correctly ref'ing files for mail scripts

[Anon]

Hi there,

does anyone know why, when I try to attach a file to an email (created and sent via a php script) it won't work if the file is NOT on the same machine as the script?

If my script is on a machine called STELLA:

This doesn't work:
$filename = 'http://www.orchardsweb.com/commonpics/mail.gif';

This does:
$filename = 'mail.gif';

any ideas how I can reference the machine that contains the file so that the script will work?

thanks - dunstan orchard

p.s. I'm using the following script (which works perfectly because the file is on the same machine as the script):

<?
function reloadnow() {
global $PHP_SELF;
exit(); }

if(isset($submit)):
echo "hello";
echo "<br>";
echo $recipientmail;
echo "<br>";
echo $recipient;
echo "<br>";
echo $sendermail;
echo "<br>";
echo $sender;
echo "<br>";
echo $subjectline;
echo "<br>";
echo $filepath;

/************************************
Title.........: HTML Mime Mail class
Version.......: 1.33
Author........: Richard Heyes <[e-mail]>
Filename......: example.php3
Last changed..: 24/10/2000
Notes.........: Based upon mime_mail.class
by Tobias Ratschiller <[e-mail]>
and Sascha Schumann <[e-mail]>.
************************************/

    error_reporting(63);
    include('class.html.mime.mail.inc');

   /***************************************
    ** Read the file background.gif into $attachment.
    ***************************************/
    $filename = 'mail.gif';
    $attachment = fread($fp = fopen($filename, 'r'), filesize($filename));
    fclose($fp);

    /***************************************
    ** Create the mail object. Optional headers
    ** argument. Do not put From: here, this
    ** will be added when $mail->send
    ** Does not have to have trailing \r\n
    ** but if adding multiple headers, must
    ** be seperated by \r\n.
    ***************************************/
    $mail = new html_mime_mail('X-Mailer: Html Mime Mail Class');

    /***************************************
    ** This is used to add an attachment to
    ** the email.
    ***************************************/
    $mail->add_attachment($attachment, 'mail.gif', 'image/gif');

    /***************************************
    ** Set Character Set
    ***************************************/
    $mail->set_charset('iso-8859-1', TRUE);

    /***************************************
    ** Builds the message.
    ***************************************/
    $mail->build_message();

    /***************************************
    ** Sends the message. $mail->build_message()
    ** is seperate to $mail->send so that the
    ** same email can be sent many times to
    ** differing recipients simply by putting
    ** $mail->send() in a loop.
    ***************************************/
    $mail->send($recipient, $recipientmail, $sender, $sendermail, $subjectline);

reloadnow();
else:
?>
<form METHOD="POST" ACTION="<?=$PHP_SELF;?>">
Please enter your details:
<br>
name: <input type="text" name="sender" style="font-size:10px;">
email: <input type="text" name="sendermail" style="font-size:10px;">
<br>
<br>
Please enter the recipients details:
<br>
name: <input type="text" name="recipient" style="font-size:10px;">
email: <input type="text" name="recipientmail" style="font-size:10px;">
<br>
<br>
file: <input name="filepath" type="file" style="font-size:10px;">
<br>
subject: <input type="text" name="subjectline" style="font-size:10px;">

<INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="submit" VALUE="submit" style="font-size:10px;">
</form>

<?
endif;
?>