Sending an email with a PDF Files attachment using PHP

Question

Ok guys, this is my first thread, and I have searched online but with no luck. I'm doing an internship, and I'm working on a project that requires me to create a webpage that generates a pdf file when a user submits his/her information. As soon as a customer clicks on the submit button, 3 things need to happen:

1. Store information to the database(done),
2. Send the staff an email with the new customer information (done), and
3. Send the customer a "thank you message" email with a pdf file attachment (not working).

I mean, the customer does receive an email, but when he/she opens the pdf file, I get the following error message:

"Acrobat could not oen 'file_name' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged(for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded)..."

Please keep in mind this is my fisrt time doing a project on creating a pdf file attachment. If someone could help me resolve this problem, that would be great. Thanks!

Here is my code:

<?php
// once there are no errors, as soon as the customer hits the submit button, it needs to send an email to the staff with the customer information
        $msg = "Name: " .$_POST['name'] . "\n"
            ."Email: " .$_POST['email'] . "\n"
            ."Phone: " .$_POST['telephone'] . "\n"
            ."Number Of Guests: " .$_POST['numberOfGuests'] . "\n"
            ."Date Of Reunion: " .$_POST['date'];
        $staffEmail = "staffinfo";

        mail($staffEmail, "You have a new customer", $msg); // using the mail php function to send the email. mail(to, subject line, message)

        //once the customer submits his/her information, he/she will receive a thank you message attach with a pdf file.
        $pdf=new FPDF();
        $pdf->AddPage();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "B", 16);
        $pdf->Cell(40, 10, "Hello World!");

        // email information
        $to = $_POST['email'];
        $from = $staffEmail;
        $subject = "Thank you for your business";
        $message = "Thank you for submitting your information!";

        // 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 = "yourinformation.pdf";

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

        // encode data (multipart mandatory)
        $headers = "From: ".$from.$eol;
        $headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0".$eol;
        $headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$separator."\"".$eol.$eol;
        $headers .= "Content-Transfer-Enconding: 7bit".$eol;
        $headers .= "This is a MIME encoded message.".$eol.$eol;

        // message
        $headers .= "--".$separator.$eol;
        $headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charsrt=\"iso-8859-1\"".$eol;
        $headers .= $message.$eol.$eol;

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

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

    }
}
?>

Answer 1

// once there are no errors, as soon as the customer hits the submit button, it needs to send an email to the staff with the customer information
        $msg = "Name: " .$_POST['name'] . "\n"
            ."Email: " .$_POST['email'] . "\n"
            ."Phone: " .$_POST['telephone'] . "\n"
            ."Number Of Guests: " .$_POST['numberOfGuests'] . "\n"
            ."Date Of Reunion: " .$_POST['date'];
        $staffEmail = "staffemail";

        mail($staffEmail, "You have a new customer", $msg); // using the mail php function to send the email. mail(to, subject line, message)

        //once the customer submits his/her information, he/she will receive a thank you message attach with a pdf file.
        // creating a pdf file
        $pdf_filename = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), "pdf");
        $pdf=new FPDF();
        $pdf->AddPage();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "B", 16);
        $pdf->Cell(40, 10, "Title");
        $pdf->Ln();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(15, 10, "Name:");
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "I", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(15, 10, $_POST['name']);
        $pdf->Ln();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(15, 10, "Email:");
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "I", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(15, 10, $_POST['email']);
        $pdf->Ln();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(15, 10, "Phone:");
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "I", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(15, 10, $_POST['telephone']);
        $pdf->Ln();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(40, 10, "Number of Guests:");
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "I", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(40, 10, $_POST['numberOfGuests']);
        $pdf->Ln();
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(40, 10, "Date Of Reunion:");
        $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "I", 12);
        $pdf->Cell(40, 10, $_POST['date']);
        // if file doesn't exists or if it is writable, create and save the file to a specific place 
        if(!file_exists($pdf_filename) || is_writable($pdf_filename)){
            $pdf->Output($pdf_filename, "F");
        } else { 
            exit("Path Not Writable");
        }

        // using the phpmailer class
        // create a new instance called $mail and use its properties and methods.
        $mail = new PHPMailer();
        $staffEmail = "staffemail";
        $mail->From = $staffEmail;
        $mail->FromName = "name";
        $mail->AddAddress($_POST['email']);
        $mail->AddReplyTo($staffEmail, "name");

        $mail->AddAttachment($pdf_filename);
        $mail->Subject = "PDF file attachment";

        $mail->Body = "message!";

        // if mail cannot be sent, diplay error message
        //if(!$mail->Send()){
            //echo "<div id=\"mailerrors\">Message could not be sent</div>";
            //echo "<div id=\"mailerrors\">Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo . "</div>";
        //} else { // else...if mail is sent, diplay sent message
            //echo "<div id=\"mailerrors\">Message sent</div>";
        //}

        // delete the temp file
        unlink($pdf_filename);
    }
}     

Answer 2

Try this:

<?php

  // once there are no errors, as soon as the customer hits the submit button,
  // it needs to send an email to the staff with the customer information
  $msg = "Name: " .$_POST['name'] . "\n"
       . "Email: " .$_POST['email'] . "\n"
       . "Phone: " .$_POST['telephone'] . "\n"
       . "Number Of Guests: " .$_POST['numberOfGuests'] . "\n"
       . "Date Of Reunion: " .$_POST['date'];
  $staffEmail = "staffinfo";
  mail($staffEmail, "You have a new customer", $msg);

  // once the customer submits his/her information, he/she will receive a thank
  // you message attach with a pdf file.
  $pdf = new FPDF();
  $pdf->AddPage();
  $pdf->SetFont("Arial", "B", 16);
  $pdf->Cell(40, 10, "Hello World!");

  // email information
  $to = $_POST['email'];
  $from = $staffEmail;
  $subject = "Thank you for your business";
  $message = "Thank you for submitting your information!";

  // a random hash will be necessary to send mixed content
  $separator = '-=-=-'.md5(microtime()).'-=-=-';

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

  // Generate headers
  $headers = "From: $from\r\n"
           . "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"
           . "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"$separator\"\r\n"
           . "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();

  // Generate body
  $body = "This is a multipart message in MIME format\r\n"
        . "--$separator\r\n"
        . "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\r\n"
        . "\r\n"
        . "$message\r\n"
        . "--$separator\r\n"
        . "Content-Type: application/pdf\r\n"
        . "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n"
        . "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"\r\n"
        . "\r\n"
        . chunk_split(base64_encode($pdf->Output("", "S")))."\r\n"
        . "--$separator--";

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