Install NextPDF for CodeIgniter 4

At a glance

Install the package with Composer. CodeIgniter 4 finds the Services class and helper functions automatically, so you do not register them by hand.

Requirements

The package composer.json file is the authoritative source for these constraints. This table restates them for quick reference.

Dependency	Constraint	Notes
PHP	`>=8.4 <9.0`	Targets PHP 8.4.
`nextpdf/core`	`^3.0 \|\| ^5.2`	The NextPDF engine.
`codeigniter4/framework`	`^4.6`	Verified with CodeIgniter 4.7.0.
`ext-mbstring`	required at runtime	Validated once per process.
`ext-zlib`	required at runtime	Validated once per process.

Optional packages declared under suggest add these features:

Package	Adds
`nextpdf/artisan`	Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) HTML renderer, auto-detected at document build.
`nextpdf/premium`	NextPDF Pro and Enterprise features: signing, PDF/A, Factur-X.
`codeigniter4/queue`	Asynchronous PDF generation with `GeneratePdfJob`.

Install

Install the package with Composer:

composer require nextpdf/codeigniter

Composer resolves nextpdf/core and codeigniter4/framework against the constraints above. You do not need to edit a service provider, bundle, or a bootstrap file.

How discovery works

CodeIgniter 4 scans Composer packages for framework elements when Config\Modules::$discoverInComposer is true, the framework default. The package includes a NextPDF\CodeIgniter\Config\Services class. That class lives in the PHP Standard Recommendation 4 (PSR-4) namespace NextPDF\CodeIgniter\, which maps to src/CodeIgniter/. Composer’s PSR-4 autoloader converts the fully qualified class name into a file path. The top-level namespace is required (PSR-4 §x1.x2.p5, modal MUST). The namespace prefix maps to the base directory, so the class resolves to its file (PSR-4 §x1.x3).

The package’s Composer files autoload entry (src/CodeIgniter/Helpers/pdf_helper.php) registers the two helper functions pdf() and pdf_document(). The package Registrar also advertises the pdf helper to CodeIgniter’s helper loader. See /integrations/codeigniter/boot-and-discovery/ for the full sequence.

Verify the install

Confirm that Composer resolved the package:

composer show nextpdf/codeigniter

Confirm that CodeIgniter discovered the Services class. In any controller, or in a short php spark route, call the service and assert its type:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use NextPDF\CodeIgniter\Config\Services;
use NextPDF\Core\Document;

$document = Services::pdfDocument(false);

// $document is a fresh NextPDF\Core\Document instance.
\assert($document instanceof Document);

If Services::pdfDocument() returns a Document, discovery works. If it returns null, discovery did not run. See /integrations/codeigniter/troubleshooting/.

Edge cases & gotchas

If the host application sets Config\Modules::$discoverInComposer to false, add nextpdf/codeigniter to the $composerPackages['only'] list. Otherwise, CodeIgniter skips the package.
A stale Composer autoloader can hide the Services class. Run composer dump-autoload after you upgrade.
The package declares codeigniter4/queue only as a development dependency. A production application that dispatches GeneratePdfJob must require codeigniter4/queue directly.

Security notes

Install from Packagist over HTTPS. Pin resolved versions in composer.lock. The package adds no install-time scripts. See /integrations/codeigniter/security-and-operations/.

Conformance

Composer discovery depends on PSR-4 autoloading.