SMTP, or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is an email protocol used to transfer emails between email servers. Magento 2.4.6 now allows store owners to configure their SMTP settings and send emails using external email servers like Gmail, Yahoo, or any other email service provider. This means that store owners no longer need to rely on the default email server provided by their hosting company.

By using an external email server, store owners can take advantage of the advanced features offered by email service providers. These features include email templates, email tracking, and email analytics. Additionally, using an external email server can help improve email deliverability and reduce the chances of emails being marked as spam.

I would like to go through all steps and see how Magento sends different emails from the technical point of view.

If you need to disable some email notifications in Magento 2, you can check our extension.

Note: all code snippets were taken from the latest Magento Open Source 2.2.3 (community edition)

New customer account notification

Let's explore one of the most popular email notifications - new customer account confirmation. Magento sends this type of notification when a user submits a registration form. We assume here that customer confirmation feature is disabled by default.

This type of email notifications is being sent immediately, without queueing.

Everything starts in the controller, account management model receives customer object with extracted data and password.

vendor/magento/module-customer/Controller/Account/CreatePost.php

$customer = $this->accountManagement
                ->createAccount($customer, $password, $redirectUrl);

Account management (\Magento\Customer\Model\AccountManagement) calls createAccountWithPasswordHash method inside createAccount

Then a customer object is being saved using customer repository:

$customer = $this->customerRepository->save($customer, $hash);

And after successful save it sends email notification:

$this->sendEmailConfirmation($customer, $redirectUrl);
// ...
$this->getEmailNotification()->newAccount($customer, $templateType, $redirectUrl, $customer->getStoreId());

Note: getEmailNotification() method is deprecated now.

Here is how \Magento\Customer\Model\EmailNotification::newAccount() looks like:

public function newAccount(
    CustomerInterface $customer,
    $type = self::NEW_ACCOUNT_EMAIL_REGISTERED,
    $backUrl = '',
    $storeId = 0,
    $sendemailStoreId = null
) {
    $types = self::TEMPLATE_TYPES;

    if (!isset($types[$type])) {
        throw new LocalizedException(__('Please correct the transactional account email type.'));
    }

    if (!$storeId) {
        $storeId = $this->getWebsiteStoreId($customer, $sendemailStoreId);
    }

    $store = $this->storeManager->getStore($customer->getStoreId());

    $customerEmailData = $this->getFullCustomerObject($customer);

    $this->sendEmailTemplate(
        $customer,
        $types[$type],
        self::XML_PATH_REGISTER_EMAIL_IDENTITY,
        ['customer' => $customerEmailData, 'back_url' => $backUrl, 'store' => $store],
        $storeId
    );
}

Also, we have DotMailer plugin here \Dotdigitalgroup\Email\Plugin\CustomerEmailNotificationPlugin::aroundNewAccount() which checks if email notification should be disabled depending on the configuration. But by default, DotMailer is disabled, so we are moving forward.

The next method is \Magento\Customer\Model\EmailNotification::sendEmailTemplate()

private function sendEmailTemplate(
    $customer,
    $template,
    $sender,
    $templateParams = [],
    $storeId = null,
    $email = null
) {
    $templateId = $this->scopeConfig->getValue($template, 'store', $storeId);
    if ($email === null) {
        $email = $customer->getEmail();
    }
    $transport = $this->transportBuilder->setTemplateIdentifier($templateId)
        ->setTemplateOptions(['area' => 'frontend', 'store' => $storeId])
        ->setTemplateVars($templateParams)
        ->setFrom($this->scopeConfig->getValue($sender, 'store', $storeId))
        ->addTo($email, $this->customerViewHelper->getCustomerName($customer))
        ->getTransport();

    $transport->sendMessage();
}

This method contains code that is used for most email notifications. Here we create a transport object which sends an email. Let’s have a deeper look at how it works.

The main object for sending emails is \Magento\Framework\Mail\Template\TransportBuilder TransportBuilder requires the following data:

• Template identifier (template name or template numeric ID if a template is customized in admin)
• Template Options: area (“frontend” or “adminhtml”) and store ID
• Template variables (any data that will be used in email template)
• Sender information (email identity from the configuration, for customer notifications it is “general”)
• Receiver information (email and name)

By default, TransportBuilder returns \Magento\Email\Model\Transport object instance. If you want, you can replace this transport object with your custom class using dependency injection (argument replacement) or simple class preference.

There are some plugins for sendMessage method:

• \Magento\Email\Model\Plugin\WindowsSmtpConfig::beforeSendMessage() - sets SMTP port if Magento is running on Windows
• \Magento\Email\Model\Mail\TransportInterfacePlugin::aroundSendMessage() - checks if email communications is enabled
• \Dotdigitalgroup\Email\Plugin\TransportPlugin::aroundSendMessage()

After executing all these plugins, finally, Zend Mail component takes control over sending an email. This is the lowest layer and here it calls for PHP mail function:

• \Zend_Mail_Transport_Abstract::send()
• \Zend_Mail_Transport_Sendmail::_sendMail()

That's it. In the next article we will review another email notification.

Magento 2 gives us the ability to take more control of the customer account creation process. There is a special configuration setting located in admin under Stores → Configuration → Customers → Customer Configuration → Create New Account Options named Require Emails Confirmation (Yes/No)



If you set this setting to Yes, a customer will not be able to log in without account confirmation. He needs to click the activation link in account confirmation email.

By the way, this email template is defined in vendor/magento/module-customer/etc/email_templates.xml file:

<template id="customer_create_account_email_confirmation_template" label="New Account Confirmation Key"file="account_new_confirmation.html" type="html" module="Magento_Customer" area="frontend"/>

Unfortunately, there is no way to confirm user account from Magento 2 admin area.
If you are a developer and you are doing some local testing (assuming you don't receive emails from your local installation) you can confirm a customer account via the database.
There is a field `customer_entity`.`confirmation` which contains activation hash code.

All you need to do - is simply remove that hash value.
Here is SQL query that will help you to confirm customer by email:

UPDATE customer_entity SET confirmation = NULL WHERE email='some.email@example.com';

The easiest solution

We created a special module that gives you the ability to confirm customer emails from Magento admin.

Here is the list of default links in customer account navigation:

• Account Dashboard
• Account Information
• Address Book
• My Downloadable Products
• My Orders
• Newsletter Subscriptions
• Stored Payment Methods
• My Product Reviews
• Billing Agreements
• My Wish List

In Magento 2 Enterprise Edition there are some additional links:

• Store Credit
• Order by SKU
• Gift Card
• Gift Registry
• Reward Points
• My Invitations

In order to remove customer links in Magento 2 you need to create layout instructions to remove needed blocks.

For example, Billing Agreements link corresponds to the block with name customer-account-navigation-billing-agreements-link

So, the resulting layout update will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
    <body>
        <referenceBlock name="customer-account-navigation-billing-agreements-link" remove="true"/>
    </body>
</page>

It is also possible to change link title and reorder customer account links. For changing link text you need to call setLabel for the corresponding block. Reordering can be done using reorderChild method of layout.

Removing customer account links using extension

We created a simple and useful extension for Magento 2 that allows to manage customer account links from admin.

Key features of the module:

• Remove unnecessary links
• Change link labels
• Change position of the links
• Compatible with Enterprise Edition
• Supports custom links added by 3rd-party extensions

You can check more details on the extension page https://magery-themes.com/magento-2-account-links-manager.html