Laravel Notifications – Send notifications through multiple channels

Laravel Notifications provide a way to send notifications to users through multiple channels such as email, SMS (via services like Twilio), Slack, database, and more. The notification system is flexible and allows you to use different channels for different kinds of notifications, depending on your application’s needs.

Creating a Notification

To create a new notification, you can use the Artisan command:

php artisan make:notification InvoicePaid

1	php artisan make:notification InvoicePaid

This will create a new notification class in the app/Notifications directory. The notification class looks like this:

<?php

namespace App\Notifications;

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notification;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage;

class InvoicePaid extends Notification
{
    use Queueable;

    // You can pass data to the notification via constructor
    public function __construct()
    {
        //
    }

    // Define the channels the notification will be sent through
    public function via($notifiable)
    {
        return ['mail', 'database'];
    }

    // Format the mail message
    public function toMail($notifiable)
    {
        return (new MailMessage)
                    ->line('Your invoice has been paid.')
                    ->action('View Invoice', url('/'))
                    ->line('Thank you for your payment!');
    }

    // Format the database notification
    public function toDatabase($notifiable)
    {
        return [
            'invoice_id' => 12345,
            'amount' => 250,
        ];
    }
}

<?php

namespace App\Notifications;

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Notification;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage;

class InvoicePaid extends Notification

{

use Queueable;

// You can pass data to the notification via constructor

public function __construct()

{

}

// Define the channels the notification will be sent through

public function via($notifiable)

{

return ['mail', 'database'];

}

// Format the mail message

public function toMail($notifiable)

{

return (new MailMessage)

->line('Your invoice has been paid.')

->action('View Invoice', url('/'))

->line('Thank you for your payment!');

}

// Format the database notification

public function toDatabase($notifiable)

{

return [

'invoice_id' => 12345,

'amount' => 250,

];

}

Sending a Notification

You can send a notification in two ways:

Using the notify method on a notifiable entity:

$user->notify(new InvoicePaid($invoice));

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$user->notify(new InvoicePaid($invoice));
Using the Notification facade:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification; Notification::send($users, new InvoicePaid($invoice));

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use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification;

Notification::send($users, new InvoicePaid($invoice));

Notification Channels

You can send notifications through different channels. Laravel comes with a few channels out of the box, such as email and database. You can also extend the system with custom channels.

Email Notification Laravel uses Mail to send notifications via email. The toMail method in the notification class defines how the notification will be structured for email:

public function toMail($notifiable)
{
    return (new MailMessage)
               ->line('Your invoice has been paid.')
               ->action('View Invoice', url('/'))
               ->line('Thank you for your business!');
}

public function toMail($notifiable)

{

return (new MailMessage)

->line('Your invoice has been paid.')

->action('View Invoice', url('/'))

->line('Thank you for your business!');

}

Database Notification You can also store notifications in the database by using the toDatabase method:

public function toDatabase($notifiable) { return [ 'invoice_id' => 12345, 'amount' => 250, ]; }

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public function toDatabase($notifiable)
{
    return [
        'invoice_id' => 12345,
        'amount' => 250,
    ];
}

When sending a notification to the database, it will be stored in the notifications table. You can use php artisan notifications:table to generate the necessary migration for this table.
Slack Notification You can send a notification to a Slack channel by using the toSlack method:

public function toSlack($notifiable) { return (new SlackMessage) ->content('Your invoice has been paid.'); }

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public function toSlack($notifiable)
{
return (new SlackMessage)
->content('Your invoice has been paid.');
}
SMS Notification (via Nexmo or Twilio) You can send notifications via SMS by configuring the Nexmo or Twilio service and using the toNexmo or toTwilio method in the notification class.
Example using Nexmo:

public function toNexmo($notifiable) { return (new NexmoMessage) ->content('Your invoice has been paid.'); }

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public function toNexmo($notifiable)
{
return (new NexmoMessage)
->content('Your invoice has been paid.');
}

Notification Channels Summary

Mail: Sends notifications via email.
Database: Stores notifications in the database for later retrieval.
Slack: Sends notifications to a Slack channel.
SMS: Sends notifications via SMS using Nexmo or Twilio.
Broadcast: Real-time notifications using Laravel Echo and Pusher.

Custom Notification Channels

If you want to send notifications through a custom channel (for example, a third-party service like Telegram), you can create a custom notification channel by implementing the NotificationChannel interface and registering it in your notification.

Example Use Case: Sending Notifications via Multiple Channels

If you want to notify users through multiple channels like email, database, and Slack, you can define the via method like this:

public function via($notifiable)
{
    return ['mail', 'database', 'slack'];
}

public function via($notifiable)

{

return ['mail', 'database', 'slack'];

}

This will send the notification through all the defined channels whenever it is triggered.

Handling Notifications in the Database

To retrieve notifications stored in the database, you can use methods like notifications and unreadNotifications on your User model. For example:

// Get all notifications for the user
$notifications = $user->notifications;

// Get only unread notifications
$unreadNotifications = $user->unreadNotifications;

// Mark notifications as read
$user->unreadNotifications->markAsRead();

// Get all notifications for the user

$notifications = $user->notifications;

// Get only unread notifications

$unreadNotifications = $user->unreadNotifications;

// Mark notifications as read

$user->unreadNotifications->markAsRead();

Example Output (Notification Sent to Email)

If the user receives a notification via email, the email will look like this:

Subject: Invoice Paid

Body:
Your invoice has been paid.
Click here to view your invoice: [View Invoice]
Thank you for your payment!

Subject: Invoice Paid

Body:

Your invoice has been paid.

Click here to view your invoice: [View Invoice]

Thank you for your payment!

If the user also receives the notification through Slack or database, they will see it in those channels accordingly.

Summary of Outputs:

Email: Sends a formatted email with the notification content.
Database: Stores structured notification data in the database.
Slack: Posts a message to a Slack channel.
SMS: Sends an SMS message to the user.
Custom Channels: Use any third-party service by creating custom channels.