HTML and Plaintext, Same Email with PHP

[nafai]

Here is the problem:

We have a table of data we email to our customers on a periodic basis. Right now we only supply the data in an HTML only email. Some customers have complained about receiving "gibberish" in their email (I assume they mean HTML code).

So, I'd like to send messages (using PHP) in both HTML and plaintext formats. I've tried several posibilities, including some of the examples listed in the php documentation.

My question: Using PHP, how do I send an email in both Plaintext and HTML formats? What will an email like this look like from the perspective of recipient that can only read plaintext?

Thanks in advance!

[yelvington]

Send the mail as "Content-Type: multipart/alternative" with plain text as the first alternative. Text-only users will see a bit of cruft followed by legible text, then a boundary marker, followed by the HTML. Users with HTML mail viewers will see the usual nice HTML presentation.

To see an example, send yourself a piece of email with a standards-conformant mailer (Mozilla, for instance) and examine the result.