How to use sendmail with PHP
Here is the magical line of code which tells PHP to send an email through your mail server.
mail("receiving-email","subject","message-body","headers");
The best benefit of PHP code is that it is read on the server, not by your browser. This means that no one can see your email address or the PHP code used to send the email.
You may even copy and paste this working example. Create a file namedemail_form.php and paste this code inside and save. (If you use a different file name, you must change that file name as shown in bold in the code sample.)
Note: You will need to replace postmaster@example.com with your real email address. You can use any email address you want, even a third party email hosted somewhere else.
Note: You will also need to replace thank_you.html with the real page name where visitors are sent after they submit the form.
Note: Some of the text below has been word-wrapped. For best results, copy and paste the whole block of code to ensure proper formatting.
<?php
switch (@$_GET['do'])
{
case "send":
$fname = $_POST['fname'];
$lname = $_POST['lname'];
$femail = $_POST['femail'];
$f2email = $_POST['f2email'];
$saddy = $_POST['saddy'];
$scity = $_POST['scity'];
$szip = $_POST['szip'];
$fphone1 = $_POST['fphone1'];
$mname = $_POST['mname'];
$sapt = $_POST['sapt'];
$sstate = $_POST['sstate'];
$scountry = $_POST['scountry'];
$fphone2 = $_POST['fphone2'];
$fphone3 = $_POST['fphone3'];
$fsendmail = $_POST['fsendmail'];
$secretinfo = $_POST['info'];
if (!preg_match("/\S+/",$fname))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "First Name required. Please try again.";
break;
}
if (!preg_match("/\S+/",$lname))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "Last Name required. Please try again.";
break;
}
if (!preg_match("/^\S+@[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,6}$/",$femail))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "Primary Email Address is incorrect. Please try again.";
break;
}
if ($f2email){
if (!preg_match("/^\S+@[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,6}$/",$f2email))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "Secondary Email Address is incorrect. Please try again.";
break;
}
}
if (!preg_match("/\S+/",$saddy))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "Street Address required. Please try again.";
break;
}
if (!preg_match("/\S+/",$scity))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "City required. Please try again.";
break;
}
if (!preg_match("/^[0-9A-Za-z -]+$/",$szip))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "Zip/Post Code required. Please try again.";
break;
}
if (!preg_match("/^[0-9 #\-\*\.\(\)]+$/",$fphone1))
{
unset($_GET['do']);
$message = "Phone Number 1 required. No letters, please.";
break;
}
if ($secretinfo == "")
{
$myemail = "postmaster@example.com";
$emess = "First Name: ".$fname."\n";
$emess.= "Middle Name: ".$mname."\n";
$emess.= "Last Name: ".$lname."\n";
$emess.= "Email 1: ".$femail."\n";
$emess.= "Email 2: ".$f2email."\n";
$emess.= "Street Address: ".$saddy."\nApt/Ste: ".$sapt."\n";
$emess.= "City: ".$scity."\nState: ".$sstate."\nZip/Post Code:".$szip."\n";
$emess.= "Country: ".$scountry."\n";
$emess.= "Phone number 1: ".$fphone1."\n";
$emess.= "Phone number 2: ".$fphone2."\n";
$emess.= "Phone number 3: ".$fphone3."\n";
$emess.= "Comments: ".$fsendmail;
$ehead = "From: ".$femail."\r\n";
$subj = "An Email from ".$fname." ".$mname." ".$lname."!";
$mailsend=mail("$myemail","$subj","$emess","$ehead");
$message = "Email was sent.";
}
unset($_GET['do']);
header("Location: thank_you.html");
break;
default: break;
}
?>
<html>
<body>
<form action="email_form.php?do=send" method="POST">
<p>* Required fields</p>
<?php
if ($message) echo '<p style="color:red;">'.$message.'</p>';
?>
<table border="0" width="500">
<tr><td align="right">* First Name: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="fname" size="30" value="<?php echo @$fname ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">Middle Name: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="mname" size="30" value="<?php echo @$mname ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">* Last Name: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="lname" size="30" value="<?php echo @$lname ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
<table border="0" width="500">
<tr><td align="right">* Primary Email: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="femail" size="30" value="<?php echo @$femail ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">Secondary Email: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="f2email" size="30" value="<?php echo @$f2email ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
<table border="0" width="600">
<tr><td align="right">* Street Address: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="saddy" size="40" value="<?php echo @$saddy ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">Apartment/Suite Number: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="sapt" size="10" value="<?php echo @$sapt ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">* City: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="scity" size="30" value="<?php echo @$scity ?>"></td></tr>
<td align="right">State: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="sstate" size="10" value="<?php echo @$sstate ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">* Zip/Post Code: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="szip" size="10" value="<?php echo @$szip ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">Country: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="scountry" size="30" value="<?php echo @$scountry ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
<table border="0" width="500">
<tr><td align="right">* Phone Number 1: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="fphone1" size="20" value="<?php echo @$fphone1 ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">Phone Number 2: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="fphone2" size="20" value="<?php echo @$fphone2 ?>"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">Phone Number 3: </td>
<td><input type="text" name="fphone3" size="20" value="<?php echo @$fphone3 ?>"> <input style="display:none;" name="info"type="text" value=""> </td></tr>
</table>
<p>
<table border="0" width="500"><tr><td>
Comments:<br />
<TEXTAREA name="fsendmail" ROWS="6" COLS="60"><?phpif($fsendmail) echo $fsendmail; ?></TEXTAREA>
</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right"><input type="submit" value="Send Now">
</td></tr>
</table>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Color coding of code is added for readability and is not actually part of the code.