Problem

How do I set up outbound SMTP using Laravel?
How do I set up outbound SMTP using the email component from Laravel?
How do I use outMail in Laravel?
How do I use outMail with the PHP framework Laravel?

Solution

The following example of code assumes you have already got a fully functional webserver and the PHP framework Laravel installed and working.

Configure Laravel

Laravel uses config/mail.php file for storing details used in sending email. This file contains settings like MAIL_DRIVER, MAIL_HOST, MAIL_PORT, MAIL_USERNAME and MAIL_PASSWORD. In order to successfully send SMTP emails we need to configure these variables.

However, we don't edit the mail.php file directly.  Instead we edit a file called .env placed in the root of your application.

Add the following lines to your .env file and edit accordingly (as per your welcome email)

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mxXXXXXX.smtp-engine.com
MAIL_PORT=25
MAIL_USERNAME=outmail-username
MAIL_PASSWORD=outmail-password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=ssl

Create an email template

Next we need to create an email template to use when sending the email.

Let's create a file called mytemplate.blade.php

We'll create the file in resources\views\emails\mytemplate.blade.php

<?php  ?>
<P>Hello {{ name }},</P>
<P>{{ body }}</P>

Sending an email

In your code you can send email using the below example code snippet

<?php

   $email['to_name']    = 'RECIPIENTS_NAME';
   $email['to_email']   = 'RECIPIENTS_EMAIL_ADDRESS';

   $email['from_name']  = 'SENDERS_NAME';
   $email['from_email'] = 'SENDERS_EMAIL_ADDRESS';

   $email['subject']    = 'Laravel Test SMTP Mail';

   // Create an array of information to be used in our mytemplate.
   $data = array('name' => "Fred Example", 
                 'body' => "This is a test SMTP mail"
				 );
   
   Mail::send('emails.mytemplate', $data, function($message) use ($email) {
       $message->to($email['to_email'], $email['to_name']);
       $message->subject($email['subject']);		   
       $message->from($email['from_email'], $email['from_name']);
   });
   
?>