mailcatcher/README.md

# MailCatcher

Catches mail and serves it through a dream.

MailCatcher runs a super simple SMTP server which catches any message sent to it to display in a web interface. Run mailcatcher, set your favourite app to deliver to smtp://127.0.0.1:1025 instead of your default SMTP server, then check out http://127.0.0.1:1080 to see the mail that's arrived so far.

![MailCatcher screenshot](http://f.cl.ly/items/3w2T1p0F3g003b2i1F2z/Screen%20shot%202011-06-23%20at%2011.39.03%20PM.png)

## Features

* Catches all mail and stores it for display.
* Shows HTML, Plain Text and Source version of messages, as applicable.
* Rewrites HTML enabling display of embedded, inline images/etc and open links in a new window. (currently very basic)
* Can send HTML for analysis by [Fractal][fractal].
* Lists attachments and allows separate downloading of parts.
* Download original email to view in your native mail client(s).
* Command line options to override the default SMTP/HTTP IP and port settings.
* Mail appears instantly if your browser supports [WebSockets][websockets], otherwise updates every thirty seconds.
* Growl notifications when you receive a new message.
* Runs as a daemon run in the background.
* Sendmail-analogue command, `catchmail`, makes [using mailcatcher from PHP][withphp] a lot easier.
* Written super-simply in EventMachine, easy to dig in and change.
* Keyboard navigation between messages

## How

1. `gem install mailcatcher`
2. `mailcatcher`
3. Go to http://localhost:1080/
4. Send mail through smtp://localhost:1025

The brave can get the source from [the GitHub repository][mailcatcher-github].

### Bundler

Please don't put mailcatcher into your Gemfile. It will conflict with your applications gems at some point.

Instead, pop a note in your README stating you use mailcatcher. Simply run `gem install mailcatcher` then `mailcatcher` to get started.

### RVM

Under RVM your mailcatcher command may only be available under the ruby you install mailcatcher into. To prevent this, and to prevent gem conflicts, install mailcatcher into a dedicated gemset and create wrapper scripts:

    rvm default@mailcatcher --create do gem install mailcatcher
    rvm wrapper default@mailcatcher --no-prefix mailcatcher catchmail

### Rails

To set up your rails app, I recommend adding this to your `environment/development.rb`:

    config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
    config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = { :address => "localhost", :port => 1025 }

### PHP

For projects using PHP, or PHP frameworks and application platforms like Drupal, you can set [PHP's mail configuration](http://www.php.net/manual/en/mail.configuration.php) in your [php.ini](http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.file.php) to send via MailCatcher with:

    sendmail_path = /usr/bin/env catchmail -f some@from.address

You can do this in an [Apache htaccess file](http://php.net/manual/en/configuration.changes.php) or general configuration like so:

    php_value sendmail_path "/usr/bin/env catchmail -f some@from.address"

If you've installed via RVM this probably won't work unless you've manually added your RVM bin paths to your system environment's PATH. In that case, run `which catchmail` and put that path into the `sendmail_path` directive above instead of `/usr/bin/env catchmail`.

If starting `mailcatcher` on alternative SMTP IP and/or port with parameters like `--smtp-ip 192.168.0.1 --smtp-port 10025`, add the same parameters to your `catchmail` command:

    sendmail_path = /usr/bin/env catchmail --smtp-ip 192.160.0.1 --smtp-port 10025 -f some@from.address

### Django

For use in Django, simply add the following configuration to your projects' settings.py

```python
if DEBUG:
    EMAIL_HOST = '127.0.0.1'
    EMAIL_HOST_USER = ''
    EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = ''
    EMAIL_PORT = 1025
    EMAIL_USE_TLS = False
```

### API

A fairly RESTful URL schema means you can download a list of messages in JSON from `/messages`, each message's metadata with `/messages/:id.json`, and then the pertinent parts with `/messages/:id.html` and `/messages/:id.plain` for the default HTML and plain text version, `/messages/:id/:cid` for individual attachments by CID, or the whole message with `/messages/:id.source`.

## Caveats

* Mail processing is fairly basic but easily modified. If something doesn't work for you, fork and fix it or [file an issue][mailcatcher-issues] and let me know. Include the whole message you're having problems with.
* The interface is very basic and has not been tested on many browsers yet.

## TODO

* Add mail delivery on request, optionally multiple times.
* Better Growl support in MacRuby and RubyCocoa with click notifications which takes you to the received message.
* An API-compatible nodejs version, for fun and profit (and non-ruby npm users).
* Test suite.
* Compatibility testing against CampaignMonitor's [design guidelines](http://www.campaignmonitor.com/design-guidelines/) and [CSS support matrix](http://www.campaignmonitor.com/design-guidelines/).
* Forward mail to rendering service, maybe CampaignMonitor?
* Package as an app? Native interfaces? HotCocoa?

## Thanks

MailCatcher is just a mishmash of other people's hard work. Thank you so much to the people who have built the wonderful guts on which this project relies.

Thanks also to [The Frontier Group][tfg] for giving me the idea, being great guinea pigs and letting me steal pieces of time to keep the project alive.

## Donations

I work on MailCatcher mostly in my own spare time. If you've found Mailcatcher useful and would like to help feed me and fund continued development and new features, please [donate via PayPal][donate]. If you'd like a specific feature added to MailCatcher and are willing to pay for it, please [email me](mailto:sj26@sj26.com).

## License

Copyright © 2010-2011 Samuel Cochran (sj26@sj26.com). Released under the MIT License, see [LICENSE][license] for details.

## Dreams

For dream catching, try [this](http://goo.gl/kgbh). OR [THIS](http://www.nyanicorn.com), OMG.

  [donate]: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=522WUPLRWUSKE
  [fractal]: http://getfractal.com
  [license]: https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher/blob/master/LICENSE
  [mailcatcher-github]: https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher
  [mailcatcher-issues]: https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher/issues
  [tfg]: http://www.thefrontiergroup.com.au
  [websockets]: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-socket-protocol/
  [withphp]: http://webschuur.com/publications/blogs/2011-05-29-catchmail_for_drupal_and_other_phpapplications_the_simple_version