My Script APPEARS not to be working, suggest to use SMTP?

Question

first of all, I am learning PHP and I am at an elementary level, (sorry). I have a script that send me an email once the form it filled in. The form is located on another page, this is the page that does all the magic. For SOME REASON, this code does not work, I do not get an emails at all. As I missing something!

Thank you

    <?php

if(!$_POST) exit;

// Verifico email.
function isEmail($email) { 
    return(preg_match("/^[-_.[:alnum:]]+@((([[:alnum:]]|[[:alnum:]][[:alnum:]-]*[[:alnum:]])\.)+(ad|ae|aero|af|ag|ai|al|am|an|ao|aq|ar|arpa|as|at|au|aw|az|ba|bb|bd|be|bf|bg|bh|bi|biz|bj|bm|bn|bo|br|bs|bt|bv|bw|by|bz|ca|cc|cd|cf|cg|ch|ci|ck|cl|cm|cn|co|com|coop|cr|cs|cu|cv|cx|cy|cz|de|dj|dk|dm|do|dz|ec|edu|ee|eg|eh|er|es|et|eu|fi|fj|fk|fm|fo|fr|ga|gb|gd|ge|gf|gh|gi|gl|gm|gn|gov|gp|gq|gr|gs|gt|gu|gw|gy|hk|hm|hn|hr|ht|hu|id|ie|il|in|info|int|io|iq|ir|is|it|jm|jo|jp|ke|kg|kh|ki|km|kn|kp|kr|kw|ky|kz|la|lb|lc|li|lk|lr|ls|lt|lu|lv|ly|ma|mc|md|mg|mh|mil|mk|ml|mm|mn|mo|mp|mq|mr|ms|mt|mu|museum|mv|mw|mx|my|mz|na|name|nc|ne|net|nf|ng|ni|nl|no|np|nr|nt|nu|nz|om|org|pa|pe|pf|pg|ph|pk|pl|pm|pn|pr|pro|ps|pt|pw|py|qa|re|ro|ru|rw|sa|sb|sc|sd|se|sg|sh|si|sj|sk|sl|sm|sn|so|sr|st|su|sv|sy|sz|tc|td|tf|tg|th|tj|tk|tm|tn|to|tp|tr|tt|tv|tw|tz|ua|ug|uk|um|us|uy|uz|va|vc|ve|vg|vi|vn|vu|wf|ws|ye|yt|yu|za|zm|zw)$|(([0-9][0-9]?|[0-1][0-9][0-9]|[2][0-4][0-9]|[2][5][0-5])\.){3}([0-9][0-9]?|[0-1][0-9][0-9]|[2][0-4][0-9]|[2][5][0-5]))$/i",$email));     
}

if (!defined("PHP_EOL")) define("PHP_EOL", "\r\n");

$name     = $_POST['name'];
$email    = $_POST['email'];
$subject  = $_POST['subject'];
$comments = $_POST['comments'];
$verify   = $_POST['verify'];

if(trim($name) == '') {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You must enter your name.</div>';
    exit();
} else if(trim($email) == '') {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter a valid email address.</div>';
    exit();

} else if(!isEmail($email)) {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You have enter an invalid e-mail address, try again.</div>';
    exit();
}

if(trim($subject) == '') {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter a subject.</div>';
    exit();
} else if(trim($comments) == '') {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter your message.</div>';
    exit();
} else if(!isset($verify) || trim($verify) == '') {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! Please enter the verification number.</div>';
    exit();
} else if(trim($verify) != '4') {
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! The verification number you entered is incorrect.</div>';
    exit();  
}

if(get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
    $comments = stripslashes($comments);
}


// Configuracion.

$address = "abc@xyz.com";
$addressrrhh = "abc@xyz.com";
$e_subject = 'You\'ve been contacted by ' . $name . '.';

// Campos del form ampliables.

$e_body = "You have been contacted from JACK contact form by $name with regards to $subject, their additional message is as follows." . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL;
$e_content = "\"$comments\"" . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL;
$e_reply = "You can contact $name via email, $email";

$msg = wordwrap( $e_body . $e_content . $e_reply, 70 );

$headers = "From: $email" . PHP_EOL;
$headers = "BCC: $addressrrhh" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "Reply-To: $email" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "Content-type: text/plain; charset=utf-8" . PHP_EOL;
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable" . PHP_EOL;

if(mail($address, $e_subject, $msg, $headers)) {

    // Mensaje envio OK

    echo "<fieldset>";          
    echo "<div id='success_page'>";
    echo "<h1>Email Sent Successfully.</h1>";
    echo "<p>Thank you <strong>$name</strong>, your message has been submitted.</p>";
    echo "</div>";
    echo "</fieldset>";

} else {

    echo 'ERROR!';

}
?>

Answer 1

Please have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol#Request_methods and http://php.net/manual/de/function.mail.php first

Answer 2

I think that using SMTP is better than something else. If you encounter problems with the mail() function, maybe you take a look at PEAR: pear.php.net

Answer 3

Post is something completely different. Its not like the dutch word post which means mail :D

$_POST is a variable that stores all values a post form sends. so for example: a form with the method POST has 1 input text field with the name "foo". After you type in: "bar" in that field and submit the field a $_POST array is created where $_POST["foo"] has the value "bar"

Maybe you read something about not using php's on mail() function and better use SMTP? That makes a little bit more sense...

Good luck

Answer 4

First thing first

1. Do you have errors when you submit in your webserver error log ?

2. Is your mail sent ? (Check your mail log)

3. If so, is it in your spam folder ?

About your mail marked directly as spam Things "changed" a little bit, and you can't just send an email without setting the "fifth" parameters or your mail will go directly to spam boxes.

From http://php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php

The additional_parameters parameter can be used to pass additional flags as command line options to the program configured to be used when sending mail, as defined by the sendmail_path configuration setting. For example, this can be used to set the envelope sender address when using sendmail with the -f sendmail option.

The user that the webserver runs as should be added as a trusted user to the sendmail configuration to prevent a 'X-Warning' header from being added to the message when the envelope sender (-f) is set using this method. For sendmail users, this file is /etc/mail/trusted-users.

Also, i'm suggestion you the very good phpmailer

Usage exemple : http://phpmailer.worxware.com/index.php?pg=examplebmail

Hope it helps