Laravel 11.x Email Verification

Introduction

Many web applications require users to verify their email addresses before using the application. Rather than forcing you to re-implement this feature by hand for each application you create, Laravel provides convenient built-in services for sending and verifying email verification requests.

lightbulb Note:
Want to get started fast? Install one of the Laravel application starter kits in a fresh Laravel application. The starter kits will take care of scaffolding your entire authentication system, including email verification support.

Model Preparation

Before getting started, verify that your App\Models\User model implements the Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail contract:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

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

class User extends Authenticatable implements MustVerifyEmail
{
    use Notifiable;

    // ...
}

Once this interface has been added to your model, newly registered users will automatically be sent an email containing an email verification link. This happens seamlessly because Laravel automatically registers the Illuminate\Auth\Listeners\SendEmailVerificationNotification listener for the Illuminate\Auth\Events\Registered event.

If you are manually implementing registration within your application instead of using a starter kit, you should ensure that you are dispatching the Illuminate\Auth\Events\Registered event after a user's registration is successful:

use Illuminate\Auth\Events\Registered;

event(new Registered($user));

Database Preparation

Next, your users table must contain an email_verified_at column to store the date and time that the user's email address was verified. Typically, this is included in Laravel's default 0001_01_01_000000_create_users_table.php database migration.

Routing

To properly implement email verification, three routes will need to be defined. First, a route will be needed to display a notice to the user that they should click the email verification link in the verification email that Laravel sent them after registration.

Second, a route will be needed to handle requests generated when the user clicks the email verification link in the email.

Third, a route will be needed to resend a verification link if the user accidentally loses the first verification link.

The Email Verification Notice

As mentioned previously, a route should be defined that will return a view instructing the user to click the email verification link that was emailed to them by Laravel after registration. This view will be displayed to users when they try to access other parts of the application without verifying their email address first. Remember, the link is automatically emailed to the user as long as your App\Models\User model implements the MustVerifyEmail interface:

Route::get('/email/verify', function () {
    return view('auth.verify-email');
})->middleware('auth')->name('verification.notice');

The route that returns the email verification notice should be named verification.notice. It is important that the route is assigned this exact name since the verified middleware included with Laravel will automatically redirect to this route name if a user has not verified their email address.

lightbulb Note:
When manually implementing email verification, you are required to define the contents of the verification notice view yourself. If you would like scaffolding that includes all necessary authentication and verification views, check out the Laravel application starter kits.

The Email Verification Handler

Next, we need to define a route that will handle requests generated when the user clicks the email verification link that was emailed to them. This route should be named verification.verify and be assigned the auth and signed middlewares:

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\EmailVerificationRequest;

Route::get('/email/verify/{id}/{hash}', function (EmailVerificationRequest $request) {
    $request->fulfill();

    return redirect('/home');
})->middleware(['auth', 'signed'])->name('verification.verify');

Before moving on, let's take a closer look at this route. First, you'll notice we are using an EmailVerificationRequest request type instead of the typical Illuminate\Http\Request instance. The EmailVerificationRequest is a form request that is included with Laravel. This request will automatically take care of validating the request's id and hash parameters.

Next, we can proceed directly to calling the fulfill method on the request. This method will call the markEmailAsVerified method on the authenticated user and dispatch the Illuminate\Auth\Events\Verified event. The markEmailAsVerified method is available to the default App\Models\User model via the Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User base class. Once the user's email address has been verified, you may redirect them wherever you wish.

Resending the Verification Email

Sometimes a user may misplace or accidentally delete the email address verification email. To accommodate this, you may wish to define a route to allow the user to request that the verification email be resent. You may then make a request to this route by placing a simple form submission button within your verification notice view:

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

Route::post('/email/verification-notification', function (Request $request) {
    $request->user()->sendEmailVerificationNotification();

    return back()->with('message', 'Verification link sent!');
})->middleware(['auth', 'throttle:6,1'])->name('verification.send');

Protecting Routes

Route middleware may be used to only allow verified users to access a given route. Laravel includes a verified middleware alias, which is an alias for the Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\EnsureEmailIsVerified middleware class. Since this alias is already automatically registered by Laravel, all you need to do is attach the verified middleware to a route definition. Typically, this middleware is paired with the auth middleware:

Route::get('/profile', function () {
    // Only verified users may access this route...
})->middleware(['auth', 'verified']);

If an unverified user attempts to access a route that has been assigned this middleware, they will automatically be redirected to the verification.notice named route.

Customization

Verification Email Customization

Although the default email verification notification should satisfy the requirements of most applications, Laravel allows you to customize how the email verification mail message is constructed.

To get started, pass a closure to the toMailUsing method provided by the Illuminate\Auth\Notifications\VerifyEmail notification. The closure will receive the notifiable model instance that is receiving the notification as well as the signed email verification URL that the user must visit to verify their email address. The closure should return an instance of Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage. Typically, you should call the toMailUsing method from the boot method of your application's AppServiceProvider class:

use Illuminate\Auth\Notifications\VerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage;

/**
 * Bootstrap any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void
{
    // ...

    VerifyEmail::toMailUsing(function (object $notifiable, string $url) {
        return (new MailMessage)
            ->subject('Verify Email Address')
            ->line('Click the button below to verify your email address.')
            ->action('Verify Email Address', $url);
    });
}

lightbulb Note:
To learn more about mail notifications, please consult the mail notification documentation.

Events

When using the Laravel application starter kits, Laravel dispatches an Illuminate\Auth\Events\Verified event during the email verification process. If you are manually handling email verification for your application, you may wish to manually dispatch these events after verification is completed.