Email PDF Attachment with PHP Using FPDF

Question

I want to email a PDF as an attachment that was created using FPDF. My code looks like this, but the attachment never comes through.

Answer 1

This ended up working for me:

<?php
require('lib/fpdf/fpdf.php');

$pdf = new FPDF('P', 'pt', array(500,233));
$pdf->AddFont('Georgiai','','georgiai.php');
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->Image('lib/fpdf/image.jpg',0,0,500);
$pdf->SetFont('georgiai','',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');

// email stuff (change data below)
$to = "myemail@example.com"; 
$from = "me@example.com"; 
$subject = "send email with pdf attachment"; 
$message = "<p>Please see the attachment.</p>";

// a random hash will be necessary to send mixed content
$separator = md5(time());

// carriage return type (we use a PHP end of line constant)
$eol = PHP_EOL;

// attachment name
$filename = "test.pdf";

// encode data (puts attachment in proper format)
$pdfdoc = $pdf->Output("", "S");
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($pdfdoc));

// main header
$headers  = "From: ".$from.$eol;
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0".$eol; 
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$separator."\"";

// no more headers after this, we start the body! //

$body = "--".$separator.$eol;
$body .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit".$eol.$eol;
$body .= "This is a MIME encoded message.".$eol;

// message
$body .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$body .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"".$eol;
$body .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit".$eol.$eol;
$body .= $message.$eol;

// attachment
$body .= "--".$separator.$eol;
$body .= "Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$filename."\"".$eol; 
$body .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64".$eol;
$body .= "Content-Disposition: attachment".$eol.$eol;
$body .= $attachment.$eol;
$body .= "--".$separator."--";

// send message
mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);

?>

Answer 2

I think you have a superfluous command there. You are using the string variant of the Output() command:

$doc = $pdf->Output('test.pdf', 'S');

Then you are performing a file_get_contents() on it:

$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($doc)));

It is not a file, it is a file in a string, as file_get_contents() would return if $doc was a filename.

Just reduce that down to:

$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($doc));

Then see if any more errors occur.

Answer 3

if you use PHPMailer

$attachment= $pdf->Output('attachment.pdf', 'S');

$mailer->AddStringAttachment($attachment, 'attachment.pdf');

Enjoy

Answer 4

Create one pdf file name as testing.pdf  
 <?php 
    //define the receiver of the email 
    $to = 'elangovan2me@gmail.com'; 

    //define the subject of the email 
    $subject = 'Test email with attachment'; 

    //create a boundary string. It must be unique 
    //so we use the MD5 algorithm to generate a random hash 
    $random_hash = md5(date('r', time())); 

    //define the headers we want passed. Note that they are separated with \r\n 
    $headers = "From: elangovan2me@gmail.com\r\nReply-To: meeetcity@gmail.com";

    //add boundary string and mime type specification 
    $headers .= "\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"PHP-mixed-".$random_hash."\""; 

    //read the atachment file contents into a string,
    //encode it with MIME base64,
    //and split it into smaller chunks
    $attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents('testing.pdf'))); 

    //define the body of the message. 
    ob_start(); //Turn on output buffering 
    ?> 
    --PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>" 

    --PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" 
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

    Hello World!!! 
    This is simple text email message. 

    --PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
    Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" 
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

    <h2>Email Pdf File Attachements</h2> 
    <p>This is something with <b>HTML</b> formatting.</p> 

    --PHP-alt-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>-- 

    --PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>  
    Content-Type: application/pdf; name="attachment.pdf"  
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64  
    Content-Disposition: attachment  

    <?php echo $attachment; ?> 
    --PHP-mixed-<?php echo $random_hash; ?>-- 

    <?php 
    //copy current buffer contents into $message variable and delete current output buffer 
    $message = ob_get_clean(); 
    //send the email 
    $mail_sent = @mail( $to, $subject, $message, $headers ); 
    //if the message is sent successfully print "Mail sent". Otherwise print "Mail failed" 
    echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed"; 
?>