Read email account and automail

DewKnight · 05-16-2006, 02:32 PM

Ok, I am going to put this in here because I am pretty sure it can be done with php, but using a cgi script may be easier....

What I am trying to do... I have a list of email addresses. I have a php script right now that I can take and send whatever I want to each of those addresses. What I need it to be able to do, is read the contents of an email account (probably just every night), and then if there are any emails, I need to send them to all of the people in this list... What I have been searching for is a way to read the contents of the email account....

Some of the emails are plain text, some are html... so I would need to provide support for the html if I have to do that specifically..

any help would be appreciated.

DewKnight · 05-16-2006, 02:51 PM

Just wanted to update that I am currently looking at imap functions for php.. I would assume that is how you would do it...

DewKnight · 05-17-2006, 02:25 PM

Ok, I have the imap functions working so far that I have tested. What I am looking now, is to be able to send the HTML email along correctly... Right now if I just copy the body and headers and such, it does not display it as HTML correctly. So now I am just going to try to find out how to forward on the html email correctly.

If anybody knows how to do that, that would be cool. I figured I would update this thread....

sde · 05-17-2006, 02:35 PM

show us an example.

are you seting the content type in the headers to text/html?

DewKnight · 05-17-2006, 03:06 PM

Currently it sends me this:

Quote:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C679BB.4A692D90
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="windows-1250"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

This is just a test

----

Russ Petrick

System Technician

Valcom LPS, Inc.

(719) 687-8093

HYPERLINK "mailto: ## email blocked ## " ## email blocked ##

HYPERLINK "http://www.valcomlps.com"http://www.valcomlps.com

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.6.0/341 - Release Date: 5/16/2006

------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C679BB.4A692D90
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="windows-1250"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<html xmlns:o=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" =
xmlns:w=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" =
xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Dwindows-1250">

<meta name=3DGenerator content=3D"Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<style>

</style>

</head>

<body lang=3DEN-US link=3Dblue vlink=3Dpurple>

<div class=3DSection1>

This is just a test<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

----<o:p></o:p>

Russ Petrick<o:p></o:p>

System Technician<o:p></o:p>

Valcom LPS, Inc.<o:p></o:p>

(719) 687-8093<o:p></o:p>

<a =
href=3D"mailto: ## email blocked ##"> ## email blocked ##</a><o=
:p></o:p>

<a =
href=3D"http://www.valcomlps.com">http://www.valcomlps.com</a></fo=
nt><o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

</div>

</body>

</html>
 

-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message. 
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.6.0/341 - Release Date: =
5/16/2006 
 

------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C679BB.4A692D90--

I am not setting anything specific right now in the headers when sending it from the script... Originally I sent it to the email address using Outlook Express. So I should probably set the headers to have text/html, and then is there anything else I should set in the headers, or anything I should cut from the body before I send it along again?

DewKnight · 05-17-2006, 08:49 PM

Actually.. Since I already know how to do it with the php mail function.. I'll just use that... Thanks for the help though.

But I am wondering if you might be able to edit my email addresses out of there (or at least, make them so the spam bots can't read them). I have so far managed to keep that account free of spam. Thanks.

redhead · 05-18-2006, 06:13 AM

Quote:

... But I am wondering if you might be able to edit my email addresses out of there ...

Considder it done...

DewKnight · 05-18-2006, 07:48 AM

Thank you much..

I am wondering another issue now.. I have this script sending out probably 300 emails or so. I want to space out the time it takes to send them so it doesn't load the server down... If I add a delay in though, it will probably go over the maximum execution time for the script? Is this something I should worry about? And how would I change the max execution time.. or keep it alive? Or would this not be affected...?

sde · 05-18-2006, 07:58 AM

i think safe mode has to be turned off, but this would un-restrict the max execution time:

PHP Code:


			
<?php
ini_set('max_execution_time', 0);
?>

is this a php script running from the command line? or is it something running in a browser? if it is the latter, another option would be to store your email array in a session variable and send 20 emails on a page load, then print a javascript redirect to the screen to have to start on the next 20 emails .. repeat until done.

if there is going to be a user watching the emails process, you could flush each email address as it gets processed so the user can see what is happening.

DewKnight · 05-18-2006, 08:29 AM

Currently I have one script running that the user will be watching... but that will change to a cron in the next few days. Two others are running nightly crons.

Thank you very much for your help!

DewKnight · 11-07-2006, 07:36 AM

Well I am at the point of needing to do this again. I'll describe it again and update with some new information.

We are now on a dedicated server, so I can change anything I need. What I need to be able to do, is when one of two people sends an email to a certain email address, a script will read that email and any attachments, and then send it out to a list of people.

The main problem I was having before was that when I grabbed the email, I couldn't find a way to basically separate the headers, attachments, etc, and forward it all on correctly. If anybody has done this before, or could help me figure out how to work this, that would be awesome. I'd even be willing to give the person $15 via PayPal if we can come up with a solution that will work. Thanks for any help!