How to use Mail / ActionMailer 3 with GMail SMTP

Mon Mar 15 16:29:34 -0700 2010

Getting Mail (and therefore ActionMailer 3) working with GMail SMTP is crazy simple, if you know how.

The secret is actually in the Mail RDoc, but to save you looking, here you are:

Mail allows you to send emails using SMTP. This is done by wrapping Net::SMTP in
an easy to use manner.

Sending via SMTP server on Localhost

Sending locally (to a postfix or sendmail server running on localhost) requires
no special setup. Just do

Mail.deliver do
       to 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
     from 'ada@test.lindsaar.net'
  subject 'testing sendmail'
     body 'testing sendmail'
end

# Or:

mail = Mail.new do
       to 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
     from 'ada@test.lindsaar.net'
  subject 'testing sendmail'
     body 'testing sendmail'
end

mail.deliver

And your email will be fired off to your localhost SMTP server.

Sending via GMail

To send out via GMail, you need to configure the Mail::SMTP class to have the correct values, so to try this out, open up IRB and type the following:

require 'mail'
options = { :address              => "smtp.gmail.com",
            :port                 => 587,
            :domain               => 'your.host.name',
            :user_name            => '<username>',
            :password             => '<password>',
            :authentication       => 'plain',
            :enable_starttls_auto => true  }
            
Mail.defaults do
  delivery_method :smtp, options
end

The last block calls Mail.defaults which allows us to set the global delivery method for all mail objects that get created from now on. Power user tip, you don’t have to use the global method, you can define the delivery_method directly on any individual Mail::Message object and have different delivery agents per email, this is useful if you are building an application that has multiple users with different servers handling their email.

Delivering the email

Once you have the settings right, sending the email is done the same way as you would for a local host delivery default:

Mail.deliver do
       to 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
     from 'ada@test.lindsaar.net'
  subject 'testing sendmail'
     body 'testing sendmail'
end

Or by calling deliver on a Mail message

mail = Mail.new do
       to 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
     from 'ada@test.lindsaar.net'
  subject 'testing sendmail'
     body 'testing sendmail'
end

mail.deliver

Combining this with ActionMailer 3

So as ActionMailer 3 uses Mail as it’s email transport agent, all you have to do is pass the same options Hash into ActionMailer:

ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
  :address              => "smtp.gmail.com",
  :port                 => 587,
  :domain               => 'your.host.name',
  :user_name            => '<username>',
  :password             => '<password>',
  :authentication       => 'plain',
  :enable_starttls_auto => true  }
}

Hope that helps!

blogLater

Mikel

  1. Kamal Says:
    Thu May 13 17:59:13 -0700 2010

    Thank you so much, i got this to work in few seconds. Using the “send via gmail” example
    Is there a way, i can use ruby “mail” to deliver to multiple recipients, which are in a flat file, or a yaml file.

    Thanks,

  2. Chithi Says:
    Tue Nov 08 00:56:11 -0800 2011

    I came to know somewhat idea about gmail SMPT. Gmail SMPT implies simple mail transfer protocol. I wonder if the simple mail transfer protocol (SMPT) can be used with bulk mail or something like that. I am eager to know that.

  3. FlyboyArt Says:
    Tue Mar 16 01:35:08 -0700 2010

    Really nice writings up here but I wish you would use a print.css files that allows for a nicer layout when printing. With the coming of the iPad and being able to take PDF’s along with you anywhere (without net access) to read, I would love to be able to print-to-pdf your articles and read them at my leisure on a train or something.

    Here’s a good place to get started with a nice print.css:

    http://www.alistapart.com/articles/goingtoprint/

    Thanks!, Art

  4. Emmanuel Oga Says:
    Mon Mar 15 21:46:56 -0700 2010

    Nice and simple. Thanks for sharing!

  5. Daniel Says:
    Wed Mar 17 18:15:04 -0700 2010

    Getting ‘Net::SMTPAuthenticationError: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first’

    Following your instructions by the letter, but when I issue mail.deliver I get the error.

    rails c
    Loading development environment (Rails 3.0.0.beta)
    ruby-1.9.1-p378 >

    options = { :address => “smtp.gmail.com”,
    :port => 587,
    :domain => ‘your.host.name’,
    :user_name => ‘’,
    :password => ‘’,
    :authentication => ‘plain’,
    :enable_starttls_auto => true }

    options[:domain] = ‘realthing’
    options[:user_name] = ‘real name’
    options[:password] = ‘blah’

    Mail.defaults do
    delivery_method :smtp, options
    end

    mail = Mail.new do
    to ‘me@me.com’
    from ‘bob@sled.com’
    subject ‘yeah, good test’
    body ‘testing :)’
    end

    mail.deliver

    Net::SMTPAuthenticationError: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first. 15sm1219728ewy.12

    from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/tlsmail-0.0.1/lib/net/smtp.rb:679:in `auth_plain’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/tlsmail-0.0.1/lib/net/smtp.rb:673:in `authenticate’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/tlsmail-0.0.1/lib/net/smtp.rb:488:in `do_start’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/tlsmail-0.0.1/lib/net/smtp.rb:440:in `start’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/mail-2.1.3/lib/mail/network/delivery_methods/smtp.rb:101:in `deliver!’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/mail-2.1.3/lib/mail/message.rb:1777:in `do_delivery’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/vendor/bundle/gems/mail-2.1.3/lib/mail/message.rb:219:in `deliver’ from (irb):23 from /Users/daniel/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/railties-3.0.0.beta/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:47:in `start’ from /Users/daniel/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/railties-3.0.0.beta/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:8:in `start’ from /Users/daniel/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/railties-3.0.0.beta/lib/rails/commands.rb:34:in `<top (required)>’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/script/rails:10:in `require’ from /Users/daniel/km/sio/trunk/script/rails:10:in `’
  6. Sohan Says:
    Tue Mar 16 07:38:36 -0700 2010

    Your post has been linked at the Drink Rails Blog

  7. Daniel Says:
    Wed Mar 17 18:16:02 -0700 2010

    Alright, sorry about the spam. I wish there’d been a preview button and I would have not posted so much :/

  8. daniel Says:
    Wed Mar 17 20:45:57 -0700 2010

    Also following the instructions in http://guides.rails.info/action_mailer_basics.html

    gives me the same errors. help appreciated (only after setting config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = true).

  9. bucheline Says:
    Tue Nov 08 19:45:57 -0800 2011

    Alright, sorry about the spam. I wish there’d been a preview button and I would have not posted so much :/

  10. deepak Says:
    Wed Oct 27 03:23:12 -0700 2010

    your blog is useless to the beginner Rail developer.. Completely crap..

  11. deepak Says:
    Wed Oct 27 03:23:17 -0700 2010

    your blog is useless to the beginner Rail developer.. Completely crap..

  12. deepak Says:
    Wed Oct 27 03:23:29 -0700 2010

    your blog is useless to the beginner Rail developer.. Completely crap..

  13. rman Says:
    Tue Jun 08 15:28:05 -0700 2010

    Excellent code, worked right off the bat! Does anyone have any additions that would allow for looping through a list of emails?

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    Thu Jun 10 11:44:08 -0700 2010

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  15. im Says:
    Mon Jul 05 16:11:52 -0700 2010

    The future of ActionMailer in Rails 3 looks bright. Can you comment, though, on how to process incoming mail? As difficult as sending mail is on Rails, receiving it is even harder.

  16. B Says:
    Mon Sep 06 12:50:56 -0700 2010

    @im – try this (from RSoC): http://github.com/titanous/mailman

  17. Scott Peterson Says:
    Sat Jan 15 23:43:44 -0800 2011

    Here is code based on the post above that sends to multiple recipients:

    require ‘mail’

    #Set up Gmail access
    options = { :address => “smtp.gmail.com”,
    :port => 587,
    :domain => ‘localhost’,
    :user_name => ‘example@gmail.com’,
    :password => ‘passphrase’,
    :authentication => ‘plain’,
    :enable_starttls_auto => true }

    Mail.defaults do
    delivery_method :smtp, options
    end

    #import email addresses from text file
    recips = []
    IO.foreach(“testaddr.txt”) do |line|
    recips << line
    end

    #Status update
    puts “Done with readin\n”

    #Format email addresses properly with double quotes and send
    recips.each {|value|
    puts value
    baseadd = value.chomp
    address = “\”“baseadd”\""
    mail = Mail.new do
    to address
    from ‘example@gmail.com’
    subject ‘testing sendmail’
    body ‘testing sendmail’
    end
    mail.deliver

  18. Giovanni Says:
    Tue Jun 07 23:35:25 -0700 2011

    Thanks a lot…

  19. scared o'spam Says:
    Thu Jun 16 14:36:36 -0700 2011

    ripped?
    http://justinvadakkan.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-use-mail-actionmailer-3-with.html

  20. Giovanni Says:
    Mon Jun 27 05:18:45 -0700 2011

    Thanks a lot.

  21. Zander Says:
    Wed Jul 06 04:07:37 -0700 2011

    Thanks for writing this GEM!

    Just finished writing an automated init.d controller script that reads in emails via POP3, screens them for authorized senders, and then issues specific init.d commands on the server. Granted the idea came from Methods in Ruby… but it’s updated and re-written from scratch using your Mail Gem.

    Keep up the good work and thanks for the extra documentation on your blog.

  22. Zander Says:
    Wed Jul 06 04:08:47 -0700 2011

    Thanks for writing this GEM!

    Just finished writing an automated init.d controller script that reads in emails via POP3, screens them for authorized senders, and then issues specific init.d commands on the server. Granted the idea came from Methods in Ruby… but it’s updated and re-written from scratch using your Mail Gem.

    Keep up the good work and thanks for the extra documentation on your blog.

    Gah, borked the web address. Feel free to delete first post of mine :)

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