Laravel¶

Guide for applications built with Laravel (10.x and 11.x). Mailexam connects as a standard SMTP server — only the configuration in .env changes; sending code (Mail, Mailable, queues) stays the same.

What you need¶

A Mailexam account and a project with SMTP credentials.
A Laravel application with the mail module configured (config/mail.php by default).

Copy from the welcome email (or dashboard) for your project:

YOUR_LOGIN — SMTP login (for example, xxxxx);
YOUR_PASSWORD — SMTP password (a unique pair with the login);
host in the email — YOUR_LOGIN.mailexam.io (the hostname matches the login).

1. Configuring `.env`¶

Add or update mail variables:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=YOUR_LOGIN.mailexam.io
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=YOUR_LOGIN
MAIL_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls

MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=noreply@example.test
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

Sender address

MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS can be any test address — the message still goes to Mailexam, not to a real recipient. For consistency in tests, it is convenient to use the *.test domain or @example.com.

Alternative ports¶

587 + TLS (recommended)2525 (if port 25 is blocked)25 without encryption

MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls

MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls

MAIL_PORT=25
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null

Apply the configuration:

php artisan config:clear

In production, after verification you can cache: php artisan config:cache.

2. Checking `config/mail.php`¶

In a standard Laravel install, config/mail.php already reads variables from .env. Additional changes are usually not required. Make sure the smtp mailer uses env('MAIL_HOST'), env('MAIL_PORT'), and so on.

3. Sending a test email¶

Via Tinker¶

php artisan tinker

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

Mail::raw('Mailexam test from Laravel', function ($message) {
    $message->to('user@example.test')
        ->subject('Laravel + Mailexam');
});

Via Mailable¶

php artisan make:mail WelcomeTestMail

// app/Mail/WelcomeTestMail.php
namespace App\Mail;

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailable;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailables\Content;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailables\Envelope;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;

class WelcomeTestMail extends Mailable
{
    use Queueable, SerializesModels;

    public function envelope(): Envelope
    {
        return new Envelope(subject: 'Welcome (test)');
    }

    public function content(): Content
    {
        return new Content(view: 'emails.welcome-test');
    }
}

use App\Mail\WelcomeTestMail;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

Mail::to('user@example.test')->send(new WelcomeTestMail());

Open the Mailexam dashboard → project → inbox: the message should appear within a few seconds.

4. Local development and CI¶

Environment	Recommendation
`local`	A separate Mailexam project per developer or a shared team test project
`staging`	Its own Mailexam project, same `.env` via CI secrets
PHPUnit	Either real Mailexam SMTP in integration tests, or `MAIL_MAILER=array` / `log` for unit tests without network

Example variables in GitLab CI (Settings → CI/CD → Variables):

variables:
  MAIL_MAILER: smtp
  MAIL_HOST: "${MAILEXAM_LOGIN}.mailexam.io"
  MAIL_PORT: "587"
  MAIL_USERNAME: "${MAILEXAM_LOGIN}"
  MAIL_PASSWORD: "${MAILEXAM_PASSWORD}"
  MAIL_ENCRYPTION: tls

After sending a message in the pipeline, verify delivery via the Mailexam API.

5. Common issues¶

Connection could not be established

MAIL_HOST must be YOUR_LOGIN.mailexam.io — the same login as in MAIL_USERNAME, without an smtp. prefix.
Take login and password as a pair from the email; do not mix credentials from another project.
Run php artisan config:clear after changing .env.

Message not visible in the dashboard

Check that you are viewing the inbox of the same project whose credentials are in .env.
Make sure sending did not go to a queue with an error: php artisan queue:work and logs in storage/logs/laravel.log.

SSL/TLS errors

For port 587 use MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls, not ssl.
Port 465 with ssl is supported, but not recommended for new integrations.