The mail quickstart demonstrates how to send email using CDI and JSF and the default Mail provider that ships with WildFly.

What is it?

The mail quickstart demonstrates sending email with the use of CDI (Contexts and Dependency Injection) and JSF (JavaServer Faces) in WildFly Application Server.

The mail provider is configured in the mail subsystem of the WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml configuration file if you are running a standalone server or in the WILDFLY_HOME/domain/configuration/domain.xml configuration file if you are running in a managed domain.

You can use the default mail provider that comes out of the box with WildFly. It uses your local mail relay and the default SMTP port of 25. However, this quickstart demonstrates how to define and use a custom mail provider.

This example is a web application that takes To, From, Subject, and Message Body input and sends mail to that address. The front end is a JSF page with a simple POJO backing, leveraging CDI for resource injection.

System Requirements

The application this project produces is designed to be run on WildFly Application Server 12 or later.

All you need to build this project is Java 8.0 (Java SDK 1.8) or later and Maven 3.3.1 or later. See Configure Maven to Build and Deploy the Quickstarts to make sure you are configured correctly for testing the quickstarts.

To run these quickstarts with the provided build scripts, you need the WildFly distribution ZIP. For information on how to install and run the WildFly server, see the Getting Started Guide for JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Continuous Delivery located on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Use of WILDFLY_HOME

In the following instructions, replace WILDFLY_HOME with the actual path to your WildFly installation. The installation path is described in detail here: Use of WILDFLY_HOME and JBOSS_HOME Variables.

Configure an SMTP Server on Your Local Machine

This quickstart expects that you have an SMTP mail server running on your machine and configured for the default port localhost:25. To configure an SMTP mail server, consult the documentation for your operating system. It is beyond the scope of this quickstart to provide these instructions.

If you do not configure an SMTP mail server on your local machine, you will see the exception com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn't connect to host, port: localhost, 25; timeout -1; when you access the application and attempt to send an email.

Back Up the WildFly Standalone Server Configuration

Before you begin, back up your server configuration file.

  1. If it is running, stop the WildFly server.

  2. Back up the WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file.

After you have completed testing this quickstart, you can replace this file to restore the server to its original configuration.

Start the WildFly Standalone Server

  1. Open a terminal and navigate to the root of the WildFly directory.

  2. Start the WildFly server with the default profile by typing the following command.

    $ WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.sh 
    Note
    For Windows, use the WILDFLY_HOME\bin\standalone.bat script.

Configure the Server

You configure the custom mail session in WildFly by running Management CLI commands. For your convenience, this quickstart batches the commands into a configure-mail-session.cli script provided in the root directory of this quickstart.

  1. Before you begin, make sure you do the following:

  2. Review the configure-mail-session.cli file in the root of this quickstart directory. This script creates custom outbound socket binding port for SMTP, POP3, and IMAP. It then creates the custom MyOtherMail mail session and configures it to use the custom outbound socket binding ports.

  3. Open a new terminal, navigate to the root directory of this quickstart, and run the following command, replacing WILDFLY_HOME with the path to your server:

    $ WILDFLY_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect --file=configure-mail-session.cli
    Note
    For Windows, use the WILDFLY_HOME\bin\jboss-cli.bat script.

    You should see the following result when you run the script.

    The batch executed successfully
    process-state: reload-required
  4. Stop the WildFly server.

Review the Modified Server Configuration

After stopping the server, open the WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file and review the changes.

The following outbound-socket-binding groups are added to the standard-sockets <socket-binding-group> element.

  <socket-binding-group name="standard-sockets" default-interface="public" port-offset="${jboss.socket.binding.port-offset:0}">
    ...
    </outbound-socket-binding>
    <outbound-socket-binding name="my-smtp-binding">
        <remote-destination host="localhost" port="25"/>
    </outbound-socket-binding>
    <outbound-socket-binding name="my-pop3-binding">
        <remote-destination host="localhost" port="110"/>
    </outbound-socket-binding>
    <outbound-socket-binding name="my-imap-binding">
        <remote-destination host="localhost" port="143"/>
    </outbound-socket-binding>
 </socket-binding-group>

The MyOtherMail mail session is added to the mail subsystem and configured to use the custom outbound socket binding ports.

  <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:mail:3.0">
     <mail-session name="default" jndi-name="java:jboss/mail/Default">
        <smtp-server outbound-socket-binding-ref="mail-smtp"/>
     </mail-session>
     <mail-session name="MyOtherMail" jndi-name="java:jboss/mail/MyOtherMail">
        <smtp-server password="pass" username="nobody" tls="true" outbound-socket-binding-ref="my-smtp-binding"/>
        <pop3-server outbound-socket-binding-ref="my-pop3-binding"/>
        <imap-server password="pass" username="nobody" outbound-socket-binding-ref="my-imap-binding"/>
     </mail-session>
  </subsystem>

Build and Deploy the Quickstart

  1. Make sure you start the WildFly server as described above.

  2. Open a terminal and navigate to the root directory of this quickstart.

  3. Type the following command to build the artifacts.

    $ mvn clean package wildfly:deploy

This deploys the mail/target/mail.war to the running instance of the server.

You should see a message in the server log indicating that the archive deployed successfully.

Access the Application

The application will be running at the following URL: http://localhost:8080/mail/.

Note
If you see Error processing request in the browser when you access the application and attempt to send email, followed by javax.servlet.ServletException: com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn't connect to host, port: localhost, 25; timeout -1; nested exception is: java.net.ConnectException: Connction refused, make sure you followed the instructions above to Configure an SMTP Server on Your Local Machine.

Undeploy the Quickstart

When you are finished testing the quickstart, follow these steps to undeploy the archive.

  1. Make sure you start the WildFly server as described above.

  2. Open a terminal and navigate to the root directory of this quickstart.

  3. Type this command to undeploy the archive:

    $ mvn wildfly:undeploy

Restore the WildFly Standalone Server Configuration

You can restore the original server configuration using either of the following methods.

Restore the WildFly Standalone Server Configuration by Running the JBoss CLI Script

  1. Start the WildFly server as described above.

  2. Open a new terminal, navigate to the root directory of this quickstart, and run the following command, replacing WILDFLY_HOME with the path to your server:

    $ WILDFLY_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect --file=remove-mail-session.cli
    Note
    For Windows, use the WILDFLY_HOME\bin\jboss-cli.bat script.

This script removes the custom MyOtherMail session from the mail subsystem in the server configuration. file You should see the following result when you run the script:

The batch executed successfully
process-state: reload-required

Restore the WildFly Standalone Server Configuration Manually

When you have completed testing the quickstart, you can restore the original server configuration by manually restoring the backup copy the configuration file.

  1. If it is running, stop the WildFly server.

  2. Replace the WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file with the backup copy of the file.

Run the Quickstart in Red Hat JBoss Developer Studio or Eclipse

You can also start the server and deploy the quickstarts or run the Arquillian tests in Red Hat JBoss Developer Studio or from Eclipse using JBoss tools. For general information about how to import a quickstart, add a WildFly server, and build and deploy a quickstart, see Use JBoss Developer Studio or Eclipse to Run the Quickstarts.

  • Make sure you Configure an SMTP Server on Your Local Machine.

  • Make sure you configure the WildFly custom mail configuration as described above under Configure the WildFly Server. Stop the server at the end of that step.

  • To deploy the server project, right-click on the mail project and choose Run As –> Run on Server. A browser window appears that accesses the running application.

  • To undeploy the project, right-click on the mail project and choose Run As –> Maven build. Enter wildfly:undeploy for the Goals and click Run.

  • Make sure you restore the WildFly server configuration when you have completed testing this quickstart.

Debug the Application

If you want to debug the source code of any library in the project, run the following command to pull the source into your local repository. The IDE should then detect it.

$ mvn dependency:sources