eZ Components - Mail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. contents:: Table of Contents Introduction ============ The Mail component provides functionality to send, retrieve and parse mail messages. If you require an easy way to send a mail, use the ezcMailComposer class, which allows you to send HTML mails with images, attachments and an optional text part. If you require more advanced mail messages, you can build the complete message yourself using the ezcMailPart derived classes. You can retrieve mail messages from different sources using the supported transports. Class overview ============== This section gives you an overview of the main classes in the Mail component. ezcMailComposer This is a convenience class that allows you to send plain text or HTML messages with attachments, without having to construct the parts of the message yourself. Most users will use this class. ezcMail If ezcMailComposer does not have the functionality you require, you can use the ezcMail class to build MIME-structured mail from scratch. This requires basic knowledge about how a mail is structured. ezcMailAddress This small class represents a mail address with an optional name. It is used by both ezcMailComposer and ezcMail to set recipient addresses. ezcMailParser This class parses mail messages from text into ezcMail structures. You can use it together with the mail retrieval transport classes. ezcMailSmtpTransport Sends mails using an SMTP server. After sending a mail, the connection can be kept alive so that the next mail sent uses the same connection, speeding up the process. ezcMailMtaTransport Sends mails using the PHP mail() function. ezcMailPop3Transport Connects to a POP3 server and allows the fetching and deleting of mails. ezcMailImapTransport Connects to an IMAP server and allows operations on mails in a mailbox (fetch, delete) and operations on mailboxes (create, delete, rename, append). Usage ===== Transport protocols ------------------- The Mail component provides transport protocols for both sending and retrieving mail. For sending mail, the following protocols are supported: - SMTP (ezcMailSmtpTransport) - uses an SMTP server to send mail. Supports plain and TLS/SSL/SSLv2/SSLv3 connections. - MTA (ezcMailMtaTransport) - wraps around the PHP mail() function. For mail retrieval we currently support the following protocols: - POP3 (ezcMailPop3Transport) - an old protocol but still used. SSL is supported. - IMAP (ezcMailImapTransport) - handles multiple mailboxes. SSL is supported. - MBOX (ezcMailMboxTransport) - handles Unix mailbox file formats. Mail retrieval from other sources include: - File (ezcMailFileSet) - handles mails stored in files. - Variable (ezcMailVariableSet) - handles mails stored in memory. Mail parsers ------------ After using a mail retrieval transport to fetch a set of mails, a mail parser can be used to go through the set and extract the needed information like subject, sender, date and attachments from each mail in the set. The ezcMailParser class is used for this purpose. Mail parts ---------- The ezcMail component supports a wide variety of mail parts that can be used when sending or retrieving mails: - ezcMailFile - mail attachment from an existing file - ezcMailStreamFile - mail attachment from an open stream - ezcMailVirtualFile - mail attachment from a string in memory - ezcMailMultipartAlternative - used to bundle a group of mail parts where only one should be shown - ezcMailMultipartDigest - used to bundle a list of mail objects - ezcMailMultipartMixed - used to bundle an ordered list of mail parts - ezcMailMultipartRelated - intended for mail parts consisting of several inter-related body parts - ezcMailMultipartReport - used for sending delivery status notifications - ezcMailDeliveryStatus - used for sending delivery status notifications - ezcMailRfc822Digest - used to insert another mail into a mail - ezcMailText - used for plain text Mail tools ---------- In the ezcMailTools class, you will find various useful static methods that can be used in your applications: - ezcMailTools::lineBreak() - returns one end-of-line character (default \\r\\n). Use ezcMailTools::setLineBreak() to change the default - ezcMailTools::composeEmailAddress() - returns the RFC822 representation of a mail address as a string. Use ezcMailTools::composeEmailAddresses() for an array of mail address objects - ezcMailTools::parseEmailAddress() - returns an ezcMailAddress object from a string mail address. Use ezcMailTools::parseEmailAddresses() for a string of mail addresses - ezcMailTools::generateMessageId() - returns a unique message ID to be used for a mail message - ezcMailTools::generateContentId() - returns a unique ID to be used for Content-ID headers - ezcMailTools::mimeDecode() - decodes MIME-encoded fields and tries to recover from errors - ezcMailTools::replyToMail() - returns a new ezcMail object that is a reply to the specified ezcMail object See the ezcMailTools example below for information on how to use these methods. Building and sending mail ========================= Sending a mail with the composer -------------------------------- Sending a mail using the composer is very straightforward. This small example displays how to send a normal text message. .. include:: tutorial_example_01.php :literal: Sending a mail with HTML, inline images and attachments ------------------------------------------------------- This example shows how to send a mail with HTML text, images and attachments using the ezcMailComposer class. .. include:: tutorial_example_02.php :literal: Building a mail from scratch ---------------------------- The class structure of the Mail component follows that of the mail MIME. This means that you can build advanced MIME messages part by part. The first example displays how to build a similar message to the one above. .. include:: tutorial_example_03.php :literal: As you can see, there is not much difference compared to the composer version. In the next example we will add an attachment to our manually built mail: .. include:: tutorial_example_04.php :literal: Building MIME structures that work ---------------------------------- When you build mail mail from scratch most combinations of MailParts will produce valid messages. Unfortunately, even though a message is valid structurally that does not mean that all mail clients will display it properly. This section gives a few hints on what to do and what not to do. 1. Ommit Multipart/Mixed parts with only one part. Some mail clients like Mozilla Thunderbird do not display these correctly. Of course, they are not necessary either. 2. Mail with alternative text/HTML parts and common attachments can be implemented in many ways. However, we have only found one structure that seems to work across all clients: MultipartMixed( MultipartAlternative( TextPart, TextPart ), FilePart, ... ) Sending a mail using SMTP ------------------------- This example displays how to send a mail with SMTP, by using an SSLv3 connection. .. include:: tutorial_example_16.php :literal: Character encoding ------------------ Most of the world does not speak and write US ASCII and thus requires more advanced character encoding to display mail correctly. The following example shows how to send a mail entirely encoded with iso-8859-1: .. include:: tutorial_example_05.php :literal: You can of course choose and combine any available character sets. Make sure that the input text is encoded as specified, or you may get unexpected results. Extending the Mail component ---------------------------- It is possible to extend the Mail component if you require part types that are not supported by default. The following two examples shows how you can implement support for digest mail messages as attachments to your mail. This functionality is available through the ezcMailRfc822Digest class. For the sake of this example, we will recreate it in the MailRFC822Digest class. The mail system already supports sending attachments through the ezcMailMultipartMixed type. Unfortunately directly inserting an ezcMail object as a part does not work. This is because mail digests are a special case: they require two extra headers that are separated by the normal mail headers. To make it work, we create the class RFC822Digest to add these headers: .. include:: tutorial_example_06.php :literal: Our new class extends the ezcMailPart class. This is required for all parts of a mail. ezcMailPart provides two important methods that we can override: ezcMailPart::generateHeaders() and ezcMailPart::generateBody(). These two methods are called in succession by the parent part and should return the headers and the body text of the part. We do not need to override generateHeaders() since we can simply set the headers we want directly on the object. We do need to override generateBody(), since we want to include the full text of the mail digest. The new class can be used directly when building a mail. The example assumes that a valid ezcMail object is available in the $digest variable. .. include:: tutorial_example_07.php :literal: Using the ezcMailTools class ---------------------------- In this example, we use the various methods from the ezcMailTools class. .. include:: tutorial_example_08.php :literal: Mail retrieval and parsing ========================== Many applications need to interact with a message store. The Mail component makes this easy through the class ezcMailParser and the mail retrieval transport classes. Mail is fetched, parsed and returned to you in the same structure that is used to send mail. The Mail component currently allows you to fetch and parse mail messages from POP3, IMAP, mbox files, single mail files and from variables. The parser fully supports mail in all character sets, multipart mail (attachments), HTML mail, HTML mail with images and digest messages. Retrieving mail using POP3 -------------------------- The following example shows how to fetch messages from a POP3 account using various methods and to parse the messages for use. .. include:: tutorial_example_09.php :literal: The parser returns an array of ezcMail messages with parts organized according to the MIME structure of the mail. Retrieving mail using IMAP -------------------------- The following example shows how to fetch messages from an IMAP account using various functions and to parse the messages for use. .. include:: tutorial_example_10.php :literal: The parser returns an array of ezcMail messages with parts organized according to the MIME structure of the mail. Additional usage of the IMAP transport -------------------------------------- The IMAP transport supports multiple mailboxes. In the following example, we work with mailboxes and flags. .. include:: tutorial_example_11.php :literal: Working with transport options ------------------------------ The POP3, IMAP and SMTP transports allow options to be specified when calling the transport constructors. These options are implemented in the classes ezcMailPop3TransportOptions, ezcMailImapTransportOptions and ezcMailSmtpTransportOptions. In the following example, we specify options when calling the POP3 transport constructor. .. include:: tutorial_example_15.php :literal: Using SSL with POP3 and IMAP ---------------------------- The POP3 and IMAP transports allow SSL connections (if the mail server supports them). In the following example, we connect to an IMAP server using an SSL connection. .. include:: tutorial_example_14.php :literal: Retrieving mail from mbox files ------------------------------- The following example shows how to fetch all messages from an mbox file and to parse the messages for use. .. include:: tutorial_example_12.php :literal: The parser returns an array of ezcMail messages with parts organized according to the MIME structure of the mail. Parsing a message set --------------------- The following example shows how to parse a message set retrieved from an IMAP or POP3 account, an mbox file, a single mail file or a variable. .. include:: tutorial_example_13.php :literal: For a more detailed example on how to use a mail object, please see the `display example`_. .. _display example: Mail_display-example.html For an example on how to display a listing of mails, please see the `mail listing example`_. .. _mail listing example: Mail_mail-listing-example.html For a list of supported mail-related RFCs, please see the `RFCs list`_. .. _RFCs list: Mail_rfcs.html Troubleshooting =============== MTA: Qmail ---------- Qmail insists on only using "\\n" line breaks and will send garbled messages with the default "\\r\\n" setting. To fix this issue, use ezcMailTools::setLineBreak( "\\n" ) before sending mail. MTA: Sendmail relaying denied ----------------------------- This can happen when the SMTP server you try to use has disabled the sending of mail from computers not connected to its network, or if it requires authentication. Talk to the administrator of the SMTP server to see what the requirements are to send mail. Check also that sendmail is installed and configured correctly. For Windows, you need to specify a valid SMTP server in php.ini, or you can download a "fake" sendmail from the internet. IMAP: Authentication failed --------------------------- Sometimes the IMAP transport fails to authenticate, in which case the authenticate() method will return false. The application should detect when this occurs and attempt authentication again (for example, for a preset number of times such as three). .. Local Variables: mode: rst fill-column: 79 End: vim: et syn=rst tw=79