Categories
PHP

Emailing Form Data

Sending emails via PHP mail() function.

<?php
 mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

Once a form has been submitted, a notification can be implemented by sending the form data via email.

Sending Form Data Via Email

HTML FORM

Creating HTML form for sending emails:

<html>
 <head><title>Email form</title>
  <style>
   form div {margin-bottom:10px; width:515px; margin: 0 auto 20px}
   input, textarea{width:100%}
  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
<form method="post" action="example.php">
 <div><h1>Please send us your suggestions</h1></div>
 <div>
  Your Name: <input type="text" name="name" required>
 </div>

 <div>
  Your Email Address: <input type="email" name="email" required>
 </div>
 
 <div>
  Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" required>
 </div>
 
 <div>
  Description:<br>
  <textarea name="body" rows="10" required></textarea>
 </div>
 
 <div>
  <button type="submit" name="submit">Send Email</button>
 </div>
</form>
</body></html>

Emailing form data:

<?php
 if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
  // See How to Validate Forms

  $to = $_POST['name'] . "<{$_POST['email']}>";
  $subject = $_POST['subject'];
  $body = $_POST['body'];
  $headers =
     "From: BrainBell <info@brainbell.com>\r\n"
   . "X-Sender: <info@brainbell.com>\r\n"
   . "X-Mailer: PHP\r\n"
   . "X-Priority: 1\r\n"
   . "Return-Path: <info@brainbell.com>\r\n";

  mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);
 }

The preceding code creates the destination address $to, the subject, the body, and additional headers of an email message, and then send that email message.

The $to address is created using the name, and email address of the visitor. It has the following format:

Complete Name <visitor@email.address.com>

How to send Cc and Bcc

Use the mail function’s additional header parameter to send the Ccc and Bcc emails, the headers should be separated with \r\n: 

<?php
 $to = $_POST['name'] . "<{$_POST['email']}>";
 $subject = $_POST['subject'];
 $body = $_POST['body'];

 $headers =
   "From: BrainBell <info@brainbell.com>\r\n"
 . "X-Sender: <info@brainbell.com>\r\n"
 . "Bcc: admin@brainbell.com\r\n"
 . "Cc: brainbell@admin\r\n";

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

Sending HTML Formatted Emails

You can send HTML emails by sending the additional Content-type and MIME-Version headers:

$headers[] = 'MIME-Version: 1.0';
$headers[] = 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1';

Example: Sending HTML mails in PHP:

<?php
 if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
  // Validate form (skipped in this tutorial)

  $to = $_POST['name'] . "<{$_POST['email']}>";
  $subject = $_POST['subject'];
  $body =
"<html><head>
<title>The Suggestion Form</title>
</head><body>
 <h1>$subject</h1>
 <p>".nl2br($_POST['body'])."</p>
</body></html>";
  
  $headers =
     "From: BrainBell <info@brainbell.com>\r\n"
   . "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"
   . "Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\r\n"

   . "X-Sender: <info@brainbell.com>\r\n"
   . "X-Mailer: PHP\r\n"
   . "X-Priority: 1\r\n"
   . "Return-Path: <info@brainbell.com>\r\n";

  mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);
 }

Processing Forms in PHP: