[email] Mail multipart/alternative vs multipart/mixed

Building on Iain's example, I had a similar need to compose these emails with separate plaintext, HTML and multiple attachments, but using PHP. Since we are using Amazon SES to send emails with attachments, the API currently requires you to build the email from scratch using the sendRawEmail(...) function.

After much investigation (and greater than normal frustration), the problem was solved and the PHP source code posted so that it may help others experiencing a similar problem. Hope this help someone out - the troop of monkeys I forced to work on this problem are now exhausted.

PHP Source Code for sending emails with attachments using Amazon SES.

<?php

require_once('AWSSDKforPHP/aws.phar');

use Aws\Ses\SesClient;

/**
 * SESUtils is a tool to make it easier to work with Amazon Simple Email Service
 * Features:
 * A client to prepare emails for use with sending attachments or not
 * 
 * There is no warranty - use this code at your own risk.  
 * @author sbossen with assistance from Michael Deal
 * http://righthandedmonkey.com
 *
 * Update: Error checking and new params input array provided by Michael Deal
 * Update2: Corrected for allowing to send multiple attachments and plain text/html body
 *   Ref: Http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3902455/smtp-multipart-alternative-vs-multipart-mixed/
 */
class SESUtils {

    const version = "1.0";
    const AWS_KEY = "YOUR-KEY";
    const AWS_SEC = "YOUR-SECRET";
    const AWS_REGION = "us-east-1";
    const MAX_ATTACHMENT_NAME_LEN = 60;

    /**
     * Usage:
        $params = array(
          "to" => "[email protected]",
          "subject" => "Some subject",
          "message" => "<strong>Some email body</strong>",
          "from" => "sender@verifiedbyaws",
          //OPTIONAL
          "replyTo" => "[email protected]",
          //OPTIONAL
          "files" => array(
            1 => array(
               "name" => "filename1", 
              "filepath" => "/path/to/file1.txt", 
              "mime" => "application/octet-stream"
            ),
            2 => array(
               "name" => "filename2", 
              "filepath" => "/path/to/file2.txt", 
              "mime" => "application/octet-stream"
            ),
          )
        );

      $res = SESUtils::sendMail($params);

     * NOTE: When sending a single file, omit the key (ie. the '1 =>') 
     * or use 0 => array(...) - otherwise the file will come out garbled
     * ie. use:
     *    "files" => array(
     *        0 => array( "name" => "filename", "filepath" => "path/to/file.txt",
     *        "mime" => "application/octet-stream")
     * 
     * For the 'to' parameter, you can send multiple recipiants with an array
     *    "to" => array("[email protected]", "[email protected]")
     * use $res->success to check if it was successful
     * use $res->message_id to check later with Amazon for further processing
     * use $res->result_text to look for error text if the task was not successful
     * 
     * @param array $params - array of parameters for the email
     * @return \ResultHelper
     */
    public static function sendMail($params) {

        $to = self::getParam($params, 'to', true);
        $subject = self::getParam($params, 'subject', true);
        $body = self::getParam($params, 'message', true);
        $from = self::getParam($params, 'from', true);
        $replyTo = self::getParam($params, 'replyTo');
        $files = self::getParam($params, 'files');

        $res = new ResultHelper();

        // get the client ready
        $client = SesClient::factory(array(
                    'key' => self::AWS_KEY,
                    'secret' => self::AWS_SEC,
                    'region' => self::AWS_REGION
        ));

        // build the message
        if (is_array($to)) {
            $to_str = rtrim(implode(',', $to), ',');
        } else {
            $to_str = $to;
        }

        $msg = "To: $to_str\n";
        $msg .= "From: $from\n";

        if ($replyTo) {
            $msg .= "Reply-To: $replyTo\n";
        }

        // in case you have funny characters in the subject
        $subject = mb_encode_mimeheader($subject, 'UTF-8');
        $msg .= "Subject: $subject\n";
        $msg .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
        $msg .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n";
        $boundary = uniqid("_Part_".time(), true); //random unique string
        $boundary2 = uniqid("_Part2_".time(), true); //random unique string
        $msg .= " boundary=\"$boundary\"\n";
        $msg .= "\n";

        // now the actual body
        $msg .= "--$boundary\n";

        //since we are sending text and html emails with multiple attachments
        //we must use a combination of mixed and alternative boundaries
        //hence the use of boundary and boundary2
        $msg .= "Content-Type: multipart/alternative;\n";
        $msg .= " boundary=\"$boundary2\"\n";
        $msg .= "\n";
        $msg .= "--$boundary2\n";

        // first, the plain text
        $msg .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n";
        $msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n";
        $msg .= "\n";
        $msg .= strip_tags($body); //remove any HTML tags
        $msg .= "\n";

        // now, the html text
        $msg .= "--$boundary2\n";
        $msg .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8\n";
        $msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n";
        $msg .= "\n";
        $msg .= $body; 
        $msg .= "\n";
        $msg .= "--$boundary2--\n";

        // add attachments
        if (is_array($files)) {
            $count = count($files);
            foreach ($files as $file) {
                $msg .= "\n";
                $msg .= "--$boundary\n";
                $msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n";
                $clean_filename = self::clean_filename($file["name"], self::MAX_ATTACHMENT_NAME_LEN);
                $msg .= "Content-Type: {$file['mime']}; name=$clean_filename;\n";
                $msg .= "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$clean_filename;\n";
                $msg .= "\n";
                $msg .= base64_encode(file_get_contents($file['filepath']));
                $msg .= "\n--$boundary";
            }
            // close email
            $msg .= "--\n";
        }

        // now send the email out
        try {
            $ses_result = $client->sendRawEmail(
                    array(
                'RawMessage' => array(
                    'Data' => base64_encode($msg)
                )
                    ), array(
                'Source' => $from,
                'Destinations' => $to_str
                    )
            );
            if ($ses_result) {
                $res->message_id = $ses_result->get('MessageId');
            } else {
                $res->success = false;
                $res->result_text = "Amazon SES did not return a MessageId";
            }
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            $res->success = false;
            $res->result_text = $e->getMessage().
                    " - To: $to_str, Sender: $from, Subject: $subject";
        }
        return $res;
    }

    private static function getParam($params, $param, $required = false) {
        $value = isset($params[$param]) ? $params[$param] : null;
        if ($required && empty($value)) {
            throw new Exception('"'.$param.'" parameter is required.');
        } else {
            return $value;
        }
    }

    /**
    Clean filename function - to get a file friendly 
    **/
    public static function clean_filename($str, $limit = 0, $replace=array(), $delimiter='-') {
        if( !empty($replace) ) {
            $str = str_replace((array)$replace, ' ', $str);
        }

        $clean = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $str);
        $clean = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\.\/_| -]/", '', $clean);
        $clean = preg_replace("/[\/| -]+/", '-', $clean);

        if ($limit > 0) {
            //don't truncate file extension
            $arr = explode(".", $clean);
            $size = count($arr);
            $base = "";
            $ext = "";
            if ($size > 0) {
                for ($i = 0; $i < $size; $i++) {
                    if ($i < $size - 1) { //if it's not the last item, add to $bn
                        $base .= $arr[$i];
                        //if next one isn't last, add a dot
                        if ($i < $size - 2)
                            $base .= ".";
                    } else {
                        if ($i > 0)
                            $ext = ".";
                        $ext .= $arr[$i];
                    }
                }
            }
            $bn_size = mb_strlen($base);
            $ex_size = mb_strlen($ext);
            $bn_new = mb_substr($base, 0, $limit - $ex_size);
            // doing again in case extension is long
            $clean = mb_substr($bn_new.$ext, 0, $limit); 
        }
        return $clean;
    }

}

class ResultHelper {

    public $success = true;
    public $result_text = "";
    public $message_id = "";

}

?>

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