HTML Email Troubles Viewing

sunwell · August 31, 2009

Hello All,

A quick questionthat I'm sure has an easy solution. I designed both an html and text based email notification for a client, with the default set to deliver html emails. Some people are having trouble receiving them, so i need to add a "Trouble Viewing This Email? CLICK HERE" link at the top before the html email, but I cannot figure out how to do it. This is my code:

$to = $emails;

$subject = 'Luggage Repair Receipt';

$headers = "From: [email protected]\r\n";

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

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

$message = '<html><body>';

$message = '<a href="http://www.mysite.com/mysite/viewrepair3.php?usersearch=' . $repair_id . '&name=' . $last_name . '&submit=Submit">IF YOU CANNOT READ THIS EMAIL CLICK HERE</a>';

$message .= '<img src="http://www.mysite.com/mysite/header2.gif" alt="Repair Notification" />';

$message .= "" . $first_name . ",";

$message .= "Thank you for stopping by. This emails contains information about your recent repair.";

$message .= '<table rules="all" style="border-color: #666;" cellpadding="10">';

$message .= "<tr style='background: #eee;'><td>Your repair receipt number is: </td><td>" . $repair_id . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Pick Up Date: </td><td>" . $ready_date2 . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Brand: </td><td>" . $manufacturer . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Item Description: </td><td>" . $item_description . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Color: </td><td>" . $color . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Exterior: </td><td>" . $exterior_construction . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Repair Description: </td><td>" . $repair_description . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Under Warranty: </td><td>" . $warranty . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Total Charges: </td><td>$" . $total_amount . "</td></tr>";

$message .= "<tr><td>Status: </td><td>Scheduled for repair</td></tr>";

$message .= "</table>";

$message .= "For more information please visit www.mysite.com/repairstatus.html Luggage Company ";

$message .= "SW 12th Ave. New York, NY 10015 ph: (555) 222-1212 fax: (555) 222-1212 Toll-Free:(555)222-1212 www.mysite.com Hours Monday thru Friday: 8:30 am ~ 6:00 pm Saturday: 9:00 am ~ 5:00 pm Sunday: By Appointment Only";

$message .= '<img src="http://www.mysite.com/mysite/footer.gif" alt="Ready For Pick Up Notification 2" />';

$message .= "</body></html>";

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

I added something I thought would work, but obviously I skipped a logic step- can somebody help?

MadTechie · September 1, 2009

if people are having trouble viewing the HTML, wouldn't adding a HTML link be pointless as they wouldn't be able to view it!

you could send a multipart email including html and plain text

sunwell · September 1, 2009

You're exactly right. I think the multipart email is the way to go, but im not sure how to do it in this application. I believe it would change the content type to text/multipart, but how would the link be added above and included in the mail() command. Does anybody have an example?

MadTechie · September 1, 2009

Here's a sample

from what you have posted I believe you shouldn't have any problems integrating it

$notice_text = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.";
$plain_text = "This is a plain text email.\r\nIt is very cool.";
$html_text = "<html><body>This is an <b style='color:purple'>HTML</b> text email.\r\nIt is very cool.</body></html>";

$semi_rand = md5(time());
$mime_boundary = "==MULTIPART_BOUNDARY_$semi_rand";
$mime_boundary_header = "\"$mime_boundary\"";

$to = "Me <[email protected]>";
$bcc = "You <[email protected]>, Them <[email protected]>";
$from = "Me.com <[email protected]>";
$subject = "My Email";

$body = "$notice_text

--$mime_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

$plain_text

--$mime_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

$html_text

--$mime_boundary--";

if (@mail($to, $subject, $body,
    "From: " . $from . "\n\r" .
    "bcc: " . $bcc . "\n\r" .
    "MIME-Version: 1.0\n\r" .
    "Content-Type: multipart/alternative;\n\r" .
    "     boundary=" . $mime_boundary_header))
{
    echo "Email sent successfully.";
}else{
    echo "Email NOT sent successfully!";
}

sunwell · September 1, 2009

Ok, so I think this will work- does it look correct before I launch it or did I miss something. Again, I'm a little unfamiliar with this format. Again, I'm trying to have the html email display, but have a link above it that will display in plain text with a hyper link to an external site where the email contents can be viewed.

$notice_text = "IF YOU CANNOT READ THIS EMAIL FOLLOW THIS LINK: www.mysite.com/repairstatus.html";

$plain_text = "$first_name,\n\n" .

"Thank you for stopping by Luggage Shop. This emails contains information about your recent repair\n\n" .

"Your repair receipt number is: $repair_id\n\n" .

"The details of your order are as follows:\n\n" .

"Pick Up Date: $ready_date2\n" .

"Brand: $manufacturer\n" .

"Item Description: $item_description\n" .

"Color: $color\n" .

"Exterior: $exterior_construction\n" .

"Repair Description: $repair_description\n" .

"Estimated Charges: $estimated_charges\n\n" .

"For more information please visit www.mysite.com/repairstatus.html\n\n" .

"We appreciate your business!\n\n" .

"Luggage Company\n\n" .

"www.mysite.com";

$html_text = '<html><body>';

$html_text .= '<img src="http://www.mysite.com/header2.gif" alt="Repair Notification" />';

$html_text .= "" . $first_name . ",";

$html_text .= "Thank you for stopping by Luggage Store. This emails contains information about your recent repair.";

$html_text .= '<table rules="all" style="border-color: #666;" cellpadding="10">';

$html_text .= "<tr style='background: #eee;'><td>Your repair receipt number is: </td><td>" . $repair_id . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Pick Up Date: </td><td>" . $ready_date2 . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Brand: </td><td>" . $manufacturer . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Item Description: </td><td>" . $item_description . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Color: </td><td>" . $color . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Exterior: </td><td>" . $exterior_construction . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Repair Description: </td><td>" . $repair_description . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Under Warranty: </td><td>" . $warranty . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Total Charges: </td><td>$" . $total_amount . "</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "<tr><td>Status: </td><td>Scheduled for repair</td></tr>";

$html_text .= "</table>";

$html_text .= "For more information please visit www.mysite.com/repairstatus.html Luggage Company ";

$html_text .= '<img src="http://www.mysite.com/footer.gif" alt="Ready For Pick Up Notification 2" />';

$html_text .= "</body></html>";

$semi_rand = md5(time());

$mime_boundary = "==MULTIPART_BOUNDARY_$semi_rand";

$mime_boundary_header = "\"$mime_boundary\"";

$to = "Me <[email protected]>";

$bcc = "Me <[email protected]>";

$from = "Luggage.com <[email protected]>";

$subject = "Luggage Repair Receipt";

$body = "$notice_text

--$mime_boundary

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

$plain_text

--$mime_boundary

Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

$html_text

--$mime_boundary--";

if (@mail($to, $subject, $body,

"From: " . $from . "\n\r" .

"bcc: " . $bcc . "\n\r" .

"MIME-Version: 1.0\n\r" .

"Content-Type: multipart/alternative;\n\r" .

" boundary=" . $mime_boundary_header))

{

echo "Email sent successfully.";

}else{

echo "Email NOT sent successfully!";

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

MadTechie · September 1, 2009

remove the $notice_text from your code and add the text directly into the plain text

$plain_text = "$first_name,\n\n" .
       "IF YOU CANNOT READ THIS EMAIL FOLLOW THIS LINK: www.mysite.com/repairstatus.html\n".
       "Thank you for stopping by Luggage Shop. This emails contains information about your recent repair\n\n" .

sunwell · September 2, 2009

Damn. I just cannot seem to make this work. I'm using PHP5 and MySQL 5. This is the code I used, its now simplified. Could it be the mail format or perhaps is it missing some ;'s inside the $body?

$plain_text = "IF YOU CANNOT READ THIS EMAIL FOLLOW THIS LINK: www.luggagesite.com/repairstatus.html";