Send Mail through GMail SMTP Server with PHP

The HTML Mail app lets you send rich text emails to anyone without requiring an account. Internally, it uses the mail() function of PHP to deliver these messages.

The PHP Mailer library on Github is a wrapper over the built-in mail function but adds support for attachments and also integrates with SMTP so you can send mail without having a local mail server. This script lets you send messages via your Google’s Gmail server.

<?php
require 'PHPMailerAutoload.php';

$mail = new PHPMailer;

$mail->isSMTP();                                      // Set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';                       // Specify main and backup server
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;                               // Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = 'amit@gmail.com';                   // SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'digitalinspiration';               // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';                            // Enable encryption, 'ssl' also accepted
$mail->Port = 587;                                    //Set the SMTP port number - 587 for authenticated TLS
$mail->setFrom('amit@gmail.com', 'Amit Agarwal');     //Set who the message is to be sent from
$mail->addReplyTo('labnol@gmail.com', 'First Last');  //Set an alternative reply-to address
$mail->addAddress('josh@example.net', 'Josh Adams');  // Add a recipient
$mail->addAddress('ellen@example.com');               // Name is optional
$mail->addCC('cc@example.com');
$mail->addBCC('bcc@example.com');
$mail->WordWrap = 50;                                 // Set word wrap to 50 characters
$mail->addAttachment('/usr/labnol/file.doc');         // Add attachments
$mail->addAttachment('/images/image.jpg', 'new.jpg'); // Optional name
$mail->isHTML(true);                                  // Set email format to HTML

$mail->Subject = 'Here is the subject';
$mail->Body    = 'This is the HTML message body <b>in bold!</b>';
$mail->AltBody = 'This is the body in plain text for non-HTML mail clients';

//Read an HTML message body from an external file, convert referenced images to embedded,
//convert HTML into a basic plain-text alternative body
$mail->msgHTML(file_get_contents('contents.html'), dirname(__FILE__));

if(!$mail->send()) {
   echo 'Message could not be sent.';
   echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
   exit;
}

echo 'Message has been sent';
Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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Awards & Titles

Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Google Developer Expert award recogizing our work in Google Workspace.

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards in 2017.

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for 5 years in a row.

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator title recognizing our technical skill and expertise.

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