README

Multi-channel Laravel notification package

📝 Table of Contents

About
Getting Started
Usage
Built Using
TODO
Authors

🧐 About

In Laravel, crafting notification classes can often feel repetitive (and WET), especially in projects that rely heavily on notifications. Meet Raven – the solution that streamlines the process of sending notifications through multiple channels in Laravel, allowing you to focus on your peculiar business logic. Currently, Raven seamlessly handles email notifications through SendGrid and Amazon SES, as well as database notifications. Stay tuned, as support for SMS notifications will be integrated in the near future.

🏁 Getting Started

Prerequisites

To use this package, you need the following requirements:

PHP >= v8.0
Laravel >= v8.0
Composer

🎈 Usage

You can install this package via Composer using the command:
```
 composer require chijioke-ibekwe/raven
```
Next, you will need to publish and run the migration files, and the config file. The following command will allow you do all of the above:
```
php artisan raven:install
```
The migrations will be published in your project's migrations directory ./database/migrations while the config file raven.php, will be published in your config directory ./config. Content of the config file is as shown below:
```
<?php

return [

    'default' => [
        'email' => env('EMAIL_NOTIFICATION_PROVIDER', 'sendgrid'),
        'sms' => env('SMS_NOTIFICATION_PROVIDER', 'nexmo')
    ],

    'providers' => [
        'sendgrid' => [
            'key' => env('SENDGRID_API_KEY')
        ],
        'ses' => [
            'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'),
            'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'),
            'region' => env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION', 'us-east-1'),
            'template_source' => env('AWS_SES_TEMPLATE_SOURCE', 'sendgrid'),
            'template_directory' => env('AWS_SES_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY', 'resources/views/emails')
        ]
    ],

    'customizations' => [
        'mail' => [
            'from' => [
                'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS', 'hello@example.com'),
                'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME', 'Example'),
            ]
        ],
        'queue_name' => env('RAVEN_QUEUE_NAME')
    ],

    'api' => [
        'prefix' => 'api/v1',
        'middleware' => 'api'
    ]

];
```
- The default array allows you to configure your default service providers for your notification channels. Options are sendgrid and ses. (nexmo for SMS will be integrated soon).
- The providers array is where you supply the credentials for the service provider you choose. When using ses, you can provide the email template in 2 ways.
  - First is by hosting your email template on sendgrid. If this is your preferred option, the template_source should be set as sendgrid. NB: For this to work, you need to also provide your credentials for the sendgrid provider.
  - Second option is by storing your email templates on the file system as blade templates. The template_source in this case should be set as file and the directory of the templates should be provided on the template_directory. (This option is not currently available, but will be in the near future).
- The customizations array allows you to customize your email parameters, and optionally your queue_name (not queue connection) for queueing your notifications. If a queue name is not provided, the default queue will be used.
- The api array allows you to customize the provided API routes.

After the migrations have been run successfully, you can then proceed to add notification contexts to the database. To do this, simply create and run migration files similar to the ones below:

Email Notification Context

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

return new class extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     */
    public function up(): void
    {
        $id = DB::table('notification_contexts')->insertGetId(
            array(
                'name' => 'user-verified',
                'email_template_id' => 'd-ad34ghAwe3mQRvb29',
                'description' => 'Notification to inform a user that they have been verified on the platform'
            )
        );

        DB::table('notification_channel_notification_context')->insert(
            array(
                'notification_channel_id' => 1, //EMAIL
                'notification_context_id' => $id
            )
        );
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     */
    public function down(): void
    {
        DB::table('notification_contexts')->where('name', 'user-verified')->delete();
    }
};

Database Notification Context

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

return new class extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     */
    public function up(): void
    {
        $id = DB::table('notification_contexts')->insertGetId(
            array(
                'name' => 'user-verified',
                'description' => 'Notification to inform a user that they have been verified on the platform',
                'title' => 'You have been verified',
                'body' => 'Hello {name}. This is to let you know that your account with email {email} has been verified',
                'type' => 'user'
            )
        );

        DB::table('notification_channel_notification_context')->insert(
            array(
                'notification_channel_id' => 2, //DATABASE
                'notification_context_id' => $id
            )
        );
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     */
    public function down(): void
    {
        DB::table('notification_contexts')->where('name', 'user-verified')->delete();
    }
};

Email and Database Notification Context

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

return new class extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     */
    public function up(): void
    {
        $id = DB::table('notification_contexts')->insertGetId(
            array(
                'name' => 'user-verified',
                'email_template_id' => 'd-ad34ghAwe3mQRvb29',
                'description' => 'Notification to inform a user that they have been verified on the platform',
                'title' => 'You have been verified',
                'body' => 'Hello {name}. This is to let you know that your account with email {email} has been verified',
                'type' => 'user'
            )
        );

        DB::table('notification_channel_notification_context')->insert(
            array(
                array(
                    'notification_channel_id' => 1, //EMAIL
                    'notification_context_id' => $id,
                ),
                array(
                    'notification_channel_id' => 2, //DATABASE
                    'notification_context_id' => $id,
                )
            )
        );
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     */
    public function down(): void
    {
        DB::table('notification_contexts')->where('name', 'user-verified')->delete();
    }
};

To send a notification at any point in your code, build a Scroll object, set the relevant fields as shown below, and dispatch a Raven with the Scroll:
```
        $verified_user = User::find(1);
        $document_url = "https://example.com/laravel-cheatsheet.pdf";

        $scroll = new Scroll();
        $scroll->setContextName('user-verified');
        $scroll->setRecipients([$verified_user, 'admin@raven.com']);
        $scroll->setCcs(['john.doe@raven.com' => 'John Doe', 'jane.doe@raven.com' => 'Jane Doe'])
        $scroll->setParams([
            'id' => $verified_user->id,
            'name' => $verified_user->name
            'email' => $verified_user->email
        ]);
        $scroll->setAttachmentUrls($document_url)

        Raven::dispatch($scroll);
```
- The contextName property is required and must match the notification context name for that notification on the database.
- The recipients property is required and takes any single notifiable/email string, or an array of notifiables/email strings that should receive the notification.
- The ccs property is exclusively for email notifications and takes an array (or associative array with email/name as key/value pairs respectively) of emails you want to CC on the email notification.
- The params property is an associative array of all the variables that exist on the notification template with their values, where the key must match the variable name on the template.
- Finally, the attachmentUrls field takes a url or an array of urls that point to the publicly accessible resource(s) that needs to be attached to the email notification.
To successfully send Database Notifications, it is assumed that the user of this package has already set up a notifications table in their project via the command below:
```
php artisan notifications:table
```
And subsequently:
```
php artisan migrate
```
The data column for database notifications using this package, captures the following properties:
```
 [
    'title' => $title,
    'body' => $body
 ];
```
The title and body properties are obtained from the notification context for the said notification on the database.
The package takes care of the rest of the logic.

API

The following API is included in this package for ease of use:

GET /api/v1/notification-contexts

Fetches all notification contexts on the database. The user of this API has to be authenticated.
Return a JSON of the format below:

 {
     "status": true,
     "msg": "Success",
     "data": [
         {
             "id": 1,
             "email_template_id": "d-ad34ghAwe3mQRvb29",
             "name": "user-verified",
             "description": "Notification to inform a user that they have been verified on the platform",
             "title": "You have been verified",
             "body": "Hello {name}. This is to let you know that your account with email {email} has been verified",
             "type": "user",
             "active": true,
             "notification_channels": [
                 {
                     "id": 1,
                     "type": "EMAIL"
                 }
             ]
         }
     ]
 }

When user is not authenticated, it returns the following 401 response:

{
     "status": false,
     "msg": "You are not authorized to access this API"
}

Exceptions

The following exceptions can be thrown by the package for the scenarios outlined below:

RavenEntityNotFoundException code: 404
- Dispatching a Raven with a Scroll object that has a contextName which does not exist on the database.
RavenInvalidDataException code: 422
- Dispatching a Raven with a Scroll object without a contextName or recipient.
- Attempting to send an Email Notification using a NotificationContext that has no email_template_id.
- Attempting to send a Database Notification using a NotificationContext that has no title or body.
- Attempting to send an Email Notification to a notifiable that has no email field or a routeNotificationForMail() method in the model class.

⛏️ Built Using

PHP - Language
Orchestral Testbench - Library
AWS PHP SDK - Library
Sendgrid PHP Library - Library
PHP Mailer - Library

📝 TODO

Add support for SMS notifications

✍️ Authors

@chijioke-ibekwe - Initial work

chijioke-ibekwe / raven

Maintainers

Details