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Messages

Adding Attachments

laminas-mail does not directly provide the ability to create and use mail attachments. However, it allows using Laminas\Mime\Message instances, from the laminas-mime component, for message bodies, allowing you to create multipart emails.

Basic multipart content

The following example creates an email with two parts, HTML content and an image.

use Laminas\Mail\Message;
use Laminas\Mime\Message as MimeMessage;
use Laminas\Mime\Mime;
use Laminas\Mime\Part as MimePart;

$html = new MimePart($htmlMarkup);
$html->type = Mime::TYPE_HTML;
$html->charset = 'utf-8';
$html->encoding = Mime::ENCODING_QUOTEDPRINTABLE;

$image = new MimePart(fopen($pathToImage, 'r'));
$image->type = 'image/jpeg';
$image->filename = 'image-file-name.jpg';
$image->disposition = Mime::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT;
$image->encoding = Mime::ENCODING_BASE64;

$body = new MimeMessage();
$body->setParts([$html, $image]);

$message = new Message();
$message->setBody($body);

$contentTypeHeader = $message->getHeaders()->get('Content-Type');
$contentTypeHeader->setType('multipart/related');

Note that the above code requires us to manually specify the message content type; laminas-mime does not automatically select the multipart type for us, nor does laminas-mail populate it by default.

multipart/alternative content

One of the most common email types sent by web applications is multipart/alternative messages with both text and HTML parts.

use Laminas\Mail\Message;
use Laminas\Mime\Message as MimeMessage;
use Laminas\Mime\Mime;
use Laminas\Mime\Part as MimePart;

$text = new MimePart($textContent);
$text->type = Mime::TYPE_TEXT;
$text->charset = 'utf-8';
$text->encoding = Mime::ENCODING_QUOTEDPRINTABLE;

$html = new MimePart($htmlMarkup);
$html->type = Mime::TYPE_HTML;
$html->charset = 'utf-8';
$html->encoding = Mime::ENCODING_QUOTEDPRINTABLE;

$body = new MimeMessage();
$body->setParts([$text, $html]);

$message = new Message();
$message->setBody($body);

$contentTypeHeader = $message->getHeaders()->get('Content-Type');
$contentTypeHeader->setType('multipart/alternative');

The only differences from the first example are:

  • We have text and HTML parts instead of an HTML and image part.
  • The Content-Type header is now multipart/alternative.

multipart/alternative emails with attachments

Another common task is creating multipart/alternative emails where the HTML content refers to assets attachments (images, CSS, etc.).

To accomplish this, we need to:

  • Create a Laminas\Mime\Part instance containing our multipart/alternative message.
  • Add that part to a Laminas\Mime\Message.
  • Add additional Laminas\Mime\Part instances to the MIME message.
  • Attach the MIME message as the Laminas\Mail\Message content body.
  • Mark the message as multipart/related content.

The following example creates a MIME message with three parts: text and HTML alternative versions of an email, and an image attachment.

use Laminas\Mail\Message;
use Laminas\Mime\Message as MimeMessage;
use Laminas\Mime\Mime;
use Laminas\Mime\Part as MimePart;

$body = new MimeMessage();

$text           = new MimePart($textContent);
$text->type     = Mime::TYPE_TEXT;
$text->charset  = 'utf-8';
$text->encoding = Mime::ENCODING_QUOTEDPRINTABLE;

$html           = new MimePart($htmlMarkup);
$html->type     = Mime::TYPE_HTML;
$html->charset  = 'utf-8';
$html->encoding = Mime::ENCODING_QUOTEDPRINTABLE;

$content = new MimeMessage();
// This order is important for email clients to properly display the correct version of the content
$content->setParts([$text, $html]);

$contentPart = new MimePart($content->generateMessage());

$image              = new MimePart(fopen($pathToImage, 'r'));
$image->type        = 'image/jpeg';
$image->filename    = 'image-file-name.jpg';
$image->disposition = Mime::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT;
$image->encoding    = Mime::ENCODING_BASE64;

$body = new MimeMessage();
$body->setParts([$contentPart, $image]);

$message = new Message();
$message->setBody($body);

$contentTypeHeader = $message->getHeaders()->get('Content-Type');
$contentTypeHeader->setType('multipart/related');

Setting custom MIME boundaries

In a multipart message, a MIME boundary for separating the different parts of the message is normally generated at random. In some cases, however, you might want to specify the MIME boundary that is used. This can be done by injecting a new Laminas\Mime\Mime instance into the MIME message.

use Laminas\Mime\Mime;

$mimeMessage->setMime(new Mime($customBoundary));