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diff --git a/railties/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.textile b/railties/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.textile index 931ebe8a34..a8e310f6ec 100644 --- a/railties/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.textile +++ b/railties/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.textile @@ -1,12 +1,12 @@ h2. Action Mailer Basics -This guide should provide you with all you need to get started in sending and receiving emails from/to your application, and many internals of Action Mailer. It also covers how to test your mailers. +This guide should provide you with all you need to get started in sending and receiving emails from and to your application, and many internals of Action Mailer. It also covers how to test your mailers. endprologue. h3. Introduction -Action Mailer allows you to send emails from your application using a mailer model and views. So, in Rails, emails are used by creating models that inherit from +ActionMailer::Base+ that live alongside other models in +app/models+. Those models have associated views that appear alongside controller views in +app/views+. +Action Mailer allows you to send emails from your application using a mailer model and views. So, in Rails, emails are used by creating mailers that inherit from +ActionMailer::Base+ and live in +app/mailers+. Those mailers have associated views that appear alongside controller views in +app/views+. h3. Sending Emails @@ -18,22 +18,22 @@ h5. Create the Mailer <shell> ./script/generate mailer UserMailer -exists app/models/ -create app/views/user_mailer -exists test/unit/ -create test/fixtures/user_mailer -create app/models/user_mailer.rb -create test/unit/user_mailer_test.rb +create app/mailers/user_mailer.rb +invoke erb +create app/views/user_mailer +invoke test_unit +create test/functional/user_mailer_test.rb </shell> -So we got the model, the fixtures, and the tests. +So we got the mailer, the fixtures, and the tests. -h5. Edit the Model +h5. Edit the Mailer -+app/models/user_mailer.rb+ contains an empty mailer: ++app/mailers/user_mailer.rb+ contains an empty mailer: <ruby> class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base + default :from => "from@example.com" end </ruby> @@ -41,153 +41,215 @@ Let's add a method called +welcome_email+, that will send an email to the user's <ruby> class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base + default :from => "notifications@example.com" + def welcome_email(user) - recipients user.email - from "My Awesome Site Notifications <notifications@example.com>" - subject "Welcome to My Awesome Site" - sent_on Time.now - body( {:user => user, :url => "http://example.com/login"}) + @user = user + @url = "http://example.com/login" + mail(:to => user.email, + :subject => "Welcome to My Awesome Site") end + end </ruby> -Here is a quick explanation of the options presented in the preceding method. For a full list of all available options, please have a look further down at the Complete List of ActionMailer user-settable attributes section. +Here is a quick explanation of the items presented in the preceding method. For a full list of all available options, please have a look further down at the Complete List of ActionMailer user-settable attributes section. -|recipients| The recipients of the email. It can be a string or, if there are multiple recipients, an array of strings| -|from| The from address of the email| -|subject| The subject of the email| -|sent_on| The timestamp for the email| +|<tt>default Hash</tt>| This is a hash of default values for any email you send, in this case we are setting the <tt>:from</tt> header to a value for all messages in this class, this can be overridden on a per email basis| +|mail| The actual email message, we are passing the <tt>:to</tt> and <tt>:subject</tt> headers in| -The keys of the hash passed to +body+ become instance variables in the view. Thus, in our example the mailer view will have a +@user+ and a +@url+ instance variables available. +And instance variables we define in the method become available for use in the view. h5. Create a Mailer View -Create a file called +welcome_email.text.html.erb+ in +app/views/user_mailer/+. This will be the template used for the email, formatted in HTML: +Create a file called +welcome_email.html.erb+ in +app/views/user_mailer/+. This will be the template used for the email, formatted in HTML: <erb> -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" /> </head> <body> - <h1>Welcome to example.com, <%=h @user.first_name %></h1> + <h1>Welcome to example.com, <%= @user.name %></h1> <p> You have successfully signed up to example.com, and your username is: <%= @user.login %>.<br/> - To login to the site, just follow this link: <%=h @url %>. + To login to the site, just follow this link: <%= @url %>. </p> <p>Thanks for joining and have a great day!</p> </body> </html> </erb> -Had we wanted to send text-only emails, the file would have been called +welcome_email.text.plain.erb+. Rails sets the content type of the email to be the one in the filename. +It is also a good idea to make a text part for this email, to do this, create a file called +welcome_email.text.erb+ in +app/views/user_mailer/+: + +<erb> +Welcome to example.com, <%= @user.name %> +=============================================== + +You have successfully signed up to example.com, and your username is: <%= @user.login %>. + +To login to the site, just follow this link: <%= @url %>. + +Thanks for joining and have a great day! +</erb> + +When you call the +mail+ method now, Action Mailer will detect the two templates (text and HTML) and automatically generate a <tt>multipart/alternative</tt> email. h5. Wire It Up So That the System Sends the Email When a User Signs Up There are three ways to achieve this. One is to send the email from the controller that sends the email, another is to put it in a +before_create+ callback in the user model, and the last one is to use an observer on the user model. Whether you use the second or third methods is up to you, but staying away from the first is recommended. Not because it's wrong, but because it keeps your controller clean, and keeps all logic related to the user model within the user model. This way, whichever way a user is created (from a web form, or from an API call, for example), we are guaranteed that the email will be sent. -Let's see how we would go about wiring it up using an observer: +Let's see how we would go about wiring it up using an observer. + +First off, we need to create a simple +User+ scaffold: + +<shell> +$ script/generate scaffold user name:string email:string login:string +$ rake db:migrate +</shell> -In +config/environment.rb+: +Now that we have a user model to play with, edit +config/application.rb+ and register the observer: <ruby> -Rails::Initializer.run do |config| - # ... - config.active_record.observers = :user_observer +module MailerGuideCode + class Application < Rails::Application + # ... + config.active_record.observers = :user_observer + end end </ruby> -You can place the observer in +app/models+ where it will be loaded automatically by Rails. +You can make a +app/observers+ directory and Rails will automatically load it for you (Rails will automatically load anything in the +app+ directory as of version 3.0) -Now create a file called +user_observer.rb+ in +app/models+ depending on where you stored it, and make it look like: +Now create a file called +user_observer.rb+ in +app/observers+ and make it look like: <ruby> class UserObserver < ActiveRecord::Observer def after_create(user) - UserMailer.deliver_welcome_email(user) + UserMailer.welcome_email(user).deliver end end </ruby> -Notice how we call +deliver_welcome_email+? In Action Mailer we send emails by calling +deliver_<method_name>+. In UserMailer, we defined a method called +welcome_email+, and so we deliver the email by calling +deliver_welcome_email+. The next section will go through how Action Mailer achieves this. +Notice how we call <tt>UserMailer.welcome_email(user)</tt>? Even though in the <tt>user_mailer.rb</tt> file we defined an instance method, we are calling the method_name +welcome_email(user)+ on the class. This is a peculiarity of Action Mailer. + +Note. In previous versions of Rails, you would call +deliver_welcome_email+ or +create_welcome_email+ however in Rails 3.0 this has been deprecated in favour of just calling the method name itself. + +The method +welcome_email+ returns a Mail::Message object which can then just be told +deliver+ to send itself out. + + +h4. Complete List of Action Mailer Methods -h4. Action Mailer and Dynamic +deliver_<method_name>+ methods +There are just three methods that you need to send pretty much any email message: -So how does Action Mailer understand this +deliver_welcome_email+ call? If you read the documentation (http://api.rubyonrails.org/files/vendor/rails/actionmailer/README.html), you will find this in the "Sending Emails" section: +* <tt>headers</tt> - Specifies any header on the email you want, you can pass a hash of header field names and value pairs, or you can call <tt>headers[:field_name] = 'value'</tt> +* <tt>attachments</tt> - Allows you to add attachments to your email, for example <tt>attachments['file-name.jpg'] = File.read('file-name.jpg')</tt> +* <tt>mail</tt> - Sends the actual email itself. You can pass in headers as a hash to the mail method as a parameter, mail will then create an email, either plain text, or multipart, depending on what email templates you have defined. -You never instantiate your mailer class. Rather, your delivery instance methods are automatically wrapped in class methods that start with the word +deliver_+ followed by the name of the mailer method that you would like to deliver. +h5. Custom Headers -So, how exactly does this work? +Defining custom headers are simple, you can do it one of three ways: -Looking at the +ActionMailer::Base+ source, you will find this: +* Defining a header field as a parameter to the +mail+ method: <ruby> -def method_missing(method_symbol, *parameters)#:nodoc: - case method_symbol.id2name - when /^create_([_a-z]\w*)/ then new($1, *parameters).mail - when /^deliver_([_a-z]\w*)/ then new($1, *parameters).deliver! - when "new" then nil - else super - end -end +mail(:x_spam => value) +</ruby> + +* Passing in a key value assignment to the +headers+ method: + +<ruby> +headers[:x_spam] = value </ruby> -Hence, if the method name starts with +deliver_+ followed by any combination of lowercase letters or underscore, +method_missing+ calls +new+ on your mailer class (+UserMailer+ in our example above), sending the combination of lower case letters or underscore, along with the parameters. The resulting object is then sent the +deliver!+ method, which well... delivers it. - -h4. Complete List of Action Mailer User-Settable Attributes - -|bcc| The BCC addresses of the email, either as a string (for a single address) or an array of strings (for multiple addresses)| -|body| The body of the email. This is either a hash (in which case it specifies the variables to pass to the template when it is rendered), or a string, in which case it specifies the actual body of the message| -|cc| The CC addresses for the email, either as a string (for a single address) or an array of strings (for multiple addresses)| -|charset| The charset to use for the email. This defaults to the +default_charset+ specified for ActionMailer::Base.| -|content_type| The content type for the email. This defaults to "text/plain" but the filename may specify it| -|from| The from address of the email| -|reply_to| The address (if different than the "from" address) to direct replies to this email| -|headers| Additional headers to be added to the email| -|implicit_parts_order| The order in which parts should be sorted, based on the content type. This defaults to the value of +default_implicit_parts_order+| -|mime_version| Defaults to "1.0", but may be explicitly given if needed| -|recipient| The recipient addresses of the email, either as a string (for a single address) or an array of strings (for multiple addresses)| -|sent_on| The timestamp on which the message was sent. If unset, the header will be set by the delivery agent| -|subject| The subject of the email| -|template| The template to use. This is the "base" template name, without the extension or directory, and may be used to have multiple mailer methods share the same template| +* Passing a hash of key value pairs to the +headers+ method: + +<ruby> +headers {:x_spam => value, :x_special => another_value} +</ruby> + +h5. Adding Attachments + +Adding attachments has been simplified in Action Mailer 3.0. + +* Pass the file name and content and Action Mailer and the Mail gem will automatically guess the mime_type, set the encoding and create the attachment. + +<ruby> +attachments['filename.jpg'] = File.read('/path/to/filename.jpg') +</ruby> + +Note. Mail will automatically Base64 encode an attachment, if you want something different, pre encode your content and pass in the encoded content and encoding in a +Hash+ to the +attachments+ method. + +* Pass the file name and specify headers and content and Action Mailer and Mail will use the settings you pass in. + +<ruby> +encoded_content = SpecialEncode(File.read('/path/to/filename.jpg')) +attachments['filename.jpg'] = {:mime_type => 'application/x-gzip', + :encoding => 'SpecialEncoding', + :content => encoded_content } +</ruby> + +Note. If you specify an encoding, Mail will assume that your content is already encoded and not try to Base64 encode it. h4. Mailer Views -Mailer views are located in the +app/views/name_of_mailer_class+ directory. The specific mailer view is known to the class because it's name is the same as the mailer method. So for example, in our example from above, our mailer view for the +welcome_email+ method will be in +app/views/user_mailer/welcome_email.text.html.erb+ for the HTML version and +welcome_email.text.plain.erb+ for the plain text version. +Mailer views are located in the +app/views/name_of_mailer_class+ directory. The specific mailer view is known to the class because it's name is the same as the mailer method. So for example, in our example from above, our mailer view for the +welcome_email+ method will be in +app/views/user_mailer/welcome_email.html.erb+ for the HTML version and +welcome_email.text.erb+ for the plain text version. To change the default mailer view for your action you do something like: <ruby> class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base + default :from => "notifications@example.com" + def welcome_email(user) - recipients user.email - from "My Awesome Site Notifications<notifications@example.com>" - subject "Welcome to My Awesome Site" - sent_on Time.now - body( {:user => user, :url => "http://example.com/login"}) - content_type "text/html" - # use some_other_template.text.(html|plain).erb instead - template "some_other_template" + @user = user + @url = "http://example.com/login" + mail(:to => user.email, + :subject => "Welcome to My Awesome Site") do |format| + format.html { render 'another_template' } + format.text { render 'another_template' } + end end + end </ruby> +Will render 'another_template.text.erb' and 'another_template.html.erb'. The render command is the same one used inside of Action Controller, so you can use all the same options, such as <tt>:text</tt> etc. + h4. Action Mailer Layouts -Just like controller views, you can also have mailer layouts. The layout name needs to end in "_mailer" to be automatically recognized by your mailer as a layout. So in our UserMailer example, we need to call our layout +user_mailer.text.(html|plain).erb+. In order to use a different file just use: +Just like controller views, you can also have mailer layouts. The layout name needs to be the same as your mailer, such as +user_mailer.html.erb+ and +user_mailer.text.erb+ to be automatically recognized by your mailer as a layout. + +In order to use a different file just use: <ruby> class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base - layout 'awesome' # use awesome.text.(html|plain).erb as the layout + layout 'awesome' # use awesome.(html|text).erb as the layout end </ruby> Just like with controller views, use +yield+ to render the view inside the layout. +You can also pass in a <tt>:layout => 'layout_name'</tt> option to the render call inside the format block to specify different layouts for different actions: + +<ruby> +class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base + def welcome_email(user) + mail(:to => user.email) do |format| + format.html { render :layout => 'my_layout' } + format.text + end + end +end +</ruby> + +Will render the HTML part using the <tt>my_layout.html.erb</tt> file and the text part with the usual <tt>user_mailer.text.erb</tt> file if it exists. + h4. Generating URLs in Action Mailer Views URLs can be generated in mailer views using +url_for+ or named routes. + Unlike controllers, the mailer instance doesn't have any context about the incoming request so you'll need to provide the +:host+, +:controller+, and +:action+: <erb> @@ -197,50 +259,48 @@ Unlike controllers, the mailer instance doesn't have any context about the incom When using named routes you only need to supply the +:host+: <erb> -<%= users_url(:host => "example.com") %> +<%= user_url(@user, :host => "example.com") %> </erb> Email clients have no web context and so paths have no base URL to form complete web addresses. Thus, when using named routes only the "_url" variant makes sense. -It is also possible to set a default host that will be used in all mailers by setting the +:host+ option in -the +ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options+ hash as follows: +It is also possible to set a default host that will be used in all mailers by setting the +:host+ option in the +ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options+ hash as follows: <erb> -ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:host] = "example.com" -</erb> - -This can also be set as a configuration option in +config/environment.rb+: +class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base + default_url_options[:host] = "example.com" -<erb> -config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => "example.com" } + def welcome_email(user) + @user = user + @url = user_url(@user) + mail(:to => user.email, + :subject => "Welcome to My Awesome Site") + end +end </erb> -If you set a default +:host+ for your mailers you need to pass +:only_path => false+ to +url_for+. Otherwise it doesn't get included. - h4. Sending Multipart Emails -Action Mailer will automatically send multipart emails if you have different templates for the same action. So, for our UserMailer example, if you have +welcome_email.text.plain.erb+ and +welcome_email.text.html.erb+ in +app/views/user_mailer+, Action Mailer will automatically send a multipart email with the HTML and text versions setup as different parts. +Action Mailer will automatically send multipart emails if you have different templates for the same action. So, for our UserMailer example, if you have +welcome_email.text.erb+ and +welcome_email.html.erb+ in +app/views/user_mailer+, Action Mailer will automatically send a multipart email with the HTML and text versions setup as different parts. -To explicitly specify multipart messages, you can do something like: +The order of the parts getting inserted is determined by the <tt>:parts_order</tt> inside of the <tt>ActionMailer::Base.default</tt> method. If you want to explicitly alter the order, you can either change the <tt>:parts_order</tt> or explicitly render the parts in a different order: <ruby> class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base def welcome_email(user) - recipients user.email_address - subject "New account information" - from "system@example.com" - content_type "multipart/alternative" - - part :content_type => "text/html", - :body => "<p>html content, can also be the name of an action that you call<p>" - - part "text/plain" do |p| - p.body = "text content, can also be the name of an action that you call" + @user = user + @url = user_url(@user) + mail(:to => user.email, + :subject => "Welcome to My Awesome Site") do |format| + format.html + format.text end end end </ruby> +Will put the HTML part first, and the plain text part second. + h4. Sending Emails with Attachments Attachments can be added by using the +attachment+ method: @@ -248,53 +308,16 @@ Attachments can be added by using the +attachment+ method: <ruby> class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base def welcome_email(user) - recipients user.email_address - subject "New account information" - from "system@example.com" - content_type "multipart/alternative" - - attachment :content_type => "image/jpeg", - :body => File.read("an-image.jpg") - - attachment "application/pdf" do |a| - a.body = generate_your_pdf_here() - end + @user = user + @url = user_url(@user) + attachments['terms.pdf'] = File.read('/path/terms.pdf') + mail(:to => user.email, + :subject => "Please see the Terms and Conditions attached") end end </ruby> -h4. Sending Multipart Emails with Attachments - -Once you use the +attachment+ method, ActionMailer will no longer automagically use the correct template based on the filename, nor will it properly order the alternative parts. You must declare which template you are using for each content type via the +part+ method. And you must declare these templates in the proper order. - -In the following example, there would be two template files, +welcome_email_html.erb+ and +welcome_email_plain.erb+ in the +app/views/user_mailer+ folder. The +text/plain+ part must be listed first for full compatibility with email clients. If +text/plain+ is listed after +text/html+, some clients may display both the HTML and plain text versions of the email. The text alternatives alone must be enclosed in a +multipart/alternative+ part. Do not set the entire message's +content_type+ to +multipart/alternative+ or some email clients may ignore the display of attachments such as PDF's. - -<ruby> -class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base - def welcome_email(user) - recipients user.email_address - subject "New account information" - from "system@example.com" - - part "multipart/alternative" do |pt| - pt.part "text/plain" do |p| - p.body = render_message("welcome_email_plain", :message => "text content") - end - - pt.part "text/html" do |p| - p.body = render_message("welcome_email_html", :message => "<h1>HTML content</h1>") - end - end - - attachment :content_type => "image/jpeg", - :body => File.read("an-image.jpg") - - attachment "application/pdf" do |a| - a.body = generate_your_pdf_here() - end - end -end -</ruby> +The above will send a multipart email with an attachment, properly nested with the top level being <tt>mixed/multipart</tt> and the first part being a <tt>mixed/alternative</tt> containing the plain text and HTML email messages. h3. Receiving Emails @@ -329,12 +352,7 @@ end h3. Using Action Mailer Helpers -Action Mailer classes have 4 helper methods available to them: - -|add_template_helper(helper_module)|Makes all the (instance) methods in the helper module available to templates rendered through this controller.| -|helper(*args, &block)| Declare a helper: helper :foo requires 'foo_helper' and includes FooHelper in the template class. helper FooHelper includes FooHelper in the template class. helper { def foo() "#{bar} is the very best" end } evaluates the block in the template class, adding method foo. helper(:three, BlindHelper) { def mice() 'mice' end } does all three. | -|helper_method| Declare a controller method as a helper. For example, helper_method :link_to def link_to(name, options) ... end makes the link_to controller method available in the view.| -|helper_attr| Declare a controller attribute as a helper. For example, helper_attr :name attr_accessor :name makes the name and name= controller methods available in the view. The is a convenience wrapper for helper_method.| +Action Mailer now just inherits from Abstract Controller, so you have access to the same generic helpers as you do in Action Controller. h3. Action Mailer Configuration @@ -348,50 +366,36 @@ The following configuration options are best made in one of the environment file |delivery_method|Defines a delivery method. Possible values are :smtp (default), :sendmail, and :test.| |perform_deliveries|Determines whether deliver_* methods are actually carried out. By default they are, but this can be turned off to help functional testing.| |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_charset|The default charset used for the body and to encode the subject. Defaults to UTF-8. You can also pick a different charset from inside a method with charset.| -|default_content_type|The default content type used for the main part of the message. Defaults to "text/plain". You can also pick a different content type from inside a method with content_type.| -|default_mime_version|The default mime version used for the message. Defaults to 1.0. You can also pick a different value from inside a method with mime_version.| -|default_implicit_parts_order|When a message is built implicitly (i.e. multiple parts are assembled from templates which specify the content type in their filenames) this variable controls how the parts are ordered. Defaults to ["text/html", "text/enriched", "text/plain"]. Items that appear first in the array have higher priority in the mail client and appear last in the mime encoded message. You can also pick a different order from inside a method with implicit_parts_order.| - h4. Example Action Mailer Configuration -An example would be: +An example would be adding the following to your appropriate <tt>config/environments/env.rb</tt> file: <ruby> -ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :sendmail -ActionMailer::Base.sendmail_settings = { - :location => '/usr/sbin/sendmail', - :arguments => '-i -t' -} -ActionMailer::Base.perform_deliveries = true -ActionMailer::Base.raise_delivery_errors = true -ActionMailer::Base.default_charset = "iso-8859-1" +config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :sendmail +# Defaults to: +# config.action_mailer.sendmail_settings = { +# :location => '/usr/sbin/sendmail', +# :arguments => '-i -t' +# } +config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries = true +config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = true </ruby> h4. Action Mailer Configuration for GMail -Instructions copied from "this blog entry":http://www.fromjavatoruby.com/2008/11/actionmailer-with-gmail-must-issue.html by Robert Zotter. - -First you must install the "action_mailer_tls":http://github.com/openrain/action_mailer_tls plugin, then all you have to do is configure Action Mailer: - -<ruby> -ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = { - :address => "smtp.gmail.com", - :port => 587, - :domain => "domain.com", - :user_name => "user@domain.com", - :password => "password", - :authentication => :plain -} -</ruby> - -h4. Configure Action Mailer to Recognize HAML Templates - -In +config/environment.rb+, add the following line: +As Action Mailer now uses the Mail gem, this becomes as simple as adding to your <tt>config/environments/env.rb</tt> file: <ruby> -ActionMailer::Base.register_template_extension('haml') +config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp +config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = { + :address => "smtp.gmail.com", + :port => 587, + :domain => 'baci.lindsaar.net', + :user_name => '<username>', + :password => '<password>', + :authentication => 'plain', + :enable_starttls_auto => true } </ruby> h3. Mailer Testing @@ -412,7 +416,8 @@ class UserMailerTest < ActionMailer::TestCase # Test the body of the sent email contains what we expect it to assert_equal [user.email], email.to assert_equal "Welcome to My Awesome Site", email.subject - assert_match /Welcome to example.com, #{user.first_name}/, email.body + assert_match /<h1>Welcome to example.com, #{user.name}<\/h1>/, email.encoded + assert_match /Welcome to example.com, #{user.name}/, email.encoded end end </ruby> |