PHP library to generate EML email files?

Question

I'm trying to generate EML files from PHP. Is there any library that will allow me to easily create them? I could find some ActiveX component on the internet but would rather use something more portable.

Fishtail

Do you want to create it from scratch, or after reading email wit imap functions? Maybe imap_savebody() can help - csschat.com/archive/index.php/t-3287.html ? – Rumple

Yes I need to create it from scratch. I basically have an email, title, body and attachment and need to create the EML for that. – Fishtail

Answer 1

I ended up building the MIME message myself using this kind of template, where each field is replaced by a TEMPLATE_<name> variable:

From: TEMPLATE_FROM_ADDRESS
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: TEMPLATE_TO_ADDRESS
Subject: TEMPLATE_SUBJECT
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="080107000800000609090108"

This is a message with multiple parts in MIME format.
--080107000800000609090108
Content-Type: text/plain

TEMPLATE_BODY
--080107000800000609090108
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;name="TEMPLATE_ATTACH_FILENAME"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="TEMPLATE_ATTACH_FILENAME"

TEMPLATE_ATTACH_CONTENT
--080107000800000609090108

Then creating the final message is quite simple using str_replace:

$content = file_get_contents("Template.eml");
$content = str_replace("TEMPLATE_FROM_ADDRESS", $fromEmail, $content);
$content = str_replace("TEMPLATE_TO_ADDRESS", $toEmail, $content);
// etc. for each template parameter
// Also don't forget to base64_encode the attachment content;
$content = str_replace("TEMPLATE_ATTACH_CONTENT", base64_encode($attachContent), $content);

Additional info about file attachment in this post: Attachment name and file extension not working in email *.eml

Edit (2018): Since this answer was written it seems it's been copied and pasted a bit everywhere, the template in particular. To avoid any conflict with other MIME data, you should make sure that the boundary "080107000800000609090108" is unique - it's a string of random characters no longer than 70 characters.

Fishtail

Answer 2

I think you don't need a library. It's just plain text (e.g. http://bitdaddys.com/example1.eml)

Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:25:25 -0400
From: John Doe <[email protected]>
Subject: BitDaddys Software
To: [email protected]

Dear BitDaddys Corp.,

We have added your software to our approved list.

Thank you for your efforts.

Sincerely,
John Doe
Some Server Company

You can just output text with headers and save it using fwrite. For attachments use base64_encode() as stated here

Rumple

The important thing is that it should follow SMTP semantics - i.e. CRLF at the end of each header and a blank line (terminated by CRLF) between the headers and the body. Body should be transfer encoded as 7bit ascii (or quoted printable). – Conjunctiva

link is broken as of 10/4/2020 – Libertine

Answer 3

Use imap_savebody (part of the imap library https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.imap-savebody.php) with a null $part_number. It creates a beautiful .eml file with one line of code with the entire message (null $part_number = all parts... not documented but works).

the other two solutions depend on the format of the email (only one attachment and no html section in the first solution, and only text email in the second).

imap_savebody creates a perfect .eml file no matter what the format of the incoming email is (as long as it's RFC-complaint of course).

Lizbeth

by section number means $part_number parameter – Henbit