Question

i’m using the following code on my php page to send an email with an attachment:

    //define the receiver of the email 
$to = '[e-mail]'; 
//define the subject of the email 
$subject = 'Test email with attachment'; 
//create a boundary string. It must be unique 
//so we use the MD5 algorithm to generate a random hash 
$random_hash = md5(date('r', time())); 
//define the headers we want passed. Note that they are separated with \r\n 
$headers = "From: [e-mail]\r\nReply-To: [e-mail]"; 
//add boundary string and mime type specification 
$headers .= "\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"PHP-mixed-".$random_hash."\""; 
//read the atachment file contents into a string,
//encode it with MIME base64,
//and split it into smaller chunks
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['tmp_name'])));
//define the body of the message. 
ob_start(); //Turn on output buffering 
?> 
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>" 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello World!!! 
This is simple text email message. 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<h2>Hello World!</h2> 
<p>This is something with <b>HTML</b> formatting.</p> 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>-- 

--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: application/zip; name="attachment.zip"  
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64  
Content-Disposition: attachment  

<?php echo $attachment; ?> 
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>-- 

<?php 
//copy current buffer contents into $message variable and delete current output buffer 
$message = ob_get_clean(); 
//send the email 
$mail_sent = @mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers ); 
//if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed" 
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed"; 

However, i’m having a few problems and doubs, if you people could help me i would appreciate.

First, if i leave the input of the attachment blank i get an error “Warning: file_get_contents() [function.file-get-contents]: Filename cannot be empty in …”

I would want the attachment optional, so if i leave blank i wanted to ignore this error, is that possible?

Second, when i sent an email with attachment and download it from email i can’t open the file sent. I get a .zip and when try to open get the following message: “archive is in unknown format or damaged”.

Do you know what the problem could be?

Thank you!

Answer 1

As the script works flawless you need to change attachment.zip in the name of your uploaded curriculum_vitae file, otherwise you will get only attachment.zip no matter what file you upload:

so change:

Content-Type: application/zip; name="attachment.zip"

with

Content-Type: application/zip; name="<?php echo $_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['name']; ?>"

use this to sending attachment if it’s not posted

$to = '[e-mail]'; 
$subject = 'Test email with attachment'; 
$random_hash = md5(date('r', time())); 
$headers = "From: [e-mail]\r\nReply-To: [e-mail]"; 
$headers .= "\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"PHP-mixed-".$random_hash."\""; 
if(isset($_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['name']) && $_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['name'] != ''){ $attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['tmp_name']))); }
ob_start();
?> 
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>" 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello World!!! 
This is simple text email message. 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<h2>Hello World!</h2> 
<p>This is something with <b>HTML</b> formatting.</p> 

--PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>-- 

<?php if(isset($_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['name']) && $_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['name'] != ''){ ?>--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
Content-Type: application/zip; name="<?php echo $_FILES['curriculum_vitae']['name']; ?>"  
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64  
Content-Disposition: attachment  

<?php echo $attachment; ?> 
--PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>--
<?php } ?>
<?php 
$message = ob_get_clean(); 
$mail_sent = @mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers ); 
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed";