In needing to test some mailing functionality in his application Adrian Schneider has come across two ways to handle it on a machine that may not have mail up and configured correctly - mail a mail transport class or sent up a pseudo mail server.

I think a staging environment is more appropriate to actually have email being sent out. Nevertheless, it has made testing any email functionality a little cumbersome. I've done a little research, and have found two ways to tackle the problem. I've also included code samples and other resources to get you started.

The first method - the transport class - uses the Zend_Mail_Transport component (and interfaces) to set the transport for the application and handle the routing from an extension of the Abstract class. The second method involves changes to system settings in the php.ini and adding in a simple script to force a forward to the right address. Windows users can also use fakemail to accomplish a similar thing.

On the ElectricToolBox.com blog there's a quick post looking at method chaining in a Zend Framework application:

Having used the Zend Framework on a couple of projects and spent a lot of time reading the documentation I discovered the use of method chaining. This post looks at how to use method chaining in PHP.

His examples include a comparison between a method-chained Zend_Mail example and a non-chained method with each line augmenting the same object over and over. He also includes the simple-as-pie method that lets you use chaining in your own applications - returning the object itself.

On the Developer.com website today, Jason Gilmore has a new tutorial covering a important feature of any based PHP install (unless disabled, of course) that is widely taken advantage of - sending emails.

Email plays a crucial role in website development, whether you'd like to confirm a new registrant's email address, recover a lost password, or provide prospective clients with a convenient means to contact you. [...] In this tutorial, I'll introduce you to several solutions for sending email using PHP, including PHP's native mail() function, PEAR's Mail package, and the Zend Framework.

He starts with some of the fundamentals of mail - the difference between POP3 and SMTP, Sendmail, etc - before moving on to an example of the mail function's usage. He does the same with the PEAR Mail package and the Zend_Mail component of the Zend Framework.

On the Techfounder blog (from Eran Galperin) there's a quick tutorial about using the Zend_Mail component of the Zend Framework to send both normal, plain-text emails and ones with MIME attachments.

Using PHP's built in function (aptly named mail() ) is relatively straightforward - until you need slightly more advanced features, such as adding and encoding email headers or sending multiple mails efficiently. Fortunately, the Zend Framework comes with a very capable mail component called Zend_Mail.

He shows how to send a simple email, do something a bit more complex with a custom SMTP server, read messages from a remote POP3 email box and how to attach a binary file/message.

On the PHP::Impact blog, there's a new post talking about his conversion from Swift Mailer over to the Zend_Mail component of the Zend Framework.

I've recently switched from Swift Mailer to Zend_Mail and, to be honest, I'm loving it. Finally someone developed a lightweight, powerful and easy to use Mail component!

He includes an example or two showing a basic mailer script, one that uses a fluent interface, one sending an HTML email and two that show how to use a remote SMTP server.