Send mail over smtp server in redmine app hosted on openshift

Question

I want to send mails in my deployed redmine application, which I host on openshift. I used this tutorial to set everything up: link to tutorial

To send an email via the google smtp server I changed my configuration.yml file like that:

 # = Redmine configuration file
#
# Each environment has it's own configuration options.  If you are only
# running in production, only the production block needs to be configured.
# Environment specific configuration options override the default ones.
#
# Note that this file needs to be a valid YAML file.
# DO NOT USE TABS! Use 2 spaces instead of tabs for identation.
#
# == Outgoing email settings (email_delivery setting)
#
# === Common configurations
#
# ==== Sendmail command
#
# production:
#   email_delivery:
#     delivery_method: :sendmail
#
# ==== Simple SMTP server at localhost
#
# production:
#   email_delivery:
#     delivery_method: :smtp
#     smtp_settings:
#       address: "localhost"
#       port: 25
#
# ==== SMTP server at example.com using LOGIN authentication and checking HELO for foo.com
#
# production:
#   email_delivery:
#     delivery_method: :smtp
#     smtp_settings:
#       address: "example.com"
#       port: 25
#       authentication: :login
#       domain: 'foo.com'
#       user_name: 'myaccount'
#       password: 'password'
#
# ==== SMTP server at example.com using PLAIN authentication
#
# production:
#   email_delivery:
#     delivery_method: :smtp
#     smtp_settings:
#       address: "example.com"
#       port: 25
#       authentication: :plain
#       domain: 'example.com'
#       user_name: 'myaccount'
#       password: 'password'
#
# ==== SMTP server at using TLS (GMail)
#
# This might require some additional configuration. See the guides at:
# http://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/EmailConfiguration
#
# production:
#   email_delivery:
#     delivery_method: :smtp
#     smtp_settings:
#       enable_starttls_auto: true
#       address: "smtp.gmail.com"
#       port: 587
#       domain: "smtp.gmail.com" # 'your.domain.com' for GoogleApps
#       authentication: :plain
#       user_name: "your_email@gmail.com"
#       password: "your_password"
#
#
# === More configuration options
#
# See the "Configuration options" at the following website for a list of the
# full options allowed:
#
# http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToSendEmailsWithActionMailer


# default configuration options for all environments
default:
  # Outgoing emails configuration (see examples above)
  email_delivery:
     delivery_method: :smtp
     smtp_settings:
       enable_starttls_auto: true
       address: "smtp.gmail.com"
       port: 587
       domain: "smtp.gmail.com" 
       authentication: :plain
       user_name: "test@gmail.com"
       password: "testword"

  # Absolute path to the directory where attachments are stored.
  # The default is the 'files' directory in your Redmine instance.
  # Your Redmine instance needs to have write permission on this
  # directory.
  # Examples:
  # attachments_storage_path: /var/redmine/files
  # attachments_storage_path: D:/redmine/files
  attachments_storage_path:

  # Configuration of the autologin cookie.
  # autologin_cookie_name: the name of the cookie (default: autologin)
  # autologin_cookie_path: the cookie path (default: /)
  # autologin_cookie_secure: true sets the cookie secure flag (default: false)
  autologin_cookie_name:
  autologin_cookie_path:
  autologin_cookie_secure:

  # Configuration of SCM executable command.
  #
  # Absolute path (e.g. /usr/local/bin/hg) or command name (e.g. hg.exe, bzr.exe)
  # On Windows + CRuby, *.cmd, *.bat (e.g. hg.cmd, bzr.bat) does not work.
  #
  # On Windows + JRuby 1.6.2, path which contains spaces does not work.
  # For example, "C:\Program Files\TortoiseHg\hg.exe".
  # If you want to this feature, you need to install to the path which does not contains spaces.
  # For example, "C:\TortoiseHg\hg.exe".
  #
  # Examples:
  # scm_subversion_command: svn                                       # (default: svn)
  # scm_mercurial_command:  C:\Program Files\TortoiseHg\hg.exe        # (default: hg)
  # scm_git_command:        /usr/local/bin/git                        # (default: git)
  # scm_cvs_command:        cvs                                       # (default: cvs)
  # scm_bazaar_command:     bzr.exe                                   # (default: bzr)
  # scm_darcs_command:      darcs-1.0.9-i386-linux                    # (default: darcs)
  #
  scm_subversion_command:
  scm_mercurial_command:
  scm_git_command:
  scm_cvs_command:
  scm_bazaar_command:
  scm_darcs_command:

  # Absolute path to the SCM commands errors (stderr) log file.
  # The default is to log in the 'log' directory of your Redmine instance.
  # Example:
  # scm_stderr_log_file: /var/log/redmine_scm_stderr.log
  scm_stderr_log_file:

  # Key used to encrypt sensitive data in the database (SCM and LDAP passwords).
  # If you don't want to enable data encryption, just leave it blank.
  # WARNING: losing/changing this key will make encrypted data unreadable.
  #
  # If you want to encrypt existing passwords in your database:
  # * set the cipher key here in your configuration file
  # * encrypt data using 'rake db:encrypt RAILS_ENV=production'
  #
  # If you have encrypted data and want to change this key, you have to:
  # * decrypt data using 'rake db:decrypt RAILS_ENV=production' first
  # * change the cipher key here in your configuration file
  # * encrypt data using 'rake db:encrypt RAILS_ENV=production'
  database_cipher_key:

  # Set this to false to disable plugins' assets mirroring on startup.
  # You can use `rake redmine:plugins:assets` to manually mirror assets
  # to public/plugin_assets when you install/upgrade a Redmine plugin.
  #
  #mirror_plugins_assets_on_startup: false

  # Your secret key for verifying cookie session data integrity. If you
  # change this key, all old sessions will become invalid! Make sure the
  # secret is at least 30 characters and all random, no regular words or
  # you'll be exposed to dictionary attacks.
  #
  # If you have a load-balancing Redmine cluster, you have to use the
  # same secret token on each machine.
  #secret_token: 'change it to a long random string'

  # Absolute path (e.g. /usr/bin/convert, c:/im/convert.exe) to
  # the ImageMagick's `convert` binary. Used to generate attachment thumbnails.
  #imagemagick_convert_command:

  # Configuration of RMagcik font.
  #
  # Redmine uses RMagcik in order to export gantt png.
  # You don't need this setting if you don't install RMagcik.
  #
  # In CJK (Chinese, Japanese and Korean),
  # in order to show CJK characters correctly,
  # you need to set this configuration.
  #
  # Because there is no standard font across platforms in CJK,
  # you need to set a font installed in your server.
  #
  # This setting is not necessary in non CJK.
  #
  # Examples for Japanese:
  #   Windows:
  #     rmagick_font_path: C:\windows\fonts\msgothic.ttc
  #   Linux:
  #     rmagick_font_path: /usr/share/fonts/ipa-mincho/ipam.ttf
  #
  rmagick_font_path:

  # Maximum number of simultaneous AJAX uploads
  #max_concurrent_ajax_uploads: 2

  # Configure OpenIdAuthentication.store
  #
  # allowed values: :memory, :file, :memcache
  #openid_authentication_store: :memory

# specific configuration options for production environment
# that overrides the default ones
production:

# specific configuration options for development environment
# that overrides the default ones
development:

Therefore, I just added under default:

 default:
      # Outgoing emails configuration (see examples above)
      email_delivery:
         delivery_method: :smtp
         smtp_settings:
           enable_starttls_auto: true
           address: "smtp.gmail.com"
           port: 587
           domain: "smtp.gmail.com" 
           authentication: :plain
           user_name: "test@gmail.com"
           password: "testword"

However, when I am getting in the running application under mail in the admin configurations:

The SMTP server is not configured and notifications are disabled.
Make the settings for your SMTP server in config / configuration.yml before and restart the application.

Any suggestions how to fix that?

I appreciate your answer!

UPDATE

Using the below described method(s) I get the following error, when sending a test email:

Answer 1

The obvious fix is to edit the configuration.yml file in your local repo but you'll soon find out that its in your .gitignore file (for security reasons), so there are two options. I was able to get it working with both options but I would recommend using the first one if you can. The only reason you would want the second one to be used is simply because you want to keep your configuration.yml out of your git repo.

The first option isn't really less secure since its not really storing any important information in plain text. It uses the environment variables we'll set with rhc to pull the correct information.

Edit:

Since there seems to be a problem with redmine taking environment variables in their configuration files (and I tried this solution with no success). The only way I was able to successfully send email was by doing the following:

1. Remove configuration.yml from your .gitignore file on your local machine

    vim .gitignore
   

2. Copy the "config/configuration.yml.example > config/configuration.yml" by doing:

    cp config/configuration.yml.example configuration.yml
   

3. Then use vim to edit the file

    vim config/configuration.yml
   

4. Append the following:

   production:
     email_delivery:
       delivery_method: :smtp
       smtp_settings: 
         tls: true
         enable_starttls_auto: true
         address: "smtp.gmail.com" 
         port: 587
         domain: "smtp.gmail.com" 
         authentication: :plain
         user_name: "my-email-account@gmail.com" 
         password: passwordnotinquotes
   

5. Save and exit :wq

6. exit the ssh session and run:

    rhc app restart <appname>
   

7. Go to the administration settings and configure your email

Be advised. This will store the email credentials in plain text, however this seems to be standard practice for redmine configuration according to their docs.