CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phphtmlemailgmail
Greg G
Greg G

Reputation: 133

gmail does not render html in email

I am going to try this one more time with a very basic example. When I send an e-mail using PHP to e-mail clients, I have no problem except with gmail. When I view the e-mail in gmail, all I see is the code of the message. Gmail does not display the HTML. It just displays the code. Here is my script:

<?php
$to = "[email protected]";
$subject = "Test HTML E-mail";
$random_hash = md5(date("r", time()));
$mID = md5($to);
$headers = "From: [email protected]" . "\n" . "Reply-To: [email protected]" . "\n";
$headers .= "Errors-To: [email protected]" . "\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=". $random_hash ." ; Message-ID: <" . $mID . ">" . "\n"; 
ob_start();
?>
--<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello, Tom!!! 
This is simple text email message.

--<?php echo $random_hash; ?> 
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!doctype html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Hello, Tom!</h2>
<p>This is something with <strong>HTML</strong> formatting.</p>
</body>
</html>

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

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

I have tried this script without the DOCTYPE and with the DOCTYPE. I do not believe there is anything wrong with the HTML. I believe gmail is not recognizing the boundary string for some reason. Here is what I see when I open the e-mail:

--111f3d21df6a6eb40a42e9337a600c21
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello, Tom!!!
This is simple text email message.

--111f3d21df6a6eb40a42e9337a600c21
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!doctype html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Hello, Tom!</h2>
<p>This is something with <strong>HTML</strong> formatting.</p>
</body>
</html>

--111f3d21df6a6eb40a42e9337a600c21--

Can anyone PLEASE tell me why gmail is rendering the whole message and not encoding the HTML? It is as if gmail does not recognize the boundary string. How do I fix this?

As a side note, yes, this is a basic PHP e-mail script I found on the internet. I have made a few modifications, but it is still not working in gmail. All other e-mail clients render it fine. PLEASE HELP! I am at my wit's end. Thank you.

When I added the $headers line in the code example right below that was submitted by Fred -ii-, gmail rendered the HTML, but it still shows the boundary string and the plain text message also. This is what the e-mail looks like:

--f8451c07b6649388e8938cfa12ea21e6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello, Greg!!! This is simple text email message. --f8451c07b6649388e8938cfa12ea21e6 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello, Tom!

This is something with HTML formatting. --f8451c07b6649388e8938cfa12ea21e6--

I hope that comes out right.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 9965

Answers (2)

DEEPAK
DEEPAK

Reputation: 1514

Well , I got it working just by adding these three lines of headers , so give it a try and let me know 

$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=UTF-8" . "\r\n";

// More headers
$headers .= 'From: <[email protected]>' . "\r\n";

Upvotes: 1

Funk Forty Niner
Funk Forty Niner

Reputation: 74217

Edit #4

Here is another good version and seems easier to work with:

<?php
//define the receiver of the email
$to = '[email protected]';
//define the subject of the email
$subject = 'Test HTML email';
 
// Generate a random boundary string
$mime_boundary = '_x'.sha1(time()).'x';
 
// Using the heredoc syntax to declare the headers
$headers = <<<HEADERS
From: Test <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="PHP-alt$mime_boundary"
HEADERS;
 
// Use our boundary string to create plain text and HTML versions
$message = <<<MESSAGE
--PHP-alt$mime_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
 
This Is a Plain Text Email
 
This message has no HTML. http://www.google.com
 
--PHP-alt$mime_boundary
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
 
<html>
<body>
<h1>This Is an HTML Email</h1>
<p>
This message is composed in <a href="http://www.google.com">GOOGLE, click here</a>.
</p>
</body>
</html>
--PHP-alt$mime_boundary--
MESSAGE;
 
// Send the message
if(!mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers))
{
// If the mail function fails, return an error message
echo "Something went wrong!";
}
else
{
// Return a success message if nothing went wrong
echo "Message sent successfully. Check your email!";
}
?>

Edit 3

Another tested method: (which so far is the better method)

<?php

function send_email(

$to='[email protected]', 
$from='[email protected]', 
$subject='test', 
$html_content='<b>HELLO in HTML bold</b>', 
$text_content='Hi there in plain text', 
$headers='') 

{ 
    # Setup mime boundary
    $mime_boundary = 'Multipart_Boundary_x'.md5(time()).'x';

    $headers  = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
    $headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=\"$mime_boundary\"\r\n";
    $headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\r\n";

    $body    = "This is a multi-part message in mime format.\n\n";

    # Add in plain text version
    $body   .= "--$mime_boundary\n";
    $body   .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"charset=us-ascii\"\n";
    $body   .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n";
    $body   .= $text_content;
    $body   .= "\n\n";

    # Add in HTML version
    $body   .= "--$mime_boundary\n";
    $body   .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"UTF-8\"\n";
    $body   .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n";
    $body   .= $html_content;
    $body   .= "\n\n";

    # Attachments would go here
    # But this whole email thing should be turned into a class to more logically handle attachments, 
    # this function is fine for just dealing with html and text content.

    # End email
    $body   .= "--$mime_boundary--\n"; # <-- Notice trailing --, required to close email body for mime's

    # Finish off headers
    $headers .= "From: $from\r\n";
    $headers .= "X-Sender-IP: $_SERVER[SERVER_ADDR]\r\n";
    $headers .= 'Date: '.date('n/d/Y g:i A')."\r\n";

    # Mail it out
    return mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);
}
send_email(); // call the function
?>

Edit 2

This worked, and only showed me in HTML in Gmail, so plain text should theoretically work.

<?php

$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 = chr(34) . $mime_boundary . chr(34);

$to = "Me <[email protected]>";
// $bcc = "You <[email protected]>, Them <[email protected]>";
$from = "Him <[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" . 
    "bcc: " . $bcc . "\n" . 
    "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" . 
    "Content-Type: multipart/alternative;\n" . 
    "     boundary=" . $mime_boundary_header))
    echo "Email sent successfully.";
else
    echo "Email NOT sent successfully!";

?>

Edit 1

Try this version: (tested with no additional codes anywhere)

<?php
$to = "[email protected]";
$subject = "Test HTML E-mail";

$headers = "From: [email protected]" . "\n" . "Reply-To: [email protected]" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";

//unique boundary
$boundary = uniqid("HTMLDEMO");

//tell e-mail client this e-mail contains//alternate versions
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary = $boundary\r\n\r\n";

//plain text version of message
$body = "--$boundary\r\n" .
   "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n" .
   "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
$body .= chunk_split(base64_encode("

Hello, Tom!!! 
This is simple text email message.

"));

//HTML version of message
$body .= "--$boundary\r\n" .
   "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n" .
   "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
$body .= chunk_split(base64_encode("

<!doctype html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Hello, Tom!</h2>
<p>This is something with <strong>HTML</strong> formatting.</p>
</body>
</html>


"));
ob_start();

?>

<?php
$message = ob_get_clean();
$mail_sent = mail( $to, $subject, $body, $headers );
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed";
?>

You need to use the following in your initial headers:

$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

below:

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

as per the manual on PHP.net

Tested (successfully sent to my Gmail in HTML and not as code)

<?php
$to = "[email protected]";
$subject = "Test HTML E-mail";
$random_hash = md5(date("r", time()));
$mID = md5($to);
$headers = "From: [email protected]" . "\n" . "Reply-To: [email protected]" . "\n";
$headers .= "Errors-To: [email protected]" . "\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=". $random_hash ." ; Message-ID: <" . $mID . ">" . "\n"; 
ob_start();
?>

// rest of code below...

Upvotes: 4

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