[FIXED] Send pdf output as stringAttachment using PHPMailer

Issue

I am trying to attach a file using the PHPMailer's addStringAttachment method.

I generated the pdf from TCPDF using:

$b64_enc_doc = $pdf->Output($file_name, 'E');

Then inside of the script to send the email, I have

...
$mail->addStringAttachment($b64_enc_doc, $file_name)

However, the PDF attachment is corrupted when I try opening it.

I tried debugging the output of the PDF generated from TCPDF and it looks something similar to this:

Content-Type: application/pdf;
 name="file.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename="file.pdf"

JVBERi0xLjcKJeLjz9MKMjEgMCBvYmoKPDwgL1R5cGUgL1BhZ2UgL1BhcmVudCAxIDAgUiAvTGFz
dE1vZGlmaWVkIChEOjIwMjIwMTA0MTMwODQ2KzAwJzAwJykgL1Jlc291cmNlcyAyIDAgUiAvTWVk
aWFCb3ggWzAuMDAwMDAwIDAuMDAwMDAwIDU5NS4yNzYwMDAgODQxLjg5MDAwMF0gL0Nyb3BCb3gg
WzAuMDAwMDAwIDAuMDAwMDAwIDU5NS4yNzYwMDAgODQxLjg5MDAwMF0gL0JsZWVkQm94IFswLjAw
MDAwMCAwLjAwMDAwMCA1OTUuMjc2MDAwIDg0MS44OTAwMDBdIC9UcmltQm94IFswLjAwMDAwMCAw
LjAwMDAwMCA1OTUuMjc2MDAwIDg0MS44OTAwMDBdIC9BcnRCb3ggWzAuMDAwMDAwIDAuMDAwMDAw
IDU5NS4yNzYwMDAgODQxL...

Please I do not want to save the file to the server but send the file straight to the user's email. Please help. Thanks!

Solution

You don't show the code you're using, but that string is a fragment of an email message, not a PDF binary PDF string as it should be.

Your code should be along the lines of (I don't remember tcpdf's syntax offhand):

//Render the PDF to a string in memory
$pdf = $tcpdf->output('S');
$mail->addStringAttachment($pdf, 'file.pdf');

PHPMailer will take care of the rest.

Answered By - Synchro