Rails.Savvica

This is kind of awesome! I'll definitely be using this.

Cool idea guys. FYI, the download includes and entire Rails install in /test/rails_root/vendor/rails/, which is probably unintentional.

Thanks Bill. I just fixed the issue with vendor rails, so the download is much smaller now :)

The URL for the "script/plugin install" is the same color as the background, so that should be changed so that it's visible :)

Looks mostly useful. But by only checking for an MX record, you are leaving out users whose domain only has an A record, which is enough for receiving mails. If a domain doesn't have an MX record, all mailers known to me are trying to reach an SMTP server at the A record of the domain. So it is completely "legal" (RFC wise) to not have MX records, even though you want to receive mail. Cheers, Ralph

Ralph, I made a design decision when making the plugin to check for MX records since it's fast and reliable but I did not know that it was RFC valid to have a domain without an MX. I am going to put it on the official TODO list to add functionality that when no MX records are present to check and see if port 25 is open and wrap it in a timeout as well. Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks a lot. Mail sometimes isn't as simple as it looks >:)

Please *DON'T* go pinging the SMTP server on every validation; it's abusive and unreliable - just because the mail server is down or overloaded doesn't mean it doesn't exist. A DNS lookup is plenty - check for an MX record, and if that fails, check for an A record. Anything beyond that is diminishing returns and should be accomplished by a confirmation e-mail (which is what you really need if you want to protect against typos).

Interesting, I'll definitely check this out! btw, you might find this interesting: http://haacked.com/archive/2007/08/21/i-knew-how-to-validate-an-email-address-until-i.aspx

Jay, no worries there, I have not added that functionality and when the time comes to enhance the plugin I will investigate many avenues and use the least abusive and most reliable method available. Above all, I am going to wait a while and gather feedback before I refactor anything.

Paul, I appreciate your interest! I have tested many different patterns to include RFC 2822 validation but none of them will pass the tests. You are more than welcome to submit an enhancement.

You missed the largest provider of email addresses in the world in the known_domains - yahoo.com :) Seriously though, thanks for this plugin. I'll feel warmer inside when I swap my boring regexps out!

Bob, duly noted. I also left out aol.com, they are both in the list now. Thanks for the feedback!

Just want to second Ralph's comment that we must check for an A record (and to not ping port 25). It's very common to not have an MX record. You should be able to just use gethostbyname(), no?

I just installed the plugin and am using it with :domain_lookup => false, but it still appears to be failing valid email addresses that don't have an MX record (specifically acts_as_authenticated's unit tests, which use example.com email addresses). I just did a recursive grep in the plugin directory for "domain_lookup" and nothing came up. Am I missing files or something?

Scott, it's actually :domain_check, not :domain_lookup

ScottG, my bad, it actually is :domain_check as plutard has indicated.

am using rails 1.2.5 and i got this error; Does it mean that the plugin only works with rails 1.2.3? "Cannot find gem for Rails ~>1.2.3.0: Install the missing gem with 'gem install -v=1.2.3 rails', or change environment.rb to define RAILS_GEM_VERSION with your desired version."

this patch adds support to gracefully fallback to gethostbyname - i hope the formatting doesn't get horked... cfp:~ > svn diff

Index: lib/validates_email_veracity_of.rb
===================================================================
--- lib/validates_email_veracity_of.rb	(revision 12)
+++ lib/validates_email_veracity_of.rb	(working copy)
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     
     require 'resolv'
     require 'timeout'
+    require 'socket'
     
     attr_accessor :name
     
@@ -34,6 +35,17 @@
      rescue Timeout::Error
       nil
     end
+
+    # Returns the array value returned by gethostbyname, if the domain does
+    # not exist, it will return an empty array.  If it times out, nil is
+    # returned
+    def gethostbyname(options = {})
+      st = Timeout::timeout(options.fetch(:timeout, 2)) do
+        Socket.gethostbyname(name) rescue []
+      end
+     rescue Timeout::Error
+      nil
+    end
     
   end
   
@@ -66,15 +78,16 @@
     # specified.
     def domain_has_mail_servers?(options = {})
       return true if EmailAddress.known_domains.include?(domain.name.downcase)
-      mail_servers = domain.mail_servers(options)
-      if mail_servers.nil?
+      list = domain.mail_servers(options)
+      list = domain.gethostbyname(options) if list.blank?
+      if list.nil?
         options.fetch(:fail_on_timeout, true) ? nil : true
       else
-        !mail_servers.empty?
+        !list.empty?
       end
     end
     
   end
   
   
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
Index: lib/extensions.rb
===================================================================
--- lib/extensions.rb	(revision 12)
+++ lib/extensions.rb	(working copy)
@@ -52,4 +52,4 @@
       
     end
   end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end

Hi - seems very cool... one thing -- does it work with emails like 'foo+bar@gmail.com' ? Also do you guys use this? http://tfletcher.com/lib/rfc822.rb Seems pretty thorough.

Shanti, I'd be wary of using rfc822 for validation. There are address that are deliverable, but not valid according to that rfc. For example, IIRC, something like j.c.@yahoo.com is technically invalid (the local part needs to be quoted to have it end in a period before the @), but is deliverable (at least to some domains). It's been several years since I hit that, so my memory might be faulty on the particulars there...

George, after you upgrade Rails, you need to change the line in environment.rb which defines the Rails version. It's near the top.

Ara, I've added a A-record lookup to the plugin, thanks for the patch!

For some reason, there was a problem with my setup, and the following line: require 'extensions' I did not trace what exactly it required, but it was not the intended file. Changing it to require 'email_extensions' and renaming the file fixed the issue. Thanks for your work.

Petyo, I’ve updated the plugin, as part of the update I renamed the file so hopefully this does not happen to you or anyone else anymore.

Shanti, The plugin does validate addresses with plus signs in them. It uses the pattern from the validates_format_of example in the Rails documentation.

Excellent plugin! I just downloaded and installed this baby, and it works like a champ. Well done!

Nice plugin, and thanks for your work.

If you are interested, having the knowndomains be something we can add to would be great. I have modified the plugin to support it. The patch is at http://pastie.caboo.se/123138 In my spechelper.rb, I do this:

ValidatesEmailVeracityOf::EmailAddress.known_domains << “nomail.net”

aiwilliams, that’s a great suggestion, I’ll be adding that functionality in the next release for sure. Thanks for the support and thanks for the contribution!

When I put ‘sth@’ as email I got an error [“You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it! The error occured while evaluating nil.strip”]

dirtyPeter, thanks for the find. I have fixed the issue.

Thanks - this plugin will solve the exact problem I am facing :)

servers.flatten!
+ servers.compact!

right now you end up with servers == [nil, nil] for invalid domains

Hi, thanks for this plugin, it really helps me out.

You could add some french providers domains to your whitelist : %w[ free.fr wanadoo.fr orange.fr laposte.net yahoo.fr voila.fr club-internet.fr neuf.fr noos.fr tiscali.fr tele2.fr ]

Found a small bug. It’s validating this email address ( “.@netinlet.com”). Great plugin - Thanks.