PHPMailer

Blue arrows can be implemented using SMTP variations.

PHPMailer is a code library to send(transport) emails safely (not html purification ) and easily via php codes from a webserver(MUA(here is the webserver of PHP which is a client for the MSA mail server)) to the MSA(mail submission agent) server. Sending emails directly by php codes requires a high-level familiarity to SMTP standard protocol ( rfc821 ,rfc2821 and rfc5321) and related issues(such as Carriage return) and vulnerabilities about Email injection for spamming. As of 2001 up to now 2013 PHPMailer is one of the popular solutions for these matters on php.

Specifications

• plain text, HTML and multipart batched files
• ssl, tls
• SMTP, Qmail, POP3
• Debugging system
• php send_mail and mail methods

(This list of specifications is not complete)

Popularity

http://phpmailer.worxware.com claims in this Freezed update : "PHPMailer continues to be the world's most popular transport class, with an estimated 9 million users worldwide. Downloads continue at a significant pace daily."(A user means a php code(MUA user)).
PHPMailer sends an identical SMTP extension command with the sent emails as below which can be used to get the usage report of PHPMailer on the ESPs(Email Service Providers):
X-Mailer: PHPMailer 5.2.2 (http://code.google.com/a/apache-extras.org/p/phpmailer/)
This SMTP header may differs for different versions of PHPMailer.
PHPMailer has been used for the learning cycle of PHP on codecademy

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My personal viewpoint based on presented refrences about the popularity(This viewpoint may be not true) : However web developers know PHPMailer as a classic(and alive) phpmail class but because it has many different official web locations on github(2 cases) , sourceforge , google codes and worxware so reasonably some one out the web development industry or a beginner to web development may consider PHPMailer as a non-official weak code library.

Authors

Based on : Author list for version 5.2.2 (2012)
Andy Prevost (codeworxtech - worxware)
Marcus Bointon (coolbru)
Jim Jagielski (jimjag)
Founder: Brent R. Matzelle (original founder)
2010-2012, Jim Jagielski.
2004-2009, Andy Prevost.
2001-2003, Brent R. Matzelle

History

Based on : https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer#history :

• PHPMailer was originally written in 2001 by Brent R. Matzelle as a SourceForge project.
• Marcus Bointon (coolbru on sourceforge) and Andy Prevost (codeworxtech) took over the project in 2004.
• Became an Apache incubator project on Google Code in 2010, managed by Jim Jagielski.
• Marcus created his fork on GitHub.
• Jim and Marcus decide to join forces and use GitHub as the canonical and official repo for PHPMailer.
• PHPMailer moves to the PHPMailer organisation on GitHub.

License

Distributed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Distributed to be useful WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY

Andy Prevost suffers from diabetes

On Dec 2013 in an update worxware(Freezed) publicly announced Andy(PHPMailer contributer for 5 years) is suffering advanced diabetes and has to inject insulin up to 6 times daily : "We need to find ways to help Andy Prevost. He is now 100% dependent on basal and bolus insulin injections. He has to inject up to six times daily. This has helped stabilize his blood sugar levels." Within the freezed update , this Donate page has been introduced to help his family.

References

• http://phpmailer.worxware.com/
• https://github.com/Synchro/PHPMailer
• PHPMailer on GitHub