multipart/alternative HTML Email - HELP!

[conjurer]

I've been trying to send a multipart/alternative HTML email based on the script 24.7 in Leon Atkinson's PHP Core Programming.

I can get regular emails to run fine in both plain text and in HTML but I cannot get this script to run at all. It tosses me a server error 500 and says there is a problem with the PHP interpreter.

Do I have something I have to set in my configuration to run this or why would it be crashing?

Here is the code:
<?php
//add From: header
$headers = "From: [e-mail]\r\n";

//specify MIME version 1.0
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";

//unique boundary
$boundary = uniqid("COREPHP");

//tell e-mail client this e-mail contains
//alternate versions
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative" .
	"; boundary = $boundary\r\n\r\n";

//message to people with clients who don't
//understand MIME
$headers .= "This is a MIME encoded message.\r\n\r\n";

//plain text version of message
$headers .= "--$boundary\r\n" .
	"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-7\r\n" .
	"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
$headers .= chunk_split(base64_encode(
	"This is the plain text version!"));

//HTML version of message
$headers .= "--$boundary\r\n" .
	"Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-7\r\n" .
	"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
$headers .= chunk_split(base64_encode(
"This the <b>HTML</b> version!"));

print($headers);


//send message
mail("[e-mail]", "An HTML Message", "", $headers);
print("HTML Email sent!");

?>

[conjurer]

I uploaded it to my webhost and from there when I run the page it sends the email just like it should.

I wonder why it wouldn't be working from my localhost setup.

I am running PHP 4.3.3

What part of the settings do I need to examine?😕

[Frederick]

i use a different method for header and your mail() is incorrect.

mail("[e-mail]", "An HTML Message", "", $headers);

should be

mail("[e-mail]", "Subject goes here", "An HTML Message", $headers);

--- header -------
$header = "From: $emailAddress\n";
$header .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n";
$header .= "X-Mailer: PHP / ".phpversion()."\n";

The header works, I use it all the time.

[conjurer]

I have used that too. But the script I posted sends it in a way that the user can see it as plain text if they don't accept html.

So it clearly is a better solution for what I want to do.

What I don't understand, I can get it to run from my webhost when I upload it, but I can't get it to run from my localhost server.

Must be some kind of a setting in the configuration but I am clueless as to where. 😕

[Frederick]

do you have a email server running on your PC?

[conjurer]

I have it setup with an SMTP setting to go through my mind.net ISP account.

I have been able to do plain text and HTML text like you show above using these settings.

When I upload to my webhosting server at a different ISP the script works superbly.

I am thinking of fiddling with my php.ini settings on the local host to try to access the other email account at my webhost server and see if it then works at my localhost.

I am wondering if my current ISP I have in the settings may not have the right settings to let me send a multipart mime or something.

Does that make any sense? 😕