Cal Evans has written up an article for php|architect's ART (article repository) covering "Zen(d) and the Art of Email", a look at the use of the Zend_Mail package from the Zend Framwork.

Since the beginning of Internet time man has strived for the best way to send emails from a program. Whether a web page that notifies its owner when an order is placed to merchants sending a welcomed message to its closest 250,000 customers; man continues to strive for the best way to communicate without having to be personal. With the advent of the Zend Framework, we have another weapon in the arsenal, Zend_Mail.

He talks briefly about advantages that the Zend_Mail package has over the traditional mail() and starts off with some sample code to illustrate it's abilities right off. The rest of the tutorial is used to explain this example, breaking it down chunk by chunk - all the way down to sending the closing statements to the remote mail server.

Cal Evans has written up an article for php|architect's ART (article repository) covering "Zen(d) and the Art of Email", a look at the use of the Zend_Mail package from the Zend Framwork.

Since the beginning of Internet time man has strived for the best way to send emails from a program. Whether a web page that notifies its owner when an order is placed to merchants sending a welcomed message to its closest 250,000 customers; man continues to strive for the best way to communicate without having to be personal. With the advent of the Zend Framework, we have another weapon in the arsenal, Zend_Mail.

He talks briefly about advantages that the Zend_Mail package has over the traditional mail() and starts off with some sample code to illustrate it's abilities right off. The rest of the tutorial is used to explain this example, breaking it down chunk by chunk - all the way down to sending the closing statements to the remote mail server.

Sending mail with PHP is a pretty simple process - well, sending simple mail is. What happens when you want to get a bit more complicated with things, like sending attachments or differenly encoded content inside your emails? There are many ways to integrate these kinds of things into your system, but this new post from the Zend Developer Zone suggests a few of the easiest.

Everybody needs to send mail from their application at one point or another. It's like using a database or a sledge-hammer, sooner or later, you are going to want to do it. But what's the best tool? Yesterday I got an email from a friend of mine asking me this question. Since I respect him and his team and they didn't know the answer, I figure there might be others out there who struggle with this. (It will come as no surprise to those of you who read this site regularly that this is not a comprehensive list but more of a primer to get you going. Comprehensive lists are just too hard.)

The software packages/functions that he mentions are:

• PHP's own mail function
• PEAR_Mail
• Zend_Mail from their Framework
• PHPMailer

For each, he offers a brief description, some of the features that it offers, and the "feeling" he gets from the pakcage (i.e. "Pear_Mail is like a compact car, it gets the job done with little or no frills").

Sending mail with PHP is a pretty simple process - well, sending simple mail is. What happens when you want to get a bit more complicated with things, like sending attachments or differenly encoded content inside your emails? There are many ways to integrate these kinds of things into your system, but this new post from the Zend Developer Zone suggests a few of the easiest.

Everybody needs to send mail from their application at one point or another. It's like using a database or a sledge-hammer, sooner or later, you are going to want to do it. But what's the best tool? Yesterday I got an email from a friend of mine asking me this question. Since I respect him and his team and they didn't know the answer, I figure there might be others out there who struggle with this. (It will come as no surprise to those of you who read this site regularly that this is not a comprehensive list but more of a primer to get you going. Comprehensive lists are just too hard.)

The software packages/functions that he mentions are:

• PHP's own mail function
• PEAR_Mail
• Zend_Mail from their Framework
• PHPMailer

For each, he offers a brief description, some of the features that it offers, and the "feeling" he gets from the pakcage (i.e. "Pear_Mail is like a compact car, it gets the job done with little or no frills").