• Introduction
• Sending mail
  • Attachments
  • Inline attachments
  • Queueing mail
• Message content
  • Mail views
  • Mail templates
  • Mail layouts
  • Registering mail templates
  • Global variables
• Mail & local development

Introduction

October provides drivers for SMTP, Mailgun, Mandrill, Amazon SES, PHP's mail function, and sendmail, allowing you to quickly get started sending mail through a local or cloud based service of your choice. There are two ways to configure mail services, either using the back-end interface via Settings > Mail settings or by updating the default configuration values. In these examples we will update the configuration values.

Driver prerequisites

Before using the Mailgun, Mandrill or SES drivers you will need to install Drivers plugin.

Mailgun driver

To use the Mailgun driver, set the driver option in your config/mail.php configuration file to mailgun. Next, verify that your config/services.php configuration file contains the following options:

'mailgun' => [
    'domain' => 'your-mailgun-domain',
    'secret' => 'your-mailgun-key',
],

Mandrill driver

To use the Mandrill driver set the driver option in your config/mail.php configuration file to mandrill. Next, verify that your config/services.php configuration file contains the following options:

'mandrill' => [
    'secret' => 'your-mandrill-key',
],

SES driver

To use the Amazon SES driver set the driver option in your config/mail.php configuration file to ses. Then, verify that your config/services.php configuration file contains the following options:

'ses' => [
    'key' => 'your-ses-key',
    'secret' => 'your-ses-secret',
    'region' => 'ses-region',  // e.g. us-east-1
],

Sending mail

To send a message, use the send method on the Mail facade which accepts three arguments. The first argument is a unique mail code used to locate either the mail view or mail template. The second argument is an array of data you wish to pass to the view. The third argument is a Closure callback which receives a message instance, allowing you to customize the recipients, subject, and other aspects of the mail message:

// These variables are available inside the message as Twig
$vars = ['name' => 'Joe', 'user' => 'Mary'];

Mail::send('acme.blog::mail.message', $vars, function($message) {

    $message->to('[email protected]', 'Admin Person');
    $message->subject('This is a reminder');

});

Since we are passing an array containing the name key in the example above, we could display the value within our e-mail view using the following Twig markup:

{{ name }}

Note: You should avoid passing a message variable in your message, this variable is always passed and allows the inline embedding of attachments.

Quick sending

October also includes an alternative method called sendTo that can simplify sending mail:

// Send to address using no name
Mail::sendTo('[email protected]', 'acme.blog::mail.message', $params);

// Send using an object's properties
Mail::sendTo($user, 'acme.blog::mail.message', $params);

// Send to multiple addresses
Mail::sendTo(['[email protected]' => 'Admin Person'], 'acme.blog::mail.message', $params);

The first argument in sendTo is used for the recipients can take different value types:

Building the message

As previously mentioned, the third argument given to the send method is a Closure allowing you to specify various options on the e-mail message itself. Using this Closure you may specify other attributes of the message, such as carbon copies, blind carbon copies, etc:

Mail::send('acme.blog::mail.welcome', $vars, function($message) {

    $message->from('[email protected]', 'October');
    $message->to('[email protected]')->cc('[email protected]');

});

Here is a list of the available methods on the $message message builder instance:

$message->from($address, $name = null);
$message->sender($address, $name = null);
$message->to($address, $name = null);
$message->cc($address, $name = null);
$message->bcc($address, $name = null);
$message->replyTo($address, $name = null);
$message->subject($subject);
$message->priority($level);
$message->attach($pathToFile, array $options = []);

// Attach a file from a raw $data string...
$message->attachData($data, $name, array $options = []);

// Get the underlying SwiftMailer message instance...
$message->getSwiftMessage();

Note: The message instance passed to a Mail::send Closure extends the SwiftMailer message class, allowing you to call any method on that class to build your e-mail messages.

Mailing plain text

By default, the view given to the send method is assumed to contain HTML. However, by passing an array as the first argument to the send method, you may specify a plain text view to send in addition to the HTML view:

Mail::send(['acme.blog::mail.html', 'acme.blog::mail.text'], $data, $callback);

Or, if you only need to send a plain text e-mail, you may specify this using the text key in the array:

Mail::send(['text' => 'acme.blog::mail.text'], $data, $callback);

Mailing raw strings

You may use the raw method if you wish to e-mail a raw string directly:

Mail::raw('Text to e-mail', function ($message) {
    //
});

To pass raw HTML and text, set the raw array value to true:

Mail::send([
    'text' => 'This is plain text',
    'html' => '<strong>This is HTML</strong>',
    'raw' => true
], $data, $callback);

Attachments

To add attachments to an e-mail, use the attach method on the $message object passed to your Closure. The attach method accepts the full path to the file as its first argument:

Mail::send('acme.blog::mail.welcome', $data, function ($message) {
    //

    $message->attach($pathToFile);
});

When attaching files to a message, you may also specify the display name and / or MIME type by passing an array as the second argument to the attach method:

$message->attach($pathToFile, ['as' => $display, 'mime' => $mime]);

Inline attachments

Embedding an image in mail content

Embedding inline images into your e-mails is typically cumbersome; however, there is a convenient way to attach images to your e-mails and retrieving the appropriate CID. To embed an inline image, use the embed method on the message variable within your e-mail view. Remember, the message variable is available to all of your mail views:

<body>
    Here is an image:

    <img src="{{ message.embed(pathToFile) }}">
</body>

Embedding raw data in mail content

If you already have a raw data string you wish to embed into an e-mail message, you may use the embedData method on the message variable:

<body>
    Here is an image from raw data:

    <img src="{{ message.embedData(data, name) }}">
</body>

Queueing mail

Queueing a mail message

Since sending mail messages can drastically lengthen the response time of your application, many developers choose to queue messages for background sending. This is easy using the built-in unified queue API. To queue a mail message, use the queue method on the Mail facade:

Mail::queue('acme.blog::mail.welcome', $data, function ($message) {
    //
});

This method will automatically take care of pushing a job onto the queue to send the mail message in the background. Of course, you will need to configure your queues before using this feature.

Delayed message queueing

If you wish to delay the delivery of a queued e-mail message, you may use the later method. To get started, simply pass the number of seconds by which you wish to delay the sending of the message as the first argument to the method:

Mail::later(5, 'acme.blog::mail.welcome', $data, function ($message) {
    //
});

Pushing to specific queues

If you wish to specify a specific queue on which to push the message, you may do so using the queueOn and laterOn methods:

Mail::queueOn('queue-name', 'acme.blog::mail.welcome', $data, function ($message) {
    //
});

Mail::laterOn('queue-name', 5, 'acme.blog::mail.welcome', $data, function ($message) {
    //
});

Message content

Mail messages can be sent in October using either mail views or mail templates. A mail view is supplied by the application or plugin in the file system in the /views directory. Whereas a mail template is managed using the back-end interface via System > Mail templates. All mail messages support using Twig for markup.

Optionally, mail views can be registered in the Plugin registration file with the registerMailTemplates method. This will automatically generate a mail template and allows them to be customized using the back-end interface.

Mail views

Mail views reside in the file system and the code used represents the path to the view file. For example sending mail with the code author.plugin:mail.message would use the content in following file:

plugins/                 <=== Plugins directory
  author/                <=== "author" segment
    plugin/              <=== "plugin" segment
      views/             <=== View directory
        mail/            <=== "mail" segment
          message.htm    <=== "message" segment

The content inside a mail view file can include up to 3 sections: configuration, plain text, and HTML markup. Sections are separated with the == sequence. For example:

subject = "Your product has been added to OctoberCMS project"
==

Hi {{ name }},

Good news! User {{ user }} just added your product "{{ product }}" to a project.

This message was sent using no formatting (plain text)
==

<p>Hi {{ name }},</p>

<p>Good news! User {{ user }} just added your product <strong>{{ product }}</strong> to a project.</p>

<p>This email was sent using formatting (HTML)</p>

Note: Basic Twig tags and expressions are supported in mail views.

The plain text section is optional and a view can contain only the configuration and HTML markup sections.

subject = "Your product has been added to OctoberCMS project"
==

<p>Hi {{ name }},</p>

<p>This email does not support plain text.</p>

<p>Sorry about that!</p>

Configuration section

The configuration section sets the mail view parameters. The following configuration parameters are supported:

Using mail templates

Mail templates reside in the database and can be created in the back-end area via Settings > Mail > Mail templates. The code specified in the template is a unique identifier and cannot be changed once created.

The process for sending these emails is the same. For example, if you create a template with code this.is.my.email you can send it using this PHP code:

Mail::send('this.is.my.email', $data, function($message) use ($user)
{
    [...]
});

Note: If the mail template does not exist in the system, this code will attempt to find a mail view with the same code.

Automatically generated templates

Mail templates can also be generated automatically by mail views that have been registered. The code value will be the same as the mail view path (eg: author.plugin:mail.message). If the mail view has a layout parameter defined, this will be used to give the template a layout.

When a generated template is saved for the first time, the customized content will be used when sending mail for the assigned code. In this context, the mail view can be considered a default view.

Using mail layouts

Mail layouts can be created by selecting Settings > Mail > Mail templates and clicking the Layouts tab. These behave just like CMS layouts, they contain the scaffold for the mail message. Mail views and templates support the use of mail layouts.

By default, October comes with two primary mail layouts:

Registering mail templates

Mail views can be registered as templates that are automatically generated in the back-end ready for customization. Mail templates can be customized via the Settings > Mail templates menu. The templates can be registered by overriding the registerMailTemplates method of the Plugin registration class.

public function registerMailTemplates()
{
    return [
        'rainlab.user::mail.activate' => 'Activation mail sent to new users.',
        'rainlab.user::mail.restore'  => 'Password reset instructions for front-end users.'
    ];
}

The method should return an array where the key is the mail view name and the value gives a brief description about what the mail template is used for.

Global variables

You may register variables that are globally available to all mail templates with the View::share method.

View::share('site_name', 'OctoberCMS');

This code could be called inside the register or boot method of a plugin registration file. Using the above example, the variable {{ site_name }} will be available inside all mail templates.

Mail & local development

When developing an application that sends e-mail, you probably don't want to actually send e-mails to live e-mail addresses. There are several ways to "disable" the actual sending of e-mail messages.

Log driver

One solution is to use the log mail driver during local development. This driver will write all e-mail messages to your log files for inspection. For more information on configuring your application per environment, check out the configuration documentation.

Universal to

Another solution is to set a universal recipient of all e-mails sent by the framework. This way, all the emails generated by your application will be sent to a specific address, instead of the address actually specified when sending the message. This can be done via the to option in your config/mail.php configuration file:

'to' => [
    'address' => '[email protected]',
    'name' => 'Dev Example'
],

Pretend mail mode

You can dynamically disable sending mail using the Mail::pretend method. When the mailer is in pretend mode, messages will be written to your application's log files instead of being sent to the recipient.

Mail::pretend();