Using AfricasTalking notification channel for Laravel

Using the AfricasTalking laravel-notification-channels

laravel-notification-channels / africastalking

AfricasTalking Notification Channel For Laravel

The AfricasTalking channel makes it possible to send out Laravel notifications as a SMS using AfricasTalking API.

Assuming you have a Laravel application set up with Database working.

We begin by installing the package.

Installation

You can install the laravel africastalking package via composer:

composer require laravel-notification-channels/africastalking

Setting up the AfricasTalking service

You will need to Register and then go to your sandbox app Go To SandBox App. Click on settings Within this page, you will generate your Username and key. Place them inside your .env file.

Remember to add your Sender ID that you will be using to send the messages. If you don't have any Sender ID use "AFRICASTKNG"

file: .env

AT_USERNAME=""
AT_KEY=""
AT_FROM="AFRICASTKNG"

Update migration

Update the migration for user user add phone_number field

file: database/migrations/2014_10_12_000000_create_users_table.php

    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->string('email')->unique();
            $table->timestamp('email_verified_at')->nullable();
            $table->string('password');
             // 👇 add the line below
            $table->string('phone_number');
            $table->rememberToken();
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }
}

   public function definition()
    {
        return [
            'name' => $this->faker->name,
            'email' => $this->faker->unique()->safeEmail,
            'email_verified_at' => now(),
            'password' => '$2y$10$92IXUNpkjO0rOQ5byMi.Ye4oKoEa3Ro9llC/.og/at2.uheWG/igi', // password
// 👇 add the line below
            'phone_number' => '00000000000' // some valid telephone number
            'remember_token' => Str::random(10),
        ];
    }

Then update the user model, Add the routeNotifcationForAfricasTalking method on your notifiable Model for our case the User Model. If this is not added, the phone_number field will be automatically used.

file: App/Models/User.php

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use Notifiable;

    /**
     * Route notifications for the Africa's Talking channel.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Notifications\Notification  $notification
     * @return string
     */
    public function routeNotificationForAfricasTalking($notification)
    {
        return $this->phone_number;
    }
}

We will create a notification class, NewsWasPublished from the example below, in your Laravel application. Make sure to check out Laravel's documentation for this process.

php artisan make:notification NewsWasPublished

<?php

use NotificationChannels\AfricasTalking\AfricasTalkingChannel;
use NotificationChannels\AfricasTalking\AfricasTalkingMessage;

class NewsWasPublished extends Notification
{

    /**
     * Get the notification's delivery channels.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return array
     */
    public function via($notifiable)
    {
        return [AfricasTalkingChannel::class];
    }

    public function toAfricasTalking($notifiable)
    {
        return (new AfricasTalkingMessage())
                    ->content('Your SMS message content');

    }
}

Use Artisan Tinker to add new user

php artisan tinker

$user = User::factory()->make([
    //  👇 enter your mobile number for testing purposes 
    'phone_number' => '2550000000000' 
]);

Sending Notifications

In some controller function

Do

use App\Notifications\NewsWasPublished;


$user = User::first(); // get some user

// send notification 
$user->notify(new NewsWasPublished());

or

use App\Notifications\NewsWasPublished;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification;

Notification::send($users, new NewsWasPublished());

Disclaimer: A basic understanding of Laravel is required, By all means this is not a full example nor a demo, rather a quick overview on how to implement sms notification using AfricasTalking SMS API.

Refer:

• https://laravel-notification-channels.com/africastalking/#contents
• https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/notifications

Comments

[Osaigbovo Emmanuel]

Please if you face any issue remove AT_FROM from your .env or set it as ""
(Seems AFRICASTKNG is no longer a valid sender ID), also ensure you update the package to version 3.0 "laravel-notification-channels/africastalking": "^3.1.0"

[Osaigbovo Emmanuel]

Laravel Notification Africastalking Creator/Maintainer here, great article!

[Alpha Olomi]

Thanks Much, Appreciate a lot,