EEmail Class

Calling the EEmail Class

ExpressionEngine uses the EEmail class for the sending of email via whatever protocol is specified in the site's Email Preferences. This class is not a global in the system, since it is not used frequently enough, so you have to load the EEmail class file first. After loading the EEmail class file, you should create a new object based on the class, so it can be used through the entire function without difficulty. This is relatively easy using the code below.

if ( ! class_exists('EEmail'))
{
    require PATH_CORE.'core.email'.EXT;
}

$email = new EEmail;

Sending an Email

The Email class will automatically create all email headers and will process the data in various ways depending on the parameters set (ex: word wrapping and email validity). So, you simply have to send the class the relevant information and it will take care of the rest. Below is an example pice of code used for sending a single email.

if ( ! class_exists('EEmail'))
{
    require PATH_CORE.'core.email'.EXT;
}

$email = new EEmail;
$email->wordwrap = true;
$email->mailtype = 'text';	
$email->from($from);
$email->to($receipient); 
$email->subject($email_subject);
$email->message($REGX->entities_to_ascii($email_msg));
$email->Send();

First, you call the EEmail class. Second, after calling the EEmail class, there are a few varibles that you may wish to set.

charset

Specifies the character set of the email. Since ExpressionEngine uses the character set in the Control Panel and in the default templates, the default is set for UTF-8. However, in certain circumstances you might wish to change this. Note: There are email clients that will ignore any character specified in an email and will attempt to auto-detect, sometimes erroneously.

debug

pecifies whether to enable debugging mode for the class. If emails are not being sent, then it might be prudent to set this to TRUE and see if any errors are being sent by the EEmail class.

mailtype

Specifies whether to send this email as a simple text email or an HTML email. The default type is 'text', so you only need to set this parameter when sending HTML email ('html').

validate

specifies whether to validate all emails sent to the class. By default this is FALSE, and it must be set to TRUE to perform the validation.

wordwrap

Specifies whether the words in the email should be wrapped after a certain number of chracters. By default, this is set to false, so you only need to set its value if you want to use wordwarp.

wrapchars

Specifies the number of characters to wrap at, if wordwrap is set to true.

Third, after setting any class variables, you can proceed to send the class the sender, receipient(s), subject, and message for the email. The values for the various recipient functions can be either sent as an array with each member of the array being an email address or a string with multiple email addresses separated by commas. The to, subject, message functions must be sent as strings through.

$email->from($from, $name)

The function for specifiying the sender of the email. The first variable is the email address of the sender, and the optional second parameter is the name/title of the sender. If you send the first variable in the form of 'webmaster@example.com <Site Webmaster>, then the function will parse the email address and name for you.

$email->reply_to($reply_to)

The function for specifiying the Reply-To header of the email. The variable is the email address(es) that when a person replies to this email, it will be in the To box automatically.

$email->to($recipient)

The function for specifiying the genearl receipient(s) of the email. The variable is the email address(es) that are to receive the email, either in an array or a comma separated list.

$email->cc($cc_emails)

The function for specifiying the receipient(s) receiving a carbon copy of the email. The variable should be set as an array or a comma separated list.

$email->bcc($bcc_emails, $limit)

The function for specifiying the receipient(s) receiving a blind carbon copy of the email. The first variable should be set as an array or a comma separated list. The second, optional variable will allow you to determine a batch side for any BCC emails. Use it if you are sending a large amount of emails via BCC to ease the load on your server.

Next, use the $email->subject() and $email->message() functions to set the subject and message of the email.

Note: If you are using data from a weblog entry and not sending an HTML email, then you should use the $REGX->entities_to_ascii() function to convert any HTML entities back into ASCII characters before sending the message to the class.

Finally, to send the message, call the $email->Send() function, and the class will process and send the email. If the email is not sent or there was an error, then this function will return false.

if ( ! $email->Send())
{
	return $DSP->error_message($LANG->line('error_sending_email'), 0);
}

Sending Multiple Emails

If you are sending multiple emails in a function either for notifications or because each message has a separpate message, then you must use the $email->initialize() function between each email to reset certain variables in the class. If you do not, then it is possible that the emails will not be sent or sent incorrectly.

if ( ! class_exists('EEmail'))
{
    require PATH_CORE.'core.email'.EXT;
}

$email = new EEmail;
$email->wordwrap = true;
$email->mailtype = 'text';

foreach($member_emails as $username => $from)
{
    $email->from($from);
    $email->to($receipient); 
    $email->subject("Account Expiration: {$username}");
    $email->message($REGX->entities_to_ascii($message));
    $email->Send();
    $email->initialize();
}

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