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Email Testing with Mailpit

This document describes how to test email notifications in Dkron using Mailpit.

What is Mailpit?

Mailpit is a modern email testing tool for developers. It runs a fake SMTP server to capture outgoing emails instead of sending them to real recipients. This allows you to:

  • Test email functionality without sending real emails
  • Inspect email content, headers, and formatting via a web UI
  • Verify emails are being sent correctly during development and testing
  • View emails in a modern, responsive interface with search capabilities

Why Mailpit?

Mailpit offers several advantages over older tools:

  • Actively Maintained: Regular updates and bug fixes
  • Modern UI: Clean, responsive interface with better UX
  • Fast: Written in Go with excellent performance
  • Feature-Rich: Search, filtering, tagging, and more
  • Small Footprint: Lightweight Docker image (~15MB compressed)
  • API Support: RESTful API for automated testing

Running Mailpit

Using Docker (Recommended)

The easiest way to run Mailpit is using Docker:

docker run -p 8025:8025 -p 1025:1025 axllent/mailpit

This exposes:

  • Port 1025: SMTP server (for your application to send emails)
  • Port 8025: Web UI (to view captured emails)

Using Docker Compose

Mailpit is included in the development docker-compose configuration. Start it with:

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up mailpit

Or start the entire development environment including Mailpit:

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up

Standalone Installation

You can also install Mailpit directly on your system. See the Mailpit documentation for installation instructions.

Configuring Dkron to Use Mailpit

To configure Dkron to send emails through Mailpit, use the following SMTP settings:

MailHost: localhost
MailPort: 1025
MailFrom: dkron@example.com

Note: Mailpit does not require authentication, so you don't need to set MailUsername or MailPassword.

Running Email Tests

The email notification tests in dkron/notifier_test.go are configured to use Mailpit by default. The tests automatically verify that emails are correctly sent and received using Mailpit's REST API.

To run the email notification test:

# Make sure Mailpit is running first
docker run -d -p 8025:8025 -p 1025:1025 axllent/mailpit

# Run the test
go test -v -run TestNotifier_sendExecutionEmail ./dkron

Or use the convenient Makefile target:

make test-email

Viewing Captured Emails

  1. Open your browser and navigate to: http://localhost:8025
  2. The Mailpit web UI will show all emails sent during testing
  3. Click on any email to view its details, including:
    • Subject line
    • Recipients (To, Cc, Bcc)
    • Email body (HTML and plain text)
    • Attachments
    • Raw MIME content
    • Headers
    • Source code

Web UI Features

Mailpit's web interface includes:

  • Search: Full-text search across all emails
  • Filtering: Filter by sender, recipient, subject
  • Responsive Design: Works on desktop and mobile
  • Dark Mode: Toggle between light and dark themes
  • Real-time Updates: Emails appear instantly via WebSocket

Test Configuration

The test in dkron/notifier_test.go uses the following configuration:

c := &Config{
    MailHost:          "localhost",
    MailPort:          1025,
    MailFrom:          "dkron@dkron.io",
    MailSubjectPrefix: "[Test]",
}

This configuration:

  • Connects to Mailpit's SMTP server at localhost:1025
  • Sets the sender address to dkron@dkron.io
  • Adds a [Test] prefix to all email subjects
  • Uses Mailpit API at http://localhost:8025 to verify email delivery

API Verification

The test automatically verifies email delivery using Mailpit's REST API:

// The test performs the following verifications:
// 1. Checks that email was received
// 2. Verifies From address is correct
// 3. Verifies To address matches recipient
// 4. Confirms subject contains expected text
// 5. Validates email body contains execution output

This ensures that emails are not just sent, but actually captured correctly by Mailpit.

Troubleshooting

Connection Refused Errors

If you see connection errors when running tests:

  1. Verify Mailpit is running:

    docker ps | grep mailpit

  2. Check that port 1025 is accessible:

    nc -zv localhost 1025

  3. If using Docker, ensure the ports are properly mapped

Emails Not Appearing in Web UI

  1. Check the Mailpit web UI at http://localhost:8025
  2. Verify the test completed successfully without errors
  3. Check Mailpit logs for any issues: 
    docker logs <mailpit-container-id>

Port Already in Use

If port 1025 or 8025 is already in use:

# Find what's using the port
lsof -i :1025
lsof -i :8025

# Or use different ports
docker run -p 8026:8025 -p 1026:1025 axllent/mailpit
# Then update test configuration to use port 1026

GitHub Actions CI/CD Integration

Mailpit is automatically configured in the GitHub Actions test workflow. The workflow includes Mailpit as a service container, making it available during test execution.

How It Works

The .github/workflows/test.yml file includes Mailpit as a service:

services:
    mailpit:
        image: axllent/mailpit
        ports:
            - 1025:1025
            - 8025:8025

When tests run in GitHub Actions:

  1. Mailpit starts automatically as a service container
  2. The SMTP server is available at localhost:1025
  3. Tests can send emails without any additional configuration
  4. No secrets or credentials are needed

Viewing Emails in CI

Since GitHub Actions runners don't expose web UIs, you cannot view the Mailpit web interface during CI runs. However, you can:

  1. Verify emails are sent successfully by checking test results
  2. Tests automatically use Mailpit's API to verify email content
  3. Email assertions include subject, sender, recipient, and body content

Testing Locally Before CI

To ensure your tests will pass in GitHub Actions:

# Start Mailpit locally with the same configuration as CI
docker run -p 1025:1025 -p 8025:8025 axllent/mailpit

# Run the full test suite
go test -v -timeout 200s ./...

Or use the validation script:

./scripts/test-ci-locally.sh

Advantages Over External Services

Mailpit provides several advantages for local development and testing:

  • Free and Open Source: No account required, runs completely locally
  • No External Dependencies: Doesn't require internet connection
  • Simple Setup: Single Docker command to get started
  • Fast: No network latency from external services
  • Privacy: All emails stay on your local machine
  • CI/CD Friendly: Easy to integrate into automated testing pipelines
  • No Secrets Required: No API keys or credentials needed in CI

Production Email Configuration

Remember that Mailpit is for testing only. For production, configure Dkron with your actual SMTP server credentials:

MailHost: smtp.your-provider.com
MailPort: 587
MailUsername: your-username
MailPassword: your-password
MailFrom: noreply@yourdomain.com

Using Mailpit API in Tests

The email notification tests demonstrate how to use Mailpit's API for verification:

Get All Messages

resp, err := http.Get("http://localhost:8025/api/v1/messages")

Get Specific Message

resp, err := http.Get(fmt.Sprintf("http://localhost:8025/api/v1/message/%s", messageID))

Delete All Messages

req, err := http.NewRequest("DELETE", "http://localhost:8025/api/v1/messages", nil)
resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

See dkron/notifier_test.go for a complete example of API usage in tests.

Additional Resources