Sending Mail From PHP

PHP provide mail() function to sent mail from PHP scripts. Unlike many other programming languages, sending mail from PHP is very easy.

First Mail Script

day_12_ex_1.php

In following script, edit the variable $toEmail and put your email address.

You can also change $subject and $body variables.

PHP Code:
<?php

$toEmail = 'PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDR HERE';
$subject = 'WRITE SUBJECT HERE';
$body = '
Hi,

This is my test email body.

Thanks,

Day 12 Mailer
';

mail($toEmail, $subject, $body);

echo 'Mail sent to ' . $toEmail;
Once you run the script, you will get message saying Mail sent.

Since we don't provide FROM email address, it will use servers hostname.


Adding FROM Address

day_12_ex_2.php

PHP Code:
<?php

$toEmail = 'PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDR HERE';
$fromEmail = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'WRITE SUBJECT HERE';
$body = '
Hi,

This is my test email body.

Thanks,

Day 12 Mailer
';

$headers = 'From: ' . $fromEmail; 

mail($toEmail, $subject, $body, $headers);

echo 'Mail sent to ' . $toEmail;

Creating A Contact Us Form

For most web sites, we will need a contact us Form to sent mail to webmaster. This will hide real email address from public. To create a contact us form, we need 2 web pages, one will show the contact us HTML form page, other will sent mail. Both can be combined into one single PHP script, but lets make 2 files, so it will be less complicated.

day_12_ex_3.html

PHP Code:
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Contact Us</title>
</head>
<body>

<form action="day_12_ex_3.php" method="POST">
    Email<br>
    <input type="text" name="fromEmail"><br>
    Message<br>
    <textarea name="body" cols="30" rows="10"></textarea>
    <br>
    <button type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">Send Mail</button>
</form>

</body>
</html> 

day_12_ex_3.php

This script will handle data submitted by FORM page day_12_ex_3.htrml and sent mail to site owner. You don't have to directly access this page. If you access, script will die with out doing anything.

PHP Code:
<?php

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
    $fromEmail = $POST['fromEmail'];
    $body = $_POST['body'];
    mail('[email protected]','Message from web site', $body, 'From: ' . $fromEmail . "\n\r");
    echo 'Thank you for contacting us.';
} else {
    die('Why are you here ? Want to hack my Script ?');
}
Exercise

Try to combine the HTML page and PHP page in example 3 into one single PHP page, this can be done by showing the HTML form page code instead of

PHP Code:
die('Why are you here ? Want to hack my Script ?'); 
in day_12_ex_3.php script.