sending e-mail that reaches the destination using php
DESCRIPTION
Slides of a presentation about the PHP MIME message composing and sending class. It teaches how to compose and send e-mail according to the Internet e-mail standards and without problems of messages not reaching the destination recipients, efficient bulk mailing of personalized and non-personalized messages, handling bounced messages, knowing when messages are viewed, and avoiding messages being confused with SPAM.TRANSCRIPT
Manuel [email protected]
http://www.ManuelLemos.net/
http://www.phpclasses.org/mimemessage
Sending E-mail that reaches the destination
The problems
● Sending e-mail is fundamental
● PHP native support for sending e-mail is deficient
● The Internet e-mail standards are complicated
● Incorrectly composed messages are discarded
● Correctly composed messages are confused with SPAM
Solution
Ready to use PHP components for sending e mail‑
● PHPMailer
● PEAR Mail
● SWIFT mailer
● MIME message
● Etc.
What is MIME?● Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
● Standards for sending E-mail messages
● Defined by many RFC documents: Request For Comments
● New RFC document versions are compatible with past versions
MIME message class
PHP class to compose and send e-mail
● Sends messages with text and HTML using any character set
● Embeds related files: images, CSS, etc..
● May attach multiple files
● Optimized for sending newsletters to many recipients
Text message
require('email_message.php');
$m = new email_message_class;
$m->SetEncodedHeader('Subject', 'This is the subject');
$m->SetEmailEncodedHeader('From', '[email protected]', 'John');
$m->SetEmailEncodedHeader('To', '[email protected]', 'Joe');
$text = “Hello Joe,\n\nThis is the message.”;
$m->AddQuotedPrintableTextPart($text);
$m->Send();
HTML message
$html = “<html><head><title>Messagm</title></head><body>Hello Joe,<br />\n<br />\nThis is the message.</body></html>”;
$text = strip_tags($html);
$m->CreateQuotedPrintableHTMLPart($html, '', $h);
$m->CreateQuotedPrintableTextPart($text, '', $t);
$alternatives = array($t, $h);
$m->AddAlternativeMultipart($alternatives);
$m->Send()
HTML messages with embedded images
$image=array( 'FileName'=>'image.gif', 'Content-Type' => 'automatic/name', 'Disposition'=>'inline');
$e->CreateFilePart($image, $i);
$url = 'cid:'.
$m->GetPartContentID($i);
$html = "<html> <head><title>Message</title> </head><body><img src=\”$url\” /> Hello Joe,<br />\n<br />\nThis is the message.</body></html>";
$m->CreateQuotedPrintableHTMLPart ($html, '', $h);
$text = strip_tags($html);
$m->CreateQuotedPrintableTextPart ($text, '', $t);
$alternatives = array($t, $h);
$m->AddAlternativeMultipart ($alternatives);
$related = array( $alternatives, $i,);$m->AddRelatedMultipart ($related);
$m->Send()
Message with attached files$attachment=array( 'Data'=>'This is an attachment called attachment.txt', 'Name'=>'attachment.txt', 'Content-Type'=>'automatic/name', 'Disposition'=>'attachment',);$m->AddFilePart($attachment);$attachment=array( 'FileName'=>'attachment.zip', 'Content-Type'=>'automatic/name', 'Disposition'=>'attachment',);$m->AddFilePart($attachment);$m->Send();
Sending via SMTP
Supports several types of authentication using the SASL classes: LOGIN, MD5, NTLM, etc.
require('sasl.php'); require('smtp.php');
require('smtp_message.php');
$m = new smtp_message_class;
$m->smtp_host = 'smtp.gmail.com';
$m->smtp_port = 465;
$m->smtp_ssl = 1;
$m->smtp_user = 'some_user';
$m->smtp_password = 'some_password';
$m->direct_delivery = 0;
Sending via sendmail, qmail and Microsoft Exchange
Faster delivery to the MTA queue
require('sendmail_message.php');
$m = new sendmail_message_class;
$m->delivery_mode = SENDMAIL_DELIVERY_DEFERRED;
require('qmail_message.php');
$m = new qmail_message_class;
require('pickup_message.php');
$m = new pickup_message_class;
Mail() function alternatives
When the mail() function does not work well
● smtp_mail()
● sendmail_mail()
● qmail_mail()
● urgent_mail()
The path of the messages
PHP script MTA
Local queue
Destination SMTP
Destination queueLocal SMTP
mail()
SMTP Pickup
Direct
The best delivery methods
1.Drop a message file in the local queue
2.Pass to MTA with the mail function (sendmail)
3.Pass to the local SMTP server
4.Direct delivery to the destination SMTP server
Optimizing the delivery of non personalized newsletters‑
$list = array(
'[email protected]'=>'Peter', '[email protected]'=>'Paulo', '[email protected]'=>'Mary'
);
$m->SetBulkMail(1);
$m->cache_body = 1;
foreach($list as $email => $name) {
$m->SetEncodedEmailHeader('To', $email, $name);
$m->Send();
}
$m->SetBulkMail(0);
Optimizing the delivery of personalized newsletters
$m->SetBulkMail(1);
$m->cache_body = 0;
$template = 'Hello {name}, ...';
$m->CreateQuotedPrintableTextPart($template, '', $part_template);
$m->AddPart($part_template);
foreach($list as $email => $name) {
$m->SetEncodedEmailHeader('To', $email, $name);
$text = str_replace('{name}', $name, $template);
$m->CreateQuotedPrintableTextPart($text, '', $personalized);
$m->ReplacePart($part_template, $personalized);
$m->Send();
}
$m->SetBulkMail(0);
Handling returned messages
1.Set the Return-Path message header to an address associated with a POP3 mailbox
2.Periodically poll that mailbox using a POP3 client class
3.Process the returned messages with the MIME parser class
4.Unsubscribe from the newsletters the e mail ‑addresses that are returning the messages
Know when a message was received
Techniques that do not always work
1.Set the Disposition-Notification-To message header to an address to which reception notices will be sent
2.Insert a beacon image in an HTML message using the URL of a script that accounts messages that are viewed by recipients
<img src=”http://www.meusite.com.br/[email protected]”>
Avoid confusion with SPAM
What types of messages you should not send?● Sent from an IP address without reverse DNS
record (PTR) or that is listed in blacklists● The recipient e-mail addresses are in Bcc● Only with an HTML part or has invalid HTML● With beacon image URL that has parameters● Link URLs do not match anchor text URL● Do not pass SpamAssassin checks
References● MIME Message classhttp://www.phpclasses.org/mimemessage
● SMTP client classhttp://www.phpclasses.org/smtpclass
● SASL authentication classhttp://www.phpclasses.org/sasl
● POP3 client classhttp://www.phpclasses.org/pop3class
● MIME parser classhttp://www.phpclasses.org/mimeparser
● Verify IP addresses in multiple blacklistshttp://openrbl.org/
● SpamAssassinhttp://spamassassin.apache.org/