How to Generate PDF and Send Email in Laravel 11?

Hi, Dev

In this tutorial, I will guide you through the process of generating a PDF file and sending it as an email attachment in a Laravel 11 application.

In this example, I will demonstrate how to use Dompdf to generate a PDF file and send it as an email attachment using Gmail SMTP as the mail driver. By following a few straightforward steps, you can create a simple Laravel app that sends an email with the generated PDF file.

Step for Laravel 11 Send Email with PDF Attachment Example

Step 1: Install Laravel 11

Step 2: Install dompdf Package

Step 3: Make Configuration

Step 4: Create Mail Class

Step 5: Add Route

Step 6: Add Controller

Step 7: Create View File

Run Laravel App

Step 1: Install Laravel 11

This step is not required; however, if you have not created the Laravel app, then you may go ahead and execute the below command:

composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app

Step 2: Install dompdf Package

First of all, we will install the barryvdh/laravel-dompdf composer package by following the composer command in your Laravel application.

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

Step 3: Make Configuration

In the first step, you have to add send mail configuration with mail driver, mail host, mail port, mail username, and mail password so Laravel will use those sender details on the email. So you can simply add the following:

.env

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=mygoogle@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=rrnnucvnqlbsl
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=mygoogle@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

Step 4: Create Mail Class

We are going from scratch, and in the first step, we will create an email for testing using the Laravel Mail facade. So let's simply run the command below.

php artisan make:mail MailExample

Now you will have a new folder "Mail" in the app directory with the MailExample.php file. So let's simply copy the below code and paste it into that file.

app/Mail/MailExample.php

<?php
  
namespace App\Mail;
  
use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailable;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailables\Content;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailables\Envelope;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailables\Attachment;
  
class MailExample extends Mailable
{
    use Queueable, SerializesModels;
  
    public $mailData;
  
    /**
     * Create a new message instance.
     */
    public function __construct($mailData)
    {
        $this->mailData = $mailData;
    }
  
    /**
     * Get the message envelope.
     */
    public function envelope(): Envelope
    {
        return new Envelope(
            subject: $this->mailData['title'],
        );
    }
  
    /**
     * Get the message content definition.
     */
    public function content(): Content
    {
        return new Content(
            view: 'emails.myTestMail',
            with: $this->mailData
        );
    }
  
    /**
     * Get the attachments for the message.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function attachments(): array
    {
        return [
            Attachment::fromData(fn () => $this->mailData['pdf']->output(), 'Report.pdf')
                ->withMime('application/pdf'),
        ];
    }
}

Step 5: Add Route

In this step, we need to create routes for item listings. So open your routes/web.php file and add the following route.

routes/web.php

<?php
  
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
  
use App\Http\Controllers\PDFController;
  
Route::get('send-email-pdf', [PDFController::class, 'index']);

Step 6: Add Controller

Here, we need to create a new controller PDFController that will manage the index method of the route. So let's add the code below.

app/Http/Controllers/PDFController.php

<?php
      
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
       
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Mail\MailExample;
use PDF;
use Mail;
    
class PDFController extends Controller
{
       
    /**
     * Show the application dashboard.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function index()
    {
        $data["email"] = "your@gmail.com";
        $data["title"] = "From NiceSnippets.com";
        $data["body"] = "This is Demo";
    
        $pdf = PDF::loadView('emails.myTestMail', $data);
        $data["pdf"] = $pdf;
  
        Mail::to($data["email"])->send(new MailExample($data));
    
        dd('Mail sent successfully');
    }
       
}

Step 7: Create View File

In the last step, let's create myTestMail.blade.php (resources/views/emails/myTestMail.blade.php) for the layout of the PDF file and put the following code:

resources/views/emails/myTestMail.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>NiceSnippets.com</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>{{ $title }}</h1>
    <p>{{ $body }}</p>
     
    <p>Thank you</p>
</body>
</html>

Run Laravel App:

All the required steps have been done, now you have to type the given below command and hit enter to run the Laravel app:

php artisan serve

Now, Go to your web browser, type the given URL and view the app output:

http://localhost:8000/send-email-pdf

Output:

I hope it can help you...