rails 3: how to abort delivery method in actionmailer? - ruby-on-rails

Question

In my mailer controller, under certain conditions (missing data) we abort sending the email.
How do I exit the controller method without still rendering a view in that case?
return if #some_email_data.nil?
Doesn't do the trick since the view is still rendered (throwing an error every place I try to use #some_email_data unless I add a lot of nil checks)
And even if I do the nil checks, it complains there's no 'sender' (because I supposed did a 'return' before getting to the line where I set the sender and subject.
Neither does render ... return
Basically, RETURN DOESN'T RETURN inside a mailer method!

Answer 1

A much simpler solution than the accepted answer would be something like:
class SomeMailer < ActionMailer::Base
def some_method
if #some_email_data.nil?
self.message.perform_deliveries = false
else
mail(...)
end
end
end
If you're using Rails 3.2.9 (or later things even better) - there you can finally conditionally call mail(). Here's the related GitHub thread. Now the code can be reworked like this:
class SomeMailer < ActionMailer::Base
def some_method
unless #some_email_data.nil?
mail(...)
end
end
end

Answer 2

I just encountered same thing here.
My solution was following:
module BulletproofMailer
class BlackholeMailMessage < Mail::Message
def self.deliver
false
end
end
class AbortDeliveryError < StandardError
end
class Base < ActionMailer::Base
def abort_delivery
raise AbortDeliveryError
end
def process(*args)
begin
super *args
rescue AbortDeliveryError
self.message = BulletproofMailer::BlackholeMailMessage
end
end
end
end
Using these wrapper mailer would look like this:
class EventMailer < BulletproofMailer::Base
include Resque::Mailer
def event_created(event_id)
begin
#event = CalendarEvent.find(event_id)
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
abort_delivery
end
end
end
It is also posted in my blog.

Answer 3

I've found this method that seems the least-invasive, as it works across all mailer methods without requiring you to remember to catch an error. In our case, we just want a setting to completely disable mailers for certain environments. Tested in Rails 6, although I'm sure it'll work just fine in Rails 5 as well, maybe lower.
class ApplicationMailer < ActionMailer::Base
class AbortDeliveryError < StandardError; end
before_action :ensure_notifications_enabled
rescue_from AbortDeliveryError, with: -> {}
def ensure_notifications_enabled
raise AbortDeliveryError.new unless <your_condition>
end
...
end
The empty lambda causes Rails 6 to just return an ActionMailer::Base::NullMail instance, which doesn't get delivered (same as if your mailer method didn't call mail, or returned prematurely).

Answer 4

Setting self.message.perform_deliveries = false did not work for me.
I used a similar approach as some of the other answers - using error handling to control the flow and prevent the mail from being sent.
The example below is aborting mail from being sent in non-Production ENVs to non-whitelisted emails, but the helper method logic can be whatever you need for your scenario.
class BaseMailer < ActionMailer::Base
class AbortedMailer < StandardError; end
def mail(**args)
whitelist_mail_delivery(args[:to])
super(args)
rescue AbortedMailer
Rails.logger.info "Mail aborted! We do not send emails to external email accounts outside of Production ENV"
end
private
def whitelist_mail_delivery(to_email)
return if Rails.env.production?
raise AbortedMailer.new unless internal_email?(to_email)
end
def internal_email?(to_email)
to_email.include?('#widgetbusiness.com')
end
end

Answer 5

I just clear the #to field and return, so deliver aborts when it doesn't have anything there. (Or just return before setting #to).

Answer 6

I haven't spent much time with rails 3 but you could try using
redirect_to some_other_route
alternatively, if you're really just checking for missing data you could do a js validation of the form fields and only submit if it passes.