Sending mail in Symfony

last modified July 5, 2020

Symfony mail tutorial shows how to send a simple mail in Symfony. Symfony uses SwiftMailer to send emails.

Symfony

Symfony is a set of reusable PHP components and a PHP framework for web projects. Symfony is free software with some commertial addons. Symfony was inspired by Ruby on Rails, Django, and the Spring Framework.

SwiftMailer

SwiftMailer is a free feature-rich PHP mailer. Symfony integrates SwiftMailer via its symfony/swiftmailer-bundle.

Symfony send mail example

In the example, we have send a simple email. We use Twig to create an email template.

Setting up the application

We start with setting up the application with composer.

$ composer create-project symfony/skeleton mail $ cd mail

We create a new Symfony skeleton project and go the the newly created project directory.

$ composer req twig annotations monolog

We install three basic Symfony packages needed for a web application.

$ composer req symfony/swiftmailer-bundle

We install the symfony/swiftmailer-bundle.

$ composer req maker server –dev

We install packages for development: maker and server.

.env

… MAILER_URL=smtp://smtp.example.com:465?encryption=ssl&auth_mode=login&username=admin@example.com&password=s$cret

In the .env file, we set the MAILER_URL variable. It contains the SMTP server that is going to deliver the emails. If you are a beginner, avoid using Gmail because setting up Gmail correctly is a complex task due to Gmail’s high level of security.

Instead, use an SMTP server from your hosting provider, or a service such as mailgun or mailtrap. The necessary options such as port number and encryption is given by the provider/service.

$ php bin/console make:controller TestMailController

We create a TestMailController that contains a simple link to send an email.

src/Controller/TestMailController.php

<?php

namespace App\Controller;

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface; use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController;

class TestMailController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/test/mail", name=“test_mail”) */ public function index(Request $request, \Swift_Mailer $mailer, LoggerInterface $logger) { $name = $request->query->get(’name’);

    $message = new \Swift_Message('Test email');
    $message->setFrom('admin@zetcode.com');
    $message->setTo('admin2@zetcode.com');
    $message->setBody(
        $this->renderView(
            'emails/mymail.html.twig',
            ['name' => $name]
        ),
        'text/html'
    );

    $mailer->send($message);

    $logger->info('email sent');
    $this->addFlash('notice', 'Email sent');

    return $this->redirectToRoute('home');
}

}

In the TestMailController’s index() method, we send the email. Note that code sending email should not be in a controller in a production application; it should be in some service. But for simplicity reasons, we leave it here.

public function index(Request $request, \Swift_Mailer $mailer, LoggerInterface $logger) {

We inject the Request, Swift_Mailer, and the logger.

$name = $request->query->get(’name’);

We get the name that is used in the GET request.

$message = new \Swift_Message(‘Test email’); $message->setFrom(’example@example.com’); $message->setTo(’example2@example.com’);

A Swift_Message is created. The from and to email values are hard-coded to make this example simpler. You can remove the hard-coded values as an exercise. (Set the source email as a parameter, fetch the destination email from a form.)

$message->setBody( $this->renderView( ’emails/mymail.html.twig’, [’name’ => $name] ), ’text/html’ );

With the setBody(), we set the body of the email. The renderView() method renders the view from the provided Twig template. We pass the $name variable to the template.

$mailer->send($message);

The email is sent with send().

$logger->info(’email sent’); $this->addFlash(’notice’, ‘Email sent’);

We log & flash a message. The flash message is displayed after the email is successfully sent.

return $this->redirectToRoute(‘home’);

We redirect to the home page, where the flash message is shown.

templates/emails/myemail.html.twig

Hi {{ name }}! You’ve got a test email.

Thanks!

This is a simple template for the email.

$ php bin/console make:controller HomeController

We create a HomeController. It contains a simple link to send an email.

src/Controller/HomeController.php

<?php

namespace App\Controller;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route;

class HomeController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/", name=“home”) */ public function index() { return $this->render(‘home/index.html.twig’); } }

The HomeController renders the home page.

templates/home/index.html

{% extends ‘base.html.twig’ %}

{% block title %}Home page{% endblock %}

{% block stylesheets %} <style> .flash-notice { margin: 8px; padding-left: 8px; width: 150px; background-color: rgb(113, 241, 113) }

.hide {
    opacity: 0;
    transition: opacity 1000ms;
}

</style> {% endblock %}

{% block body %}

<a href="/test/mail?name=Peter Novak">Send a test mail</a>

{% for message in app.flashes(’notice’) %} <div id=“flash-notice” class=“flash-notice”> {{ message }} </div> {% endfor %}

{% block javascripts %} <script src=“main.js”></script> {% endblock %}

{% endblock %}

The home page contains a link for sending an email. If the email is sent, we show a notification. This notification can be hidden by clicking on it.

<style> .flash-notice { margin: 8px; padding-left: 8px; width: 150px; background-color: rgb(113, 241, 113) }

.hide {
    opacity: 0;
    transition: opacity 1000ms;
}

</style>

We set some styling for the notification. Also, the hide class provides a simple fadeout animation. The animation is lauched in JavaScript by inserting this class into the notification element.

<a href="/test/mail?name=Peter Novak">Send a test mail</a>

This link makes a GET request that triggers an email. We send a name attribute with the request. The name is hard-coded; as an exercise, you can create a form that will specify the name and the destination email.

{% for message in app.flashes(’notice’) %} <div id=“flash-notice” class=“flash-notice”> {{ message }} </div> {% endfor %}

If there is a flash message, we show it.

<script src=“main.js”></script>

The animation is controlled in JavaScript code, which is located in the main.js file.

public/main.js

const flash = document.getElementById(‘flash-notice’);

flash.addEventListener(‘click’, function () {

flash.classList.add('hide');

});

When we click on the flash message, the event callback adds the hide class into the class list of the element, thus starting a fadeout animation.

templates/base.html.twig

<!DOCTYPE html> <html>

<head> <meta charset=“UTF-8”> <title>{% block title %}Welcome!{% endblock %}</title> {% block stylesheets %}

{% endblock %}

</head>

<body> {% block body %}{% endblock %} {% block javascripts %}{% endblock %} </body>

</html>

This is the base Twig template.

In this tutorial we have shown how to send a simple email in Symfony.

List all Symfony tutorials.

See Mailtrap’s How to Send Emails in Symfony with Examples.