Increase User Engagement by Sending Out Periodic Emails with Laravel, PHP, and SendGrid

Time to read: 5 minutes

February 21, 2020
Written by
Brian Iyoha
Contributor
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Increase User Engagement by Sending Out Periodic Emails with Laravel, PHP, and SendGrid

In this tutorial, we will look at how we can send out periodic emails in a Laravel application using Twilio SendGrid.

Prerequisites

In order to follow this tutorial you will need:

Project setup

Start off by creating a new Laravel project for your application. This can be done either by using the Laravel installer or Composer. For this tutorial, the Laravel installer will be used. If you don't have the Laravel installer already installed, head over to the Laravel documentation to see how to. If installed, open up a terminal and run the following command to create a new Laravel project:

$ laravel new periodic-emails

Next, you need to install the Sendgrid PHP Library which will be used for communicating with the SendGrid service. Open up a terminal in your project directory and run the following command to get it installed via Composer:

$ composer require "sendgrid/sendgrid"

After the successful installation of the SendGrid library, head to your SendGrid dashboard to retrieve your API key. It will be used to authenticate requests made with the library.

SendGrid API Key

NOTE: If you don't have an API key yet, you can easily create one from the settings page.

SendGrid API Key New

NOTE: Remember to keep a copy of your API key in a safe place as you won't be able to retrieve it later.

Next, open up your .env file to add your API key to your environmental variables. Add the following at the end of the file:

SENDGRID_API_KEY={YOUR API KEY}

Setting up Database

The next step is to set up your database for the application. This tutorial will make use of the MySQL database. If you don't already have it installed on your local machine, head over to their official download page to download and install.

To create a database for your application, you will need to login to the MySQL client. To do this, simply run the following command in your terminal:

$ mysql -u {your_user_name}

NOTE: Add the -p flag if you have a password for your MySQL instance.

Run the following command to create a database:

mysql> create database periodic-emails;
mysql> exit;

Next, update your .env file with your database credentials. Open up .env and make the following adjustments:

DB_DATABASE=food_ordering
DB_USERNAME={username}
DB_PASSWORD={password if any}

Mocking Users Data

Since you will be sending out emails to your application users, you will need to already have their data stored in your database. For this tutorial, we will make use of the default scaffolded Users migration located in the database/migrations folder.

Although this migration already exists, it isn't yet committed to your database. To commit the users migration, run the following command:

$ php artisan migrate

This will create a users table in your database alongside the listed fields in the up method of the migration file.

Seeding the Users Table

As mentioned earlier, you will need some sample user(s) data to actually send emails to. You can easily seed your database with fake data by using seeders. To generate a Seeder class, open up a terminal in your project directory and run the following command:

$ php artisan make:seeder UsersTableSeeder

This will generate a UsersTableSeeder seeder class in database/seeds/. Open the newly created file (database/seeds/UsersTableSeeder.php) and make the following changes:

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
use Faker\Generator as Faker;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;

class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run(Faker $faker)
    {
        DB::table("users")->insert([
            [
                'name' => $faker->name,
                'email' => $faker->unique()->safeEmail, //use real email here
                'email_verified_at' => now(),
                'password' => Hash::make($faker->password()), // password
            ],
            [
                'name' => $faker->name,
                'email' => $faker->unique()->safeEmail, //use real email here
                'email_verified_at' => now(),
                'password' => Hash::make($faker->password()), // password
            ],
            [
                'name' => $faker->name,
                'email' => $faker->unique()->safeEmail, //use real email here
                'email_verified_at' => now(),
                'password' => Hash::make($faker->password()), // password
            ],
        ]);
    }
}

NOTE: You have to swap out the email faker for real email addresses that you want to test your application with.

Run the following command to seed your database with the data in the seeder class:

$ php artisan db:seed --class=UsersTableSeeder

Scheduling Mails

Now that you have some sample user data in your database, it's time to schedule emails to send at appointed times. In Laravel, there are several ways of scheduling a task and in this tutorial, we will make use of an artisan command.

First, create a new artisan command by running the following command in your terminal:

$ php artisan make:command SendMails

This will generate a new Console command class in app/Console/Commands/SendMails.php. This file will house the needed logic for sending out emails via SendGrid. Now open the just newly created SendMails file and make the following changes:

<?php

namespace App\Console\Commands;

use App\User;
use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use SendGrid;
use SendGrid\Mail\From;
use SendGrid\Mail\HtmlContent;
use SendGrid\Mail\Mail;
use SendGrid\Mail\Personalization;
use SendGrid\Mail\Subject;

class SendMails extends Command
{
    /**
     * The name and signature of the console command.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $signature = 'sendmails:send';

    /**
     * The console command description.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description = 'Sends mails to users';

    /**
     * Create a new command instance.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        $from = new SendGrid\Mail\From(env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS'));

        /* Set the subject of mail */
        $subject = new SendGrid\Mail\Subject("Daily Mail Update!");

        /* Set mail body */
        $htmlContent = new SendGrid\Mail\HtmlContent("This is a mail from " . getenv('APP_NAME') . " sent at " . now());

        $email = new SendGrid\Mail\Mail(
            $from,
            null,
            $subject,
            null,
            $htmlContent
        );

        /* Get all registered users */
        $users = User::all();
        foreach ($users as $user) {
            /* Create new personalization object for each user and add to Mail object */
            $personalization = new Personalization();
            $personalization->addTo(new SendGrid\Mail\To(json_decode($user)->email, json_decode($user)->name));
            $email->addPersonalization($personalization);
        }

        /* Create instance of Sendgrid SDK */
        $sendgrid = new SendGrid(getenv('SENDGRID_API_KEY'));
        /* Send mail using sendgrid instance */
        $sendgrid->send($email);
    }
}

NOTE: Be sure to add the MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS env variable with the approved sender email from your SendGrid account.

At creation, there are two properties and a method already present in the class; $signature, $description, and the handle() method. The $signature property is used to identify the command from the artisan console. In this case, to run this command you will have to do something like:

$ php artisan sendmails:send

The $description property, as the name indicates, is used to describe this command when the artisan list command is executed, while the handle() method is called whenever the sendmails:send command is executed.

The handle() method is used to send out emails to all registered users using the SendGrid SDK. First, the data needed for sending out emails is prepared using the helper classes in the SendGrid SDK. Next, a new Mail object is created using the SendGrid\Mail\Mail class which receives five (5) arguments, namely from, to, subject, plainTextContent, and htmlContent.

$email = new SendGrid\Mail\Mail(
            $from,
            null,
            $subject,
            null,
            $htmlContent
        );

You can see null is passed into the to parameter because this mail is meant to be sent to multiple users while concealing who the other recipients are. To ensure this mail is sent to each user individually, you have to make use of a personalization object. A personalization object helps you create multiple options for each receiver of an email.

/* Get all registered users */
$users = User::all();
foreach ($users as $user) {
    /* Create new personalization object for each user and add to Mail object */
    $personalization = new Personalization();
    $personalization->addTo(new SendGrid\Mail\To(json_decode($user)->email, json_decode($user)->name));
    $email->addPersonalization($personalization);
}

In this case, a personalization object is created for each user and then added to the Mail object using the addPersonalization method available in the Mail class. Finally, the $email (Mail object) is then passed into the send() method from the SendGrid SDK, which is used to send out the mails using the options set in the Mail object.

Scheduling The Command

At this point, you would have successfully created a custom artisan command to send out emails to your users. Next, let's actually schedule the mail. To do this, open up the app/Console/Kernel.php file and make the following changes:

<?php

namespace App\Console;

use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Console\Kernel as ConsoleKernel;

class Kernel extends ConsoleKernel
{
    /**
     * The Artisan commands provided by your application.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $commands = [
        //
    ];

    /**
     * Define the application's command schedule.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule  $schedule
     * @return void
     */
    protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
    {
        $schedule->command('sendmails:send')
            ->daily();
    }

    /**
     * Register the commands for the application.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    protected function commands()
    {
        $this->load(__DIR__ . '/Commands');

        require base_path('routes/console.php');
    }
}

The custom command (sendmails:send) has been added to the schedule() method and is set to fire daily using the daily() frequency option. Next, you need to register a cron job to run the scheduler every minute which will, in turn, run your scheduled tasks in the shedule() method. If you know how to add a cron job on your server then go ahead and add the following:

* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

If not, then open up your terminal and run the following:

$ crontab -e

This will open your server's crontab file. Next add the following to the file:

* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Testing

At this point, you should have successfully created a custom artisan command and also scheduled it to run daily. Testing the application can be broken down into:

Testing the custom artisan command works - To do this simply open up a terminal in your project directory and run the following command:

  $ php artisan sendmails:send

Testing the scheduled command works - To allow you test this command, you will have to adjust your schedule frequency to run the command every minute using the everyMinute() option. So replace the daily() frequency option with everyMinute() :

/**
 * Define the application's command schedule.
 *
 * @param  \Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule  $schedule
 * @return void
 */
 protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
 {
     $schedule->command('sendmails:send')
         ->everyMinute();
 }

Then proceed to run the following command in the terminal to run the scheduler:

 $ php artisan schedule:run

You should get a mail after testing either of the steps.

NOTE: Remember to replace your schedule method with your desired frequency after testing the scheduled command.

Conclusion

Now that you have finished this tutorial, you have learned how to send out emails using Twilio SendGrid in a Laravel application, while also learning how to build and schedule a custom artisan command. If you would like to take a look at the complete source code for this tutorial, you can find it on Github.

I’d love to answer any question(s) you might have concerning this tutorial. You can reach me via

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