Email Configuration

User Settings

To receive email notifications, users of Kanboard must have:

  • Activated notifications in their profile

  • Have a valid email address in their profile

  • Be a member of the project that will trigger notifications

Note: The logged user who performs the action doesn’t receive any notifications, only other project members.

Email Transports

There are several email transports available:

  • SMTP

  • Sendmail

  • PHP native mail function

  • Other methods can be provided by external plugins: Postmark, Sendgrid and Mailgun

Server Settings

By default, Kanboard will use the bundled PHP mail function to send emails. Usually that requires no configuration if your server can already send emails.

However, it’s possible to use other methods, the SMTP protocol and Sendmail.

SMTP Configuration

Rename the file config.default.php to config.php and change these values:

// We choose "smtp" as mail transport
define('MAIL_TRANSPORT', 'smtp');

// We define our server settings
define('MAIL_SMTP_HOSTNAME', 'mail.example.com');
define('MAIL_SMTP_PORT', 25);

// Credentials for authentication on the SMTP server (not mandatory)
define('MAIL_SMTP_USERNAME', 'username');
define('MAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD', 'super password');

It’s also possible to use a secure connection, TLS or SSL:

define('MAIL_SMTP_ENCRYPTION', 'ssl'); // Valid values are "null", "ssl" or "tls"

Some servers will reject emails based on the hostname transmitted with the HELO (EHLO) command (see RFC 5321). The (fully-qualified) hostname supplied in the HELO command can be set explicitly by:

define('MAIL_SMTP_HELO_NAME', null); // valid: null (default), or FQDN

Sendmail Configuration

By default the sendmail command will be /usr/sbin/sendmail -bs but you can customize that in your config file.

Example:

// We choose "sendmail" as mail transport
define('MAIL_TRANSPORT', 'sendmail');

// If you need to change the sendmail command, replace the value
define('MAIL_SENDMAIL_COMMAND', '/usr/sbin/sendmail -bs');

PHP built-in mail function

This is the default configuration:

define('MAIL_TRANSPORT', 'mail');

Sender Email Address

By default, emails will use the sender address notifications@kanboard.local. It’s not possible to reply to this address.

You can customize this address by changing the value of the constant MAIL_FROM in your config file.

define('MAIL_FROM', 'kanboard@mydomain.tld');

That can be useful if your SMTP server configuration doesn’t accept the default address.

Troubleshooting

If no emails are sent and you are sure that everything is configured correctly:

  • Check your spam folder

  • Enable the debug mode and check the debug file data/debug.log, you should see the exact error

  • Be sure that your server or your hosting provider allows you to send emails

  • If you use SeLinux, allow PHP to send emails