[RESOLVED] Formatting output for email sent via php

stewartship

Hi all!

Currently have a script that uses the following snippet of code to send an email to a successfully registered user:


..............
    $to = $email;
    $subject = 'System Registration Details';
    $body = 'Dear'.$firstname.' '.$surname.',\n You have successfully registered on the System.\n\n  Your logon details are unique and you should keep them confidential and recorded, as you will need them to log onto the system at any time.\n\n Your username is: '.$username.' and your password is '.$password.', and the input you gave for your Mother\'s maiden name is: '.$maidenname.'.\n\n  Many thanks and enjoy using the system.';

if (mail($to, $subject, $body)) {
echo("<p>Message successfully sent!</p>");
}
else {
 echo("<p>Message delivery failed...</p>");
 }
...................

I have configured my php.ini fine, the email is being sent out to the user from the required address etc. My problem is the layout of the body of text. I cannot seem to create spaces, line breaks etc. on the email that is sent out, the text just contains the html tags in one lump paragraph.

Does anyone know how you can format the layout of the body of the text properly within the sent email?

bogu

U need to set the content type of the email to be text/html or text/plain, more about this in here: [man]mail[/man]

stewartship

Hi bogu

Thanks for the info, I tried setting the header as suggested:

    $to = $email;

$subject = 'Registration Details';

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

$body = '<html>
          <body>
          Dear '.$firstname.' '.$surname.',\nYou have successfully registered on the  System.\n\n  Your logon details are unique and you should keep them confidential and recorded, as you will need them to log onto the system at any time.\n\n Your username is: '.$username.' and your password is '.$password.', and the input you gave for your Mother\'s maiden name is: '.$maidenname.'.\n\n  Many thanks and enjoy the sunshine system.
          </body>
          </html>';

if (mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers)) {
echo("<p>Message successfully sent!</p>");
}
else {
 echo("<p>Message delivery failed...</p>");
 }
[\PHP]


but still get output as follows on the email:


Dear user,\nYou have successfully registered on the System.\n\n Your logon details are unique and you should keep them confidential and recorded, as you will need them to log onto the system at any time.\n\n Your username is: user1 and your password is cleanbill, and the input you gave for your Mother's maiden name is: blkankety.\n\n Many thanks and enjoy the system. 

(did not put in html tags as would format it on the thread!)

Any ideas?

bogu

One question, what is the diffrence between this:

$text_1 = "Text\r\n";

and this

$text_2 = 'Text\r\n';

😕 When you'll know this you'll have your answer ...

stewartship

One way returns the varible as a full string i.e in your sample $ text 2 will simply send the full line Text\r\n to the browser, whereas you get interpolation with the use of double-quoted strings.....

err.... kinda missing your point here

what do you think about the use of nl2br() function, if you save the body as a string rather than using the " " method, will that work?

thanks for the help

stewartship

hey bogu

Spotted the syntax error in my code!!

Next time if you could just tell me 'hey buddy your syntax is wrong' would be easier!!!!!!

Thanks for the help

stewartship

Oh and for anyone who is intrested the nl2br() was very useful, so i copied the email output within $body and then did:

$body = n2lbr($body);

and it worked a treat!

more info here:

http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/function.nl2br.php