README

A Laravel package for capturing and previewing emails in a web UI, perfect for staging and testing environments.

Features

• 📧 Capture all outgoing emails instead of sending them
• 🎨 View HTML and plain text versions of emails
• 🔍 Search and filter captured emails
• 📎 Download email attachments
• 🗄️ Store emails in database with auto-cleanup
• 🔐 Secure admin-only access
• ⚙️ Fully configurable routes and middleware
• 🎯 Zero configuration required for basic usage

Installation

1. Install via Composer

composer require ghijk/laravel-email-preview

2. Publish and Run Migrations

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=email-preview-migrations
php artisan migrate

3. Configure Mail Driver

Set your mail driver to database in .env:

MAIL_MAILER=database

That's it! You're ready to start capturing emails.

Usage

Viewing Captured Emails

Navigate to /internal/emails in your application (default route). The package provides:

• Email List: Paginated view of all captured emails with search and filters
• Email Detail: Full email preview with HTML/text toggle, headers, and attachments
• Delete Options: Delete individual emails or clear all

Cleanup Old Emails

# Clean up emails older than 7 days (default)
php artisan email-preview:cleanup

# Custom retention period
php artisan email-preview:cleanup --days=30

Scheduled Cleanup

Add to app/Console/Kernel.php:

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    $schedule->command('email-preview:cleanup')->daily();
}

Configuration

Publish Config (Optional)

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=email-preview-config

Available Options

Configure via .env:

# Table name for storing emails
EMAIL_PREVIEW_TABLE=captured_emails

# Number of days to retain emails
EMAIL_PREVIEW_RETENTION_DAYS=7

# Route configuration
EMAIL_PREVIEW_ROUTE_PREFIX=internal/emails
EMAIL_PREVIEW_ROUTE_NAME=internal.captured-emails
EMAIL_PREVIEW_MIDDLEWARE=auth,super_admin

# Enable/disable routes
EMAIL_PREVIEW_ROUTES_ENABLED=true

# Auto cleanup (still requires scheduler setup)
EMAIL_PREVIEW_AUTO_CLEANUP=false

Custom Middleware

Update config/email-preview.php:

'routes' => [
    'middleware' => ['auth', 'admin'], // Your custom middleware
],

Frontend Views

The package uses Inertia.js and expects React components at:

• resources/js/Pages/Admin/CapturedEmails/Index.tsx
• resources/js/Pages/Admin/CapturedEmails/Show.tsx

These components should be provided by your application for full UI customization.

API

Model

use Ghijk\EmailPreview\Models\CapturedEmail;

// Query captured emails
$emails = CapturedEmail::query()
    ->search('test@example.com')
    ->mailableClass('App\\Mail\\WelcomeMail')
    ->dateRange('2024-01-01', '2024-12-31')
    ->get();

// Access email data
$email->to; // Array of recipients
$email->subject;
$email->html_body;
$email->text_body;
$email->attachments; // Array of attachment data
$email->mailable_class; // Original mailable class name

Routes

All routes use the configured prefix and middleware:

• GET /internal/emails - Email list
• GET /internal/emails/{uuid} - Email details
• DELETE /internal/emails/{uuid} - Delete email
• DELETE /internal/emails - Clear all emails

How It Works

1. Custom Mail Transport: Intercepts outgoing emails via custom database mail driver
2. Database Storage: Stores complete email data including HTML, text, headers, and attachments
3. Web UI: Provides admin interface for viewing captured emails
4. Auto-Cleanup: Optional command to remove old emails based on retention policy

Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• Laravel 10.0 or 11.0
• MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite (any Laravel-supported database)

Security

• Always use appropriate middleware to restrict access
• Never use in production with real customer data
• Regularly clean up captured emails
• Review captured emails before deploying to production

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Credits

Created by Wild at Heart

Support

For issues and feature requests, please use the GitHub issue tracker.