mail() works on one server but not the other

Paul_Ferrie

Would anyone know why my mail script wont work on a windows server?
I have tested the script on my own server (Linux) and all works fine but as soon as i put it on my clients server(Windows 2003) it stops sending the mail.

Only thing i can think of is that the email is being sent html formatted.

Thanks for any help

tsinka

Hi,

on windows you need to set some php.ini values:

SMTP = <smtphost>
smtp_port = <smtp port>

If you don't set the from header yourself then additionally set

sendmail_from = <from address>

Alternatively use some php mailer class like phpmailer or swift mailer.

Thomas

Paul_Ferrie

i could swear i posted a reply to this 15 mins ago, strange :bemused:
Sorry m8 you lost me there. Here is the script that giving me the grief.

//Headers to allow for html coding
$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"; 
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";
//Set multi line text
function breakIntoLines($txt, $lineLength){ 

$txt .= " "; 
$lines = array(); 

while (strlen($txt) > 0){        
    if (strlen($txt) >= $lineLength){ 
        $line = substr($txt, 0, $lineLength); 
    }else{ 
        $line = $txt; 
    } 

    $line = substr($line, 0 , strrpos($line, " ")); 
    $lines[] = $line; 

    if (strlen($txt) > strlen($line)){ 
        $txt = substr($txt, strlen($line)+1, strlen($txt)); 
    }else{ 
        $txt = ""; 
    } 

} 
return $lines;    
} 
//
//

$userOwner = "Paul";
$modName 	= $_POST['modName'];
$yourName 	= $_POST['yourName'];
$yourAddy	= $_POST['yourAddy'];
$yourAddy	= $_POST['yourAdd'];
$yourTel	= $_POST['yourTel'];
$yourDate	= $_POST['yourDate'];
$msg		= $_POST['yourInfo'];
$adminaddress = "test@innovativedesigns.me.uk";

//Site address
$siteaddress  = ""; 
// Enter your company name or site name 
$sitename 	  = ""; 
// Get the date and time from your server to be displayed in the email
$date 		  = date("d/m/Y H:i:s");
$msgs=implode("<br>", breakIntoLines($msg, 50));
$bod = "<style type='text/css'>
<!--
body {
	margin-left: 0px;
	margin-top: 0px;
	margin-right: 0px;
	margin-bottom: 0px;
	background-color: #F3F0EC;
}
.style1 {
	color: #5a5a5a;
	font-size: 11px;
	font-family: tahoma;
	text-decoration:none;
	line-height: 15px;
}
.var_tags {
	color: #d10000;
	font-size: 11px;
	font-family: tahoma;
}
.dash {
	border-bottom-width: 1px;
	border-top-style: none;
	border-right-style: none;
	border-bottom-style: dotted;
	border-left-style: none;
	border-bottom-color: #CCCCCC;
}
-->
</style></head>

<body>
<span class='style1'>Hi $userOwner,</span>
<table width='80%' height='225' border='0'>
  <tr>
    <td height='16' colspan='2' class='dash' scope='col'><table width='100%' border='0'>
        <tr>
          <td scope='col'><span class='style1'>A Booking request for</span> <span class='var_tags'>$modName</span> <span class='style1'>has been recieved.</span></td>
        </tr>
      </table></td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td width='21%' height='21'><div align='right' class='style1'>Name/Company Name:</div></td>
    <td width='79%' class='var_tags'>$yourName</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='21'><div align='right' class='style1'>Email address: </div></td>
    <td class='var_tags'>$yourAddy</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='21'><div align='right' class='style1'>Contact number:</div></td>
    <td class='var_tags'>$yourTel</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='16' valign='top' class='style1'><div align='right'>Address:</div></td>
    <td rowspan='2' valign='top' class='var_tags'>$yourAdd</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='21'>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='21'><div align='right' class='style1'>Date of booking: </div></td>
    <td class='var_tags'>$yourDate</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='16' valign='top'><div align='right' class='style1'>Assignment information:</div></td>
    <td rowspan='2' valign='top' class='var_tags'>$yourInfo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td height='21'>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td height='22' colspan='2' class='dash'>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width='80%' border='0'>
  <tr>
    <td scope='col'><span class='style1'>Email was sent on:</span> <span class='var_tags'>$date </span></td>
  </tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>";
mail("$adminaddress","Model booking request",$bod,$headers."FROM:$adminaddress"); 
//This sends a thank you email to your visitor
mail("$yourAddy","Thank You $yourName, email recieved", 
"Hi $yourName,<br/>
Your email has been recieved and someone will be<br />
in contact with you soon.<br /><br />
Kind regards,
$sitename<br/>
$siteaddress",$headers."FROM:$adminaddress"); 
echo "&retval=1&";

Thanks for any help

tsinka

Did you check the php.ini settings ?

Paul_Ferrie

tsinka wrote:
Did you check the php.ini settings ?

Check for what?

tsinka

My first post was a little bit too short, I think.

On Windows, the PHP mail function can't send any mail if the mail settings in php.ini are not set properly. The php.ini values I mentioned in my first post need to be set so php knows which smtp server to use.

An alternative is to use php classes that implement the SMTP protocol like phpmailer or swift mailer.

Thomas

Paul_Ferrie

I have figured out that mail does get sent from the server but only if i dont use the headers

$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"; 
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";

But to lose that would mean losing the formatting in the email.

Thanks for helping me here.

Paul_Ferrie

bump Still stuck here. :queasy:

tsinka

Hi,

I think the best solution is to use something like the very easy to use phpmailer .
There's an example showing how to send HTML Mail with phpmailer.

Thomas

Paul_Ferrie

Thanks will look over it today. I am well miffed that this is working fine on the linux server.

tsinka

Which mail server (exchange server ?) do you use with the Windows installation ?

Thomas

tsinka

Read the comment of "fontajos at phpeppershop dot com" in the online manual. This may give you useful hints if you're using exchange server to send the mail. It's an example of how to send a mail containing both a html and a plain text version of the mail (which is a good idea to support mail clients that don't support html mail).

Thomas

Paul_Ferrie

tsinka wrote:
Which mail server (exchange server ?) do you use with the Windows installation ?

Thomas

It's the client's server. I have very little experince with win2003 server.

Bolzen

tsinka wrote:
Hi,

on windows you need to set some php.ini values:
SMTP = <smtphost>
smtp_port = <smtp port>

If you don't set the from header yourself then additionally set
sendmail_from = <from address>

Alternatively use some php mailer class like phpmailer or swift mailer.

Thomas

Hi -- maybe you know what should be done if mail() doesn't work on Linux? It returns "true", but in fact message is not delivered. 😕

tsinka

The problem could be that php adds the mail to the mail queue successfully
but the mailer (sendmail/postfix/..) isn't able to send the mail at all.

Did you check the mail log file (e.g. /var/log/mail,depends a little bit on the system setup) for any error messages ?

Thomas

Bolzen

tsinka wrote:
The problem could be that php adds the mail to the mail queue successfully
but the mailer (sendmail/postfix/..) isn't able to send the mail at all.

Did you check the mail log file (e.g. /var/log/mail,depends a little bit on the system setup) for any error messages ?

Thomas

Can't find the log, probably don't have the rights to access it. What might the possible cause of mailer failure be?

Paul_Ferrie

Still dont know what the problem is, i do now know that there is a problem using my own (work) email address. If i use my msn email addy then the script works fine.

bradgrafelman

Once again, I'll reiterate the suggestion for using PHPMailer. Just point it to your SMTP server and follow the instructions to compose messages.

d11wtq

I'd use Swift Mailer.... it's easy:

http://www.swiftmailer.org/documentation/50#view