Sending HTML email

**letom** · 05-31-2013, 09:46 AM

I have following code in header for sending HTML emails.

Code:

	.
$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers =  "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit . "\r\n";

My Issues are following

I can't send html email with the above coding, all mails are getting in plain text..
If the browser is not supporting HTML what is the alternate solution to display the message by stripping the HTML tags.

**developerhusain** · 05-31-2013, 10:56 AM

You do like this to achieve what you want

PHP Code:


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

$to =$_POST['to'];

$subject ='Job Opportunity @ m`brace';

$message ='<head>

<title>Untitled Document</title>

</head>



<body>your content</body>';

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



// More headers

$headers .= 'From:'.$_POST['from']."\r\n";



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

Do revert to me if there is any problem
developerhusain

**traq** · 05-31-2013, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by letom

I have following code in header for sending HTML emails.

Code:

$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers =  "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit . "\r\n";

You've got a few syntax errors in that snippet:

PHP Code:


// missing single quote after "8bit"
// also, you're assigning instead of concatenating (so your $headers will contain *only* this last line)
$headers =  "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit . "\r\n";

PHP Code:


// should be:
$headers .=  "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit" . "\r\n";

Also, I would highly recommend considering switching your encoding to UTF-8.

*****

Originally Posted by letom

If the browser is not supporting HTML what is the alternate solution to display the message by stripping the HTML tags.

I assume you mean the email client, not browsers.

What I do is compose the email in plain text first, then, when necessary, add an HTML version )markdown is a nice way to do this). mail() is not a very good choice to send it, since it doesn't handle multipart messages conveniently. You might look at using Pear's Mail class instead.

Keep in mind that email clients are generally "behind the times" when it comes to HTML support. Also, security settings and/or user preferences prohibit much of HTML - no scripts, usually no images, and a large subset of css won't work either. HTML emails are the one area where you still have to "design like 1999" - tables, inline styles, and so forth.

**letom** · 06-01-2013, 06:18 AM

Originally Posted by developerhusain

You do like this to achieve what you want

PHP Code:


$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$to =$_POST['to'];
$subject ='Job Opportunity @ m`brace';
$message ='<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>your content</body>';
$headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" . "\r\n";

// More headers
$headers .= 'From:'.$_POST['from']."\r\n";

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

Do revert to me if there is any problem
developerhusain

Hi Husain

Thanks for your kind advice.
Your coding seems fine.., i have also some what related to this, but it not comes to the real solution of the problem but related to that..

Regards
Tom

**letom** · 06-01-2013, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by traq

You've got a few syntax errors in that snippet:

PHP Code:


// missing single quote after "8bit"
// also, you're assigning instead of concatenating (so your $headers will contain *only* this last line)
$headers =  "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit . "\r\n";

PHP Code:


// should be:
$headers .=  "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' . "\r\n";

Also, I would highly recommend considering switching your encoding to UTF-8.

*****
I assume you mean the email client, not browsers.

What I do is compose the email in plain text first, then, when necessary, add an HTML version )markdown is a nice way to do this). mail() is not a very good choice to send it, since it doesn't handle multipart messages conveniently. You might look at using Pear's Mail class instead.

Keep in mind that email clients are generally "behind the times" when it comes to HTML support. Also, security settings and/or user preferences prohibit much of HTML - no scripts, usually no images, and a large subset of css won't work either. HTML emails are the one area where you still have to "design like 1999" - tables, inline styles, and so forth.

Dear Adrain

Thanks for your response and support.
Iam not using any complicated html stuffs in messages neither images nor java scripts.
only styling the layer as follows only.

Code:

<div style="border:1px solid #000000;font-family:arial">

The mail is sending when a user register a account, so we have no option to choose html/text message before sending, it should identify itself and display HTML message or text message properly according to the working environment.

Any solution some what related to <noscript> as noscript displays the content, if javscript is not supported, same way if html is not supported any solution to display the message properly

**letom** · 06-01-2013, 07:41 AM

HTML emails are the one area where you still have to "design like 1999" - tables, inline styles, and so forth.

Why can't we use div instead of table and use inline styling in div as in the code of previous post?

**Beverleyh** · 06-01-2013, 09:21 AM

Adrian didn't mean that you can't use divs at all (in fact, a simple, one column layout for the sake of adding a border and font, like you have, should be perfectly ok, although you shouldn't rely on the border or font rendering 100% in all cases as it comes down to the settings/capabilities of the email client) but his advice is correct in a broader sense. For multi-column layouts and more advanced email layouts with logo/header/footer positioning, tables are just more predictable and offer a more 'stable' structure. Web-based email clients tend to fair a little better with div/CSS layouts, but desktop applications, such as MS Outlook and Lotus Notes, are less forgiving, especially with multi-column div floats (they'll just end up stacking on top of each other). Since you can't predict how your customers are accessing emails, this is one area where you should probably play it safe with the rigid, grid-like placement of (nested) tables.

**letom** · 06-01-2013, 10:03 AM

Hi Beverley

Thanks for your advice.

Adrian didn't mean that you can't use divs at all

YES, Just for understand the difference between using div and table.

But i need a solution for displaying text version of same HTML message if the working environment is not supported HTML.

Regards
Tom

**Beverleyh** · 06-01-2013, 10:19 AM

That's fine - you can achieve that by using a "multipart/alternative" email which allows you to set a "boundary" that the email client uses to select from a plain text or HTML email (depending on how its setup and/or its capabilities).

Here is a tutorial that should help with that: http://webcheatsheet.com/PHP/send_em...attachment.php