Send HTML in email via PHP

Question

How can I send an HTML-formatted email with pictures using PHP?

I want to have a page with some settings and HTML output which is sent via email to an address. What should I do?

The main problem is to attach files. How can I do that?

Solution 1

It is pretty simple. Leave the images on the server and send the PHP + CSS to them...

$to = '[email protected]';

$subject = 'Website Change Request';

$headers  = "From: " . strip_tags($_POST['req-email']) . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: " . strip_tags($_POST['req-email']) . "\r\n";
$headers .= "CC: [email protected]\r\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\r\n";

$message = '<p><strong>This is strong text</strong> while this is not.</p>';


mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

It is this line that tells the mailer and the recipient that the email contains (hopefully) well-formed HTML that it will need to interpret:

$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\r\n";

Here is the link I got the information from... (link)

You will need security though...

Solution 2

You need to code your HTML content using the absolute path for images. By absolute path, I mean you have to upload the images to a server and in the src attribute of images you have to give the direct path, like this <img src="http://yourdomain.com/images/example.jpg">.

Below is the PHP code for your reference: It’s taken from mail:

<?php
    // Multiple recipients
    $to  = '[email protected]' . ', '; // Note the comma
    $to .= '[email protected]';

    // Subject
    $subject = 'Birthday Reminders for August';

    // Message
    $message = '
      <p>Here are the birthdays upcoming in August!</p>
    ';

    // To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
    $headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
    $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8' . "\r\n";

    // Additional headers
    $headers .= 'To: Mary <[email protected]>, Kelly <[email protected]>' . "\r\n";
    $headers .= 'From: Birthday Reminder <[email protected]>' . "\r\n";


    // Mail it
    mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
?>

Solution 3

I have this code and it will run perfectly for my site:

public function forgotpassword($pass, $name, $to)
{
    $body  = "<table width=100% border=0><tr><td>";
    $body .= "<img width=200 src='";
    $body .= $this->imageUrl();
    $body .= "'></img></td><td style=position:absolute;left:350;top:60;><h2><font color = #346699>PMS Pvt Ltd.</font><h2></td></tr>";
    $body .= '<tr><td colspan=2><br/><br/><br/><strong>Dear '.$name.',</strong></td></tr>';
    $body .= '<tr><td colspan=2><br/><font size=3>As per Your request we send Your Password.</font><br/><br/>Password is : <b>'.$pass.'</b></td></tr>';
    $body .= '<tr><td colspan=2><br/>If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at:<br/><a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected]</a></td></tr>';
    $body .= '<tr><td colspan=2><br/><br/>Best regards,<br>The PMS Team.</td></tr></table>';
    $subject = "Forgot Password";
    $this->sendmail($body, $to, $subject);
}

Mail function

function sendmail($body, $to, $subject)
{
    //require_once 'init.php';

    $from = '[email protected]';
    $headersfrom = '';
    $headersfrom .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
    $headersfrom .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
    $headersfrom .= 'From: ' . $from . ' ' . "\r\n";
    mail($to, $subject, $body, $headersfrom);
}

The image URL function is used for if you want to change the image. You have to it change in only one function. I have many mail functions, like for forgot password or create user. Therefore I am using the image URL function. You can directly set the path.

function imageUrl()
{
    return "http://" . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . substr($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'], 0, strrpos($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'], "/") + 1) . "images/capacity.jpg";
}

Solution 4

Sending an HTML email is not much different from sending normal emails using PHP. What is necessary to add is the content type along the header parameter of the PHP mail() function. Here is an example.

<?php
    $to = "[email protected]";
    $subject = "HTML email";
    $message = "
    <html>
        <head>
            <title>HTML email</title>
        </head>

        <body>
            <p>A table as email</p>
            <table>
                <tr>
                    <th>Firstname</th>
                    <th>Lastname</th>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Fname</td>
                    <td>Sname</td>
                </tr>
            </table>
        </body>
    </html>
    ";
    // Always set content-type when sending HTML email
    $headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
    $headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=UTF-8" . "\r\b";
    $headers .= 'From: name' . "\r\n";
    mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
?>

You can also check here for more detailed explanations by W3Schools.

Solution 5

You can easily send the email with HTML content via PHP. Use the following script.

<?php
$to = '[email protected]';
$subject = "Send HTML Email Using PHP";

$htmlContent = '
<html>
<body>
    <h1>Send HTML Email Using PHP</h1>
    <p>This is a HTMl email using PHP by CodexWorld</p>
</body>
</html>';

// Set content-type header for sending HTML email
$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=UTF-8" . "\r\n";

// Additional headers
$headers .= 'From: CodexWorld<[email protected]>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Cc: [email protected]' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Bcc: [email protected]' . "\r\n";

// Send email
if(mail($to,$subject,$htmlContent,$headers)):
    $successMsg = 'Email has sent successfully.';
else:
    $errorMsg = 'Email sending fail.';
endif;
?>

Source code and live demo can be found from here - Send Beautiful HTML Email using PHP

View more solutions

Comments

[Abadis]

what about css formating, pictures , and other files like js that a html file needs ?

[Abadis]

Thanks,This was what i needed

[Chris]

@UmerHayat agreed, but we all had to start somewhere, even if it is only learning how to Google stuff...

[Chris]

@Abadis - CSS can be done either way, embedded in the file or externally as per usual with a HTML file. Images can be packed with I think (i have never done it) or left on the server and linked to. Look up HTML images if you are unsure how they work :P

[Fernando Silva]

@Jalpesh So for a CSS file you would just do the same? Reference the absolute path and it should work, right?

[Jalpesh Patel]

@FernandoSilva you have to set absolute path and also set class or id to element so based on that you css will work

[Fernando Silva]

@Jalpesh Think I'll have to try something else, since Hotmail removes all floating css rules and Gmail simply clears out my classes. Not sure if I'm missing something, but I have my HTML prepared for data and css takes care of the layout. I'm using the PHPMailer class to send emails and I can't find any reference to this behaviour being caused by it, but I'm not sure tbh. Any ideas of what to look into? Images display correctly with inline styling on both btw.

[John]

NEVER use html, head or body elements or you will cause absolute chaos on web-based email systems that actually follow (X)HTML standards. Also if sending HTML email never send a header level greater than h2 as your email subject (on proper systems) will be in the single h1 element on the page. If this does not make sense remember that Google attempts to interpret your page as a newspaper where there is only one main header (e.g. "We won the war!") and many smaller heads (e.g. "Kittens saved by disturbed moose").

[madlopt]

There is a typo in this section "$message .= ". This variable wasn't declared before.

[Martijn]

@gonatee depends on what level of quality you want. The accepted answer is not going to work for all but the most basic cases. If basic cases is all you need, then using mail() will be just fine. If you need a more reliable solution or have complex situations or demands, it's probably best to rely on a a framework or library that has already been through the dozens of RFC documents and years of bug fixing. If you can find a dedicated library or a framework that let's you pick and choose the features you want, there is little reason to rely on figuring it all our yourself.

[luky]

use "\n" not "\r\n" if you want make it working in gmail stackoverflow.com/a/10330378/4870273

[melvin]

Is it the same as setting <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> ?

[Jesse]

Your Question answered my problem, thank you for being thorough!

[Peter Mortensen]

Re "...a well written tutorial": It is allegedly written by you. Isn't that worth disclosing?