Mailing Setup

Autolab requires mailing to allow users to register accounts and reset passwords. You will also be able to make announcements through Autolab as well. The recommended approach is to setup Autolab to use a SMTP server, such as mailgun, SendGrid, Amazon SES or any other valid SMTP mail servers to send out email.

We intend these instructions mainly for production usage.

Mailing for Autolab version >=3.0.0

To set up Autolab (>=3.0.0) for a custom SMTP Server, configure settings by clicking Manage Autolab > Configure Autolab > SMTP Config.

I don't have a domain name, will mailing work?

Mailing has been tested to work with SendGrid without a domain name (using the IP of the server as the domain name for the purposes of the configuration above), although the absence of a domain name will likely result in the email to be flagged as spam. For the purpose of testing, a testing mailbox service like MailTrap is recommended.

What if I'm running an outdated version of Autolab?

If you are running an Autolab version less than v3.0.0, refer to the documentation down below to configure SMTP.

Mailing for Autolab Docker Installation

To set Autolab Docker up for a custom SMTP Server, update the following in .env that was created for you.

Update the host domain

HOST_PROTOCOL=http
HOST_DOMAIN=example.com

Update custom smtp settings

SMTP_SETTINGS_ADDRESS=smtp.example.com
SMTP_SETTINGS_PORT=25
SMTP_SETTINGS_ENABLE_STARTTLS_AUTO=true
SMTP_SETTINGS_AUTHENTICATION=login
SMTP_SETTINGS_USER_NAME=example
SMTP_SETTINGS_PASSWORD=example
SMTP_SETTINGS_DOMAIN=example.com

Refer to the SMTP settings instructions that your selected service provides you such as SendGrid SMTP for Ruby on Rails, Amazon SES.

Update from setting
```
SMTP_DEFAULT_FROM=from@example.com
```
Here the from address must be an address that your SMTP service permits you to send from. Oftentimes it is the same as your user_name in the smtp settings.

After which, doing a docker-compose down followed by docker-compose up -d will allow you to see the changes.

Mailing for Autolab Manual Installation

To set Autolab up to use a custom SMTP Server, you will need to make edits to the .env and production.rb files that you have created. (If you would like to test it in development, add the following settings into development.rb). Both production.rb and development.rb are located under config/environments

Update the host domain of your Autolab instance in .env
```
MAILER_HOST=yourhost.com
```
The value should be the domain in which Autolab is hosted on. (e.g. autolab.andrew.cmu.edu)

Update the custom smtp server settings in production.rb

config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
        address:              'smtp.example.com',
        port:                 25,
        enable_starttls_auto: true,
        authentication:       'plain', # Other options include: 'login', 'cram_md5', 'none'
        user_name:            'example',
        password:             'example',
        domain:               'example.com',
}

Refer to the SMTP settings instructions that your selected service provides you such as SendGrid SMTP for Ruby on Rails, Amazon SES.

Update the "from" setting in production.rb

ActionMailer::Base.default :from => 'something@example.com'

Here the from address must be an address that your SMTP service permits you to send from. Oftentimes it is the same as your user_name in the smtp settings.

Make sure to restart your Autolab client to see the changes.