aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md')
-rw-r--r--guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md164
1 files changed, 107 insertions, 57 deletions
diff --git a/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md b/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md
index 380fdac658..406615f681 100644
--- a/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md
+++ b/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-**DO NOT READ THIS FILE ON GITHUB, GUIDES ARE PUBLISHED ON http://guides.rubyonrails.org.**
+**DO NOT READ THIS FILE ON GITHUB, GUIDES ARE PUBLISHED ON https://guides.rubyonrails.org.**
Action Mailer Basics
====================
@@ -20,9 +20,18 @@ Introduction
------------
Action Mailer allows you to send emails from your application using mailer classes
-and views. Mailers work very similarly to controllers. They inherit from
-`ActionMailer::Base` and live in `app/mailers`, and they have associated views
-that appear in `app/views`.
+and views.
+
+#### Mailers are similar to controllers
+
+They inherit from `ActionMailer::Base` and live in `app/mailers`. Mailers also work
+very similarly to controllers. Some examples of similarities are enumerated below.
+Mailers have:
+
+* Actions, and also, associated views that appear in `app/views`.
+* Instance variables that are accessible in views.
+* The ability to utilise layouts and partials.
+* The ability to access a params hash.
Sending Emails
--------------
@@ -35,7 +44,7 @@ views.
#### Create the Mailer
```bash
-$ bin/rails generate mailer UserMailer
+$ rails generate mailer UserMailer
create app/mailers/user_mailer.rb
create app/mailers/application_mailer.rb
invoke erb
@@ -60,11 +69,10 @@ end
```
As you can see, you can generate mailers just like you use other generators with
-Rails. Mailers are conceptually similar to controllers, and so we get a mailer,
-a directory for views, and a test.
+Rails.
If you didn't want to use a generator, you could create your own file inside of
-app/mailers, just make sure that it inherits from `ActionMailer::Base`:
+`app/mailers`, just make sure that it inherits from `ActionMailer::Base`:
```ruby
class MyMailer < ActionMailer::Base
@@ -73,10 +81,9 @@ end
#### Edit the Mailer
-Mailers are very similar to Rails controllers. They also have methods called
-"actions" and use views to structure the content. Where a controller generates
-content like HTML to send back to the client, a Mailer creates a message to be
-delivered via email.
+Mailers have methods called "actions" and they use views to structure their content.
+Where a controller generates content like HTML to send back to the client, a Mailer
+creates a message to be delivered via email.
`app/mailers/user_mailer.rb` contains an empty mailer:
@@ -92,8 +99,8 @@ registered email address:
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
default from: 'notifications@example.com'
- def welcome_email(user)
- @user = user
+ def welcome_email
+ @user = params[:user]
@url = 'http://example.com/login'
mail(to: @user.email, subject: 'Welcome to My Awesome Site')
end
@@ -110,9 +117,6 @@ messages in this class. This can be overridden on a per-email basis.
* `mail` - The actual email message, we are passing the `:to` and `:subject`
headers in.
-Just like controllers, any instance variables we define in the method become
-available for use in the views.
-
#### Create a Mailer View
Create a file called `welcome_email.html.erb` in `app/views/user_mailer/`. This
@@ -169,14 +173,14 @@ Setting this up is painfully simple.
First, let's create a simple `User` scaffold:
```bash
-$ bin/rails generate scaffold user name email login
-$ bin/rails db:migrate
+$ rails generate scaffold user name email login
+$ rails db:migrate
```
Now that we have a user model to play with, we will just edit the
`app/controllers/users_controller.rb` make it instruct the `UserMailer` to deliver
an email to the newly created user by editing the create action and inserting a
-call to `UserMailer.welcome_email` right after the user is successfully saved.
+call to `UserMailer.with(user: @user).welcome_email` right after the user is successfully saved.
Action Mailer is nicely integrated with Active Job so you can send emails outside
of the request-response cycle, so the user doesn't have to wait on it:
@@ -191,7 +195,7 @@ class UsersController < ApplicationController
respond_to do |format|
if @user.save
# Tell the UserMailer to send a welcome email after save
- UserMailer.welcome_email(@user).deliver_later
+ UserMailer.with(user: @user).welcome_email.deliver_later
format.html { redirect_to(@user, notice: 'User was successfully created.') }
format.json { render json: @user, status: :created, location: @user }
@@ -213,6 +217,8 @@ pending jobs on restart.
If you need a persistent backend, you will need to use an Active Job adapter
that has a persistent backend (Sidekiq, Resque, etc).
+NOTE: When calling `deliver_later` the job will be placed under `mailers` queue. Make sure Active Job adapter support it otherwise the job may be silently ignored preventing email delivery. You can change that by specifying `config.action_mailer.deliver_later_queue_name` option.
+
If you want to send emails right away (from a cronjob for example) just call
`deliver_now`:
@@ -220,16 +226,21 @@ If you want to send emails right away (from a cronjob for example) just call
class SendWeeklySummary
def run
User.find_each do |user|
- UserMailer.weekly_summary(user).deliver_now
+ UserMailer.with(user: user).weekly_summary.deliver_now
end
end
end
```
+Any key value pair passed to `with` just becomes the `params` for the mailer
+action. So `with(user: @user, account: @user.account)` makes `params[:user]` and
+`params[:account]` available in the mailer action. Just like controllers have
+params.
+
The method `welcome_email` returns an `ActionMailer::MessageDelivery` object which
can then just be told `deliver_now` or `deliver_later` to send itself out. The
`ActionMailer::MessageDelivery` object is just a wrapper around a `Mail::Message`. If
-you want to inspect, alter or do anything else with the `Mail::Message` object you can
+you want to inspect, alter, or do anything else with the `Mail::Message` object you can
access it with the `message` method on the `ActionMailer::MessageDelivery` object.
### Auto encoding header values
@@ -261,7 +272,7 @@ Action Mailer makes it very easy to add attachments.
* Pass the file name and content and Action Mailer and the
[Mail gem](https://github.com/mikel/mail) will automatically guess the
- mime_type, set the encoding and create the attachment.
+ mime_type, set the encoding, and create the attachment.
```ruby
attachments['filename.jpg'] = File.read('/path/to/filename.jpg')
@@ -331,7 +342,7 @@ with the addresses separated by commas.
```ruby
class AdminMailer < ApplicationMailer
- default to: Proc.new { Admin.pluck(:email) },
+ default to: -> { Admin.pluck(:email) },
from: 'notification@example.com'
def new_registration(user)
@@ -351,8 +362,8 @@ address when they receive the email. The trick to doing that is to format the
email address in the format `"Full Name" <email>`.
```ruby
-def welcome_email(user)
- @user = user
+def welcome_email
+ @user = params[:user]
email_with_name = %("#{@user.name}" <#{@user.email}>)
mail(to: email_with_name, subject: 'Welcome to My Awesome Site')
end
@@ -372,8 +383,8 @@ To change the default mailer view for your action you do something like:
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
default from: 'notifications@example.com'
- def welcome_email(user)
- @user = user
+ def welcome_email
+ @user = params[:user]
@url = 'http://example.com/login'
mail(to: @user.email,
subject: 'Welcome to My Awesome Site',
@@ -394,8 +405,8 @@ templates or even render inline or text without using a template file:
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
default from: 'notifications@example.com'
- def welcome_email(user)
- @user = user
+ def welcome_email
+ @user = params[:user]
@url = 'http://example.com/login'
mail(to: @user.email,
subject: 'Welcome to My Awesome Site') do |format|
@@ -411,9 +422,24 @@ use the rendered text for the text part. The render command is the same one used
inside of Action Controller, so you can use all the same options, such as
`:text`, `:inline` etc.
+If you would like to render a template located outside of the default `app/views/mailer_name/` directory, you can apply the `prepend_view_path`, like so:
+
+```ruby
+class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
+ prepend_view_path "custom/path/to/mailer/view"
+
+ # This will try to load "custom/path/to/mailer/view/welcome_email" template
+ def welcome_email
+ # ...
+ end
+end
+```
+
+You can also consider using the [append_view_path](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_view_overview.html#view-paths) method.
+
#### Caching mailer view
-You can do cache in mailer views like in application views using `cache` method.
+You can perform fragment caching in mailer views like in application views using the `cache` method.
```
<% cache do %>
@@ -427,6 +453,9 @@ And in order to use this feature, you need to configure your application with th
config.action_mailer.perform_caching = true
```
+Fragment caching is also supported in multipart emails.
+Read more about caching in the [Rails caching guide](caching_with_rails.html).
+
### Action Mailer Layouts
Just like controller views, you can also have mailer layouts. The layout name
@@ -450,8 +479,8 @@ the format block to specify different layouts for different formats:
```ruby
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
- def welcome_email(user)
- mail(to: user.email) do |format|
+ def welcome_email
+ mail(to: params[:user].email) do |format|
format.html { render layout: 'my_layout' }
format.text
end
@@ -474,7 +503,7 @@ special URL that renders them. In the above example, the preview class for
```ruby
class UserMailerPreview < ActionMailer::Preview
def welcome_email
- UserMailer.welcome_email(User.first)
+ UserMailer.with(user: User.first).welcome_email
end
end
```
@@ -550,8 +579,9 @@ url helper.
<%= user_url(@user, host: 'example.com') %>
```
-NOTE: non-`GET` links require [jQuery UJS](https://github.com/rails/jquery-ujs)
-and won't work in mailer templates. They will result in normal `GET` requests.
+NOTE: non-`GET` links require [rails-ujs](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionview/app/assets/javascripts) or
+[jQuery UJS](https://github.com/rails/jquery-ujs), and won't work in mailer templates.
+They will result in normal `GET` requests.
### Adding images in Action Mailer Views
@@ -559,7 +589,7 @@ Unlike controllers, the mailer instance doesn't have any context about the
incoming request so you'll need to provide the `:asset_host` parameter yourself.
As the `:asset_host` usually is consistent across the application you can
-configure it globally in config/application.rb:
+configure it globally in `config/application.rb`:
```ruby
config.action_mailer.asset_host = 'http://example.com'
@@ -590,12 +620,12 @@ mailer action.
```ruby
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
- def welcome_email(user, company)
- @user = user
+ def welcome_email
+ @user = params[:user]
@url = user_url(@user)
- delivery_options = { user_name: company.smtp_user,
- password: company.smtp_password,
- address: company.smtp_host }
+ delivery_options = { user_name: params[:company].smtp_user,
+ password: params[:company].smtp_password,
+ address: params[:company].smtp_host }
mail(to: @user.email,
subject: "Please see the Terms and Conditions attached",
delivery_method_options: delivery_options)
@@ -612,9 +642,9 @@ will default to `text/plain` otherwise.
```ruby
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
- def welcome_email(user, email_body)
- mail(to: user.email,
- body: email_body,
+ def welcome_email
+ mail(to: params[:user].email,
+ body: params[:email_body],
content_type: "text/html",
subject: "Already rendered!")
end
@@ -673,24 +703,43 @@ Action Mailer allows for you to specify a `before_action`, `after_action` and
* You could use a `before_action` to populate the mail object with defaults,
delivery_method_options or insert default headers and attachments.
+```ruby
+class InvitationsMailer < ApplicationMailer
+ before_action { @inviter, @invitee = params[:inviter], params[:invitee] }
+ before_action { @account = params[:inviter].account }
+
+ default to: -> { @invitee.email_address },
+ from: -> { common_address(@inviter) },
+ reply_to: -> { @inviter.email_address_with_name }
+
+ def account_invitation
+ mail subject: "#{@inviter.name} invited you to their Basecamp (#{@account.name})"
+ end
+
+ def project_invitation
+ @project = params[:project]
+ @summarizer = ProjectInvitationSummarizer.new(@project.bucket)
+
+ mail subject: "#{@inviter.name.familiar} added you to a project in Basecamp (#{@account.name})"
+ end
+end
+```
+
* You could use an `after_action` to do similar setup as a `before_action` but
using instance variables set in your mailer action.
```ruby
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
+ before_action { @business, @user = params[:business], params[:user] }
+
after_action :set_delivery_options,
:prevent_delivery_to_guests,
:set_business_headers
- def feedback_message(business, user)
- @business = business
- @user = user
- mail
+ def feedback_message
end
- def campaign_message(business, user)
- @business = business
- @user = user
+ def campaign_message
end
private
@@ -738,7 +787,7 @@ files (environment.rb, production.rb, etc...)
|`sendmail_settings`|Allows you to override options for the `:sendmail` delivery method.<ul><li>`:location` - The location of the sendmail executable. Defaults to `/usr/sbin/sendmail`.</li><li>`:arguments` - The command line arguments to be passed to sendmail. Defaults to `-i`.</li></ul>|
|`raise_delivery_errors`|Whether or not errors should be raised if the email fails to be delivered. This only works if the external email server is configured for immediate delivery.|
|`delivery_method`|Defines a delivery method. Possible values are:<ul><li>`:smtp` (default), can be configured by using `config.action_mailer.smtp_settings`.</li><li>`:sendmail`, can be configured by using `config.action_mailer.sendmail_settings`.</li><li>`:file`: save emails to files; can be configured by using `config.action_mailer.file_settings`.</li><li>`:test`: save emails to `ActionMailer::Base.deliveries` array.</li></ul>See [API docs](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionMailer/Base.html) for more info.|
-|`perform_deliveries`|Determines whether deliveries are actually carried out when the `deliver` method is invoked on the Mail message. By default they are, but this can be turned off to help functional testing.|
+|`perform_deliveries`|Determines whether deliveries are actually carried out when the `deliver` method is invoked on the Mail message. By default they are, but this can be turned off to help functional testing. If this value is `false`, `deliveries` array will not be populated even if delivery_method is :test.|
|`deliveries`|Keeps an array of all the emails sent out through the Action Mailer with delivery_method :test. Most useful for unit and functional testing.|
|`default_options`|Allows you to set default values for the `mail` method options (`:from`, `:reply_to`, etc.).|
@@ -777,10 +826,11 @@ config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
user_name: '<username>',
password: '<password>',
authentication: 'plain',
- enable_starttls_auto: true }
+ enable_starttls_auto: true }
```
-Note: As of July 15, 2014, Google increased [its security measures](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255) and now blocks attempts from apps it deems less secure.
-You can change your gmail settings [here](https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps) to allow the attempts or
+NOTE: As of July 15, 2014, Google increased [its security measures](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255) and now blocks attempts from apps it deems less secure.
+You can change your Gmail settings [here](https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps) to allow the attempts. If your Gmail account has 2-factor authentication enabled,
+then you will need to set an [app password](https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords) and use that instead of your regular password. Alternatively, you can
use another ESP to send email by replacing 'smtp.gmail.com' above with the address of your provider.
Mailer Testing