new lines are not appearing properly when using mail();

[elis]

Here is a snippet of my code:

 

<?php
$contactname =  db_escape_string(htmlspecialchars($_POST['name']));
		$sentname = $user->name;
		$subject =   db_escape_string(htmlspecialchars($_POST['subject']));
		$body =   db_escape_string($_POST['body']);
//pulled in an earlier (not shown) query
$contactemail = $rowA['contactemail'];



$headers = 	'From: ' . $user->mail . ' ' . "\r\n" .
						'Reply-To: ' . $user->mail . ' ' . "\r\n" .
						'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
			$headers  .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
			//prevent mail from going to spam folder
			$header .= 'Return-Path: ' . $user->name .' < ' . $user->main . '>\r\n'; 
			$headers .= 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"' . "\r\n";
			$mailbody = $body;
			$mailbody .= '\r\n- ------ \r\n Lorem ipsum';

			mail($contactemail, $subject, $mailbody, $headers);
?>

 

I'm actually not that familiar with this, so excuse any stupid oversights on my part.

The sending of mail works, however, I keep receiving this:

Hello\r\nThere are no new messages\r\n\r\n\r\n----\r\nLorem ipsum

 

Instead of

Hello

There are no new messages

----

Lorem ipsum

 

When entering a new line (through hitting the enter key, not actually using "\n") in my form.

 

I wondering what I'm doing wrong. Are my headers incorrect for what I want (simple text emails)?

Is it just my email that's reading it wrong (gmail)?

 

I tried setting my emails to HTML and using nl2br(); but the same problem occurred, but with "\r\n<br />" in the emails.

[ldougherty]

I suggest looking at PHP Mail examples and then copying one to meet your needs.

 

http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/func_mail_mail.asp

[phporcaffeine]

These lines are likely your issue:

$header .= 'Return-Path: ' . $user->name .' < ' . $user->main . '>\r\n';
$mailbody .= '\r\n- ------ \r\n Lorem ipsum';

 

It should be:

$header .= "Return-Path: " . $user->name ." < " . $user->main . ">\r\n";
$mailbody .= "\r\n- ------ \r\n Lorem ipsum";

 

Notice the use of " and not ' (you'll notice that everywhere else in your script, double quotes are used to encapsulate /r/n except on those lines)

 

The short answer: PHP looks at strings in single quotes differently than in double quotes, in single quotes PHP will always echo verbatim.  In double quotes PHP will evaluate the text rather than echo verbatim.

[elis]

Thank you, phpORcaffine. I'll try changing them to double quotes.