sending out html emails

lajkonik86

for sending out html emails to a subscriber list.

should i be using a webbased third party service such as http://www.mailchimp.com/
or simply code the basic subscribe unsubscribe thingies myself
or install some third party script

doing it myself would probably mean on compromising on statistics
im also worried whether i would be able to get the html/css right when doing it myself. Maybe the templating of a third party service would reduce that pain. My css / html is good, but email letters are an entirely different complication all together 🙂

What do you use and advice to do?

Cheers,
Thierry

matto

I discovered it's not at all that different, except you have to replace relative paths/URLs included by absolute ones.

<img src="http://xxx.xxx.com/images/pic.gif"> instead of <img src="images/pic.gif">, for example.

for mailing I use a very simple, handmade function which goes like this:

function htmlMail($fromname, $frommail, $toname, $tomail, $subject, $message_html)
{
	$header =	"From: $fromname <$frommail>\n"
				."Reply-To: $frommail\n"
				."X-Mailer: PHP/".phpversion(). "\n"
				."X-Sender-IP: ".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."\n"
				."Content-Type: text/html";
	$to = "$toname <$tomail>";

if(!stristr($message_html, "<html>"))
{
	$message_html =	"<html>\n<body>\n"
					.$message_html
					."\n</body>\n</html>";
}

$success = mail($to, $subject, $message_html, $header);

return $success;
}

It returns true on success, false otherwise.

Should it not work, check if you may access the mailing functions and whether they are set up on the server you use.

lajkonik86

currently i use this one
(its from simplemachines form code)

the css is more confusing though, have a look at:
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2007/04/a_guide_to_css_support_in_emai_2.html

as you can see its a bit of a mess 🙂
especially not supporting background-image is really making me dispair

problem with doing everything with my own code is that it would be a pain to implement statistics

// Send off an email.
// Note: the $priority parameter is added merely for future compatibility.
function sendmail($to, $subject, $message, $from = null, $message_id = null, $send_html = false, $priority = 1, $hotmail_fix = null)
{
	global $webmaster_email, $context, $modSettings, $txt, $scripturl;

// Use sendmail if it's set or if no SMTP server is set.
$use_sendmail = empty($modSettings['mail_type']) || $modSettings['smtp_host'] == '';

// Line breaks need to be \r\n only in windows or for SMTP.
$line_break = $context['server']['is_windows'] || !$use_sendmail ? "\r\n" : "\n";

// So far so good.
$mail_result = true;

// If the recipient list isn't an array, make it one.
$to_array = is_array($to) ? $to : array($to);

// Sadly Hotmail doesn't support character sets properly.
if ($hotmail_fix === null)
{
	$hotmail_to = array();
	foreach ($to_array as $i => $to_address)
	{
		if (preg_match('~@hotmail.[a-zA-Z\.]{2,6}$~i', $to_address) === 1)
		{
			$hotmail_to[] = $to_address;
			$to_array = array_diff($to_array, array($to_address));
		}
	}

	// Call this function recursively for the hotmail addresses.
	if (!empty($hotmail_to))
		$mail_result = sendmail($hotmail_to, $subject, $message, $from, $message_id, $send_html, $priority, true);

	// The remaining addresses no longer need the fix.
	$hotmail_fix = false;

	// No other addresses left? Return instantly.
	if (empty($to_array))
		return $mail_result;
}

// Get rid of slashes and entities.
$subject = un_htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($subject));
// Make the message use the proper line breaks.
$message = str_replace(array("\r", "\n"), array('', $line_break), stripslashes($message));

// Make sure hotmail mails are sent as HTML so that HTML entities work.
if ($hotmail_fix && !$send_html)
{
	$send_html = true;
	$message = strtr($message, array($line_break => '<br />' . $line_break));
	$message = preg_replace('~(' . preg_quote($scripturl, '~') . '([?/][\w\-_%\.,\?&;=#]+)?)~', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $message);
}

list (, $from_name) = mimespecialchars(addcslashes($from !== null ? $from : $context['forum_name'], '<>()\'\\"'), true, $hotmail_fix, $line_break);
list (, $subject) = mimespecialchars($subject, true, $hotmail_fix, $line_break);

// Construct the mail headers...
$headers = 'From: "' . $from_name . '" <' . (empty($modSettings['mail_from']) ? $webmaster_email : $modSettings['mail_from']) . '>' . $line_break;
$headers .= $from !== null ? 'Reply-To: <' . $from . '>' . $line_break : '';
$headers .= 'Return-Path: ' . (empty($modSettings['mail_from']) ? $webmaster_email: $modSettings['mail_from']) . $line_break;
$headers .= 'Date: ' . gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s') . ' +0000' . $line_break;

if ($message_id !== null && empty($modSettings['mail_no_message_id']))
	$headers .= 'Message-ID: <' . md5($scripturl . microtime()) . '-' . $message_id . strstr(empty($modSettings['mail_from']) ? $webmaster_email : $modSettings['mail_from'], '@') . '>' . $line_break;
$headers .= 'X-Mailer: SMF' . $line_break;

// pass this to the integration before we start modifying the output -- it'll make it easier later
if (isset($modSettings['integrate_outgoing_email']) && function_exists($modSettings['integrate_outgoing_email']))
{
	if ($modSettings['integrate_outgoing_email']($subject, $message, $headers) === false)
		return false;
}

$charset = isset($context['character_set']) ? $context['character_set'] : $txt['lang_character_set'];

list ($charset, $message, $encoding) = mimespecialchars($message, false, $hotmail_fix, $line_break);

// Sending HTML?  Let's plop in some basic stuff, then.
if ($send_html)
{
	// This should send a text message with MIME multipart/alternative stuff.
	$mime_boundary = 'SMF-' . md5($message . time());
	$headers .= 'Mime-Version: 1.0' . $line_break;
	$headers .= 'Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="' . $mime_boundary . '"' . $line_break;
	$headers .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: ' . ($encoding == '' ? '7bit' : $encoding);

	// Save the original message...
	$orig_message = $message;

	// But, then, dump it and use a plain one for dinosaur clients.
	$message = un_htmlspecialchars(strip_tags(strtr($orig_message, array('</title>' => $line_break)))) . $line_break . '--' . $mime_boundary . $line_break;

	// This is the plain text version.  Even if no one sees it, we need it for spam checkers.
	$message .= 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset=' . $charset . $line_break;
	$message .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: ' . ($encoding == '' ? '7bit' : $encoding) . $line_break . $line_break;
	$message .= un_htmlspecialchars(strip_tags(strtr($orig_message, array('</title>' => $line_break)))) . $line_break . "--" . $mime_boundary . $line_break;

	// This is the actual HTML message, prim and proper.  If we wanted images, they could be inlined here (with multipart/related, etc.)
	$message .= 'Content-Type: text/html; charset=' . $charset . $line_break;
	$message .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: ' . ($encoding == '' ? '7bit' : $encoding) . $line_break . $line_break;
	$message .= $orig_message . $line_break . "--" . $mime_boundary . '--';
}
// Text is good too.
else
{
	$headers .= 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset=' . $charset . $line_break;
	if ($encoding != '')
		$headers .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: ' . $encoding;
}

// SMTP or sendmail?
if ($use_sendmail)
{
	$subject = strtr($subject, array("\r" => '', "\n" => ''));
	if (!empty($modSettings['mail_strip_carriage']))
	{
		$message = strtr($message, array("\r" => ''));
		$headers = strtr($headers, array("\r" => ''));
	}

	foreach ($to_array as $to)
	{
		if (!mail(strtr($to, array("\r" => '', "\n" => '')), $subject, $message, $headers))
		{
			log_error(sprintf($txt['mail_send_unable'], $to));
			$mail_result = false;
		}

		// Wait, wait, I'm still sending here!
		@set_time_limit(300);
		if (function_exists('apache_reset_timeout'))
			apache_reset_timeout();
	}
}
else
	$mail_result = $mail_result && smtp_mail($to_array, $subject, $message, $send_html ? $headers : "Mime-Version: 1.0" . $line_break . $headers);

// Everything go smoothly?
return $mail_result;
}