Sending Email using CodeIgniter

In current days, Email sending is a very necessary activity of web applications. We need to send emails to interact with users. It is very useful to verify a user in the sign-in/sign-up system.

In e-commerce projects, emails are used to update the users about the products and to send them all necessary information and documents such as purchased items description and invoices.

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Sending Email:

As compared to core PHP, email sending is easier in Codeigniter. Codeigniter provides an Email library for sending emails. This library has 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

Email configuration: In Codeigniter, there is no configuration file that can handle all email settings. To create a configuration file, open directory application/config and create a file email.php.

email.php

<?php defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');

$config = array(
    'protocol' => 'smtp', // 'mail', 'sendmail', or 'smtp'
    'smtp_host' => 'smtp.example.com',
    'smtp_port' => 465,
    'smtp_user' => 'no-reply@example.com',
    'smtp_pass' => '12345!',
    'smtp_crypto' => 'ssl', //can be 'ssl' or 'tls' for example
    'mailtype' => 'text', //plaintext 'text' mails or 'html'
    'smtp_timeout' => '4', //in seconds
    'charset' => 'iso-8859-1',
    'wordwrap' => TRUE
);
?>

Parameter description:

• the protocol represents the SMTP protocol that is used to sending emails.
• smtp_host is used to set SMTP host.
• smtp_port represents the SMTP port configured for sending SMTP mails. 465 is an open port.
• smtp_user represents an email address that is used as the sender’s email address.
• smtp_pass represents the password of the email ID given to sending emails in smtp_user.
• smtp_crypto represents the encrypting method that is used to sending emails.
• mail type used to set the email type that is used in the email body. It may be text or HTML.
• smtp_timeout is used to set the time limitations in seconds during connecting to the host.
• charset represents the character set that is used to sending emails.
• wordwrap is a Boolean value that is used to enable and disable the word wrap. Word wrap is enabled on TRUE and disabled on FALSE.

Class Reference:

Following functions are used by the Email class to make the email sending process easy and efficient.

1 from(): This function is used to set the email address and the name of the person sending the email.

Syntax:

from($from[, $name = ''[, $return_path = NULL]]);

Parameter Description:

• $from (string) – "From" e-mail address
• $name (string) − "From" display name
• $return_path (string) − Optional email address to redirect undelivered e-mail to

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

2 reply_to(): This function is used to set the reply-to address and name.

Syntax:

reply_to($replyto[, $name = '']);

Parameter description:

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

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

3 to(): This function is used to set the email address of the receiver. It can be a single e-mail or an array.

syntax:

to($to);

Parameter description:

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

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

4 cc(): This function is used to set the cc e-mail address. It can also be a single e-mail address or an array of email addresses.

Syntax:

cc($cc);

Parameter description:

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

  This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

  5 bcc(): This function is used to set the bcc e-mail address. It can also be a single e-mail address or an array of addresses.

  Syntax:

  bcc($bcc[, $limit = '']);

  parameter description:

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

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

6 subject(): This function is used to set the subject of the e-mail.

Syntax:

subject($subject);

parameter description:

• $subject (string) − E-mail subject line

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

7 message(): This function is used to set the e-mail message body.

Syntax:

message($body);

parameter description:

• $body (string) − E-mail message body

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

8 set_alt_message(): This function is used if you send HTML formatted e-mail. It is optional.

Syntax:

set_alt_message($str);

parameter description:

• $str (string) − Alternative e-mail message body

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

9 set_header(): This function is used to append the additional header to the e-mail.

Syntax:

set_header($header, $value);

parameter description:

• $header (string) − Header name
• $value (string) − Header value

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

10 clear(): This function is used to initialize all the e-mail variables to an empty state. This function is used when we are sending e-mails in a loop.

Syntax:

clear([$clear_attachments = FALSE])

Parameter description:

• $clear_attachments (bool) – Whether or not to clear attachments

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

11 send(): This e-mail sending method is used conditionally and it returns TRUE or FALSE, on the basis of success or failure.

Syntax:

send([$auto_clear = TRUE]);

parameter description:

• $auto_clear (bool) − Whether to clear message data automatically

12 attach(): This function is used to enable sending an attachment.

Syntax:

attach(name[, $disposition = ''[, $newname = NULL[, $mime = '']]]);

parameter description:

• name (string) − File name
• $disposition (string) − ‘disposition’ of the attachment. Most email clients make their own decision regardless of the MIME specification used here. iana
• $newname (string) − Custom file name to use in the e-mail
• $mime (string) − MIME type to use (useful for buffered data)

This function returns CI_Email instance (method chaining) and the return type of this function is CI_Email.

13 attachment_cid(): This function is used to set and return an attachment’s content ID, which enables us to embed an inline (picture) attachment into HTML.

Syntax:

attachment_cid(name);

Parameter description:

• name (string) − Existing attachment filename

This function returns the attachment’s content ID or FALSE if not found and the return type of this function is a string.

Example:

Step 1 Open directory application/views and create a file email_view.php.

email_view.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">
  <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<div class="container">
  <h2>Sending E-mail Form</h2>
  <form method="post" enctype="multipart/formdata" action="<?=base_url('Email_controller/send')?>" style="width:40%" >
    <div class="form-group">
      <label for="email">Receiver's E-mail:</label>
      <input type="text" class="form-control" name="to" placeholder="Enter E-mail">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
      <label for="subject">Subject:</label>
      <input type="text" class="form-control" name="subject" placeholder="Enter Subject">
    </div>

	<div class="form-group">
      <label for="Message">Message:</label>
      <input type="text" class="form-control" name="message" placeholder="Enter Message">
    </div>

    <input type="submit" name="send" class="btn btn-success" value="Send"/>
  </form>
</div>

</body>
</html>

Step 2 Open directory application/controllers and create a controller file Email_controller.php.

<?php
class Email_controller extends CI_Controller
{

    public function __construct()
	{
        parent:: __construct();

        $this->load->helper('url');
    }

    public function index()
	{
        $this->load->view('email_view');
    }

    function send()
	{
        $this->load->config('email');
        $this->load->library('email');

        $from = $this->config->item('smtp_user');
        $to = $this->input->post('to');
        $subject = $this->input->post('subject');
        $message = $this->input->post('message');

        $this->email->set_newline("\r\n");
        $this->email->from($from);
        $this->email->to($to);
        $this->email->subject($subject);
        $this->email->message($message);

        if ($this->email->send())
		{
            echo 'Email has been sent successfully';
        }
		else
		{
            show_error($this->email->print_debugger());
        }
    }
}
?>

Step 3 Enter the given URL into the browser.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Email_controller

Fill above form and click on the Send button.