How do you send a templated Mailgun email with Laravel?

Question

I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to send a Mailgun template through a Laravel mailable.

The following code sends my email fine using a blade view:

return $this->from(['address'=>'no-reply@domain.com', 'name'=>'Domain'])
        ->subject("subject")
        ->replyTo(['address'=>'sales@domain.com'])
        ->view('emails.deliverReport')
        ->withSwiftMessage(function($message){
            $headers = $message->getHeaders();
            $headers->addTextHeader("X-Mailgun-Variables", '{"type": "asset-delivery"}');
            $headers->addTextHeader("X-Mailgun-Tag", "asset-delivery");
        });

I'd like to send a template that I've created on Mailgun as opposed to using a blade template.

You are able to do this with CURL by sending the template as form data:

curl -s --user 'api:YOUR_API_KEY' \
https://api.mailgun.net/v3/YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME/messages \
-F from='Sender Bob <sbob@YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME>' \
-F to='alice@example.com' \
-F subject='Hello' \
-F template='template.test' \
-F h:X-Mailgun-Variables='{"title": "API documentation", "body": "Sending messages with templates"}'

Has anyone had any luck sending a Mailgun template via a Laravel mailable?

Answer 1

Most probably this doesn't concern you anymore, but it answers the question. I've created a library that adds a new notification channel to send templated messages to Laravel; this breaks down to something like the following:

1. Create a new channel:

   class MailgunTemplatesChannel
   {
       public function __construct(private Mailgun $mailgun)
   
       public function send($notifiable, Notification $notification): void
       {
           [$template, $params] = $notification->toMailgun($notifiable);
   
           // Route the notification to the mail recipient address
           $params['to'] = $notifiable->routeNotificationFor('mail');
   
           $this->mailgun->messages()->send([
               'template' => $template,
               ...$params,
           ]);
       }
   }
   

2. Setup Mailgun and register the channel in a service provider:

   class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
       public function register(): void
       {
           // ...
   
           // Configure Mailgun
           $this->app->bind(Mailgun::class, fn() => Mailgun::create(
               config('services.mailgun.secret'),
               config('services.mailgun.endpoint', 'https://api.mailgun.net'),
           ));
   
           // Register the channel
           Notification::resolved(fn(ChannelManager $service) => $service->extend(
               'mailgun', // This is the notification channel identifier
               fn(Application $app) => $app->make(MailgunTemplatesChannel::class)
           ));
       }
   

3. Configure notifications to send via the new Mailgun channel:

   class MyTestNotification extends Notification
   {
       public function toMailgun(): array
       {
           return [ 
               'subject' => 'Your subject',
               'template' => 'name_of_the_template',
               'v:some_variable' => 'a template variable value',
           ];
       }
   
       public function via(): array
       {
           return [ 'mailgun' ];
       }
   }
   

4. Send notifications via Mailgun:

   $user->notify(new MyTestNotification());
   

Please don't just copy-paste this into your app! It's a rough outline of how to build a custom channel for templated messages, but it leaves a lot to desire.
If you want a production-ready package, take a look at matchory/laravel-mailgun-templates-channel.