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 this instructions mainly for production usage.

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.

1. Update the host domain

   :::
   HOST_PROTOCOL=http
   HOST_DOMAIN=example.com
   

2. 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.

3. Update from setting

   :::
   SMTP_DEFAULT_FROM=from@example.com
   

   Here the from address must be a 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

1. 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)

2. Update the custom smtp server settings in production.rb

   :::ruby
   config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
           address:              'smtp.example.com',
           port:                 25,
           enable_starttls_auto: true,
           authentication:       'login',
           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.

3. Update the "from" setting in production.rb

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

   Here the from address must be a 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.

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.