asked on

FPDF & PHP Mailer - Save PDF & Attach In An Email

Hello Experts,

Perhaps, I am going about this incorrectly. I am open to ideas on how to do this.

I have a PHP program that generates a PDF file, dynamically using FPDF. Once the user clicks the submit button, at run time, I need to be able to do the following nearly simultaneously:
Save the PDF file in a specified location;
Grab the freshly generated PDF;
Attach it to an email; and
Send the email to specified users.

First, is this even possible?

I was thinking about using PHP Mailer in combination with FPDF.

Any ideas?

NerdsOfTech

Create the PDF file on the server via FPDF's Output() function (dest parameter should be F)

ref:http://www.fpdf.org/en/doc/output.htm

Then use sendmail or similar email system installed on your server to send file as an attachment.

Julian Hansen

Here is a working sample that uses FPDF and PHPMailer

<?php
// PUT CONFIG INFORMATION IN THIS FILE
require_once('config.php');
// INCLUDE THE FPDF LIBRARIES
require_once('fpdf/fpdf.php');
// INCLUDE THE PHPMAiler LIBRARIES
require_once('PHPMailer/phpmailer.class.php');
require_once('PHPMAiler/class.smtp.php');

// WHERE DO YOU WANT TO SAVE THE FILE
$dest = 'sample.pdf';

// CREATE AND SAVE THE PDF DOCUMENT
$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
// SEND TO A LOCAL FILE
$pdf->Output('F', $dest);

// CREATE THE MAIL
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
try {
  // SETUP FOR SMTP
  $mail->SMTPDebug = 0;               // Enable verbose debug output
  $mail->isSMTP();                    // Set mailer to use SMTP
  $mail->Host = $host;                // Specify main and backup SMTP servers
  $mail->SMTPAuth = true;             // Enable SMTP authentication
  $mail->Username = $username;        // SMTP username
  $mail->Password = $password;        // SMTP password
  $mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';          // Enable TLS encryption, `ssl` also accepted
  $mail->Port = 587;                  // TCP port to connect to

  //Recipients
  $mail->setFrom($from, $fromname);
  $mail->addAddress($to, $toname);    // Add a recipient
  $mail->addReplyTo($from, $fromname);

  //Attachments
  $mail->addAttachment($dest);

  //Content
  $mail->isHTML(true);                 // Set email format to HTML
  $mail->Subject = $subject;
  $mail->Body    = 'PDF Attached';
  $mail->AltBody = 'PDF Attached';

  $mail->send();
  echo 'Message has been sent';
} catch (Exception $e) {
  echo 'Message could not be sent.';
  echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}

Open in new window

Sample config.php

<?php
$to = 'recipient@someaddress.com';
$from = $to;
$username = $to;
$password = 'password';
$host = 'your.smtphost.com';
$fromname = 'Your Name';
$toname = $fromname;
$subject = 'EE Test';

Open in new window

Joseph Longo

ASKER

Braving Hurricane Irma at the moment, as I live in Tampa, FL. Once life returns back to normal, I'll test these solutions out.

Julian Hansen

Take your time - hoping for the best for you and all those caught in Irma's path.

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FPDF &amp; PHP Mailer - Save PDF &amp; Attach In An Email

FPDF & PHP Mailer - Save PDF & Attach In An Email