+++ 
title = "Laravel dynamic SMTP mail configuration"
date = "2021-11-09"
author = "Aloïs Micard"
authorTwitter = "" #do not include @ cover = ""
tags = ["Laravel", "PHP", "Tutorial"]
keywords = ["Laravel", "SMTP", "Dynamic", "PHP", "Tutorial"]
description = "How to use dynamic SMTP credentials with Laravel."
showFullContent = false 
+++

Hello friend...

It has been a while.

I have been very busy lately with work, open source and *life* that I didn't find the energy to write a blog post.
Despite having some good ideas, I wasn't really in the mood.

Hopefully, I now have the energy and the subject to make a good blog post: let's talk
about [Laravel](https://laravel.com/) and emails!

# 1. Laravel and SMTP

## 1.1. Configuration

Laravel SMTP [Mail](https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/mail) support is truly awesome and work out-of-the-box without
requiring anything more than a few env variables:

```text
MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mail1.example.org
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=demo@example.org
MAIL_PASSWORD=foo
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=no-reply@example.org
MAIL_FROM_NAME=Demo App
```

> Note: The initial setup only requires these environment variables because the smtp mailer is already configured by default in `config/mail.php`.

## 1.2. Creating an email

Once everything is configured, creating an email is as simple as running this command:

```shell
php artisan make:mail Greetings
```

This command will generate a sample email in `app/Mail/Greetings` and you'll just need to design it afterwards.

## 1.3. Sending an email

Sending an email to a user with Laravel can be either done

- using `\Illuminate\Notifications\RoutesNotifications::notify`:

```php
$user->notify(new Greetings());
```

- or using `\Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification::send`:

```php
Notification::send($users, new Greetings());
```

> Note: the later syntax is especially useful when bulk sending emails.

See how simple it is? ~~I wonder what would be the limitations.~~

Eh! What if we need to 'whitelabelize' our application. :-)

---

# 2. Dynamic SMTP configuration

In our scenario, we have the need to [whitelabelize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-label_product) our application:
each `User` will belongs to a `Provider` that will have custom SMTP settings. So when sending email to a user we need to
configure dynamically the mailer to use the SMTP credentials of his provider (`$user->provider`).

**Can Laravel help us doing so?**

After a bit of googling and reading the official documentation, there's no out-of-the-box support for dynamic SMTP
configuration, certainly because there would be 100x way of doing it, each way depending on your exact use-case.

**So, we're screwed?**

Not yet, because Laravel allows us to tweak almost **anything**, so we just need to find our way.

## 2.1. Designing the models

Here's a quick visualization of our models:

```php
namespace App\Models;

/**
 * @property Provider $provider
 */
class User extends Model
{
    public function provider(): BelongsTo
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Provider::class);
    }
}
```

For the `User` model there's nothing special: we only link the user to a `Provider`.

```php
namespace App\Models;

/**
 * @property array $mail_configuration
 * @property Provider $provider
 */
class Provider extends Model
{
    protected $casts = [
        'mail_configuration' => 'encrypted:array'
    ];
    
    public function users(): HasMany
    {
        return $this->hasMany(User::class);
    }
}
```

The `Provider` model has many `Users` and has a `mail_configuration` field which is encrypted and that will contain the
SMTP credentials.

The email configuration will be stored as an [encrypted](https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/encryption) JSON configuration. It
will look like this:

```json
{
  "host": "smtp.example.org",
  "port": 587,
  "username": "foo",
  "password": "bar",
  "encryption": "tls",
  "from_address": "no-reply@example.org",
  "from_name": "Example"
}
```

## 2.2. Digging down the internals

Now that our models are ready, we must find a way to use the provider configuration to send the email. Let's dig down in
Laravel source code to understand how emails works:

Remember the two-ways of sending emails?

- `\Illuminate\Notifications\RoutesNotifications::notify`
- `\Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification::send`

What we need to do is find the common path between these two methods, and see if we can override some
behavior in there.

![](/img/laravel-mail-internals.png)

As you can see here, the methods share the same execution path that end up
calling `\Illuminate\Notifications\Channels\MailChannel::send`. So how can we hook up into this path?

The answer lies in `\Illuminate\Notifications\NotificationSender::sendToNotifiable`:

```php
protected function sendToNotifiable($notifiable, $id, $notification, $channel)
{
    if (! $notification->id) {
        $notification->id = $id;
    }

    if (! $this->shouldSendNotification($notifiable, $notification, $channel)) {
        return;
    }

    $response = $this->manager->driver($channel)->send($notifiable, $notification);

    $this->events->dispatch(
        new NotificationSent($notifiable, $notification, $channel, $response)
    );
}
```

As you can see this method is looking for a driver to use with the `$channel` and finally calls the `send()`
method. So what we can do is registering a special SMTP driver that will use dynamic SMTP settings.

Fortunately registering a custom driver is a common use-case and there's a straightforward way.

## 2.3. Creating a custom MailChannel

```php
namespace App\Notifications\Channels;

class ProviderMailChannel extends MailChannel
{
    public function send($notifiable, Notification $notification)
    {
        // TODO: override the SMTP configuration
        parent::send($notifiable, $notification);
    }
}
```

## 2.4. Registering the ProviderMailChannel

All we need to know is extend (i.e: register a custom driver creator) for the `mail` channel.
This way when an email is sent it will be sent using our `ProviderMailChannel`.

```php
namespace App\Providers;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function boot()
    {
        /** @var ChannelManager $channelManager */
        $channelManager = $this->app->get(ChannelManager::class);
        $channelManager->extend('mail', function (Application $application) {
            return new ProviderMailChannel($application->get('mail.manager'), $application->get(Markdown::class));
        });
    }
}
```

## 2.5. Creating a custom Mailer

Now that we are hooked up into the mail sending flow, we need to actually send the email. For doing so we need to instantiate 
custom `\Illuminate\Mail\Mailer` instance that will be configured using the provider settings. To register such dynamic
configurable service we will use the power of
the [Service container](https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/container#binding-basics).

```php
namespace App\Providers;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function register()
    {
        // Register a custom mailer named `custom.mailer` that will receive his configuration dynamically
        $this->app->bind('custom.mailer', function ($app, $parameters) {
            $transport = new Swift_SmtpTransport($parameters['host'], $parameters['port']);
            $transport->setUsername($parameters['username']);
            $transport->setPassword($parameters['password']);
            $transport->setEncryption($parameters['encryption']);
    
            $mailer = new Mailer('', $app->get('view'), new Swift_Mailer($transport), $app->get('events'));
            $mailer->alwaysFrom($parameters['from_address'], $parameters['from_name']);
    
            return $mailer;
        });
    }

    public function boot()
    {
        /** @var ChannelManager $channelManager */
        $channelManager = $this->app->get(ChannelManager::class);
        $channelManager->extend('mail', function (Application $application) {
            return new ProviderMailChannel($application->get('mail.manager'), $application->get(Markdown::class));
        });
    }
}
```

Now we can instantiate this custom Mailer by doing the following:

```php
$mailer = app()->make('custom.mailer', $configuration);
// do something with $mailer
```

Where `$configuration` is the custom SMTP configuration.

## 2.6. Plug the custom Mailer into the ProviderMailChannel

Finally, all we need to do is to read the `Provider` mail configuration
and use it to instantiate our `custom.mailer` and then, use it to send the actual email.

```php
namespace App\Notifications\Channels;

class ProviderMailChannel extends MailChannel
{
    public function send($notifiable, Notification $notification)
    {
        $message = $notification->toMail($notifiable);
        
        $mailer = app()->make('custom.mailer', $notifiable->provider->mail_configuration);
        $message->send($mailer);
    }
}
```

# 3. Conclusion

That all folks. You are now capable of sending email using dynamic SMTP credentials based on the use-case.

Happy hacking!
