UPDATED: Email validation/activation with rails, restful_authentication, and gmail smtp

This is updated from my old post on the subject. It’s a process cheat sheet for me.

I’m not gonna explain it too much. Here’s the code.

script/plugin install git://github.com/technoweenie/restful-authentication.git
script/generate authenticated user sessions --include-activation
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#Add an observer to config/environment.rb
config.active_record.observers = :user_observer
#put it just before the very last 'end' on the page
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#Add routes to these resources. In config/routes.rb, insert routes like:
    map.signup '/signup', :controller => 'users', :action => 'new'
    map.login  '/login',  :controller => 'sessions', :action => 'new'
    map.logout '/logout', :controller => 'sessions', :action => 'destroy'
    map.activate '/activate/:activation_code', :controller => 'users', :action => 'activate', :activation_code => nil
rake db:migrate
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# create new file config/initializers/mail.rb
 
require "smtp_tls"
 
ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :smtp
ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
:address => "smtp.gmail.com",
:port => 587,
:authentication => :plain,
:user_name => "you@gmail.com",
:password => 'yourpassword'}
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# edit config/environments/production.rb & put these lines at the top
SITE_NAME = "Your Site"
SITE_URL = "www.yourdomain.com"
SITE_EMAIL = "admin@yourdomain.com"
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# edit config/environments/development.rb & put these lines at the top
SITE_NAME = "ToolTime"
SITE_URL = "localhost:3000"
SITE_EMAIL = "scott@scottmotte.com"
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# Make app/models/user_mailer.rb look like the following:
class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base
  def signup_notification(user)
    setup_email(user)
    @subject    += 'Please activate your new account'
 
    @body[:url]  = "http://#{SITE_URL}/activate/#{user.activation_code}"
 
  end
 
  def activation(user)
    setup_email(user)
    @subject    += 'Your account has been activated!'
    @body[:url]  = "http://#{SITE_URL}/"
  end
 
  protected
    def setup_email(user)
      @recipients  = "#{user.email}"
      @from        = "#{SITE_EMAIL}"
      @subject     = "#{SITE_NAME}"
      @sent_on     = Time.now
      @body[:user] = user
    end
end
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# create file lib/smtp_tls.rb with following code in it
 
require "openssl"
require "net/smtp"
 
Net::SMTP.class_eval do
  private
  def do_start(helodomain, user, secret, authtype)
    raise IOError, 'SMTP session already started' if @started
    check_auth_args user, secret, authtype if user or secret
 
    sock = timeout(@open_timeout) { TCPSocket.open(@address, @port) }
    @socket = Net::InternetMessageIO.new(sock)
    @socket.read_timeout = 60 #@read_timeout
 
    check_response(critical { recv_response() })
    do_helo(helodomain)
 
    if starttls
      raise 'openssl library not installed' unless defined?(OpenSSL)
      ssl = OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket.new(sock)
      ssl.sync_close = true
      ssl.connect
      @socket = Net::InternetMessageIO.new(ssl)
      @socket.read_timeout = 60 #@read_timeout
      do_helo(helodomain)
    end
 
    authenticate user, secret, authtype if user
    @started = true
  ensure
    unless @started
      # authentication failed, cancel connection.
      @socket.close if not @started and @socket and not @socket.closed?
      @socket = nil
    end
  end
 
  def do_helo(helodomain)
    begin
      if @esmtp
        ehlo helodomain
      else
        helo helodomain
      end
    rescue Net::ProtocolError
      if @esmtp
        @esmtp = false
        @error_occured = false
        retry
      end
      raise
    end
  end
 
  def starttls
    getok('STARTTLS') rescue return false
  return true
  end
 
  def quit
    begin
      getok('QUIT')
    rescue EOFError
    end
  end
end

Restart your server, visit http://yourapp.com/signup and give it a shot.

Once that works. Then put before_filter :login_required in your controllers where needed.

Comments

  1. [...] Your rails app should already have the ability to send out emails 2. Your Rails app must already be capified via Capistrano or similar with some type of deployment [...]