ActionMailer: How to send a test mail directly from the console

If your rails application is unable to send mails, it might be useful to debug your settings using the rails console. Here is a snippet that shows the current settings and lets you send a test mail directly from the console:

mailer = ActionMailer::Base.new

# check settings:
mailer.delivery_method # -> :smtp
mailer.smtp_settings # -> { address: "localhost", port: 25, domain: "localhost.localdomain", user_name: nil, password: nil, authentication: nil, enable_starttls_auto: true }

# send mail:
mailer.mail(from: 'sender@example.com', to: 'recipient@example.com', subject: 'test', body: "Hello, you've got mail!").deliver

You could use this to test the spam score of your emails, e.g. by using an existing mailer:

ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:protocol] = 'https'
ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:host] = '<your production domain>'

user = User.first
user.email = '<your mail address of mail-tester.com>' # do not save!

UserMailer.welcome(user).deliver_now