PHP SDK

Send email with CodeIgniter

Use the Parcel Wing PHP SDK from CodeIgniter controllers while keeping your API key on the server.

Install the SDK

Install the official PHP SDK with Composer.

Terminal

composer require parcelwing/parcelwing-php

Configure CodeIgniter

Store the Parcel Wing API key and default sender in your environment. Do not expose either value to browser-side code.

.env

PARCELWING_API_KEY=pw_live_...
PARCELWING_FROM_EMAIL="Acme <[email protected]>"

Create a mail library

A small library centralizes template aliases, sender addresses, and Parcel Wing exception handling.

app/Libraries/ParcelWingMail.php

<?php
 
namespace App\Libraries;
 
use ParcelWing\ParcelWing;
use ParcelWing\Exceptions\ParcelWingException;
 
class ParcelWingMail
{
    public function __construct(private ?ParcelWing $client = null)
    {
        $this->client = $client ?: new ParcelWing(getenv('PARCELWING_API_KEY'));
    }
 
    /** @throws ParcelWingException */
    public function sendWelcome(string $email, ?string $firstName = null): array
    {
        $messages = $this->client->emails->send([
            'from' => getenv('PARCELWING_FROM_EMAIL'),
            'to' => $email,
            'template_alias' => 'welcome',
            'template_params' => [
                'first_name' => $firstName ?: 'friend',
            ],
        ]);
 
        return $messages[0];
    }
}

Send from a controller

Validate the incoming request, send the email, and return the queued message ID.

app/Controllers/WelcomeEmailController.php

<?php
 
namespace App\Controllers;
 
use App\Libraries\ParcelWingMail;
use CodeIgniter\HTTP\ResponseInterface;
use ParcelWing\Exceptions\ParcelWingException;
 
class WelcomeEmailController extends BaseController
{
    public function create(): ResponseInterface
    {
        $rules = [
            'email' => 'required|valid_email',
            'first_name' => 'permit_empty|string',
        ];
 
        if (! $this->validate($rules)) {
            return $this->response->setStatusCode(422)->setJSON([
                'errors' => $this->validator->getErrors(),
            ]);
        }
 
        $payload = $this->request->getJSON(true) ?: $this->request->getPost();
 
        try {
            $message = (new ParcelWingMail())->sendWelcome(
                $payload['email'],
                $payload['first_name'] ?? null,
            );
 
            return $this->response->setJSON(['id' => $message['id']]);
        } catch (ParcelWingException $error) {
            log_message('error', 'Parcel Wing send failed: ' . $error->getMessage());
 
            return $this->response->setStatusCode($error->status ?: 500)->setJSON([
                'code' => $error->errorCode,
            ]);
        }
    }
}

app/Config/Routes.php

$routes->post('send-welcome', 'WelcomeEmailController::create');