run a script based on incoming email

[cgcullen]

I'm trying to kick off a php script when an email is sent to one of my email addresses. I read in an earlier script that I can set up an email alias and pipe it to a php script.

I need to know what path I should use in my forward to my php script. If I put my php script in the public_html folder, should I forward an email to this path?

testing@mydomain.com forward to |/home/user/public_html/script.php


Can anyone help please?

Thanks!

Cindy

[sdjl]

I think the syntax is:

php /home/user/public_html/script.php

You may want to double check that though.

I have in the past had issues when adding a pipe to a forwarder address as cPanel removes spaces when adding it. You may have to get support to add the correct pipe for you.

I would maybe look at setting up a POP3 box and then using a cronjob every 30minutes or so to use sockets or the other mail functions to check the inbox and do something dependant on an email being there or not.

David

[Amitabh]

I am not sure, but sockets are not allowed on Dathorn servers...?

[Dan]

I have a client using some software that required a pipe to be setup in a forwarder to run a cgi script. It required that the pipe be enclosed in quotes:

"|/home/user/public_html/cgi-bin/file.cgi"

I do not know if php can be run the same way though...

Hope that helps

Dan

[cgcullen]

update

Ok, it's sorta working...

I have it in my cpanel forwarder as:

testing@mydomain.com -> |/home/user/public_html/test.php

(no quotes)

It's kicking off my php file which just does a mail(); to my email address to let me know it worked.

But, I'm also getting a bounce message as well which says:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

pipe to |/home/user/public_html/test.php
generated by testing@mydomain.com

The following text was generated during the delivery attempt:

------ pipe to |/home/user/public_html/test.php
generated by testing@mydomain.com ------

Any ideas on how to get rid of the bounced message?

UPDATE again:

If I use quotes around the pipe, I don't get any email - but it doesn't bounce either. It just disappears! Any ideas?

Thanks,
Cindy

[sdjl]

Could try:

testing@mydomain.com -> |/home/user/public_html/test.php > /dev/null

David

[cgcullen]

I'm still getting a bounced email.

Any other ideas?

Cindy

[Buddha]

You are accepting the input from the pipe?

    $stdin = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
    while (!feof($stdin)) {
        $buffer = fgets($stdin, 4096);
        $message[] .= $buffer;
    }

.... right?

[cgcullen]

This is what I have:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
// read from stdin
$fd = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
$email = "";
while (!feof($fd)) {
$email .= fread($fd, 1024);
}
fclose($fd);

// handle email
$lines = explode("\n", $email);

// empty vars
$from = "";
$subject = "";
$headers = "";
$message = "";
$splittingheaders = true;

for ($i=0; $i<count($lines); $i++) {
if ($splittingheaders) {
// this is a header
$headers .= $lines[$i]."\n";

// look out for special headers
if (preg_match("/^Subject: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
$subject = $matches[1];
}
if (preg_match("/^From: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
$from = $matches[1];
}
} else {
// not a header, but message
$message .= $lines[$i]."\n";
}

if (trim($lines[$i])=="") {
// empty line, header section has ended
$splittingheaders = false;
}
}

mail('me@mydomain.com', $subject, $message, "From: admin@mydomain.com");

?>

Instead of using the cpanel forward, I tried the cpanel email filtering instead. I don't get the bounced email, but the script doesn't seem to get executed either. It just disappears.

I'll keep playing around with it...

Thanks,
Cindy

[Buddha]

Exim could be configured to return any standard output as a delivery error. Could also be config'ed to send a delivery error on failure too.

My first instinct is stray whitespace, got any outside the php tags?

Beyond that just guessing:

1. It's the shebang on the first line getting outputted. Does it work without it?

2. The shebang needs a flag: #!/usr/bin/php -f
Could use -q too.

3. Any php errors in your error log? Doubt this didn't get any myself.

Really reaching here ... best I come up with.

[cgcullen]

Thank YOU!!

It worked! I tried taking the shebang out - still the same thing.

But, I added the -q and it seems to be working great!

Thank you VERY much!!

Cindy

[sdjl]

So just for anyone who happens to stumble across this post in the future, what setup do you now have?
How is the forwarder setup and what's the syntax of your script to get things working?

Thank you!

David

[Buddha]

It worked! I tried taking the shebang out - still the same thing.

But, I added the -q and it seems to be working great!

Thank you VERY much!!

Cindy

I agree with sdjl a summary would be nice.

[sdjl]

I don't think we're going to get a review

[cgcullen]

Summary

Sorry guys - been away from my desk. Here's what I did:

In Cpanel, I went to the forwarders (it also works to go in E-mail filtering) and entered this forwarder (or filter):

myemail@mydomain.com -> |/home/user/public_html/test.php

I tried it with an email account set up for myemail@mydomain.com and without and so far, it's working great either way.

test.php looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/php -f
<?php
// read from stdin
$fd = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
$email = "";
while (!feof($fd)) {
    $email .= fread($fd, 1024);
}
fclose($fd);

// handle email
$lines = explode("\n", $email);

// empty vars
$from = "";
$subject = "";
$headers = "";
$message = "";
$splittingheaders = true;

for ($i=0; $i<count($lines); $i++) {
    if ($splittingheaders) {
        // this is a header
        $headers .= $lines[$i]."\n";

        // look out for special headers
        if (preg_match("/^Subject: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
            $subject = $matches[1];
        }
        if (preg_match("/^From: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
            $from = $matches[1];
        }
    } else {
        // not a header, but message
        $message .= $lines[$i]."\n";
    }

    if (trim($lines[$i])=="") {
        // empty line, header section has ended
        $splittingheaders = false;
    }
}
mail('me@mydomain.com', $subject, $message, "From: admin@mydomain.com");
return NULL;
?>

I got most of this script from this article:

http://www.evolt.org/article/comment/18/27914/

I also had to make sure that all stray spaces & hidden characters were out of the code that I downloaded from the article.

I hope that helps!

Cindy