Sending Messages
================
Quick Reference for Sending a Message
-------------------------------------
Sending a message is very straightforward. You create a Transport, use it to
create the Mailer, then you use the Mailer to send the message.
To send a Message:
* Create a Transport from one of the provided Transports --
``Swift_SmtpTransport``, ``Swift_SendmailTransport``
or one of the aggregate Transports.
* Create an instance of the ``Swift_Mailer`` class, using the Transport as
it's constructor parameter.
* Create a Message.
* Send the message via the ``send()`` method on the Mailer object.
.. caution::
The ``Swift_SmtpTransport`` and ``Swift_SendmailTransport`` transports use
``proc_*`` PHP functions, which might not be available on your PHP
installation. You can easily check if that's the case by running the
following PHP script: ``<?php echo function_exists('proc_open') ? "Yep,
that will work" : "Sorry, that won't work";``
When using ``send()`` the message will be sent just like it would be sent if you
used your mail client. An integer is returned which includes the number of
successful recipients. If none of the recipients could be sent to then zero will
be returned, which equates to a boolean ``false``. If you set two ``To:``
recipients and three ``Bcc:`` recipients in the message and all of the
recipients are delivered to successfully then the value 5 will be returned.
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance('smtp.example.org', 25)
->setUsername('your username')
->setPassword('your password')
;
/*
You could alternatively use a different transport such as Sendmail:
// Sendmail
$transport = Swift_SendmailTransport::newInstance('/usr/sbin/sendmail -bs');
*/
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
// Create a message
$message = Swift_Message::newInstance('Wonderful Subject')
->setFrom(array('john@doe.com' => 'John Doe'))
->setTo(array('receiver@domain.org', 'other@domain.org' => 'A name'))
->setBody('Here is the message itself')
;
// Send the message
$result = $mailer->send($message);
Transport Types
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Transport is the component which actually does the sending. You need to
provide a Transport object to the Mailer class and there are several possible
options.
Typically you will not need to know how a Transport works under-the-surface,
you will only need to know how to create an instance of one, and which one to
use for your environment.
The SMTP Transport
..................
The SMTP Transport sends messages over the (standardized) Simple Message
Transfer Protocol. It can deal with encryption and authentication.
The SMTP Transport, ``Swift_SmtpTransport`` is without doubt the most commonly
used Transport because it will work on 99% of web servers (I just made that
number up, but you get the idea). All the server needs is the ability to
connect to a remote (or even local) SMTP server on the correct port number
(usually 25).
SMTP servers often require users to authenticate with a username and password
before any mail can be sent to other domains. This is easily achieved using
Swift Mailer with the SMTP Transport.
SMTP is a protocol -- in other words it's a "way" of communicating a job
to be done (i.e. sending a message). The SMTP protocol is the fundamental
basis on which messages are delivered all over the internet 7 days a week, 365
days a year. For this reason it's the most "direct" method of sending messages
you can use and it's the one that will give you the most power and feedback
(such as delivery failures) when using Swift Mailer.
Because SMTP is generally run as a remote service (i.e. you connect to it over
the network/internet) it's extremely portable from server-to-server. You can
easily store the SMTP server address and port number in a configuration file
within your application and adjust the settings accordingly if the code is
moved or if the SMTP server is changed.
Some SMTP servers -- Google for example -- use encryption for security reasons.
Swift Mailer supports using both SSL and TLS encryption settings.
Using the SMTP Transport
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The SMTP Transport is easy to use. Most configuration options can be set with
the constructor.
To use the SMTP Transport you need to know which SMTP server your code needs
to connect to. Ask your web host if you're not sure. Lots of people ask me who
to connect to -- I really can't answer that since it's a setting that's
extremely specific to your hosting environment.
To use the SMTP Transport:
* Call ``Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance()`` with the SMTP server name and
optionally with a port number (defaults to 25).
* Use the returned object to create the Mailer.
A connection to the SMTP server will be established upon the first call to
``send()``.
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance('smtp.example.org', 25);
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
/*
It's also possible to use multiple method calls
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance()
->setHost('smtp.example.org')
->setPort(25)
;
*/
Encrypted SMTP
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You can use SSL or TLS encryption with the SMTP Transport by specifying it as
a parameter or with a method call.
To use encryption with the SMTP Transport:
* Pass the encryption setting as a third parameter to
``Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance()``; or
* Call the ``setEncryption()`` method on the Transport.
A connection to the SMTP server will be established upon the first call to
``send()``. The connection will be initiated with the correct encryption
settings.
.. note::
For SSL or TLS encryption to work your PHP installation must have
appropriate OpenSSL transports wrappers. You can check if "tls" and/or
"ssl" are present in your PHP installation by using the PHP function
``stream_get_transports()``
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance('smtp.example.org', 587, 'ssl');
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
/*
It's also possible to use multiple method calls
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance()
->setHost('smtp.example.org')
->setPort(587)
->setEncryption('ssl')
;
*/
SMTP with a Username and Password
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Some servers require authentication. You can provide a username and password
with ``setUsername()`` and ``setPassword()`` methods.
To use a username and password with the SMTP Transport:
* Create the Transport with ``Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance()``.
* Call the ``setUsername()`` and ``setPassword()`` methods on the Transport.
Your username and password will be used to authenticate upon first connect
when ``send()`` are first used on the Mailer.
If authentication fails, an Exception of type ``Swift_TransportException`` will
be thrown.
.. note::
If you need to know early whether or not authentication has failed and an
Exception is going to be thrown, call the ``start()`` method on the
created Transport.
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport the call setUsername() and setPassword()
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance('smtp.example.org', 25)
->setUsername('username')
->setPassword('password')
;
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
The Sendmail Transport
......................
The Sendmail Transport sends messages by communicating with a locally
installed MTA -- such as ``sendmail``.
The Sendmail Transport, ``Swift_SendmailTransport`` does not directly connect to
any remote services. It is designed for Linux servers that have ``sendmail``
installed. The Transport starts a local ``sendmail`` process and sends messages
to it. Usually the ``sendmail`` process will respond quickly as it spools your
messages to disk before sending them.
The Transport is named the Sendmail Transport for historical reasons
(``sendmail`` was the "standard" UNIX tool for sending e-mail for years). It
will send messages using other transfer agents such as Exim or Postfix despite
its name, provided they have the relevant sendmail wrappers so that they can be
started with the correct command-line flags.
It's a common misconception that because the Sendmail Transport returns a
result very quickly it must therefore deliver messages to recipients quickly
-- this is not true. It's not slow by any means, but it's certainly not
faster than SMTP when it comes to getting messages to the intended recipients.
This is because sendmail itself sends the messages over SMTP once they have
been quickly spooled to disk.
The Sendmail Transport has the potential to be just as smart of the SMTP
Transport when it comes to notifying Swift Mailer about which recipients were
rejected, but in reality the majority of locally installed ``sendmail``
instances are not configured well enough to provide any useful feedback. As such
Swift Mailer may report successful deliveries where they did in fact fail before
they even left your server.
You can run the Sendmail Transport in two different modes specified by command
line flags:
* "``-bs``" runs in SMTP mode so theoretically it will act like the SMTP
Transport
* "``-t``" runs in piped mode with no feedback, but theoretically faster,
though not advised
You can think of the Sendmail Transport as a sort of asynchronous SMTP Transport
-- though if you have problems with delivery failures you should try using the
SMTP Transport instead. Swift Mailer isn't doing the work here, it's simply
passing the work to somebody else (i.e. ``sendmail``).
Using the Sendmail Transport
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
To use the Sendmail Transport you simply need to call
``Swift_SendmailTransport::newInstance()`` with the command as a parameter.
To use the Sendmail Transport you need to know where ``sendmail`` or another MTA
exists on the server. Swift Mailer uses a default value of
``/usr/sbin/sendmail``, which should work on most systems.
You specify the entire command as a parameter (i.e. including the command line
flags). Swift Mailer supports operational modes of "``-bs``" (default) and
"``-t``".
.. note::
If you run sendmail in "``-t``" mode you will get no feedback as to whether
or not sending has succeeded. Use "``-bs``" unless you have a reason not to.
To use the Sendmail Transport:
* Call ``Swift_SendmailTransport::newInstance()`` with the command, including
the correct command line flags. The default is to use ``/usr/sbin/sendmail
-bs`` if this is not specified.
* Use the returned object to create the Mailer.
A sendmail process will be started upon the first call to ``send()``. If the
process cannot be started successfully an Exception of type
``Swift_TransportException`` will be thrown.
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport
$transport = Swift_SendmailTransport::newInstance('/usr/sbin/exim -bs');
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
The Mail Transport
..................
The Mail Transport sends messages by delegating to PHP's internal
``mail()`` function.
In my experience -- and others' -- the ``mail()`` function is not particularly
predictable, or helpful.
Quite notably, the ``mail()`` function behaves entirely differently between
Linux and Windows servers. On linux it uses ``sendmail``, but on Windows it uses
SMTP.
In order for the ``mail()`` function to even work at all ``php.ini`` needs to be
configured correctly, specifying the location of sendmail or of an SMTP server.
The problem with ``mail()`` is that it "tries" to simplify things to the point
that it actually makes things more complex due to poor interface design. The
developers of Swift Mailer have gone to a lot of effort to make the Mail
Transport work with a reasonable degree of consistency.
Serious drawbacks when using this Transport are:
* Unpredictable message headers
* Lack of feedback regarding delivery failures
* Lack of support for several plugins that require real-time delivery feedback
It's a last resort, and we say that with a passion!
Available Methods for Sending Messages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mailer class offers two methods for sending Messages -- ``send()``.
Each behaves in a slightly different way.
When a message is sent in Swift Mailer, the Mailer class communicates with
whichever Transport class you have chosen to use.
Each recipient in the message should either be accepted or rejected by the
Transport. For example, if the domain name on the email address is not
reachable the SMTP Transport may reject the address because it cannot process
it. Whichever method you use -- ``send()`` -- Swift Mailer will return
an integer indicating the number of accepted recipients.
.. note::
It's possible to find out which recipients were rejected -- we'll cover that
later in this chapter.
Using the ``send()`` Method
...........................
The ``send()`` method of the ``Swift_Mailer`` class sends a message using
exactly the same logic as your Desktop mail client would use. Just pass it a
Message and get a result.
To send a Message with ``send()``:
* Create a Transport from one of the provided Transports --
``Swift_SmtpTransport``, ``Swift_SendmailTransport``,
or one of the aggregate Transports.
* Create an instance of the ``Swift_Mailer`` class, using the Transport as
it's constructor parameter.
* Create a Message.
* Send the message via the ``send()`` method on the Mailer object.
The message will be sent just like it would be sent if you used your mail
client. An integer is returned which includes the number of successful
recipients. If none of the recipients could be sent to then zero will be
returned, which equates to a boolean ``false``. If you set two
``To:`` recipients and three ``Bcc:`` recipients in the message and all of the
recipients are delivered to successfully then the value 5 will be returned.
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance('localhost', 25);
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
// Create a message
$message = Swift_Message::newInstance('Wonderful Subject')
->setFrom(array('john@doe.com' => 'John Doe'))
->setTo(array('receiver@domain.org', 'other@domain.org' => 'A name'))
->setBody('Here is the message itself')
;
// Send the message
$numSent = $mailer->send($message);
printf("Sent %d messages\n", $numSent);
/* Note that often that only the boolean equivalent of the
return value is of concern (zero indicates FALSE)
if ($mailer->send($message))
{
echo "Sent\n";
}
else
{
echo "Failed\n";
}
*/
Sending Emails in Batch
.......................
If you want to send a separate message to each recipient so that only their
own address shows up in the ``To:`` field, follow the following recipe:
* Create a Transport from one of the provided Transports --
``Swift_SmtpTransport``, ``Swift_SendmailTransport``,
or one of the aggregate Transports.
* Create an instance of the ``Swift_Mailer`` class, using the Transport as
it's constructor parameter.
* Create a Message.
* Iterate over the recipients and send message via the ``send()`` method on
the Mailer object.
Each recipient of the messages receives a different copy with only their own
email address on the ``To:`` field.
Make sure to add only valid email addresses as recipients. If you try to add an
invalid email address with ``setTo()``, ``setCc()`` or ``setBcc()``, Swift
Mailer will throw a ``Swift_RfcComplianceException``.
If you add recipients automatically based on a data source that may contain
invalid email addresses, you can prevent possible exceptions by validating the
addresses using ``Swift_Validate::email($email)`` and only adding addresses
that validate. Another way would be to wrap your ``setTo()``, ``setCc()`` and
``setBcc()`` calls in a try-catch block and handle the
``Swift_RfcComplianceException`` in the catch block.
Handling invalid addresses properly is especially important when sending emails
in large batches since a single invalid address might cause an unhandled
exception and stop the execution or your script early.
.. note::
In the following example, two emails are sent. One to each of
``receiver@domain.org`` and ``other@domain.org``. These recipients will
not be aware of each other.
.. code-block:: php
require_once 'lib/swift_required.php';
// Create the Transport
$transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance('localhost', 25);
// Create the Mailer using your created Transport
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
// Create a message
$message = Swift_Message::newInstance('Wonderful Subject')
->setFrom(array('john@doe.com' => 'John Doe'))
->setBody('Here is the message itself')
;
// Send the message
$failedRecipients = array();
$numSent = 0;
$to = array('receiver@domain.org', 'other@domain.org' => 'A name');
foreach ($to as $address => $name)
{
if (is_int($address)) {
$message->setTo($name);
} else {
$message->setTo(array($address => $name));
}
$numSent += $mailer->send($message, $failedRecipients);
}
printf("Sent %d messages\n", $numSent);
Finding out Rejected Addresses
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's possible to get a list of addresses that were rejected by the Transport
by using a by-reference parameter to ``send()``.
As Swift Mailer attempts to send the message to each address given to it, if a
recipient is rejected it will be added to the array. You can pass an existing
array, otherwise one will be created by-reference.
Collecting the list of recipients that were rejected can be useful in
circumstances where you need to "prune" a mailing list for example when some
addresses cannot be delivered to.
Getting Failures By-reference
.............................
Collecting delivery failures by-reference with the ``send()`` method is as
simple as passing a variable name to the method call.
To get failed recipients by-reference:
* Pass a by-reference variable name to the ``send()`` method of the Mailer
class.
If the Transport rejects any of the recipients, the culprit addresses will be
added to the array provided by-reference.
.. note::
If the variable name does not yet exist, it will be initialized as an
empty array and then failures will be added to that array. If the variable
already exists it will be type-cast to an array and failures will be added
to it.
.. code-block:: php
$mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance( ... );
$message = Swift_Message::newInstance( ... )
->setFrom( ... )
->setTo(array(
'receiver@bad-domain.org' => 'Receiver Name',
'other@domain.org' => 'A name',
'other-receiver@bad-domain.org' => 'Other Name'
))
->setBody( ... )
;
// Pass a variable name to the send() method
if (!$mailer->send($message, $failures))
{
echo "Failures:";
print_r($failures);
}
/*
Failures:
Array (
0 => receiver@bad-domain.org,
1 => other-receiver@bad-domain.org
)
*/
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