Sending emails with Ash

Does Ash have a wrapper for Sending emails or a recommended way to send transactional emails e.g. Confirm Account?

16 Replies

No wrapper for it, but generally speaking you will want to implement them by using notifiers.

# in the resource
use Ash.Resource,
  notifiers: [MyApp.SendUserEmails]

create :register do
  ...
end

# in the notifier
defmodule MyApp.SendUserEmails do
  use Ash.Notifier

  def notify(%{action: :register, data: user}) do
    ...send an email
  end
end

# in the resource
use Ash.Resource,
  notifiers: [MyApp.SendUserEmails]

create :register do
  ...
end

# in the notifier
defmodule MyApp.SendUserEmails do
  use Ash.Notifier

  def notify(%{action: :register, data: user}) do
    ...send an email
  end
end

Ash takes care of ensuring that notifications are only sent after the transaction completes, so there are no timing issues. https://ash-hq.org/docs/guides/ash/latest/topics/notifiers

harryOP•3y ago

Cool, lets say I have an email that should happen without changes to the database e.g. a reminder from an Oban job can you programatically do that with notifiers?

ZachDaniel•3y ago

You can, if you do something like this:

update :send_whatever_email do
  manual fn changeset, _ -> 
    {:ok, changeset.data}
  end
end

update :send_whatever_email do
  manual fn changeset, _ -> 
    {:ok, changeset.data}
  end
end

and then you can hook into it from a notifier.

harryOP•3y ago

ah ok, make a changeset that dosen't make any changes

ZachDaniel•3y ago

Yep. In that case its a manual action, but if the changeset has no changes it won't update the record also the manual action doesn't hit the database unless you do something in the manual action to do so.

harryOP•3y ago

Thanks Zach

frankdugan3•3y ago

Perfect timing, I just needed to do this too.

defmodule Decentralize.Help.ContactRequest do
  use Decentralize.Resource,
    notifiers: [Decentralize.Help.StaffNotifier]

  attributes do
    uuid_primary_key :id

    attribute :email, :ci_string,
      allow_nil?: false,
      sensitive?: true,
      constraints: @email_constraints

    attribute :name, :ci_string, allow_nil?: false, sensitive?: true
    attribute :type, :ci_string, allow_nil?: false
    attribute :message, :ci_string, allow_nil?: false
  end

  actions do
    create :create do
      manual fn changeset, _ ->
        Ash.Changeset.apply_attributes(changeset)
      end
    end
  end
end

defmodule Decentralize.Help.ContactRequest do
  use Decentralize.Resource,
    notifiers: [Decentralize.Help.StaffNotifier]

  attributes do
    uuid_primary_key :id

    attribute :email, :ci_string,
      allow_nil?: false,
      sensitive?: true,
      constraints: @email_constraints

    attribute :name, :ci_string, allow_nil?: false, sensitive?: true
    attribute :type, :ci_string, allow_nil?: false
    attribute :message, :ci_string, allow_nil?: false
  end

  actions do
    create :create do
      manual fn changeset, _ ->
        Ash.Changeset.apply_attributes(changeset)
      end
    end
  end
end

Greenfielding w/ Ash is such a better experience than all the boilerplate. 😄

harryOP•3y ago

How are you actually sending the emails? I wanted to try render Phoenix views

minib•3y ago

check https://github.com/swoosh/swoosh and https://github.com/swoosh/phoenix_swoosh

GitHub

GitHub - swoosh/swoosh: Compose, deliver and test your emails easil...

Compose, deliver and test your emails easily in Elixir - GitHub - swoosh/swoosh: Compose, deliver and test your emails easily in Elixir

GitHub

GitHub - swoosh/phoenix_swoosh: Swoosh <3 Phoenix

Swoosh <3 Phoenix. Contribute to swoosh/phoenix_swoosh development by creating an account on GitHub.

harryOP•3y ago

Does that work with CSS e.g. tailwindcss or does it still need premailing?

frankdugan3•3y ago

I use Swoosh Phoenix + premail for one app. I don't use Tailwind in that one. Email is actually pretty tricky as far as what CSS is supported in the various clients. In another app, I use MJML, a special framework for ultimate CSS compatibility in Emails, got the idea from these posts. https://akoutmos.com/post/mjml-template-compliation/ https://medium.com/swlh/using-mjml-in-elixir-phoenix-ca27050ff26f

My.Thoughts v1

Crafting Beautiful Emails in Elixir Using MJML

Compile MJML->HTML->EEx using a Rust NIF and send your Phx.Gen.Auth notifications via Swoosh

Medium

Using MJML in Elixir & Phoenix

How to create responsive HTML emails for your Phoenix app with ease

frankdugan3•3y ago

W/ emphasis on the first on, I went w/ the pre-rendered on the server way of doing it.

harryOP•3y ago

Awesome, thanks 🙌🏼 I tried premailx with tailwind but never got it to work unless I manually coppied the CSS into an inline style tag

frankdugan3•3y ago

One suggestion: Make an effort to do an equally nice text Email body. Always good to have a fallback, and an option for odd ducks like me that use a terminal Email client. TableRex is a good lib for generating nice ASCII tables.

harryOP•3y ago

Yeah, I don't plan to send many emails but I would like the text ones to be nice and at the least functional although the client base for this app I presume it will mostly be GUI clients

frankdugan3•3y ago

Yeah, safe assumption.

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