CakePHP 3 - How to check whether an Email has been delivered successfully? - cakephp

Question

i am trying to sending mail using cakephp 3.0 .
My code is :
Email::configTransport('WebMail',[
'className' => 'Smtp',
'host' => $host,
'port' => $port,
'timeout' => 30,
'username' => $username,
'password' => $password,
'client' => null,
'tls' => null]
);
$transport = ['transport' => 'WebMail'];
$email = new Email($transport);
$email
->from([$username => $senderName])
->to($email_to)
->subject('Password Reset Code');
$response = $email->send('hello');
its working fine but the problem is how to check if the email was delivered successfully or not to the recipient.
if I debug $response variable I got the array of all mail related data.
Now how can I check if the email was delivered or not .

Answer 1

You can't... at least not reliably. All CakePHP can tell you is whether sending/queing the mail was successful, and depending on the transport (Smtp/Mail/...) that you're using you can get the last response received from the E-Mail server.
If sending/queing was unsuccessful, a \Cake\Network\Exception\SocketException exception will be thrown, so catch that if you want to evaluate this problem. Other than that there's no further information CakePHP/PHP can provide you with.
try {
$email->send();
} catch (\Cake\Network\Exception\SocketException $exception) {
// sending/queing failed
// the last response is available when using the Smtp transport
$lastResponse = $email->transport()->getLastResponse();
}
If applicable you could use a custom Smtp transport and implement requesting DSNs (Delivery status notifications, which you could then evaluate later on, however this isn't foolproof either, as notifications aren't guaranteed.
See also
API > \Cake\Mailer\Transport\SmtpTransport::getLastResponse()
API > \Cake\Mailer\Email::transport()

Answer 2

You'll need to add some form of tracking pixel to the email, or just use a transactional email service like Mandrill (MailChimp) or SendGrid...etc that will do this for you. You can then see whether they received it, and if they opened it...etc.

Answer 3

You can manually open the inbox of sending email to check if the mail was sent. If due to any reason the mail could not be sent, you'll receive a revert mail stating the problem.
Now, I know this is not a very efficient method so you need to keep these things in mind :-
1. You need to lower the security of your email.
2. You should not send codes (JavaScript etc) on email.
3. Keep in mind the size of content you are sending.
With these points checked you can assume your mail was sent. For a safer side you can check you mail once a week/month to see if all the mails were sent or if you got any error.