PHP mail function: Difference between revisions

You may be using Uniform Sever either as a test environment or for learning PHP what you will quickly discover is PHP’s mail() function does not work. Strictly no true it does work however because of its limitations may be prevented from working, for instance a host may require authentication, which the function does not support. Or it could simply be a case of not having it set-up correctly.

I am assuming you are not running your own mail server and do not wish to install one. All you want to do is send emails to or via (relay) your ISP mail server using PHP, either to test your own scripts or to test third party ones. This write-up looks at ways to get you up and running.

I try to make UniCenter as practical as possible hence provide scripts and when things go wrong throw in a few error messages. This write-up is no exception, I will be using two basic scripts these are shown below.  

The above basic code works however it is inconvenient to use. Every time you run the form (mail.htlm) all text fields require an entry.

I am lazy and it becomes a choir especially if you only want one field changing and to ignore the others.

A better '''mail.php''' test script, adds defaults values to empty text fields. After saving this script one minor change is required to personalise it for your own use.

For example if your email address is '''fred123@xip.com''' the line will look similar to this:

There is no need to enter any data into the text boxes just click on '''Send''' with luck you will receive this error message:

This error message was expected it highlights the problem we are trying to resolve. Our script produced the last line as for the warning that was produced by PHP.

PHP was looking for a mail server to use, can’t find one so gives up. The error message is very informative its telling us where the problem is and in what file .

Open file php.ini located in folder *\Uniform Server\udrive\usr\local\php search for this section [mail function] (starts at around line 612)

These are the defaults settings, you can see PHP is looking for an SMTP server on the '''localhost''' machine and will use port '''25''' to communicate with it.

There is no reason why this SMTP server should be local. In theory you can use anyone’s SMTP server for replaying your mail to the appropriate recipient.

(It really is a shame but spammers have killed off this open-relay mechanism)

ISP’s now disable open relaying and check you are a valid customer before allowing your email to be relayed through their SMPT servers.

# You are not directly connected to their system hence need a name and password to access their SMTP server.

Since we are not running our own SMTP server and because of validation we are restricted to using our ISP’s SMTP server. To use this server all that is required is to point PHP to it. To do this you need to known the name of this server, a quick way to find it is to check what settings you have in Outlook Express (or the mail client you are using)

# The text box named '''Outgoing mails (SMTP)''' contains the name of the server for example '''smtp.xip.com'''

Alternatively check your ISP’s web site and look for "how to set up an email client" the SMPT server name will found there.

Replace localhost with your ISP's SMTP server name in this example I am using '''smtp.xip.com'''.

When a recipient reads their email this email address is displayed in their “from box”. If you expect a reply you should use a real email address. It does not have to be one provided by your ISP.

Login to your mail account and check you received the message.

To check your ISP relays to other SMTP servers. Send an email to a friend or to another account you own, '''make sure your ISP is not hosting these accounts'''.

Run the test page '''<nowiki>http://localhost/mail.html</nowiki>''' this time you will need to fill in the text boxes.

Confirm that the emails are received, that completes the tests.

In the real world things never run that smoothly something always throws a spanner in the works. If the above fails use this checklist to see it either resolves the problem or points to where the problem is:

# If your host requires authentication for outgoing mail you cannot use the PHP mail function it does not support it.

I think that covers most causes you would be surprised 1) is the prime candidate especially when testing.

One real drawback with this solution it cannot be used if your service provider requires SMTP authentication.

I noticed on the forum, to over come this problem Olajide recommends using '''fake sendmail for Windows'''. For completeness I cover this on the [[installing Fake Sendmail for Windows |next page]] solution 2.