Sending email from PHP is not working

Question

I'll start off by saying that I know absolutely nothing about PHP. I'm more .NET.

I pulled this email template off the Internet - and the instructions said to simply change the "To" email address and the "Subject" line to whatever I wanted. At the very end of my PHP file, I have "Thank you for contacting us. We will be in touch with you very soon." - this message gets displayed on my browser when I click Submit. It thinks for a second, then displays the message, kind of indicating to me that the email sent. But I don't get any email. Any ideas why?

Here's my HTML form code:

<form name="contactform" method="post" action="MailHandler.php">
    <table width="450px">
        <tr>
            <td valign="top">
                <label for="first_name">First Name *</label>
            </td>
            <td valign="top">
                <input type="text" name="first_name" maxlength="50" size="30">
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td valign="top">
                <label for="last_name">
                Last Name *</label>
            </td>
            <td valign="top">
                <input type="text" name="last_name" maxlength="50" size="30">
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td valign="top">
                <label for="email">Email Address *</label>
            </td>
            <td valign="top">
                <input type="text" name="email" maxlength="80" size="30">
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td valign="top">
                <label for="telephone">Telephone Number</label>
            </td>
            <td valign="top">
                <input type="text" name="telephone" maxlength="30" size="30">
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td valign="top">
                <label for="comments">Comments *</label>
            </td>
            <td valign="top">
                <textarea name="comments" maxlength="1000" cols="25" rows="6"></textarea>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td colspan="2" style="text-align:center">
                <br/>
                <input type="submit" value="Submit">
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</form>

Here's MailHandler.php:

<?php

    if(isset($_POST['email'])) {

        // EDIT THE 2 LINES BELOW AS REQUIRED

        $email_to = "mike@mikemarks.net";
        $email_subject = "Your email subject line";

        function died($error) {

            // Your error code can go here

            echo "We are very sorry, but there were error(s) found with the form you submitted. ";
            echo "These errors appear below.<br /><br />";
            echo $error."<br /><br />";
            echo "Please go back and fix these errors.<br /><br />";
            die();
        }

        // Validation expected data exists

        if(!isset($_POST['first_name']) ||
            !isset($_POST['last_name']) ||
            !isset($_POST['email']) ||
            !isset($_POST['telephone']) ||
            !isset($_POST['comments'])) {

            died('We are sorry, but there appears to be a problem with the form you submitted.');
        }

        $first_name = $_POST['first_name']; // Required
        $last_name  = $_POST['last_name']; // Required
        $email_from = $_POST['email']; // Required
        $telephone  = $_POST['telephone']; // Not required
        $comments   = $_POST['comments']; // required

        $error_message = "";
        $email_exp = '/^[A-Za-z0-9._%-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$/';

        if(!preg_match($email_exp,$email_from)) {
            $error_message .= 'The Email Address you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
        }

        $string_exp = "/^[A-Za-z .'-]+$/";

        if(!preg_match($string_exp,$first_name)) {

          $error_message .= 'The First Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
        }

        if(!preg_match($string_exp,$last_name)) {

          $error_message .= 'The Last Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
        }

        if(strlen($comments) < 2) {

          $error_message .= 'The Comments you entered do not appear to be valid.<br />';
        }

        if(strlen($error_message) > 0) {

          died($error_message);
        }

        $email_message = "Form details below.\n\n";

        function clean_string($string) {

          $bad = array("content-type","bcc:","to:","cc:","href");
          return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
        }

        $email_message .= "First Name: ".clean_string($first_name)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Last Name: ".clean_string($last_name)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($email_from)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Telephone: ".clean_string($telephone)."\n";
        $email_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($comments)."\n";

        // Create email headers

        $headers = 'From: '.$email_from."\r\n".
                   'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
                   'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
                   @mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers);
?>

<!-- Include your own success HTML here -->

Thank you for contacting us. We will be in touch with you very soon.

<?php

    }
?>

Sometimes the host doesn't allow sending eMails. You should contact support :-) — Haudegen, Feb 14 '14 at 16:58
I suspect it's because your host doesn't have X-Mailer installed. — ElendilTheTall, Feb 14 '14 at 16:58

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 08 '16 at 18:02

1

The code looks legitimate. Ask if your host firm supports PHP-powered email...

edited Aug 08 '16 at 18:02

Peter Mortensen

30,738
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answered Feb 14 '14 at 16:56

ave

287
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Yep, I'm on a Windows plan, and my host, Arvixe, disabled the mail() function on Windows hosted accounts. – Mike Marks Feb 14 '14 at 17:03
use a smtp powered mail code. you can use https://code.google.com/a/apache-extras.org/p/phpmailer/ and do the example in: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14456673/sending-email-with-php-from-smtp-server and if you want to make it easier, try this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/712392/send-email-using-gmail-smtp-server-from-php-page – ave Feb 14 '14 at 21:28

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 14 '14 at 17:11

I have used emails myself in PHP. The variables are automatically passed from my HTML file to what you are calling your mailHandler.php file. He is a sample of how I used the mail system. I hope it is helpful.

<?php
$to = $_POST['emailaddress'];
$subject = 'subject here';
$message = '<html><head><style type="text/css">Insert any css here</style></head><body>';
$message .= 'Any HTML like you were designing a standard screen display';
$from = 'emailaddress';
$headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n';
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso=8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers .= "From: $email_from";
mail ($to,$subject,$message,$headers);

echo "<input type='button' value=\"Click to Close \" onclick=\"window.open('urlHere.php','_self');\" />";
?>

This is a simplistic version but it allows you to create/send an email that emulates a website within the email itself. Simply add any HTML code line by line inside the additional $message .= ' '; section.

I hope this was helpful. It is how I do emails.

Sending email from PHP is not working

2 Answers2