your server to send out unsolicited advertising material without your knowledge / approval. You really don't want to get yourself blacklisted!
(written 2010-11-07)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
H112 - PHP - Further Web Page and Network Handling
  [220] When to use Frames - (2005-02-19)
  [314] What language is this written in? - (2005-05-17)
  [345] Spotting a denial of service attack - (2005-06-12)
  [356] Sudoku helper or sudoku cheat - (2005-06-23)
  [372] Time calculation in PHP - (2005-07-08)
  [376] What brings people to my web site? - (2005-07-13)
  [410] Reading a news or blog feed (RSS) in your PHP page - (2005-08-12)
  [425] Caching an XML feed - (2005-08-26)
  [443] Server side scripting of styles to suit the browser - (2005-09-12)
  [451] Accessing a page via POST from within a PHP script - (2005-09-26)
  [484] Setting the file name for a downloaded document - (2005-11-03)
  [537] Daily Image Santafied - (2005-12-22)
  [542] Morning image, afternoon image - (2005-12-26)
  [565] Using PHP to output images, XML, Style sheets, etc - (2006-01-15)
  [603] PHP - setting sort order with an associative array - (2006-02-13)
  [675] Adding PHP tags to an old cgi program - (2006-04-08)
  [767] Finding the language preference of a web site visitor - (2006-06-18)
  [789] Hot answers in PHP - (2006-07-02)
  [847] Image maps for navigation - a straightforward example - (2006-08-28)
  [904] Of course I'll tell you by email - (2006-10-25)
  [936] Global, Superglobal, Session variables - scope and persistance in PHP - (2006-11-21)
  [1009] Passing GET parameters through Apache mod_rewrite - (2006-12-27)
  [1114] PHP Image upload script - (2007-03-21)
  [1183] Improving searches - from OR to AND? - (2007-05-11)
  [1187] Updating a page strictly every minute (PHP, Perl) - (2007-05-14)
  [1210] PHP header() function - uses and new restrictions - (2007-05-30)
  [1355] .php or .html extension? Morally Static Pages - (2007-09-17)
  [1379] Simple page password protection - PHP - (2007-10-04)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1495] Single login and single threaded models - Java and PHP - (2008-01-04)
  [1496] PHP / Web 2 logging - (2008-01-06)
  [1505] Script to present commonly used images - PHP - (2008-01-13)
  [1515] Keeping staff up to date on hotel room status - (2008-01-22)
  [1518] Downloading data for use in Excel (from PHP / MySQL) - (2008-01-25)
  [1549] http, https and ajp - comparison and choice - (2008-02-22)
  [2632] Shipping a test harness with your class in PHP - (2010-02-12)
  [2679] How to build a test harness into your PHP - (2010-03-16)
  [2729] Uploading a document or image to its own URL via a browser - (2010-04-18)
  [2918] Downloading a report from the web for further local analysis - (2010-08-13)
  [3432] 3 digit HTTP status codes - what are they, which are most common, which should be a concern? - (2011-09-11)
  [3540] Easy session example in PHP - keeping each customers data apart - (2011-12-06)
  [3568] Telling which ServerAlias your visitor used - useful during merging domains - (2012-01-04)
  [3918] Multiple page web applications - maintaining state - PHP - (2012-11-10)
  [4070] Passing variable between PHP pages - hidden fields, cookies and sessions - (2013-04-26)
  [4483] Moving from mysql to mysqli - simple worked example - (2015-05-03)

H110 - PHP - HTML Web Page Data Handling
  [50] Current cost in your local currency - (2004-09-16)
  [589] Robust PHP user inputs - (2006-02-03)
  [896] PHP - good coding practise and sticky radio buttons - (2006-10-17)
  [1001] .pdf files - upload via PHP, store in MySQL, retrieve - (2006-12-19)
  [1053] Sorting people by name in PHP - (2007-01-26)
  [1136] Buffering output - why it is done and issues raised in Tcl, Perl, Python and PHP - (2007-04-06)
  [1169] Emailing as HTML (Web Page) - PHP example - (2007-04-30)
  [1831] Text formating for HTML, with PHP - (2008-10-11)
  [2025] Injection Attack if register_globals in on - PHP - (2009-02-04)
  [2046] Finding variations on a surname - (2009-02-17)
  [2107] How to tweet automatically from a blog - (2009-03-28)
  [2135] What features does this visitors browser support? (PHP) - (2009-04-22)
  [3926] Filtering PHP form inputs - three ways, but which should you use? - (2012-11-18)


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How to display information from a database within a web page
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Horse's mouth home
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Looking back and forward personally - 6 years each way
Some other Articles
Doing several things at the same time - Java threads
Fresh Paint - Java Arrays
Setting up individual variables, and arrays, in Java - some commented examples
Looking back and forward personally - 6 years each way
Sending out an email containing HTML from within a PHP page
How to display information from a database within a web page
Birth Notice - Aeryn Cassandra Ellis
Rail services back to Radstock?
Coincidence, or Conspiracy - a wrong email address
Get all your ducks in a row ... and they may turn into swans
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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