Sent php mail() displaying blank in gmail

bubblewrapped

I have been developing an email script that has been working fine using text/html variations with attachments. the thing is the email shows blank in gmail but works in others like roundcube and outlook.

here is the code that makes up the email:

$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
$headers .= "From: report@example.com\nReply-To: report@example.com";
//add boundary string and mime type specification
$headers .= "\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"PHP-mixed-".$random_hash."\"";
ob_start(); //Turn on output buffering
?>
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>"

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Congratulations! 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
table {
border-collapse:collapse;
}
table,th, td {
border: 1px solid #000;
}

table th {
	text-align:left;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<img src="http:/telcopal.com/rev_calc/uglii_telcopal.png" />
<h2>Congratulations!</h2>

</body>
</html>

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--

--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
Content-Type: application/zip; <?php echo 'name="' . $file . '"' ?> 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 
Content-Disposition: attachment 

<?php echo $attachment; ?>
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--

<?php 
//copy current buffer contents into $message variable and delete current output buffer
$message = ob_get_clean();
//send the email
mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers );

I am wondering if perhaps someone may have had some experience in this issue and could help me with this if I am missing anything. The attachment is also not working in gmail either.
(example.com emails are just replacements and not the actual email address)

johanafm

Email lines end with CRLF not LF. Some crap email servers do replace LF with CRLF, but unless you are using such a server, never use just LF.
Take a look at the output of

<pre>
<?php echo 'Line1'; ?>
Line2
<?php echo 'Line'; ?>3
Line4
</pre>

And then modify your script to get proper line endings.

bubblewrapped

Well I tried what you suggest but I'm not sure what I did was correct. When I look at "show original" all the code thats supposed to show up is there. Maybe I have someting wrong with my headers?

johanafm

Yes, you have header errors.

Line ends with LF

$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";

instead of CRLF

$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";

Like I wrote before, no line in an email should end with LF.

And like I wrote in my last reply

<?php echo 'This is a'; ?>
single line

will display as

This is asingle line

Which obviously means that, if $randomhash is 'RHASH'

--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>"

will display as

--PHP-mixed-RHASHContent-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-RHASH"

bradgrafelman

johanafm wrote:
And like I wrote in my last reply
<?php echo 'This is a'; ?> 
single line
will display as
This is asingle line

Er, no it won't... the line break after the '?>' closing tag will be a part of the output, thus the output will be:

This is a
single line

johanafm

bradgrafelman;10964530 wrote:
Er, no it won't... the line break after the '?>' closing tag will be a part of the output, thus the output will be:
This is a
single line

Err, yes it will. It really is actually, at least using php 5.3.3 (try it if you don't trust me).

<pre>
<?php echo 'This is not a '; ?>single 
line

This is <?php echo 'a single '; ?>
line
</pre>

output

This is not a single 
line

This is a single line

Or through CLI

This is not a single 
line

This is a single line

output

This is not a single 
line

This is a single line

Wether the parsing model is good, smart or intuitive is another matter.

bradgrafelman

This:

This is <?php echo 'a single '; ?> 
line

outputs this:

This is a single  

line

for me via the CLI.

johanafm

Strange. I don't get newline in the output unless the php closing tag is followed by anything other than (CR)LF. Even an ordinary space (0x20) is enough for the linebreak to be shown.

Tested on 5.3.3 on OSX and Redhat as well as 5.2.4 on XP.