Laravel provides a convenient way to schedule tasks. Scheduled tasks are vital for automating repetitive tasks like sending emails, generating reports, or performing database maintenance.

By using the standard functionality, it's very easy to email the output of these commands. However, the email subject often needs to be customized to provide more context to the recipient. In this article, we'll explore how to customize the email titles for scheduled tasks in Laravel.

Setting up Laravel console kernel

Before diving into customization, let's ensure that Laravel console kernel is set up correctly. The console kernel serves as the entry point for all Laravel console commands, including scheduled tasks.

To schedule a task, navigate to the app/Console/Kernel.php file in your Laravel project. Within this file, you'll find the schedule() method. This method allows you to define all of your scheduled tasks using a fluent API provided by Laravel's Task Scheduler.

Defining scheduled tasks

Inside the schedule() method, you can define your scheduled tasks using various methods provided by Laravel, such as command(), call(), or exec(). For instance, let's consider a simple task that generates a report and sends it via email:

1protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule): void
2{
3    $schedule->command(GenerateReportCommand::class)
4        ->daily()
5        ->emailOutputTo('your@email.com', onlyIfOutputExists: true));
6}

In this example, we're scheduling the GenerateReportCommand::class to run daily and send its output to the specified email address. We also use the option onlyIfOutputExists to send the email only if the command generates any output.

Customizing Email Titles

By default, Laravel uses the task description as the subject for emails sent via the emailOutputTo() method. However, you may want to customize this subject to provide more context or make it more descriptive.

To customize the email title, Laravel allows you to use the description method, where you can specify the email subject:

1protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule): void
2{
3    $schedule->command(GenerateReportCommand::class)
4        ->daily()
5        ->emailOutputTo('your@email.com', onlyIfOutputExists: true))
6        ->description(App::environment() . ' | Report was generated');
7}

In this example, we've added the description() method to the scheduled task, providing a custom email subject that includes the current environment and a descriptive message. This way, the recipient can quickly identify the purpose of the email.

Conclusion

Customizing email titles for scheduled tasks in Laravel console kernel is a simple yet powerful feature that enhances the clarity and context of automated email notifications. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can easily tailor email subjects to suit your specific requirements, providing recipients with valuable insights and facilitating better communication within your application.