How to send email asynchronously using Devise and Rails3

Hello everyone.

I’d show a workaround to send email asynchronously using Devise and Rails3.

Suppose we have already up and running our application with Devise and delayed_job correctly installed.

A first attempt was to add in config/initializers the following file (devise_async.rb):

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#devise_async.rb
module Devise
module Models
module Confirmable
handle_asynchronously :send_confirmation_instructions
end

module Recoverable
handle_asynchronously :send_reset_password_instructions
end

module Lockable
handle_asynchronously :send_unlock_instructions
end
end
end

This workaround has worked in part: the send method has been properly enqueued in the database, but when delayed_job tries to fire the job, the following error is raised:

1 2	User#send_confirmation_instructions_without_delay failed with NoMethodError: undefined method 'send_confirmation_instructions_without_delay' for #<User:0x000000032f87c8> - 1 failed attempts [Worker(host:stefano-desktop pid:13153)]

As you can see, the job is trying to call the wrong send method: send_confirmation_instructions_without_delay.

At this point, I’ve implemented an even more dirty hack, overriding Devise’s methods using the syntax specified by intridea to send emails in the background:

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#devise_async.rb
module Devise
module Models
module Confirmable
# Send confirmation instructions by email
def send_confirmation_instructions
generate_confirmation_token! if self.confirmation_token.nil?
::Devise.mailer.delay.confirmation_instructions(self)
end
end

module Recoverable
# Resets reset password token and send reset password instructions by email
def send_reset_password_instructions
generate_reset_password_token!
::Devise.mailer.delay.reset_password_instructions(self)
end
end

module Lockable
# Send unlock instructions by email
def send_unlock_instructions
::Devise.mailer.delay.unlock_instructions(self)
end
end
end
end

This solution, however, is too tied to the implementation of Devise and is therefore not a good one (besides being really really dirty).

The latest idea, which represents the solution I’ve used is implemented as follows: use the alias_method in this way:

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#devise_async.rb
module Devise
module Models
module Confirmable
alias_method :send_confirmation_instructions_without_delay, :send_confirmation_instructions
handle_asynchronously :send_confirmation_instructions
end

module Recoverable
alias_method :send_reset_password_instructions_without_delay, :send_reset_password_instructions
handle_asynchronously :send_reset_password_instructions
end

module Lockable
alias_method :send_unlock_instructions_without_delay, :send_unlock_instructions
handle_asynchronously :send_unlock_instructions
end
end
end

This latest hack works a treat; is not the best but let you send mail with Devise asynchronously.

If you have any better solutions, do not hesitate to share.

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Tags: asynchronous, delayed_job, devise, rails, rails3, ruby on rails

About Stefano

Stefano Mancini is a co-founder of DevInterface.

After graduating in Computer Science, he first specialized in Java/J2EE development by participating in several international projects in the pharmaceutical and banking ambits.

Enthusiast of agile development, like SCRUM for project management and eXtreme Programming for code writing, he then moved to dynamic languages like Ruby and Python.

About DevInterface

We are an information and communication technology agency. Our mission is to provide web application development, design services and communication strategies. We specialize in building web applications with modern and efficient frameworks.

4 Responses to “How to send email asynchronously using Devise and Rails3”

How to send email asynchronously using Devise and Rails3 « XP on Rails says:

Friday March 4th, 2011 at 03:49 PM

[...] ORIGINAL POST [...]
dB. says:

Wednesday September 21st, 2011 at 12:26 AM

Thanks, this was helpful. For Devise::Invitable:

module Devise
module Models
module Invitable
alias_method :deliver_invitation_without_delay, :deliver_invitation
handle_asynchronously :deliver_invitation
end
end
end
Anurag says:

Tuesday October 11th, 2011 at 05:21 PM

Awesome, worked like a charm! Thank you so much.
Piotrek says:

Friday October 28th, 2011 at 07:35 PM

Thank you! Worked fantastic, practically out-of-the-box solution!

DevInterface