Using a HTML template

[sonny100]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if there was an easy way to include a HTML template for the body of an email in the mail() function?

As default of course it just displays plain text which isn't too attractive so I wanted to create a HTML template that would pretty it up.

What is the command to include this within the mail() function?, and how do I display the variables that are being emailed within that template?

Thanks in advance,

sonny100

[sandthipe]

for great looking and easy-to-use HTML emails, use phpmailer. it's a php class. found here:

http://phpmailer.codeworxtech.com/

tutorials, instructions, and examples abound at this site

[sonny100]

Thanks Sandthipe, I've checked out PhpMailer and it's a little more than what i'm looking for.

Can you call a HTML file in the Mail() function to use as a template? If so how?

And if you can, can you replace data in that HTML file with variables in that exist on the page that calls it?

[bpat1434]

The mail function doesn't us a template; however, you can customize it so that it is easy to create an HTML MIME email 😉

There are basically a few parts to this.

1. Sending the correct content type in the header

2. Having a unique boundary for the message

3. Including the HTML and text versions of the email

Basically what you'd do is:

Generate a unique boundary key
This can be done by [man]md5/man-ing the current time, or using a random number/letter generator.

$boundary = '--My-Boundary--'.md5(time());

Grab the HTML "template" that you want to use and parse it
However you want to do this; however, just make sure you store in a variable.

$html = file_get_contents('/path/to/template.html');
// -- OR --
ob_start();
include_once('/path/to/template.html');
$html = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

Construct the text version from the HTML above, or use a template much in the same way as above

Construct the message body, separating the parts by the boundary
The boundary marks the parts of the message (what's html and what's text or an attachment).

$message = '--'.$boundary.'
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

'.$html.'

--'.$boundary.'
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

'.$text.'

--'.$boundary.'--';

Send the proper headers along with the message
The Content Type would then be "multipart/alternative" and you'd specify the boundary as well:

$headers = 'From: [e-mail]'."\n";
$headers .= 'Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="'.$boundary.'"'."\n";
$headers .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0';

Now, put that all together with the mail function to send an html and plain-text email:

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

And there you have it, sending an HTML mail with a plain-text version. Te reason you would want to send a plain-text version is because not all email clients will read HTML. And some people don't like HTML. So it's a good idea to send both versions that way you can be assured that everyone will see your email (in some form).