fSMTP

The fSMTP class allows for sending emails with fEmail via an SMTP server. It supports multiple authentication methods, secure connections (including via STARTTLS) and increased sending performance via SMTP pipelining.

Instantiation

Creating an SMTP connection can be as simple as passing the IP address or hostname of the $server.

$smtp = new fSMTP('example.com');

In addition to the $server, it is also possible to specify the $port, if the connection is $secure and the $timeout.

// This sets up fSMTP to connect to the gmail SMTP server
// with a 5 second timeout. Gmail requires a secure connection.
$smtp = new fSMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 465, TRUE, 5);

Secure connections require the openssl extension. If a secure connection is not requested, but the SMTP server provides STARTTLS functionality, fSMTP will automatically upgrade the connection to be secure.

Authentication

fSMTP also supports SMTP authentication. Simple pass a $username and $password to authenticate(). This should be called before trying to send any emails.

$smtp->authenticate('username', 'password');

Behind the scenes, there are four authentication methods supported: digest-md5, cram-md5, plain and login. The more secure digest-md5 and cram-md5 methods will be used if possible since they do not send login credentials in the clear.

Sending Messages

Sending messages via fEmail and fSMTP is extremely simple, just pass the fSMTP object to fEmail::send():

$email->send($smtp);

Closing the Connection

The connection to the SMTP server will be automatically closed at the end of the script. If there is a need to close it before then, simply call close().

$smtp->close();