What's New With 2.0.0

November 2021

cbMailServices has been rewritten from the ground up for the 2.x release. It was about time to add some 💕 and modernize it. Please note that this is a major upgrade and it WILL require some changes on your configuration and usage. We have documented all the changes for you to provide for a smooth transition.

Compatibility Changes

The following are the changes you will need to do to upgrade to version 2.x.

Adobe 2016 Support Dropped

It’s too old and too cumbersome to support now. So upgrade to a supported engine.

MailSettingsBean Dropped

This CFC was unnecessary and dropped in favor of encapsulation in the MailService

Configuration Changes

You will have to place the configuration in the standard ColdBox approach now of moduleSettings.cbmailservices in the config/coldbox.cfc configuration file instead of the top level mailServices struct.

moduleSettings = {
	cbMailservices : {

	}
};

No More Top Level Mail Settings

In the previous version you would put any payload mail default settings as a top-level key under the mailServices struct. Now you will use the defaults struct instead.

cbmailservices : { 
  tokenMarker : "@",
  defaults : {
    from : "[e-mail]",
    cc : "[e-mail]",
    server : "myserver"
  }
}

Default Protocol

In 2.x you can define multiple mailers in an application. So the previous protocol struct is now removed. You will have to register the protocol by name in the mailers struct and add a defaultProtocol key which points to the one you define in the mailers.

cbmailservices : {
  defaultProtocol : "cfmail",
  mailers : {
    "files" : { class : "File" },
    "cfmail" : { class : "CFMail" }
  }
}

If no defaultProtocol is added and no mailers then the mail services module will register a cfmail protocol for you as the default mailer.

Mail bean returned from send() method

Previous a struct containing error and errorArray would be returned from the send() method. Now, the Mail bean is returned (whether using mail.send() or mailService.send( mail )). The previously available struct can be accessed using mail.getResults(). (Be sure to see the changes to the errorArray name below.)

No More errorArray

The return struct from the mail services has been modified. The errorArray has been renamed to messages. Which is still an array but can be used by any protocol to register an array of messages about the mailing for any status.

Mail config() renamed to configure()

The mail payload config() method was renamed to configure()

mailService
	.newMail()
	.configure(
		from    = "[e-mail]",
		to      = "[e-mail]",
		subject = "Mail With Params - Hello Luis"
	)

Postmark message_id renamed to messageId

The return message identifier from postmark has been renamed from message_id to messageID to be consistent with the postmark API results.

---

New Features and Improvements

Let’s investigate now the new features and improvements.

newMail() Helper

The module now registers several new mixin helpers. You can now use newMail() in any handler, and interceptor to start a fluent mailing.

function save( event, rc, prc ){
	...

	newMail( to: "[e-mail]", subject : "Hello" )
		.setBody( "hello body" )
		.send();
}

Mailer Aliases

You can now register your mailer protocols by using their alias instead of the full CFC path:

• CFMail

• File

• InMemory

• Null

• Postmark

moduleSettings = {
	cbMailservices : {
		defaultProtocol : "default",
		mailers : {
			"default" : { class : "CFmail" },
			"memory" : { class : "InMemory" }
		}
	}
}

Mailer WireBox ID

You can now also register ANY WireBox ID or class path as the mailer as well. This will allow you to register mailers that come from your application or any other module.

moduleSettings = {
	cbMailservices : {
		defaultProtocol : "default",
		mailers : {
			"default" : { class : "CFmail" },
			"amazon" : { class : "Mailer@amazonsns" }
		}
	}
}

Protocol Names

All protocols now have a name property that can be used to give a human readable name for all protocols.

/**
 * Initialize the InMemory protocol
 *
 * @properties A map of configuration properties for the protocol
 */
InMemoryProtocol function init( struct properties = {} ){

	variables.name = "InMemory";

	super.init( argumentCollection = arguments );
	variables.mail = [];
	return this;
}

Fluent Mail

The mail payload object has been completely rewritten to allow you to use it to not only construct a mail payload, but to do it in a fluent and more approachable manner. It also allows you to send the payload itself without using the mail service. It also sports a dynamic getter/setter approach for any property stored in the internal config structure. This structure is used to model all the mail settings and properties that will be used to send mail through any protocol.

mailService
	.newMail()
	.configure(
		from    = "[e-mail]",
		to      = "[e-mail]",
		subject = "Mail With Params - Hello Luis"
	)
	.setBody( "Hello This is my great unit test" )
	.addMailParam(
		name  = "Disposition-Notification-To",
		value = "[e-mail]"
	)
	.addMailParam( name = "Importance", value = "High" )
	.send()
  .onSuccess ( () => {

  } )
  .onError( () => {
  } );

Success - Errors Callback

The send() method will return itself so you can interact with the payload for either success or failures. You will do so using the following methods:

• OnError( callback )

• OnSuccess ( callback )

newMail( to: "[e-mail]" )
.setSubject( "This is my email confirmation" )
.setBody( "You got in buddy!" )
.send()
  .onSuccess ( () => {

  } )
  .onError( () = > {
  } );

Utility Methods

The following utility methods can be used for inspecting results and errors.

• getResults() : struct. Empty if no results

• hasErrors() : boolean. False if no results

• getResultMessages() : array. Empty if no results

Multiple Transmission Mailer Protocols

The configuration allows for a mailers structure where you can register extra named mailer protocols. You can then use them by name in your mail payloads and set the defaultProtocol as well by it's name.

cbMailservices : {
	// Default Token marker
	tokenMarker : "@",

	// Default protocol
	defaultProtocol : "file",

	// Mailers
	mailers : {
		file : { class: "", properties : {} },
		postmark : { class: "", properties : {} },
		amazon : { class: "", properties : {} }
	},

  ...

}

You can also seed the mailer name in the payload using the setMailer() method to register the name of the mailer to use for the payload or use the mailer configuration key.

// Using constructor
newMail( mailer : "amazon" )

// Using setter
newMail()
	.setMailer( "amazon" )

View Rendering

Allow for the payload to render a view as the body for you instead of doing this manually using the setView() method.

newMail()
.setView(
	view   : "View",
	module : "view module",
	layout : "layout",
	layoutModule : "layout module",
	args   : {}
)

This will tell the mail payload to render the view with or without the layout, pass in the args into the view and layout as the body of the mailing. If you don't pass a layout by convention we will just render the view in isolation.

Async Sending

Thanks to ColdBox futures you can now send the mailing asynchronously via the sendAsync() method. The return is a ColdBox Future object.

future = newMail()
 .setView( "report" )
 .sendAsync()

In Memory Mail Queue

The mail services module will also register a mail scheduler that will iterate and send mail payload asynchronously. The scheduler runs every minute and iterates and sends all mail in the queue. This allows for your application to not wait and block until mail is sent.

All you need to do is use the queue() method. That’s it. The mail services schedule will deliver the mail payload to the right mailer asynchronously and at least every minute schedule.

var taskId = newMail()
 ...
 .queue();

Please note that we are in async land, so you won’t be able to process successes or failures. The scheduler will log all activity to the applications logging facilities for either a success or failed mailing. The return of the queue() method is a task ID guid which you can use to track in log statements.