There are several ways to send mail in PHP. PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository) mail with SMTP authentication is one of them. It is always better to use one with an option for server authentication. You can specify the mail server name, port and userid/password for authentication while sending mail.
In this topic, we will discuss sending mail using the PEAR package in PHP. The below code can be used to send the mail. We will discuss it in this topic.
// set path where Pear package is installed- in our case it is /home/user/php
ini_set("include_path", '/home/user/php:' . ini_get("include_path") );
require_once "Mail.php";
$host = "mail server name"; // give your mail server name
$username = "mail account userid"; // userid to access mail
$password = "password"; // paassword of the mail account
$port = "25";
$from = "mail account userid";
$headers = array ('From' => $from, 'To' => $to, 'Subject' => $subject, 'MIME-Version' => 1,
'Content-type' => 'text/html;charset=iso-8859-1');
$smtp = Mail::factory('smtp', array ('host' => $host, 'port' => $port, 'auth' => true, 'username' => $username, 'password' => $password));
$mail = $smtp->send($to, $headers, $mail_body);
Install PEAR Package Mail
The first step is to check if the PEAR package is installed on the server already. In most hosting servers it is usually installed. Verify in the Software section in your hosting server after login into cPanel. PEAR packages will be available, install one which is for the mail. Once it is installed, you will see a folder available for the software installed. In my case, it is under php folder. If you are not sure about the installation part, contact your admin and make sure it is installed properly. You need to know the path of Mail.php.
You can use PEAR classes for the mail. Let us write a form with three input fields and a submit button to send the mail. When the form is submitted, we will call a function to send mail using PEAR mail.
Let us look at the code below for the form in index.php
<div class="container">
<h1>Send mail using PEAR mail in PHP</h1>
<div class="row main">
<div class="col-md-12">
<form action="index.php" method="post">
<p><?php echo $msg;?></p>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="to_email">To</label>
<input type="text" id = "to_email" name="to_email" class="form-control" value="<?php echo $to_email ;?>" placeholder="Enter Email Id here">
<div class="error"><?php echo $to_error;?></div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="subject">Subject</label>
<input type="text" id = "subject" name="subject" class="form-control" value="<?php echo $subject ;?>" placeholder="Enter Subject here">
<div class="error"><?php echo $subject_error;?></div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="message">Message</label>
<textarea class="form-control" id = "message" name="message" rows="8" placeholder="Enter Your Message here"><?php echo $message ;?></textarea>
<div class="error"><?php echo $body_error;?></div>
</div>
<input type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" name="submit" value="Send Mail">
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
When the form is submitted, we have the below code to process it and call send_mail() function to send the mail. Let us see the PHP code after the form is submitted.
PHP code to call send_mail() function
<?php
include "lib/library.php";
$to_email = $subject = $message = $msg = "";
$to_error = $subject_error = $body_error = "";
$error = false;
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
$to_email = trim($_POST['to_email']);
$subject = trim($_POST['subject']);
$message = trim($_POST['message']);
if (empty($to_email)) {
$to_error = "Email id must be entered";
$error = true;
}
else {
if (!filter_var($to_email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
$to_error = "Invalid Email id entered";
$error = true;
}
}
if (empty($subject)) {
$subject_error = "Enter something in the Subject ";
$error = true;
}
if (empty($message)) {
$body_error = "Some message must be entered";
$error = true;
}
if (!$error) {
// format message in html
$mail_body ='<!DOCTYPE html>';
$mail_body .='<head>';
$mail_body .='<style>';
$mail_body .='p {white-space: pre-wrap;}';
$mail_body .='</style>';
$mail_body .='</head>';
$mail_body .='<body>';
$mail_body .='<p>'.$message.'</p>';
$mail_body .='<body>';
$mail_body .='</html>';
$result = send_mail($to_email,$subject,$mail_body); // call to function to send mail
if ($result)
$msg = "<span class='success'>Mail Sent</span>";
else
$msg = "<span class='error'>Failed to send mail, please try after sometime</span>";
}
}
?>
library.php is included because our send_mail() function is written in library.php. We kept library.php in the 'lib' folder. It takes three input values - to_email, subject and message, and if validations are successful, it calls send_mail() function.
send_mail() is a custom function written in library.php to have a common function to send mail. Let us see the send_mail() function.
Function to send mail using PEAR Package
If the PEAR package is installed, you need to set the path of the folder where the mail package is installed. Let's see the code:
<?php
function send_mail($to,$subject,$mail_body)
{
// set path where Pear package is installed- in our case it is /home/user/php
ini_set("include_path", '/home/user/php:' . ini_get("include_path") );
require_once "Mail.php";
$host = "mail server name"; // give your mail server name
$username = "mail account userid"; // email account to access mail
$password = "password"; // password of the mail account
$port = "25"; // check the actual port number
$from = "mail account userid"; // email id
$headers = array ('From' => $from, 'To' => $to, 'Subject' => $subject, 'MIME-Version' => 1,
'Content-type' => 'text/html;charset=iso-8859-1');
$smtp = Mail::factory('smtp', array ('host' => $host, 'port' => $port, 'auth' => true, 'username' => $username, 'password' => $password));
$mail = $smtp->send($to, $headers, $mail_body);
if (PEAR::isError($mail))
return false;
else
return true;
}
?>
In this case, the PEAR package is installed in the path /home/user/php. We need to include Mail.php file which is actually in /home/user/php directory.
Then, we set the SMTP server name, port, userid and password of the mail account. Then create a PEAR mail instance in line 16, passing an array of values for SMTP authentication. send() method is used to send the mail.
index.php and custom stylesheet are given below:
index.php
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">
<meta name="description" content="">
<title>Send Email using PEAR Mail in PHP</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">
</head>
<body>
<?php
include "lib/library.php";
$to_email = $subject = $message = $msg = "";
$to_error = $subject_error = $body_error = "";
$error = false;
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
$to_email = trim($_POST['to_email']);
$subject = trim($_POST['subject']);
$message = trim($_POST['message']);
if (empty($to_email)) {
$to_error = "Email id must be entered";
$error = true;
}
else {
if (!filter_var($to_email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
$to_error = "Invalid Email id entered";
$error = true;
}
}
if (empty($subject)) {
$subject_error = "Enter something in the Subject ";
$error = true;
}
if (empty($message)) {
$body_error = "Some message must be entered";
$error = true;
}
if (!$error) {
// format message in html
$mail_body ='<!DOCTYPE html>';
$mail_body .='<head>';
$mail_body .='<style>';
$mail_body .='p {white-space: pre-wrap;}';
$mail_body .='</style>';
$mail_body .='</head>';
$mail_body .='<body>';
$mail_body .='<p>'.$message.'</p>';
$mail_body .='<body>';
$mail_body .='</html>';
$result = send_mail($to_email,$subject,$mail_body); // call to function to send mail
if ($result)
$msg = "<span class='success'>Mail Sent</span>";
else
$msg = "<span class='error'>Failed to send mail, please try after sometime</span>";
}
}
?>
<div class="container">
<h1>Send mail using PEAR mail in PHP</h1>
<div class="row main">
<div class="col-md-12">
<form action="index.php" method="post">
<p><?php echo $msg;?></p>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="to_email">To</label>
<input type="text" id = "to_email" name="to_email" class="form-control" value="<?php echo $to_email ;?>" placeholder="Enter Email Id here">
<div class="error"><?php echo $to_error;?></div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="subject">Subject</label>
<input type="text" id = "subject" name="subject" class="form-control" value="<?php echo $subject ;?>" placeholder="Enter Subject here">
<div class="error"><?php echo $subject_error;?></div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="message">Message</label>
<textarea class="form-control" id = "message" name="message" rows="8" placeholder="Enter Your Message here"><?php echo $message ;?></textarea>
<div class="error"><?php echo $body_error;?></div>
</div>
<input type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" name="submit" value="Send Mail">
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
style.css
h1{
text-align:center;
}
.main{
width:50%;
margin:auto;}
p{
text-align: center;
color:#209512;
}
label{
font-weight: bold;
}
.error{
color: red;
}
Note
The code used here was implemented in a hosting server with SMTP server details; not in the localhost.
Conclusion
In your project, depending on the requirement, you can trigger an email after a transaction is complete or after an activity is performed. You can write a routine for sending mail and call it from anywhere in the application using the parameters as explained. PEAR mail is a secured mail with SMTP authentication.
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