What is Mail?

Mail is a method of exchanging messages between people using electronic devices. In web development, sending emails is a common requirement, whether for user registration, notifications, or marketing purposes. Laravel, a popular PHP framework, provides a robust and easy-to-use API for sending emails.

Why Use Laravel for Mail?

Laravel simplifies the process of sending emails by providing a clean and expressive interface. It supports various mail drivers, allowing you to choose how you want to send your emails, whether through SMTP, Mailgun, Postmark, or others. Additionally, Laravel includes features like queueing, customizable templates, and markdown support, making it a powerful choice for email handling.

Setting Up Mail in Laravel

To send emails in Laravel, you need to configure your mail settings in the .env file. Here’s an example configuration for using SMTP:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.mailtrap.io
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USERNAME=your_username
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=example@example.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Example"

Replace your_username and your_password with your actual SMTP credentials.

Sending Your First Email

Once your mail configuration is set up, you can send emails using the Mail facade. Here’s a simple example:

In your controller:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

Mail::to('recipient@example.com')->send(new \App\Mail\MyFirstEmail());

This code sends an email to recipient@example.com using the MyFirstEmail Mailable class.

Creating a Mailable

To create a Mailable class, use the Artisan command:

php artisan make:mail MyFirstEmail

This will create a new Mailable class in the App\Mail directory. You can customize the Mailable by editing the generated class. Here’s a basic example:

namespace App\Mail;

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailable;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;

class MyFirstEmail extends Mailable
{
use Queueable, SerializesModels;

public function __construct() { }

public function build() {
return $this->subject('Welcome to Laravel Mail')
->view('emails.first_email');
}
}

In this example, we set the subject of the email and specify a view for the email content.

Creating the Email View

The view specified in the Mailable should be created in the resources/views/emails directory. Create a file named first_email.blade.php and add your email content:

Welcome!

Thank you for joining us!

Laravel uses Blade templating, making it easy to include dynamic content and layouts.

Testing Your Email

To test your email functionality, you can trigger the email sending in a route or controller method. Make sure to set up your local environment or use a service like Mailtrap for testing.

After sending the email, check the inbox of the recipient to see if the email has been received.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned the basics of sending emails using Laravel. We covered the configuration, how to send your first email, and how to create Mailable classes and views. Laravel's mail functionality is powerful and flexible, making it easy to integrate email communication into your applications.

Introduction to Mail in Laravel