content type, php email attachment

[dreams4000]

Hi all,

I have a page that a user can load up that will send out an e-mail and attach an excel file to that e-mail. Its just a basic php mailing script. The problem I am having is that when I try to send excel files, they sometimes come in corrupted. If the excel file is just basic numbers, no formatting or anything else, it works fine. If the file has formatting such as colors and font changes etc.. the file wont even open. I have been using

application/vnd.ms_excel

for the content type, is this not correct? Anyone have any ideas what would cause this? Thanks!

[dreams4000]

I found this code on the forums for running the file attachments, has the same issue.. any ideas?

$fileatt = "../files/"; // Location of file on server 
  $fileatt_type = "application/vnd.ms_excel";// Type of file being sent 
  $fileatt_name = "binary2.xls";// Name of file 
  $fileatt_path = $fileatt.$fileatt_name;// Name of file 

  // If the file exists... 
  if (file_exists($fileatt_path))  

  { 
    // Read the file to be attached ('rb' = read binary) 
    $file = fopen($fileatt_path,'rb'); 
    $data = fread($file,filesize($fileatt)); 
    fclose($file); 

// Generate a boundary string 
$semi_rand = md5(time()); 
$mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x"; 
$headers .= "From: my_name@some_domain.com"; 
// Add the headers for a file attachment 
$headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" . 
"Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" . 
" boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\""; 
// Add a multipart boundary above the plain message 
$message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" . 
"--{$mime_boundary}\n" . 
"Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" . 
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" . 
$message . "\n\n"; 
$message .="This is an automated email sent from a php script\n"; 

// Base64 encode the file data 
$data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data)); 
// Add file attachment to the message 
$message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . 
"Content-Type: {$fileatt_type};\n" . 
" name=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" . 
"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" . 
" filename=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" . 
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" . 
$data . "\n\n" . 
"--{$mime_boundary}--\n"; 
  $mail_to = "[e-mail]"; 
  $mail_subject = "Test email from"; 

  if (!mail($mail_to, $mail_subject, $message, $headers)) 
      echo "Mail send failed!"; 
    else 
      echo "Mail sent successfully to $mail_to"; 
}

[dreams4000]

any ideas?:\ I have tried some other file types, they seem to come through ok such as .txt and .sql. Not sure whats up with excel docs. any ideas would be appreciated.. thanks!

[mtmosier]

Heh, no responses to either of your threads I've seen. I'm afraid I may not be much help, but perhaps I can help eliminate the obvious. I really can't test this myself, since I don't have windows, or an excel file for that matter.

You mentioned changing the content type. Which ones did you try (example, "application/msexcel")? I assume none worked.

I see nothing wrong with the code you posted (in your other thread), but just in case, please try using a ready made class for sending mail, like PHPMailer. That should at least cut down on the possibility of simple coding mistakes.

[dreams4000]

Hey mtmosier, the code above, for everything else seems to work. It sends an email.. sends an attachment, and so long as it is not a detailed excel file, seems to work fine. I have tried msexcel, vnd.ms_excel, mixed, and a few other items just for a hope.. nothing seemed to make any change other than making it worse =p The excel option seemed to get the closest, as it should.. just doesn't work in the end.

Ill take a look at phpmailer, hopefully it will work with excel attachments.. 😐 thanks for the advice.