What are the advantages of using a Mailer class like PHPMailer over the basic mail() function?
When sending emails in PHP, using a Mailer class like PHPMailer offers several advantages over the basic mail() function. PHPMailer provides a more robust and secure way to send emails, with features such as SMTP authentication, HTML email support, file attachments, and error handling. It also simplifies the process of sending emails by encapsulating all the necessary email functionality into a single class.
// Include the PHPMailer Autoload file
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
// Create a new PHPMailer instance
$mail = new PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer();
// Set up the SMTP settings
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = 'smtp.example.com';
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = 'your@example.com';
$mail->Password = 'yourpassword';
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
$mail->Port = 587;
// Set the email content
$mail->setFrom('from@example.com', 'Your Name');
$mail->addAddress('recipient@example.com', 'Recipient Name');
$mail->Subject = 'Subject of the Email';
$mail->Body = 'This is the body of the email';
// Send the email
if ($mail->send()) {
echo 'Email sent successfully';
} else {
echo 'Error sending email: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}