No documentation about configuring to send mail

[bondjimbond]

Issue description

I cannot get Drupal configured to successfully send mail within an ISLE environment, even when the server is properly configured to send mail. This means that alerts, new account notifications, etc. cannot get through.

According to discussions on Slack, you need to set up Sendgrid or another service to handle mail, but there is no documentation about how to do this. There is some documentation about setting up the optional Chronograf piece with Sendgrid, but nothing about the very basic Drupal mail configuration.

Mail handling should be part of the install docs, or at least the troubleshooting docs.

[noahwsmith]

Are you looking for the SendGrid Drupal documentation? https://sendgrid.com/docs/for-developers/sending-email/drupal/

[DiegoPino]

@bondjimbond maybe out of scope, but using a module like https://www.drupal.org/project/smtp would work for you? There is a DRUPAL 7 version. We use that in archipelago and everyone (except my mailbox) is happy

[bondjimbond]

@DiegoPino Tried SMTP, doesn't work in ISLE.
@noahwsmith Tried the SendGrid module, doesn't work. But the main thing is that there must be some documentation of how mail in ISLE needs to be configured, because it's not written down anywhere as far as I can tell.

[noahwsmith]

@g7morris is this the module we use for sendgrid, or another one?

[g7morris]

To my knowledge it is the same module yes using the new method of API keys instead of passwords.

[g7morris]

Hi @bondjimbond thanks for pointing this out that there is this gap in the documentation. I will add this topic to the list for the next ISLE release slated in March.

[noahwsmith]

In the meanwhile, that module works from our experience. Gavin's note about API keys is discussed here: https://www.drupal.org/project/smtp/issues/3183100. If you get it working and add this documentation we'd all appreciate the effort.

[bondjimbond]

@noahwsmith @g7morris I tried using the SMTP module using the info that Sendgrid provides, to no avail. If you've more precise guidance re configuration, I'd love to try it out.

[noahwsmith]

@bondjimbond can you provide details on how Sendgrid doesn't work for you? It literally works out of the box for us following the vendor's instructions.

[bondjimbond]

It just says "failed to send email", but I don't know if I got the configuration right. This is in the SMTP module that you linked to.

Tried various ports, but always "Failed to send email".

[noahwsmith]

Diego suggested SMTP. I suggested using Sendgrid without SMTP. The main doc page sends you to use https://www.drupal.org/project/sendgrid_integration. It has extensive documentation https://git.drupalcode.org/project/sendgrid_integration/blob/HEAD/README.md

[bondjimbond]

sendgrid_integration's documentation no longer works for a new install: see https://www.drupal.org/project/sendgrid_integration/issues/3203272

I'll work on that, but the main thing for this issue isn't a support request - it's about documentation of what exactly you need to do in order to support mail in ISLE. Since ISLE doesn't support the default/standard Drupal mailing functions, documentation for how to make it work should be part of the installation documents.

[bondjimbond]

I have not yet been able to get this working. Furthermore, I'm encountering this mail problem in another ISLE install at another organization, as well.

System email is really important to Islandora installs, so I feel that good documentation for how to make it work in this environment is critical.