Receive all emails from the default retriever See Mail::Retriever for a complete documentation.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 163
def self.all(*args, &block)
  retriever_method.all(*args, &block)
end

Sets the default delivery method and retriever method for all new Mail objects. The delivery_method and retriever_method default to :smtp and :pop3, with defaults set.

So sending a new email, if you have an SMTP server running on localhost is as easy as:

Mail.deliver do
  to      'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
  from    'bob@test.lindsaar.net'
  subject 'hi there!'
  body    'this is a body'
end

If you do not specify anything, you will get the following equivalent code set in every new mail object:

Mail.defaults do
  delivery_method :smtp, { :address              => "localhost",
                           :port                 => 25,
                           :domain               => 'localhost.localdomain',
                           :user_name            => nil,
                           :password             => nil,
                           :authentication       => nil,
                           :enable_starttls_auto => true  }

  retriever_method :pop3, { :address             => "localhost",
                            :port                => 995,
                            :user_name           => nil,
                            :password            => nil,
                            :enable_ssl          => true }
end

Mail.delivery_method.new  #=> Mail::SMTP instance
Mail.retriever_method.new #=> Mail::POP3 instance

Each mail object inherits the default set in Mail.delivery_method, however, on a per email basis, you can override the method:

mail.delivery_method :smtp

Or you can override the method and pass in settings:

mail.delivery_method :smtp, :address => 'some.host'

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 98
def self.defaults(&block)
  Configuration.instance.instance_eval(&block)
end

Delete all emails from the default retriever See Mail::Retriever for a complete documentation.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 174
def self.delete_all(*args, &block)
  retriever_method.delete_all(*args, &block)
end

Send an email using the default configuration. You do need to set a default configuration first before you use self.deliver, if you don’t, an appropriate error will be raised telling you to.

If you do not specify a delivery type, SMTP will be used.

Mail.deliver do
 to 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
 from 'ada@test.lindsaar.net'
 subject 'This is a test email'
 body 'Not much to say here'
end

You can also do:

mail = Mail.read('email.eml')
mail.deliver!

And your email object will be created and sent.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 131
def self.deliver(*args, &block)
  mail = self.new(args, &block)
  mail.deliver
  mail
end

Returns the delivery method selected, defaults to an instance of Mail::SMTP

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 103
def self.delivery_method
  Configuration.instance.delivery_method
end

This runs through the autoload list and explictly requires them for you. Useful when running mail in a threaded process.

Usage:

require 'mail'
Mail.eager_autoload!

# File lib/mail.rb, line 53
def self.eager_autoload!
  @@autoloads.each { |_,path| require(path) }
end

Find emails from the default retriever See Mail::Retriever for a complete documentation.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 139
def self.find(*args, &block)
  retriever_method.find(*args, &block)
end

Finds and then deletes retrieved emails from the default retriever See Mail::Retriever for a complete documentation.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 145
def self.find_and_delete(*args, &block)
  retriever_method.find_and_delete(*args, &block)
end

Receive the first email(s) from the default retriever See Mail::Retriever for a complete documentation.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 151
def self.first(*args, &block)
  retriever_method.first(*args, &block)
end

Receive the first email(s) from the default retriever See Mail::Retriever for a complete documentation.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 157
def self.last(*args, &block)
  retriever_method.last(*args, &block)
end

Allows you to create a new Mail::Message object.

You can make an email via passing a string or passing a block.

For example, the following two examples will create the same email message:

Creating via a string:

string = "To: mikel@test.lindsaar.net\r\n"
string << "From: bob@test.lindsaar.net\r\n"
string << "Subject: This is an email\r\n"
string << "\r\n"
string << "This is the body"
Mail.new(string)

Or creating via a block:

message = Mail.new do
  to 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
  from 'bob@test.lindsaar.net'
  subject 'This is an email'
  body 'This is the body'
end

Or creating via a hash (or hash like object):

message = Mail.new({:to => 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net',
                    'from' => 'bob@test.lindsaar.net',
                    :subject => 'This is an email',
                    :body => 'This is the body' })

Note, the hash keys can be strings or symbols, the passed in object does not need to be a hash, it just needs to respond to :each_pair and yield each key value pair.

As a side note, you can also create a new email through creating a Mail::Message object directly and then passing in values via string, symbol or direct method calls. See Mail::Message for more information.

mail = Mail.new
mail.to = 'mikel@test.lindsaar.net'
mail[:from] = 'bob@test.lindsaar.net'
mail['subject'] = 'This is an email'
mail.body = 'This is the body'

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 50
def self.new(*args, &block)
  Message.new(args, &block)
end

Reads in an email message from a path and instantiates it as a new Mail::Message

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 168
def self.read(filename)
  self.new(File.open(filename, 'rb') { |f| f.read })
end

Instantiates a new Mail::Message using a string

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 179
def Mail.read_from_string(mail_as_string)
  Mail.new(mail_as_string)
end

You can register an object to be given every mail object that will be sent, before it is sent. So if you want to add special headers or modify any email that gets sent through the Mail library, you can do so.

Your object needs to respond to a single method delivering_email(mail) which receives the email that is about to be sent. Make your modifications directly to this object.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 215
def self.register_interceptor(interceptor)
  unless @@delivery_interceptors.include?(interceptor)
    @@delivery_interceptors << interceptor
  end
end

You can register an object to be informed of every email that is sent through this method.

Your object needs to respond to a single method delivered_email(mail) which receives the email that is sent.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 196
def self.register_observer(observer)
  unless @@delivery_notification_observers.include?(observer)
    @@delivery_notification_observers << observer
  end
end

Returns the retriever method selected, defaults to an instance of Mail::POP3

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 108
def self.retriever_method
  Configuration.instance.retriever_method
end

Unregister the given interceptor, allowing mail to resume operations without it.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 223
def self.unregister_interceptor(interceptor)
  @@delivery_interceptors.delete(interceptor)
end

Unregister the given observer, allowing mail to resume operations without it.

# File lib/mail/mail.rb, line 204
def self.unregister_observer(observer)
  @@delivery_notification_observers.delete(observer)
end