HTML Email with Form Values

[cloodo]

Hi all..

I am not sure if this problem can be solved.. or.. if it s aproblem at all..

I have created a 'Tell a Friend Form' (action="tellafriend.php")

Tellafriend.php does 2 main tasks:

1. Process the form and send a notification email to me (webmaster)
2. Process the form and send the actual 'Recommendation Message to the moniated recipient/s (friends of the person completing the form).

Tellafriend then redirects the user to thank_you.htm.

This is all working fine.. but there's more..

The email messages, the one I recive and the one the 'friend' receives' are in text format and they look crappy when you open your email to read them. Note that the actual text wording is included in the tellafriend.php file itself.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to have an image and background templates so that the email can import those 'name and email values' and dump them on the image and background and send the email as html email to all recipients.. Like you see in newsletters..

Is there a way where my form data can be taken into a html email that can be sent using the .php file..??

Example:

Dear John,

Your friend Tom, whos email address is: [e-mail], would like to recommend our website for you to visit.

(and for this to be on a neat image background..

Can anyone help..?? I would very much appreciate it..

Thanks heaps.

[Houdini]

Unless you set the mail up with Content-Type; multipart/mixed and use Also Content-Type: image/jpg and Content-Disposition: inline (for an in line image) you must also read in the file and encode it with Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64. You might want to do a search for HTML email with mail() to learn more about the process. Just using mail is going to send an plain text message.

[cloodo]

Houdini wrote:

Unless you set the mail up with Content-Type; multipart/mixed and use Also Content-Type: image/jpg and Content-Disposition: inline (for an in line image) you must also read in the file and encode it with Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64. You might want to do a search for HTML email with mail() to learn more about the process. Just using mail is going to send an plain text message.

Thanks Houdini..

I certainly need to learn more about the process.. In the meantime, I might reside to using plain text.. the question is, can the text be customized from within the .php file itself where the email text is contained..?? (ie, make text bold, change color with <b></b>, color="000000", Tahoma... and so on)..?? Just to make it look a little bit more presentable.. Any ideas..?? Cheers.

[Houdini]

Here is a file I have adapted to work with inline attachments. You will have to read all comments, and since I removed some personal information then you might get an error, but it sucessfully send inline attachments to you recievers, this is still being tested, but so far is OK (at least with me)

<?php
###########################################################################################
### An email script that will attach images inline in an HTML and plain text e-mail     ###
### Just enter you own email infomation and file names with paths where indicated in    ### 
### the script. Have fun with it alter it add to it or whatever you want. When you are  ###
### done reading all the confusing tutorials about this kind of using mail to send your ###
### own without PHPmailer then you can just use this file to suit your self.            ###
###########################################################################################
$headers = "From: YourName <[e-mail]>";//put you own stuff here or use a variable
$to = '[e-mail]';// same as above
$subject = 'Testing HTML Emails';//your own stuff goes here
$html ="<img src='beerchug.gif'><br /><b>This</b> is HTML <span style='background:cyan'>and this is a cyan highlight</span>
<br>So this should be a new line.<br><br>This should be a new line with a space between the above.
 Here's dead Al<br><img src='DeadAl.jpg'>";//make up your own html or use an include
$message0 = 'Dear valued customer,';// or make up your own for text message
$message1 = 'NukeXtra  just released our new search engine optimisation (SEO) services.
We have exciting new packages from Cost-Per-Click (CPC, Paid advertising) to specialised optimization of your website by a designated SEO campaign manager.';
$message2 = 'Studies have proven that top placement in search engines, among other forms of online marketing, provide a more favourable return on investment compared to traditional forms of advertising such as, email marketing, radio commercials and television.';
$message3 = 'Search engine optimization is the ONLY fool proof method to earning guaranteed Top 10 search engine placement.';
$message4 = '95% of monthly Internet users utilize search engines to find and access websites';
$message5 = 'Attached is the NukeXtra SEO & CPC packages guide for your information.';
$message6 = 'If you have any questions or are interested in proceeding with our SEO services, please do not hesitate to contact us.';
$message7 = 'I look forward to this opportunity for us to work together.';
$message8 = 'With Kindest regards,';
$message9 = 'Someone';
$message10 = 'PHP Web Programmer';
$message11 = 'NukeXtra - [e-mail] - http://dhost.info/stevedemarcus/steve/' ;
$message12 = '218 Deer Point Court<br />Somewhere, ST 55555';
$message12 = 'Tel: (xxx)-xxx-xxx  |  Fax: {xxx)-xxx-xxxx';
 //first file to attach
 $fileatt2 = '../images/beerchug.gif';//put the relative path to the file here
 $fileatt_name2 = 'beerchug.gif';//just the name of the file here
 $fileatt_type2 = filetype($fileatt2);
 $file2 = fopen($fileatt2,'rb');
 $data2 = fread($file2,filesize($fileatt2));
 fclose($file2);
 //another file to attach 
 $fileatt = 'DeadAl.jpg';//relative path to image two and more
 $fileatt_name = 'DeadAl.jpg';//just the name of the file
 $fileatt_type = filetype($fileatt);
 $file = fopen($fileatt,'rb');
 $data = fread($file,filesize($fileatt)); 
 fclose($file);
// Generate a boundary string 
 $semi_rand = md5(time()); 
 $mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x"; 
 // Add the headers for a file attachment 
 $headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" .
 			 "Content-Type: multipart/alternative;\n" . 
             " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";
 $message = "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . 
            "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" . 
            "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" .
            "<font face=Arial>" .
            $html."\r\n";
            $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . 
            "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" . 
            "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" . 
            $message0 . "\n\n" .
            $message1 . "\n\n" .            

            $message2 . "\n\n" .
            $message3 . "\n\n" .
            $message4 . "\n\n" .
            $message5 . "\n\n" .
            $message6 . "\n\n" .
            $message7 . "\n\n" .
            $message8 . "\n\n" .
            $message9 . "\n" .
            $message10 . "\n" .
            $message11 . "\n" .
            $message12 . "\n\n";
 // Add the headers for a file attachment 
 $headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" . 
             "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" . 
             " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";
// Base64 encode the file data
$data2 = chunk_split(base64_encode($data2));
// Add file attachment to the message 
 $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . 
             "Content-Type: image/gif;\n" . //  {$fileatt_type}
             " name=\"{$fileatt_name2}\"\n" . 
             "Content-Disposition: inline;\n" . 
             " filename=\"{$fileatt_name2}\"\n" . 
             "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" . 
             $data2 . "\n\n" . 
             "--{$mime_boundary}--\n";
 // Add another file attachment to the message as many as you have  			  

 $data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
// Add file attachment to the message 
 $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . 
             "Content-Type: image/jpg;\n" . //  {$fileatt_type}
             " name=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" . 
             "Content-Disposition: inline;\n" . 
             " filename=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" . 
             "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" . 
             $data . "\n\n" . 
             "--{$mime_boundary}--\n";
// Send the message 
$send = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); 
if ($send) { 
 echo "<p>Email Sent to intended recipients successfully!</p>"; 
} else { 
 echo "<p>Mail could not be sent. You missed something in the script. Sorry!</p>"; 
} 
?> 

[cloodo]

Thanks Houdini.. and what a nice piece of code that is...

Working on it.

I'll let you know progress in a new thread later on..

Cheers mate.

[cloodo]

oops..
4got to mark this as resolved.