Mail Mime Laravel Package

Getting Started

Install via Composer: composer require pear/mail_mime. This is a legacy PEAR package, so verify your environment supports it (PHP 5.x–7.4; not compatible with PHP 8+ in most cases). Begin by instantiating Mail_Mime, then set text/HTML bodies and add attachments:

use Mail_Mime;

$message = new Mail_Mime("\n");
$message->setTXTBody('Plain text version');
$message->setHTMLBody('<p>HTML <strong>version</strong></p>');
$message->addAttachment('report.pdf', 'application/pdf', 'Monthly Report');

$body = $message->get();
$headers = $message->getHeaders([
    'From'    => 'sender@example.com',
    'To'      => 'recipient@example.com',
    'Subject' => 'Your Report',
]);

Send using PEAR::Mail (Mail::factory('smtp')), or wrap $body + $headers into Symfony Mailer or PHPMailer if needed. Start with the examples/ directory in the package source — it’s more reliable than sparse online docs.

Implementation Patterns

• Dual-format emails: Always pair setTXTBody() and setHTMLBody() for accessibility and spam score — Mail_Mime auto-generates multipart/alternative boundaries correctly.
• Inline images in HTML: Use addHTMLImage($path, $mimetype, $cid) and reference <img src="cid:$cid"> in HTML body. Critical: CID must match exactly — no extra quotes or casing differences.
• Large file streaming: Prefer addFile($filepath, $mimetype, $filename) over addAttachment($content, ...) to avoid memory exhaustion on big attachments.
• Custom headers: Pass extra headers (e.g., Reply-To, List-Unsubscribe) as key-value to getHeaders(). Important: Manually encode non-ASCII header values using mb_encode_mimeheader() first.
• Bridge to modern mailers: Use Mail_Mime only for composition, then inject $body and $headers into Symfony’s RawMessage or PHPMailer for sending — avoids tight coupling to deprecated transports.

Gotchas and Tips

• Line endings matter: Default \n is safe for mail() and most PHP mail functions, but SMTP requires \r\n — use Mail_Mime::CRLF only when sending via Net_SMTP or configured PEAR::Mail SMTP transport.
• No auto header encoding: Subject, From, To headers must be manually encoded (e.g., mb_encode_mimeheader($subject, 'UTF-8', 'B')) — unencoded non-ASCII chars break delivery.
• MIME boundaries are opaque: You can’t manually tweak boundaries. Avoid inspecting $body to debug — it’s opaque and fragile.
• Deprecated PEAR dependencies: Requires Mail, Net_SMTP, PEAR core — ensure no conflicts with Composer-installed packages (e.g., php-pear/pear-core-minimal may be needed).
• Debug mode: Enable with Mail_Mime::setDebug(true) or override Mail_Mime::setDebugCallback() to capture verbose logging for troubleshooting misrendered emails.
• PHP 8+ failure mode: This package is unmaintained since ~2015. On PHP 8+, expect fatal errors due to type hints, removed globals ($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA), and PEAR autoloader incompatibility — avoid in new environments.