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

Sending Email

Sending email is not only simple, but you can configure it on the fly or set your preferences in a config file.

Here is a basic example demonstrating how you might send email. Note: This example assumes you are sending the email from one of your controllers.

$this->load->library('email');

$this->email->from('[email protected]', 'Your Name');
$this->email->to('[email protected]');
$this->email->cc('[email protected]');
$this->email->bcc('[email protected]');

$this->email->subject('Email Test');
$this->email->message('Testing the email class.');

$this->email->send();

Setting Email Preferences

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:

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:

$config['protocol'] = 'sendmail';
$config['mailpath'] = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
$config['charset'] = 'iso-8859-1';
$config['wordwrap'] = TRUE;

$this->email->initialize($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 a config file. Simply create a new file called the email.php, add the $config array in that file. Then save the file at config/email.php and it will be used automatically. You will NOT need to use the $this->email->initialize() method if you save your preferences in a config file.

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.
smtp_host No Default None SMTP Server Address.
smtp_user No Default None SMTP Username.
smtp_pass No Default None SMTP Password.
smtp_port 25 None SMTP Port.
smtp_timeout 5 None SMTP Timeout (in seconds).
smtp_keepalive FALSE TRUE or FALSE (boolean) Enable persistent SMTP connections.
smtp_crypto No Default tls or ssl SMTP Encryption
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 $config['charset']   Character set (utf-8, iso-8859-1, etc.).
validate FALSE 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).
bcc_batch_mode FALSE TRUE or FALSE (boolean) Enable BCC Batch Mode.
bcc_batch_size 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 CI_Email
from($from[, $name = ''[, $return_path = NULL]])
Parameters:
  • $from (string) – “From” e-mail address
  • $name (string) – “From” display name
  • $return_path (string) – Optional email address to redirect undelivered e-mail to
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

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

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

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

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

Note

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

reply_to($replyto[, $name = ''])
Parameters:
  • $replyto (string) – E-mail address for replies
  • $name (string) – Display name for the reply-to e-mail address
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

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

$this->email->reply_to('[email protected]', 'Your Name');
to($to)
Parameters:
  • $to (mixed) – Comma-delimited string or an array of e-mail addresses
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

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

$this->email->to('[email protected]');

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

$this->email->to(
        array('[email protected]', '[email protected]', '[email protected]')
);
cc($cc)
Parameters:
  • $cc (mixed) – Comma-delimited string or an array of e-mail addresses
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

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

bcc($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:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

Sets the BCC email address(s). Just like the to() 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.

subject($subject)
Parameters:
  • $subject (string) – E-mail subject line
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

Sets the email subject:

$this->email->subject('This is my subject');
message($body)
Parameters:
  • $body (string) – E-mail message body
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

Sets the e-mail message body:

$this->email->message('This is my message');
set_alt_message($str)
Parameters:
  • $str (string) – Alternative e-mail message body
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

Sets the alternative e-mail message body:

$this->email->set_alt_message('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.

set_header($header, $value)
Parameters:
  • $header (string) – Header name
  • $value (string) – Header value
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Email

Appends additional headers to the e-mail:

$this->email->set_header('Header1', 'Value1');
$this->email->set_header('Header2', 'Value2');
clear([$clear_attachments = FALSE])
Parameters:
  • $clear_attachments (bool) – Whether or not to clear attachments
Returns:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_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.

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

        $this->email->to($address);
        $this->email->from('[email protected]');
        $this->email->subject('Here is your info '.$name);
        $this->email->message('Hi '.$name.' Here is the info you requested.');
        $this->email->send();
}

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

$this->email->clear(TRUE);
send([$auto_clear = TRUE])
Parameters:
  • $auto_clear (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:

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

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

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

Note

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

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:

CI_Email instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_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:

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

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

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

You can also use a URL:

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

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

$this->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:

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

$filename = '/img/photo1.jpg';
$this->email->attach($filename);
foreach ($list as $address)
{
        $this->email->to($address);
        $cid = $this->email->attachment_cid($filename);
        $this->email->message('<img src="cid:'. $cid .'" alt="photo1" />');
        $this->email->send();
}

Note

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

print_debugger([$include = array('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:

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

// Will only print the email headers, excluding the message subject and body
$this->email->print_debugger(array('headers'));

Note

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