Pablo Cantero

Test emails with automated testing tools

05 Aug 2015

Usually, for automated tests that can send emails, because of a step in the test, we either stub or don’t check the emails being sent. We don’t go to Gmail or any other email client for confirming (assert/expect) that the email was delivered.

Not testing emails, like for real, in most cases can be okay. For example, if you are using Amazon SES or similar, you just trust them, and usually, the configuration you have in place for sending emails does not change often. If it worked once, it’s most likely it will continue to work (famous last words).

But if the email delivery is a critical part of your application, and you do want to make sure it’s working, this post is for you.

Say Hello to PutsBox

Let me introduce you PutsBox. It’s a mix of disposable email tools and HTTP request recorders tools such as PutsReq.

Getting started

Send an email to [email protected], give it a few seconds (don’t blame PutsBox, email delivery services may take a few seconds to process) then check https://preview.putsbox.com/p/whatever-recipient-you-want-to/last, voalá, it will respond with your email content.

JSON representation

You can also append .json to the /inspect or /last URLs to get a JSON representation.

No sign up required, PutsBox is free and open source.

Capybara example

Here’s an example with Capybara.

visit '/'

click_on 'a[href="/users/sign_in"]'
click_on 'a[href="/users/password/new"]'

fill_in '#user_email', with: '[email protected]'

click_on 'input[name="commit"]'

# Waits for the email. Email delivery services may take a few seconds
sleep 60

# Opens the email
visit 'http://preview.putsbox.com/p/test-reset-password/last'

# Clicks on the reset link (sent in the body of your email)
click_on '#reset-password'

# Resets the password
fill_in '#user_password', with: 'password'

fill_in '#user_password_confirmation', with: 'password'

click_on 'input[name="commit"]'

Cool, isn’t?