transactional-emails-with-mailgun

Transactional Emails using Mailgun in Ruby on Rails

wiktor-plagaWiktor Plaga
March 25, 20238 min reading time

Sending Transactional Emails using Mailgun in Ruby on Rails

In today's digital world, email communication is an essential part of any business. Whether it's sending newsletters, order confirmations, or password reset emails, transactional emails are a crucial aspect of customer engagement. As a Ruby on Rails developer, you have access to a wide range of email service providers, but Mailgun stands out as a reliable and efficient option. In this tutorial, we will explore how to send transactional emails using Mailgun in Ruby on Rails.

This tutorial is designed for Ruby on Rails developers who want to learn how to integrate Mailgun into their applications. We will start by setting up a Mailgun account and configuring our Rails application to use Mailgun as our email service provider. We will then explore how to send different types of transactional emails, including order confirmations and password reset emails, using Mailgun's API. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a solid understanding of how to send transactional emails using Mailgun in Ruby on Rails, and you will be able to apply this knowledge to your own projects.

What is Mailgun?

Mailgun is a cloud-based email service provider that allows developers to send transactional emails through an API or SMTP integration. Transactional emails are automated messages that are triggered by specific user actions, such as signing up for a service, making a purchase, or resetting a password. These emails are typically personalized and contain important information that is relevant to the user.

Mailgun provides a reliable and scalable platform for sending transactional emails, with features such as email tracking, analytics, and spam filtering. With Mailgun, developers can easily integrate email functionality into their applications, without having to worry about the complexities of email delivery. This allows developers to focus on building great user experiences, while Mailgun takes care of the email infrastructure.

Why use Mailgun for Sending Transactional Emails in Ruby on Rails application?

There are several reasons why Mailgun is a popular choice for sending transactional emails. Firstly, Mailgun provides a reliable and scalable platform for sending emails, with a 99.99% uptime guarantee. This means that your emails will be delivered quickly and reliably, without any downtime or delays. Additionally, Mailgun provides advanced email analytics and tracking, allowing you to monitor the performance of your emails and optimize your campaigns for better engagement.

Secondly, Mailgun offers a powerful set of email delivery tools, including spam filtering, bounce handling, and email validation. This ensures that your emails are delivered to the inbox, rather than being marked as spam or bouncing back. Mailgun also provides real-time alerts for delivery failures, allowing you to quickly identify and resolve any issues.

Finally, Mailgun is easy to integrate with your existing applications, with comprehensive documentation and support for a wide range of programming languages and frameworks. This makes it an ideal choice for developers who want to quickly and easily add email functionality to their applications, without having to worry about the complexities of email delivery. Overall, Mailgun is a reliable, scalable, and feature-rich platform for sending transactional emails, making it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes.

Prerequisites

To complete the "Sending Transactional Emails using Mailgun in Ruby on Rails" tutorial, you will need the following prerequisites:

  1. Basic knowledge of Ruby on Rails: This tutorial assumes that you have a basic understanding of Ruby on Rails, including how to create a new Rails application, set up a database, and create controllers and views.

  2. A Mailgun account: You will need to sign up for a Mailgun account to use their email service. Mailgun offers a free plan that allows you to send up to 10,000 emails per month.

  3. A verified domain: To send emails using Mailgun, you will need to verify your domain. This involves adding DNS records to your domain's DNS settings.

  4. A text editor: You will need a text editor to write and edit your Rails application code. Popular text editors for Ruby on Rails development include Sublime Text, Atom, and Visual Studio Code.

  5. Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS: This tutorial will involve creating HTML templates for your transactional emails, so you will need a basic understanding of HTML and CSS.

  6. Basic knowledge of the command line: This tutorial will involve running commands in the terminal, so you will need a basic understanding of the command line.

Ruby on Rails Mailgun step by step setup and configuration

Integrating Mailgun into a Ruby on Rails project is a straightforward process that involves configuring your application to use Mailgun as your email service provider. To get started, you will need to sign up for a Mailgun account and verify your domain. Once you have done this, you can follow the steps below to integrate Mailgun into your Rails application.

Step 1: Install the Mailgun Ruby Gem The first step is to install the Mailgun Ruby gem, which provides a simple interface for sending emails using Mailgun's API. You can do this by adding the following line to your Gemfile and running bundle install:

gem 'mailgun-ruby', '~> 1.4.0'

Step 2: Configure Mailgun in your Rails application Next, you will need to configure your Rails application to use Mailgun as your email service provider. You can do this by adding the following code to your config/environments/production.rb file:

config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :mailgun
config.action_mailer.mailgun_settings = {
  api_key: ENV['MAILGUN_API_KEY'],
  domain: ENV['MAILGUN_DOMAIN']
}

This code sets the delivery method to :mailgun and specifies the Mailgun API key and domain as environment variables.

Step 3: Create a Mailer Now that you have configured Mailgun in your Rails application, you can create a mailer to send transactional emails. You can do this by running the following command:

rails generate mailer UserMailer

This will create a new mailer called UserMailer in your app/mailers directory. You can then create a method in your mailer to send a welcome email, like this:

class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
  def welcome_email(user)
    @user = user
    mail(to: @user.email, subject: 'Welcome to My Awesome App')
  end
end

Step 4: Send an Email Finally, you can send an email using your mailer by calling the deliver_now method on your mailer method, like this:

UserMailer.welcome_email(@user).deliver_now

This will send a welcome email to the user's email address using Mailgun's API. And that's it! You have successfully integrated Mailgun into your Ruby on Rails project and sent a transactional email.

Mailgun configuration options in Ruby on Rails

Here are the Mailgun configuration options for Ruby on Rails integration:

  1. api_key: This is your Mailgun API key, which is used to authenticate your requests to the Mailgun API.

  2. domain: This is the domain that you have verified with Mailgun, which is used to send emails from your application.

  3. api_host: This is the Mailgun API endpoint that you want to use. The default value is api.mailgun.net.

  4. api_version: This is the version of the Mailgun API that you want to use. The default value is v3.

  5. ssl: This is a boolean value that determines whether to use SSL when making requests to the Mailgun API. The default value is true.

  6. open_timeout: This is the number of seconds to wait for a connection to the Mailgun API to be opened. The default value is nil.

  7. read_timeout: This is the number of seconds to wait for a response from the Mailgun API. The default value is nil.

  8. test_mode: This is a boolean value that determines whether to enable Mailgun's test mode. When test mode is enabled, emails are not actually sent, but are instead stored in a log for testing purposes. The default value is false.

  9. delivery_method: This is the delivery method that you want to use for sending emails. The default value is :smtp, but can be set to :mailgun to use Mailgun's API.

  10. mailgun_settings: This is a hash of Mailgun-specific settings that are used when sending emails using Mailgun's API. The api_key and domain options are required, but other options such as tags and tracking can also be set.

Conclusion

In conclusion, sending transactional emails is an essential part of any web application, and Mailgun is a reliable and efficient email service provider that makes it easy to send emails using Ruby on Rails. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you have learned how to integrate Mailgun into your Rails application, configure your email settings, and send different types of transactional emails using Mailgun's API.

With Mailgun, you can take advantage of advanced email delivery tools, such as spam filtering and bounce handling, to ensure that your emails are delivered to the inbox. You can also use Mailgun's email analytics and tracking to monitor the performance of your emails and optimize your campaigns for better engagement.

Overall, Mailgun is a powerful and flexible platform for sending transactional emails, and integrating it into your Ruby on Rails application is a straightforward process. By using Mailgun, you can ensure that your emails are delivered quickly and reliably, and that your users receive the information they need to engage with your application.

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