[SOLVED] Sending HTML mail from PHP

[Andy17]

Hey guys,

 

I have a small problem with my e-mail script that sends an HTML mail. The sent text is the content a user enters into a text field. So, when the user presses Enter in the text field to make spaces, I would like these spaces to be shown in the mail. I have tried using nl2br() but without success. I have the following code (I obviously have more, but the code below is the relevant part):

 

<?php

$mail = mysql_real_escape_string(trim(strip_tags(htmlspecialchars($_POST['receivermail'], ENT_QUOTES))));
$subject = mysql_real_escape_string(trim(strip_tags(htmlspecialchars($_POST['subject'], ENT_QUOTES))));
$message = mysql_real_escape_string(trim(strip_tags(htmlspecialchars($_POST['mailtext'], ENT_QUOTES))));

$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";
$headers .= "from: [email protected]";

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

?>

 

If I type in "a [space] b [space] c", it will look like this in the mail: a\r\nb\r\nc

 

I guess the problem is in the headers? I'm just not sure what to change there since I'm new to that part. So basically I just want a line break to write <br />.

 

Thank you.

[Andy17]

Bump. Also, how would I make the sender's name appear like this: mydomain.com instead of [email protected]? It does not work to just rewrite it with my current code.

[Andy17]

Bump.

[Andy17]

Bump.

[DeanWhitehouse]

nl2br should do it

<?php

$mail = htmlspecialchars($_POST['receivermail'], ENT_QUOTES);
$mail = mysql_real_escape_string($mail);
$mail = trim($mail);
$mail = strip_tags($mail);

$subject = htmlspecialchars($_POST['subject'], ENT_QUOTES);
$subject = mysql_real_escape_string($subject);
$subject = trim($subject);
$subject = strip_tags($subject);

$message = htmlspecialchars($_POST['mailtext'], ENT_QUOTES);
$message = mysql_real_escape_string($message);
$message = trim($message);
$message = strip_tags($message);
$message = nl2br($message);

$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";
$headers .= "From: Dizzit.net<[email protected]>";

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

?>

You have to do it after you use htmlentities or it gets converted to a safe form

 

[Andy17]

Hi Blade280891 and thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, I already tried this before posting here (sorry for not mentioning how I used nl2br()) and it does not work. Each space, which should be "<br />" displays as "\r\n" in the sent e-mail.

[DeanWhitehouse]

Echo it out onto the page , before sending and post the source code.

[Andy17]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean because I do not want to show the e-mail on the website when a user presses the send button. I would just like it to send it. Anyways, here is the code:

 

<?php

if (isset($_POST['submitbutton']))

{

$mail = htmlspecialchars($_POST['receivermail'], ENT_QUOTES);
$mail = mysql_real_escape_string($mail);
$mail = trim($mail);
$mail = strip_tags($mail);

$subject = htmlspecialchars($_POST['subject'], ENT_QUOTES);
$subject = mysql_real_escape_string($subject);
$subject = trim($subject);
$subject = strip_tags($subject);

$message = htmlspecialchars($_POST['mailtext'], ENT_QUOTES);
$message = mysql_real_escape_string($message);
$message = trim($message);
$message = strip_tags($message);
$message = nl2br($message);

$headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";
$headers .= "From: dizzit.net<[email protected]>";

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

}

?>

<form name="sendmail" method="post">

Reciever's e-mail address: <input type="text" name="receivermail" id="receivermail" value="[email protected]" onfocus="if (this.value == '[email protected]') {this.value = '';}" onblur="if (this.value == '') {this.value = '[email protected]';}" />

Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" id="subject" value="Please write a descriptive subject" onfocus="if (this.value == 'Please write a descriptive subject') {this.value = '';}" onblur="if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'Please write a descriptive subject';}" />

Message: <textarea name="mailtext" id="mailtext" style="width: 400px; height: 200px;" onfocus="if (this.value == 'Write your message here...') {this.value = '';}" onblur="if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'Write your message here...';}" />Write your message here...</textarea>

<input type="submit" name="submitbutton" value="Send" />

</form>

[Andy17]

bump

[Andy17]

Bump. No one reads page 3.

[DeanWhitehouse]

Do what i said.

To view the source code right click on the page then view source.

[Andy17]

Do what i said.

To view the source code right click on the page then view source.

 

Oh, sorry, I just misunderstood you. I echo'd it and it looked like this:

 

this\r\n\r\nis\r\n\r\na\r\n\r\ntest\r\n\r\nfor\r\n\r\nBlade280891

 

Where it should have looked like this:

 

this<br /><br />is<br /><br />a<br /><br />test<br /><br />for<br /><br />Blade280891

 

So, for some reason, "\r\n" is printed instead of "<br />". I noticed the \r\n in the header and was wondering if I would have to change something there.

[DeanWhitehouse]

Ok, one last test echo the $message out after each change

e.g.

$message = htmlspecialchars($_POST['mailtext'], ENT_QUOTES);
echo "Stage 1: ".$message;//do this after every change.
$message = mysql_real_escape_string($message);
$message = trim($message);
$message = strip_tags($message);
$message = nl2br($message);

[Andy17]

Ok it appears that the $message = mysql_real_escape_string($message); line caused the problem (for some unknown reason), so I moved this line to after the mail is sent. Now the line breaks work, but the following code still does escapes:

 

<?php

echo $_POST['mailtext']; // Stage 1
$message = htmlspecialchars($_POST['mailtext'], ENT_QUOTES);
// Stage 2
$message = trim($message);
// Stage 3
$message = strip_tags($message);
// Stage 4
$message = nl2br($message);
// Stage 5

?>

 

This means that it puts a \ in front of every ', even though I don't do mysql_real_escape_string() anywhere in my code. This already happens at stage 1 and I tried to remove the ENT_QUOTES but nothing changed.

 

This is very strange.

[DeanWhitehouse]

That means magic quotes are on

Look at this to disable

http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/security.magicquotes.disabling.php

[Andy17]

Thanks a lot, you nailed it.