YII2 - In test, send email nowhere - yii2

Question

I have a test and live environment. In test, I don't ever want to send the mailer mails. I have the mailer setup as a component in web.php like this
'mailer' => [
'class' => 'nickcv\mandrill\Mailer',
'apikey' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
'useMandrillTemplates' => true,
'templateLanguage' => nickcv\mandrill\Mailer::LANGUAGE_HANDLEBARS,
],
Is there a way to set up the mailer component so it sends nowhere?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Because mailer you are using extends yii\mail\BaseMailer you can simply set its $useFileTransport to true and the mail will be saved in file instead.
'mailer' => [
'class' => 'nickcv\mandrill\Mailer',
'apikey' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
'useMandrillTemplates' => true,
'templateLanguage' => nickcv\mandrill\Mailer::LANGUAGE_HANDLEBARS,
'useFileTransport' => true,
],
Another option is creating a mock of mailer and using it instead of real mailer.
If you use codeception framework and its Yii2 module, the mailer component should be replaced automatically if you have email part enabled in codeception configs.

Answer 2

======== Configure Apache to send the emails from localhost code ========
Changes for C:\xampp\php\php.ini file:
search for [mail function]:
[mail function]
SMTP=localhost to SMTP=smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port=587
sendmail_from=me#example.com to sendmail_from=your email address
sendmail_path = "\"C:\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.exe\" -t"
mail.add_x_header=Off
mail.log = syslog
Changes for C:\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.ini:
search for [sendmail]:
smtp_server=smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port=587
smtp_ssl=auto
error_logfile=error.log
debug_logfile=debug.log
auth_username=same as "sendmail_from" in php.ini file
auth_password=generated password for the email account
force_sender= same as "auth_username" in this file
=========== mailer component in Yii application ===============
'mailer' => [
'class' => 'yii\swiftmailer\Mailer',
// send all mails to a file by default. You have to set
// 'useFileTransport' to false and configure a transport
// for the mailer to send real emails.
'useFileTransport' => false,
'transport' => [
'class' => 'Swift_SmtpTransport',
'host' => 'smtp.gmail.com',
'username' => 'your email address (for testing on localhost use same as in ini files)',
'password' => 'generated password',
'port' => 587,
'encryption' => 'tls',
],
], //end of mailer

Answer 3

Actually, I think it would be nice to receive somewhere your test emails for debugging and QA.
Personally, in dev environment, I would recommend setting up and configuring mailhog
'mailer' => [
'class' => 'yii\swiftmailer\Mailer',
'viewPath' => '#common/mail',
'transport' => [
'class' => 'Swift_SmtpTransport',
'host' => 'localhost',
'port' => '1025',
],
],
It is straightforward to install following the steps described here: https://github.com/mailhog/MailHog
You can then go to http://localhost:8025 and see your inbox