How to pull your mail configuration from application.ini for Zend Framework 1.8.0+

I’m working on Zend Framework 1.8.0 on a dev box and needed to configure Zend_Mail_Transport_Smtp for testing purposes to hit a gmail account. The manual wants you to do this:

---

$config = array('auth' => 'login',
                'username' => 'myusername',
                'password' => 'password');

$transport = new Zend_Mail_Transport_Smtp('mail.server.com', $config);

but who wants to put passwords and config data in code? Naturally it belongs in the application.ini. Some users may find it tricky from the manual to figure out how to get it from application.ini in version 1.8.0 into their controller, so I thought I’d offer this tip out there.

This is how I do it, assuming you are connecting to gmail. In your application.ini, put these lines in the correct section (I put in the dev section), replacing your username and password in the appropriate fields of course:

email.server     = smtp.gmail.com
email.username   = yrusername@gmail.com
email.password   = yrpass
email.ssl        = ssl
email.port       = 465

Then in your controller, after defining the controller class:

private $_aMailConfig;
private $_strSmtp;

then in your preDispatch function (if you don’t have one, create one and) add this:

public function preDispatch()
{
	$bootstrap = $this->getInvokeArg('bootstrap');
	$aConfig = $bootstrap->getOptions();
	$this->_aMailConfig = array(
	 'auth' => 'login'
	,'username' => $aConfig['email']['username']
	,'password' => $aConfig['email']['password']
	,'ssl' => $aConfig['email']['ssl']
	,'port' => $aConfig['email']['port']);
	//echo '<pre>' . print_r($this->_aMailConfig,1);exit;
	$this->_strSmtp = $aConfig['email']['server'];
	parent::preDispatch();
}

then whenever you need it in your controller, type this:

$mailTransport = new Zend_Mail_Transport_Smtp($this->_strSmtp,$this->_aMailConfig);
Zend_Mail::setDefaultTransport($mailTransport);

I haven’t tested this outside my own environment, which does some funky stuff, so I can’t guarantee it will work on yours, but I believe it should.

Hope this helps someone!