What are some best practices for handling email functionality in PHP to avoid authentication errors like the one mentioned in the thread?

Issue: The authentication error mentioned in the thread could be due to incorrect SMTP settings, such as invalid credentials or improper authentication methods. To avoid such errors, ensure that the SMTP settings in your PHP code are accurate and match those provided by your email service provider.

// Set SMTP settings
$smtpHost = 'smtp.example.com';
$smtpUsername = 'your_email@example.com';
$smtpPassword = 'your_password';
$smtpPort = 587;

// Create a new PHPMailer instance
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

// Enable SMTP
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = $smtpHost;
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = $smtpUsername;
$mail->Password = $smtpPassword;
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
$mail->Port = $smtpPort;

// Additional email settings
$mail->setFrom('your_email@example.com', 'Your Name');
$mail->addAddress('recipient@example.com', 'Recipient Name');
$mail->isHTML(true);
$mail->Subject = 'Subject of the email';
$mail->Body = 'Body of the email';

// Send the email
if(!$mail->send()) {
    echo 'Message could not be sent.';
    echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
} else {
    echo 'Message has been sent';
}