Send attachment with PHP mail

[jgentes]

I have read through the manual on php dot net, and a number of tutorials around the net, however when I create an email and attempt to attach a file, I always get the hex (textual) representation, rather then having the file be attached.

Below is a test that I completed, hard coding all the values necessary to test if it was miscellaneous beginning reasons why i was having difficulty

 
$path = "/path/to/Test_file.pdf";
$name = "Test_file.pdf";
$mime_type = "application/pdf";
 
$boundary = "VS". md5(uniqid(time()));
$mime = sprintf("--%s%s", $boundary, "\n");
 
$mime .= sprintf("Content-Type: %s; name=\"%s\"%s", $mime_type, $name, "\n");
$mime .= sprintf("Content-Transfer-Encoding: %s%s", "base64", "\n");
$mime .= sprintf("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"%s\"%s", $name, "\n\n");
 
$file = fopen($path, 'rb');
if( !$file )
{
     $mime .= "cannot open file\n\n";
}
else
{
    $data = fread($file, filesize($path));
    if(!$data)  // added for debugging - doesnt show
    {
        $mime .= "cannot read file\n\n";  
    }
    else
    {
        $data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data),76,"\n");
        fclose($file);
 
        $mime .= sprintf("%s%s",$data,"\n\n");
        $mime .= sprintf("--%s--%s", $boundary, "\n");
        $mime .= "file present";  // added for debugging - shows
    }
}
 
$to = "[e-mail]";
$subject = "Testing Attachments";
$headers = "\r\nFrom: [e-mail]\r\n";
 
if(!mail($to, $subject,$mime,$headers))
{
    echo "main not sent";
}
 

what I receive is all the $mime variables as they should be, but the file gets replaced with the hex equivalent, and the "file present" message at the bottom as I would expect

my question is, what am I doing wrong that its not attaching the file (in this case a pdf) to the email but rather parsing it in the body ?

[Atli]

Hi.

Could it be that the debug message at the bottom is messing this all up?

Anyways, I do not really have much experience with this. I usually prefer using either Swift Mailer or PHPMailer when I need to send complex emails.
Much easier :P