PHP SMTP Configuration (Lotus Domino)

[Christian Patterer]

Hi,

Even after searching the web for hours, I can't get my PHP configuration
work.

I have Apache and PHP installed. Now I want to use the mail() function
in PHP. On the Linux server I have running Lotus Domino as SMTP server
and I don't know how to configure PHP to use the Lotus Domino SMTP server.

I use the setting SMTP=localhost to access the Domino server, but this
does not work. Also if I change it to a DNS entry, it does not work.

For testing it I use a simple mail() call (with the appropriate
parameters. This function does return false and not any error, so I have
no clue where to further look at.

If anybody could point me in a direction, I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks,
Chris

[Jochen Daum]

Hi Chris,

On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 18:46:00 +0100, Christian Patterer
<sc******@gmx.at> wrote:

Hi,

Even after searching the web for hours, I can't get my PHP configuration
work.

I have Apache and PHP installed. Now I want to use the mail() function
in PHP. On the Linux server I have running Lotus Domino as SMTP server
and I don't know how to configure PHP to use the Lotus Domino SMTP server.

I use the setting SMTP=localhost to access the Domino server, but this
does not work. Also if I change it to a DNS entry, it does not work.
How do you access you SMTP server from a normal email client?

Jochen
For testing it I use a simple mail() call (with the appropriate
parameters. This function does return false and not any error, so I have
no clue where to further look at.

If anybody could point me in a direction, I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks,
Chris

--
Jochen Daum - Cabletalk Group Ltd.
PHP DB Edit Toolkit -- PHP scripts for building
database editing interfaces.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpdbedittk/

[Manuel Lemos]

Hello,

On 03/01/2004 02:46 PM, Christian Patterer wrote:

Even after searching the web for hours, I can't get my PHP configuration
work.

I have Apache and PHP installed. Now I want to use the mail() function
in PHP. On the Linux server I have running Lotus Domino as SMTP server
and I don't know how to configure PHP to use the Lotus Domino SMTP server.

I use the setting SMTP=localhost to access the Domino server, but this
does not work. Also if I change it to a DNS entry, it does not work.

For testing it I use a simple mail() call (with the appropriate
parameters. This function does return false and not any error, so I have
no clue where to further look at.

If anybody could point me in a direction, I would appreciate it very much.

Are you using Windows? Delivering via SMTP only works on Windows. In
Linux/Unix it is used sendmail program.

Anyway, even under Windows, SMTP delivery failure feedback is lame.

You may want to try this alternative class. It comes with a wrapper
function named smtp_mail() that emulates the mail() function but always
deliver messages via SMTP to a server that you configure, independently
if you use Windows or Linux/Unix.

You can enable debugging to see the SMTP dialog and so understand why
the messages are not being delivered.

http://www.phpclasses.org/mimemessage

You also need this for the actual delivery:

http://www.phpclasses.org/smtpmessage

--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
http://www.phpclasses.org/

PHP Reviews - Reviews of PHP books and other products
http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/

Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator
http://www.meta-language.net/metastorage.html

[Christian Patterer]

Hi Jochen,

How do you access you SMTP server from a normal email client?

I am using Lotus Notes. I think the handling from Lotus Notes might be
a little bit different than with Outlook or any other "normal" SMTP
client.

- Chris

[Christian Patterer]

Hi Manuel,

Are you using Windows? Delivering via SMTP only works on Windows. I am using Linux (Mandrake Linux 9.0). This means the SMTP does not
work at all and there is no chance to use the mail() function?
You may want to try this alternative class I will try this out tonight (before I don't have access to my server)
and see whether or not I can get it run.
You can enable debugging to see the SMTP dialog and so understand why
the messages are not being delivered.

How do I enable debugging? Do I do this when using the classes you
proposed to me or do you mean a general/different feature?

Thanks a lot for your help!
Chris

[Christian Patterer]

Manuel,

I've downloaded now your classes and tried the test_smtp_mail.php (after
changing the mail addresses). It does not send the mail, but when
running the debug mode I get the information that the mail is rejected
for policy reasons. So it's just a question of configuring the SMTP
server correctly now.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Thanks,
Chris

[Jochen Daum]

Hi Christian!

On 1 Mar 2004 23:26:39 -0800, sc******@gmx.at (Christian Patterer)
wrote:

Hi Jochen,

How do you access you SMTP server from a normal email client?

I am using Lotus Notes. I think the handling from Lotus Notes might be
a little bit different than with Outlook or any other "normal" SMTP
client.

I would be pretty sure that it uses SMTP. Does it use authentication?
POP after SMTP? SSL?

If it uses any of them, use a PHP class.

HTH, Jochen
--
Jochen Daum - Cabletalk Group Ltd.
PHP DB Edit Toolkit -- PHP scripts for building
database editing interfaces.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpdbedittk/

[Manuel Lemos]

Hello,

On 03/02/2004 10:50 AM, Christian Patterer wrote:

Are you using Windows? Delivering via SMTP only works on Windows.

I am using Linux (Mandrake Linux 9.0). This means the SMTP does not
work at all and there is no chance to use the mail() function?

That means that under Unix/Linux the PHP mail function uses the sendmail
program to deliver messages.

Sending messages does not require a local SMTP server to relay them.
That is only needed on Windows because usually there is no sendmail
program or equivalent.

You may want to try this alternative class

I will try this out tonight (before I don't have access to my server)
and see whether or not I can get it run.

You can enable debugging to see the SMTP dialog and so understand why
the messages are not being delivered.

How do I enable debugging? Do I do this when using the classes you
proposed to me or do you mean a general/different feature?

Debugging is an option of the smtp_message class. Take a look in the
smtp_mail.php script.
--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
http://www.phpclasses.org/

PHP Reviews - Reviews of PHP books and other products
http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/

Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator
http://www.meta-language.net/metastorage.html

[Manuel Lemos]

Hello,

On 03/02/2004 02:07 PM, Christian Patterer wrote:

I've downloaded now your classes and tried the test_smtp_mail.php (after
changing the mail addresses). It does not send the mail, but when
running the debug mode I get the information that the mail is rejected
for policy reasons. So it's just a question of configuring the SMTP
server correctly now.

You probably need to authenticate to relay messages on that SMTP server.
The smtp_mail.php script has options for that.

Anyway, your problem seems more like when your PHP version was compiled
it did not find the sendmail program executable. That may happen if you
compile with other user besides root.

If that is the problem, you need to reconfigure and recompile with the
root user. You also need to make sure that the php.ini file is set with
the correct sendmail program path.

Alternatively, you may find the sendmail_mail.php script that is
equivalent to smtp_mail.php script except that you can call the sendmail
program directly setting its correct path on the script.


--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
http://www.phpclasses.org/

PHP Reviews - Reviews of PHP books and other products
http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/

Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator
http://www.meta-language.net/metastorage.html

[Christian Patterer]

Hi Manuel,

You probably need to authenticate to relay messages on that SMTP server.
The smtp_mail.php script has options for that.
The SMTP server did not allow relaying at all. I simply had to allow
relaying for localhost. After changing that, everything worked fine.
Anyway, your problem seems more like when your PHP version was compiled
it did not find the sendmail program executable. That may happen if you
compile with other user besides root.

I didn't install sendmail because I thought I won't need it. A stupid
assumption... I was of the opinion that sendmail is a SMTP server and -
as I have Lotus Domino installed - therefore I don't need it. For the
time being I think the SMTP classes will be fine for me.

Somewhen I should install sendmail because some "standard" sites do use
the standard mail() function and this does not work. As I am not such a
big Linux hero and I have to administrate the server remote (via Webmin
and SSH) it's quite difficult for me to do the installation. Hopefully I
get it done somewhen.

Thanks for all the help! I appreciate it very much!!!!

Thanks,
Chris

[Manuel Lemos]

Hello,

On 03/05/2004 12:28 PM, Christian Patterer wrote:

Anyway, your problem seems more like when your PHP version was
compiled it did not find the sendmail program executable. That may
happen if you compile with other user besides root.

I didn't install sendmail because I thought I won't need it. A stupid
assumption... I was of the opinion that sendmail is a SMTP server and -
as I have Lotus Domino installed - therefore I don't need it. For the
time being I think the SMTP classes will be fine for me.

Sendmail would only be supported by PHP under Unix/Linux.

Somewhen I should install sendmail because some "standard" sites do use
the standard mail() function and this does not work. As I am not such a
big Linux hero and I have to administrate the server remote (via Webmin
and SSH) it's quite difficult for me to do the installation. Hopefully I
get it done somewhen.

Try SuSE Linux. It is probably the best distribution user friendly
administration system: YAST. You will feel like you were using Windows.
No wonder why YAST is closed source proprietary configuration system of
SuSE. Linux is free, but the Gold of SuSE is kept close. It is good for
their Linux business.
--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
http://www.phpclasses.org/

PHP Reviews - Reviews of PHP books and other products
http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/

Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator
http://www.meta-language.net/metastorage.html

[Christian Patterer]

Hi,

I didn't install sendmail because I thought I won't need it. A stupid
assumption... I was of the opinion that sendmail is a SMTP server and
- as I have Lotus Domino installed - therefore I don't need it. For
the time being I think the SMTP classes will be fine for me.

Sendmail would only be supported by PHP under Unix/Linux.

I am using Linux, so that should be ok.

Somewhen I should install sendmail because some "standard" sites do
use the standard mail() function and this does not work. As I am not
such a big Linux hero and I have to administrate the server remote
(via Webmin and SSH) it's quite difficult for me to do the
installation. Hopefully I get it done somewhen.

Try SuSE Linux. It is probably the best distribution user friendly
administration system: YAST. You will feel like you were using Windows.
No wonder why YAST is closed source proprietary configuration system of
SuSE. Linux is free, but the Gold of SuSE is kept close. It is good for
their Linux business.

That's a good idea. I'll try this next time I've the possibility to
access the server directly. It's hosted in a different location,
therefore it's a little bit more difficult...

- Chris