SMTP error when using $_ENV for credentials in PHPMailer - smtp

Question

When using hard-coded username / email / password I have no problem getting a message sent with phpmailer. But when I use $_ENV to hide the credentials I get the smtp error as shown here:
2020-09-08 15:50:51 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 dd45234.kasserver.com ESMTP
2020-09-08 15:50:51 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO browsegenres-f3.loc
2020-09-08 15:50:51 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-dd45234.kasserver.com250-PIPELINING250-SIZE 102400000250-VRFY250-ETRN250-STARTTLS250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN250-AUTH=PLAIN LOGIN250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-8BITMIME250 DSN
2020-09-08 15:50:51 CLIENT -> SERVER: STARTTLS
2020-09-08 15:50:51 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 2.0.0 Ready to start TLS
2020-09-08 15:50:51 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.loc
2020-09-08 15:50:51 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-xxxxxxxx.[SERVER].com250-PIPELINING250-SIZE 102400000250-VRFY250-ETRN250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN250-AUTH=PLAIN LOGIN250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-8BITMIME250 DSN
2020-09-08 15:50:51 CLIENT -> SERVER: AUTH LOGIN
2020-09-08 15:50:51 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
2020-09-08 15:50:51 CLIENT -> SERVER: [credentials hidden]
2020-09-08 15:50:53 SERVER -> CLIENT: 535 5.7.8 Error: authentication failed: VXNlcm5hbWU6
2020-09-08 15:50:53 SMTP ERROR: Username command failed: 535 5.7.8 Error: authentication failed: VXNlcm5hbWU6
SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.
2020-09-08 15:50:53 CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT
2020-09-08 15:50:53 SERVER -> CLIENT: 221 2.0.0 Bye
SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.
Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.
I don't wan to hardcode the credentials. Any idea how to get rid of this error?
Here's the code:
// initiate phpMailer
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
// see config file
$mailSenderName = $_ENV['MAILER_CONTACT_USERNAME'];
$masterPassword = $_ENV['MAILER_CONTACT_PASSWORD'];
$masterEmail = $_ENV['MAILER_CONTACT_EMAIL'];
$recipient = $_ENV['MAILER_CONTACT_RECIPIENT'];
try {
//Server settings
$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_SERVER;
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = 'xxxxxxx.[SERVER].com';
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = $masterEmail;
$mail->Password = $masterPassword;
$mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS;
$mail->Port = 25;
//Recipients
$mail->setFrom('aaa#bbbbbbbbbbb.com', 'aabbcc');
$mail->addAddress('mmmmmmmmm#bbbbbbbbbbb.com');
// Content
$mail->isHTML(true);
$mail->Subject = 'Message Received (Contact Page)';
$emailbody =
'There is a new message from: <br>' .
'==================================== <br>' .
$senderName . '<br>' .
$senderEmail . '<br' .
'====================================' .
$message . '<br>' .
'====================================';
$mail->Body = $emailbody;
$mail->send();
// success, show thank you
$f3->reroute('/contact/thankyou'); //todo
} catch (\Exception $e) {
echo "Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: {$mail->ErrorInfo}";
}
Thanks!

Answer 1

Debug one thing at a time. There's no point in looking at error in your email when you know you know you have a problem before it ever gets that far. PHPMailer uses whatever you give it, so you need to be sure you're giving it the right thing.
You could reduce the code to debug in this case by cutting it back to:
var_dump($_ENV);
Once you know that you're setting the contents of $_ENV correctly (whether from real env vars, from a dotenv script, your php.ini config, etc), you can then start using the values in your email code.

Answer 2

After installing dotenv (vlucas) I simply didn't include it correctly in my ContactController. So that's why var_dump($_ENV) always resulted in NULL. I compared my settings with the other route, NewsletterController. The difference is that in this route I query the database and in the models constructor (where the db connection is set) I 'use' the dotenv class correctly, and that's why the $_ENV is filled with data. I simply didn't see it.
So, in ContactController I set:
use \Dotenv;
and after initialising phpmailer I added:
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
$dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']);
$dotenv->load();
Difference to Models class (database connection):
namespace Models;
use \Dotenv;
abstract class Model
{
protected $db;
public function __construct()
{
$dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']);
$dotenv->load();
$this->db = new \DB\SQL(
'mysql:host='. $_ENV['DB_HOST'] .';port='.$_ENV['DB_PORT'].';dbname='.$_ENV['DB_NAME'],
$_ENV['DB_USERNAME'],
$_ENV['DB_PASSWORD']
);
}
}