Notifications

Notifications are a powerful tool in Laravel's toolbox. They provide support for sending notifications to an array of different services, including mail, SMS, Slack, or storing them in your database to show on the user's profile page, for example.

Creating a Notification

First, to start using Notifications in your package, create a Notifications directory in your package's src/ directory.

For this example, add a PostWasPublishedNotification.php, which notifies the author of the Post that his submission was approved.

<?php

namespace JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Notifications;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notification;
use JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Models\Post;

class PostWasPublishedNotification extends Notification
{
    public $post;

    public function __construct(Post $post)
    {
        $this->post = $post;
    }

    /**
     * Get the notification's delivery channels.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return array
     */
    public function via($notifiable)
    {
        return ['mail'];
    }

    /**
     * Get the mail representation of the notification.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return \Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage
     */
    public function toMail($notifiable)
    {
        return (new MailMessage)
            ->line("Your post '{$this->post->title}' was accepted")
            ->action('Notification Action', url("/posts/{$this->post->id}"))
            ->line('Thank you for using our application!');
    }

    /**
     * Get the array representation of the notification.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return array
     */
    public function toArray($notifiable)
    {
        return [
            //
        ];
    }
}

Testing Notifications

In the test:

• Swap the Notification facade with a mock using the fake() helper.
• Assert no notifications have been sent before calling the notify() method.
• Notify the User model via $user->notify() (which needs to use the Notifiable trait).
• Assert that the notification was sent and contains the correct Post model.

<?php

namespace JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Tests\Unit;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification;
use JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Models\Post;
use JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Notifications\PostWasPublishedNotification;
use JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Tests\TestCase;
use JohnDoe\BlogPackage\Tests\User;

class NotifyPostWasPublishedTest extends TestCase
{
    /** @test */
    public function it_can_notify_a_user_that_a_post_was_published()
    {
        Notification::fake();

        $post = Post::factory()->create();

        // the User model has the 'Notifiable' trait
        $user = User::factory()->create();

        Notification::assertNothingSent();

        $user->notify(new PostWasPublishedNotification($post));

        Notification::assertSentTo(
            $user,
            PostWasPublishedNotification::class,
            function ($notification) use ($post) {
                return $notification->post->id === $post->id;
            }
        );
    }
}

With the test passing, you can safely use this notification in your package.

Custom Notification Channels

Additionally, you may configure the channels for the notification to be dependent on your package's configuration file to allow your users to specify which notification channels they want to use.

<?php

public function via($notifiable)
{
    return config('blogpackage.notifications.channels');
}

Finally, add the notifications.channels sub-array entries to your configuration stub file (see the Package Configuration section).