Email Class

CodeIgniter’s robust Email Class supports the following features:

Multiple Protocols: Mail, Sendmail, and SMTP
TLS and SSL Encryption for SMTP
Multiple recipients
CC and BCCs
HTML or Plaintext email
Attachments
Word wrapping
Priorities
BCC Batch Mode, enabling large email lists to be broken into small BCC batches.
Email Debugging tools

Using the Email Library
Class Reference

Using the Email Library 

Sending Email 

Sending email is not only simple, but you can configure it on the fly or set your preferences in the app/Config/Email.php file.

Here is a basic example demonstrating how you might send email:

<?php

$email = \Config\Services::email();

$email->setFrom('[email protected]', 'Your Name');
$email->setTo('[email protected]');
$email->setCC('[email protected]');
$email->setBCC('[email protected]');

$email->setSubject('Email Test');
$email->setMessage('Testing the email class.');

$email->send();

There are 21 different preferences available to tailor how your email messages are sent. You can either set them manually as described here, or automatically via preferences stored in your config file, described below:

Setting Email Preferences by Passing an Array 

Preferences are set by passing an array of preference values to the email initialize method. Here is an example of how you might set some preferences:

<?php

$config['protocol'] = 'sendmail';
$config['mailPath'] = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
$config['charset']  = 'iso-8859-1';
$config['wordWrap'] = true;

$email->initialize($config);

Note

Most of the preferences have default values that will be used if you do not set them.

Setting Email Preferences in a Config File 

If you prefer not to set preferences using the above method, you can instead put them into the config file. Simply open the app/Config/Email.php file, and set your configs in the Email properties. Then save the file and it will be used automatically. You will NOT need to use the $email->initialize() method if you set your preferences in the config file.

SSL versus TLS for SMTP Protocol 

To protect the username, password and email content while communicating with the SMTP server, encryption on the channel should be used. Two different standards are widely deployed and it is important to understand the differences when trying to troubleshoot email sending issues.

Most SMTP servers allow connections on ports 465 or 587 when submitting emails. (The original port 25 is seldom used because of many ISPs have blocking rules in place and since the communication is entirely in clear-text).

The key difference is that port 465 expects the communication channel to be secured using TLS from the start as per RFC 8314. A connection to port 587 allows clear-text connection and later will upgrade the channel to use encryption using the STARTTLS SMTP command.

Upgrading a connection on port 465 may or may not be supported by the server, so the STARTTLS SMTP command may fail if the server does not allow it. If you set the port to 465, you should try to set the SMTPCrypto to an empty string ('') since the communication is secured using TLS from the start and the STARTTLS is not needed.

If your configuration requires you to connect to port 587, you should most likely set SMTPCrypto to tls as this will implement the STARTTLS command while communicating with the SMTP server to switch from clear-text to an encrypted channel. The initial communication will be made in clear-text and the channel will be upgraded to TLS with the STARTTLS command.

Reviewing Preferences 

The settings used for the last successful send are available from the instance property $archive. This is helpful for testing and debugging to determine that actual values at the time of the send() call.

Email Preferences 

The following is a list of all the preferences that can be set when sending email.

Preference	Default Value	Options	Description
userAgent	CodeIgniter	None	The “user agent”.
protocol	mail	mail, sendmail, or smtp	The mail sending protocol.
mailPath	/usr/sbin/sendmail	None	The server path to Sendmail.
SMTPHost	No Default	None	SMTP Server Address.
SMTPUser	No Default	None	SMTP Username.
SMTPPass	No Default	None	SMTP Password.
SMTPPort	25	None	SMTP Port. (If set to `465`, TLS will be used for the connection regardless of `SMTPCrypto` setting.)
SMTPTimeout	5	None	SMTP Timeout (in seconds).
SMTPKeepAlive	false	true or false (boolean)	Enable persistent SMTP connections.
SMTPCrypto	tls	tls, ssl, or empty string	SMTP Encryption. Setting this to `ssl` will create a secure channel to the server using SSL, and `tls` will issue a `STARTTLS` command to the server. Connection on port 465 should set this to an empty string (`''`). See also SSL versus TLS for SMTP Protocol.
wordWrap	true	true or false (boolean)	Enable word-wrap.
wrapChars	76		Character count to wrap at.
mailType	text	text or html	Type of mail. If you send HTML email you must send it as a complete web page. Make sure you don’t have any relative links or relative image paths otherwise they will not work.
charset	utf-8		Character set (utf-8, iso-8859-1, etc.).
validate	true	true or false (boolean)	Whether to validate the email address.
priority	3	1, 2, 3, 4, 5	Email Priority. 1 = highest. 5 = lowest. 3 = normal.
CRLF	\n	“\r\n” or “\n” or “\r”	Newline character. (Use “\r\n” to comply with RFC 822).
newline	\n	“\r\n” or “\n” or “\r”	Newline character. (Use “\r\n” to comply with RFC 822).
BCCBatchMode	false	true or false (boolean)	Enable BCC Batch Mode.
BCCBatchSize	200	None	Number of emails in each BCC batch.
DSN	false	true or false (boolean)	Enable notify message from server

Overriding Word Wrapping 

If you have word wrapping enabled (recommended to comply with RFC 822) and you have a very long link in your email it can get wrapped too, causing it to become un-clickable by the person receiving it. CodeIgniter lets you manually override word wrapping within part of your message like this:

The text of your email that
gets wrapped normally.

{unwrap}http://example.com/a_long_link_that_should_not_be_wrapped.html{/unwrap}

More text that will be
wrapped normally.

Place the item you do not want word-wrapped between: {unwrap} {/unwrap}

Class Reference 

class CodeIgniter\Email\Email

setFrom($from[, $name = ''[, $returnPath = null]])

Parameters

$from (string) – “From” e-mail address
$name (string) – “From” display name
$returnPath (string) – Optional email address to redirect undelivered e-mail to

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the email address and name of the person sending the email:

<?php

$email->setFrom('[email protected]', 'Your Name');

You can also set a Return-Path, to help redirect undelivered mail:

<?php

$email->setFrom('[email protected]', 'Your Name', '[email protected]');

Note

Return-Path can’t be used if you’ve configured ‘smtp’ as your protocol.

setReplyTo($replyto[, $name = ''])

Parameters

$replyto (string) – E-mail address for replies
$name (string) – Display name for the reply-to e-mail address

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the reply-to address. If the information is not provided the information in the setFrom method is used. Example:

<?php

$email->setReplyTo('[email protected]', 'Your Name');

setTo($to)

Parameters

$to (mixed) – Comma-delimited string or an array of e-mail addresses

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the email address(s) of the recipient(s). Can be a single e-mail, a comma-delimited list or an array:

<?php

$email->setTo('[email protected]');

<?php

$email->setTo('[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]');

<?php

$email->setTo(['[email protected]', '[email protected]', '[email protected]']);

setCC($cc)

Parameters

$cc (mixed) – Comma-delimited string or an array of e-mail addresses

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the CC email address(s). Just like the “to”, can be a single e-mail, a comma-delimited list or an array.

setBCC($bcc[, $limit = ''])

Parameters

$bcc (mixed) – Comma-delimited string or an array of e-mail addresses
$limit (int) – Maximum number of e-mails to send per batch

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the BCC email address(s). Just like the setTo() method, can be a single e-mail, a comma-delimited list or an array.

If $limit is set, “batch mode” will be enabled, which will send the emails to batches, with each batch not exceeding the specified $limit.

setSubject($subject)

Parameters

$subject (string) – E-mail subject line

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the email subject:

<?php

$email->setSubject('This is my subject');

setMessage($body)

Parameters

$body (string) – E-mail message body

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the e-mail message body:

<?php

$email->setMessage('This is my message');

setAltMessage($str)

Parameters

$str (string) – Alternative e-mail message body

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Sets the alternative e-mail message body:

<?php

$email->setAltMessage('This is the alternative message');

This is an optional message string which can be used if you send HTML formatted email. It lets you specify an alternative message with no HTML formatting which is added to the header string for people who do not accept HTML email. If you do not set your own message CodeIgniter will extract the message from your HTML email and strip the tags.

setHeader($header, $value)

Parameters

$header (string) – Header name
$value (string) – Header value

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Appends additional headers to the e-mail:

<?php

$email->setHeader('Header1', 'Value1');
$email->setHeader('Header2', 'Value2');

clear($clearAttachments = false)

Parameters

$clearAttachments (bool) – Whether or not to clear attachments

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Initializes all the email variables to an empty state. This method is intended for use if you run the email sending method in a loop, permitting the data to be reset between cycles.

<?php

foreach ($list as $name => $address) {
    $email->clear();

    $email->setTo($address);
    $email->setFrom('[email protected]');
    $email->setSubject('Here is your info ' . $name);
    $email->setMessage('Hi ' . $name . ' Here is the info you requested.');
    $email->send();
}

If you set the parameter to true any attachments will be cleared as well:

<?php

$email->clear(true);

send($autoClear = true)

Parameters

$autoClear (bool) – Whether to clear message data automatically

Returns

true on success, false on failure

Return type

bool

The e-mail sending method. Returns boolean true or false based on success or failure, enabling it to be used conditionally:

<?php

if (! $email->send()) {
    // Generate error
}

This method will automatically clear all parameters if the request was successful. To stop this behaviour pass false:

<?php

if ($email->send(false)) {
    // Parameters won't be cleared
}

Note

In order to use the printDebugger() method, you need to avoid clearing the email parameters.

Note

If BCCBatchMode is enabled, and there are more than BCCBatchSize recipients, this method will always return boolean true.

attach($filename[, $disposition = ''[, $newname = null[, $mime = '']]])

Parameters

$filename (string) – File name
$disposition (string) – ‘disposition’ of the attachment. Most email clients make their own decision regardless of the MIME specification used here. https://www.iana.org/assignments/cont-disp/cont-disp.xhtml
$newname (string) – Custom file name to use in the e-mail
$mime (string) – MIME type to use (useful for buffered data)

Returns

CodeIgniter\Email\Email instance (method chaining)

Return type

CodeIgniter\Email\Email

Enables you to send an attachment. Put the file path/name in the first parameter. For multiple attachments use the method multiple times. For example:

<?php

$email->attach('/path/to/photo1.jpg');
$email->attach('/path/to/photo2.jpg');
$email->attach('/path/to/photo3.jpg');

To use the default disposition (attachment), leave the second parameter blank, otherwise use a custom disposition:

<?php

$email->attach('image.jpg', 'inline');

You can also use a URL:

<?php

$email->attach('http://example.com/filename.pdf');

If you’d like to use a custom file name, you can use the third parameter:

<?php

$email->attach('filename.pdf', 'attachment', 'report.pdf');

If you need to use a buffer string instead of a real - physical - file you can use the first parameter as buffer, the third parameter as file name and the fourth parameter as mime-type:

<?php

$email->attach($buffer, 'attachment', 'report.pdf', 'application/pdf');

setAttachmentCID($filename)

Parameters

$filename (string) – Existing attachment filename

Returns

Attachment Content-ID or false if not found

Return type

string

Sets and returns an attachment’s Content-ID, which enables your to embed an inline (picture) attachment into HTML. First parameter must be the already attached file name.

<?php

$filename = '/img/photo1.jpg';
$email->attach($filename);

foreach ($list as $address) {
    $email->setTo($address);
    $cid = $email->setAttachmentCID($filename);
    $email->setMessage('<img src="cid:' . $cid . '" alt="photo1">');
    $email->send();
}

Note

Content-ID for each e-mail must be re-created for it to be unique.

printDebugger($include = ['headers', 'subject', 'body'])

Parameters

$include (array) – Which parts of the message to print out

Returns

Formatted debug data

Return type

string

Returns a string containing any server messages, the email headers, and the email message. Useful for debugging.

You can optionally specify which parts of the message should be printed. Valid options are: headers, subject, body.

Example:

<?php

// You need to pass false while sending in order for the email data
// to not be cleared - if that happens, printDebugger() would have
// nothing to output.
$email->send(false);

// Will only print the email headers, excluding the message subject and body
$email->printDebugger(['headers']);

Note

By default, all of the raw data will be printed.