Search code examples
phpemaileml

PHP library to generate EML email files?

I'm trying to generate EML files from PHP. Is there any library that will allow me to easily create them? I could find some ActiveX component on the internet but would rather use something more portable.

Solution

  • I ended up building the MIME message myself using this kind of template, where each field is replaced by a TEMPLATE_<name> variable:

    From: TEMPLATE_FROM_ADDRESS
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: TEMPLATE_TO_ADDRESS
Subject: TEMPLATE_SUBJECT
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="080107000800000609090108"

This is a message with multiple parts in MIME format.
--080107000800000609090108
Content-Type: text/plain

TEMPLATE_BODY
--080107000800000609090108
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;name="TEMPLATE_ATTACH_FILENAME"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="TEMPLATE_ATTACH_FILENAME"

TEMPLATE_ATTACH_CONTENT
--080107000800000609090108

    Then creating the final message is quite simple using str_replace:

    $content = file_get_contents("Template.eml");
$content = str_replace("TEMPLATE_FROM_ADDRESS", $fromEmail, $content);
$content = str_replace("TEMPLATE_TO_ADDRESS", $toEmail, $content);
// etc. for each template parameter
// Also don't forget to base64_encode the attachment content;
$content = str_replace("TEMPLATE_ATTACH_CONTENT", base64_encode($attachContent), $content);

    Additional info about file attachment in this post: Attachment name and file extension not working in email *.eml

    Edit (2018): Since this answer was written it seems it's been copied and pasted a bit everywhere, the template in particular. To avoid any conflict with other MIME data, you should make sure that the boundary "080107000800000609090108" is unique - it's a string of random characters no longer than 70 characters.