Started as a email refactor to use a local mail server, ended up fixing several bugs related to content #2578

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:36:58Z

Refactoring

Consolidated the email transport/sending code into a utility file, with a simple sendEmail export
That makes it easy to configure different email transports for production or local. Though I did learn how to configure my gmail with an app password in order to send emails from local. As well the code now gracefully warns if the required email config options are not set, rather than causing a server error

Example of local email server with mailpit + docker:

Bugs fixed

The content creator application submission was not doing anything
The admin routes related to content / contributors failed to send emails because the hydrated User properties don't have email on them
Also fixed bugs with content model where put actions would replace the user/owner object with just their ID before writing to dynamo, with the side effect of that changing the input variable. Then afterwards in the route the object is different and doesn't match the type (looking to the future with typescript)
Podcast and videos send for review used an incorrect review status
Fixed the video content page not loading. It expected a list of videos but was getting one

Testing

Content creator application submission

Before:
Clicking the button did nothing

After:

Failing to send content / contributor emails + model replacing user/owner

Before:
Can see the error as "no recipients" defined. The hydrated User object doesn't have email, have to explicitly get the user with sensitive data to have their email. Probably should adjust the email property on the User type for clarity.

After:

Podcast and videos send for review used an incorrect review status

Before:

After:

Video page not loading

Before:

After:

Next steps

Want to refactor the emails so that DOMAIN and http vs https are used as variables, so that local emails work well. Currently they all go to production so have to always copy and edit
Some errors in the content reject email, where the content type isn't printed

instead of the production gmail setup.

No submit was occurring, nor was the input being added to the form data that would have been submitted.

error out but skips.

dynamo, which breaks the remaining controller logic.

approved or denied. The standard User object does not contain the email property because it is sensitive. In order to email the content owner we must explicitly get their User with the sensitive details to have their email.

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:39:51Z

README.md

@@ -104,17 +105,15 @@ account follow these steps:
 2. Enter any label you wish (suggest CubeCobraLocalDev)
 3. Set "reCAPTCHA type" to V2, with "I'm not a robot" tickbox enabled
 4. Enter "localhost" as the domain
-  1. If you have setup your local CubeCobra to be accessible under a non-localhost domain (see [Running CubeCobra](#running-cubecobra)) then include that domain as well


Auto-styling by IDE =(

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:40:05Z

src/client/components/content/EditVideo.tsx

@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ const EditVideo: React.FC<EditVideoProps> = ({
        </Col>
      </Row>
      <Text>
-        Write any supplmental text here. Cube Cobra uses a variation of markdown you can read about{' '}
+        Write any supplemental text here. Cube Cobra uses a variation of markdown you can read about{' '}


KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:42:00Z

src/client/pages/ApplicationPage.tsx

@@ -51,7 +56,7 @@ const ApplicationPage: React.FC<AdminDashboardPageProps> = ({ loginCallback = '/
                  value={info}
                  onChange={(e) => setInfo(e.target.value)}
                />
-                <Button color="primary" block outline>
+                <Button color="primary" block outline onClick={() => formRef.current?.submit()}>


Used other forms as a template. Button must submit form on click and the formData for CSRFForm must be updated with the state

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:42:17Z

src/client/pages/VideoPage.tsx

-  username: string;
-}
-
-interface Video {


Replaced with real datatype

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:42:57Z

src/client/pages/VideoPage.tsx

-          </Row>
-        </CardBody>
-      ))}
+      <Video video={video} />


Use existing component which was already in use in the video preview

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:46:58Z

src/dynamo/models/notice.js

    if (document[FIELDS.USER].id) {
-      document[FIELDS.USER] = document[FIELDS.USER].id;


Same as in content

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:47:39Z

src/routes/admin_routes.js

-    transport: smtpTransport,
-  });
+    //Normal hydration of User does not contain email, thus we must fetch it in order to notify about their application
+    const owner = await User.getByIdWithSensitiveData(document.owner.id);


Hydrated user objects don't have email. In order to send the emails to the applications we must load their User with their sensitive data in order to have email

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:47:52Z

src/routes/content_routes.js

@@ -476,7 +476,7 @@ router.post('/submitpodcast', ensureContentCreator, async (req, res) => {
  podcast.description = fields.description;
  podcast.podcastLink = fields.url;
  podcast.image = fields.image;
-  podcast.status = 'inReview';
+  podcast.status = Content.STATUS.IN_REVIEW;


Using constants

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:48:53Z

src/util/email.ts

+        pass: process.env.EMAIL_CONFIG_PASSWORD,
+      },
+    };
+  } else if (process.env.EMAIL_CONFIG_SMTP_HOST && process.env.EMAIL_CONFIG_SMTP_PORT) {


The goal is to use a local mail server here such as mailpit with docker. That is an easier setup than getting developers to create app passwords for their gmail (in large part because the google UI for it sucks)

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T13:50:08Z

src/util/email.ts

+  const transport = getTransport();
+  if (!transport) {
+    // eslint-disable-next-line no-console -- Warn so clear why an email isn't being sent
+    console.warn('No email transport is configured, skipping sending');


Given the developer setup instructions don't include how to setup gmail for emails to start, the default behaviour meant sending emails just caused server errors. Rather than do that, might as well be graceful and not error.

KaelenProctor · 2025-01-26T14:06:19Z

It might be worth checking in production if there are podcasts or videos in the wrong review status as typeStatusComp = 'v:inReview' or typeStatusComp = 'p:inReview', and then either deleting them as old or updating inReview to r

KaelenProctor added 9 commits January 25, 2025 12:27

Add nodemailer and email-templates TS types.

e4aad87

Refactor email sending into a helper utility. Support local SMTP server

44b1077

instead of the production gmail setup.

Fix submitting the form for Content Creator application.

467c68f

No submit was occurring, nor was the input being added to the form data that would have been submitted.

Allow no email transport configured, so that sending an email doesn't

159d1e1

error out but skips.

Fix models replacing the hydrated owner/user property when it saves to

5adc559

dynamo, which breaks the remaining controller logic.

Fix typo.

2276122

Correct in review status for podcasts and videos.

699e600

Fix the video page not loading.

821a34b

KaelenProctor force-pushed the feature/email-refactor-for-local branch from 8d41cd8 to 821a34b Compare January 26, 2025 13:39

KaelenProctor commented Jan 26, 2025

View reviewed changes

KaelenProctor marked this pull request as ready for review January 26, 2025 13:50

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Started as a email refactor to use a local mail server, ended up fixing several bugs related to content #2578

Started as a email refactor to use a local mail server, ended up fixing several bugs related to content #2578

KaelenProctor commented Jan 26, 2025 •

edited

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KaelenProctor commented Jan 26, 2025

		if (document[FIELDS.USER].id) {
		document[FIELDS.USER] = document[FIELDS.USER].id;

Started as a email refactor to use a local mail server, ended up fixing several bugs related to content #2578

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Started as a email refactor to use a local mail server, ended up fixing several bugs related to content #2578

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KaelenProctor commented Jan 26, 2025 • edited Loading

Refactoring

Bugs fixed

Testing

Content creator application submission

Failing to send content / contributor emails + model replacing user/owner

Podcast and videos send for review used an incorrect review status

Video page not loading

Next steps

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KaelenProctor commented Jan 26, 2025

KaelenProctor commented Jan 26, 2025 •

edited

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