problems with ActionMailer & multipart emails, works in OS X Mail but not in other mail readers

Jason_FB · May 3, 2011, 4:20pm

I'm on Rails 3.0.7 and having problems with the ActionMailer & multipart emails -- has anyone verified that when sending multipart emails they work correctly in several email readers?

Here's my mailer:

def feature_announce(user) @user = user mail(:to => "#{user.name} <#{user.email}>", :subject => "Test Feature Announcement") end

I have a template for feature_announce.html.erb and another feature_announce.text.erb

This syntax is taken straight from the ActionMailer guide for Rails 3.

The email works fine (plain text & html) in Apple Mail, but doesn't appear correctly on Gmail (web browser interface) or on iPhone.

When I open the message in Gmail, I see this (I've obscured the sender name)

If I click on the "noname" file and download it to my desktop, then open it in a text editor I see the HTML that was supposed to make up the body of the message.

When looking at the raw headers of the email, they appear a little odd...

in the header:

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary*="utf8'en'--==_mimepart_4dc028b2f0d86_2dc7800d21b03013b"; charset*=utf8'en'UTF-8

But then I see 3 boundaries, like so:

----==_mimepart_4dc028b2f0d86_2dc7800d21b03013b Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset*=utf8'en'UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-ID: <4dc028b2f392a_2dc7800d21b0302dc@Fleetwoods- Mac.local.mail>

.... some plain text content (ommitted) ......

----==_mimepart_4dc028b2f0d86_2dc7800d21b03013b Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset*=utf8'en'UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-ID: <4dc028b38ae_2dc7800d21b03039e@Fleetwoods-Mac.local.mail>

.... some HTML content (ommitted) ....

----==_mimepart_4dc028b2f0d86_2dc7800d21b03013b--

--utf8'en'--==_mimepart_4dc028b2f0d86_2dc7800d21b03013b--

Jason_FB · May 4, 2011, 11:33pm

I've identified the problem although I'm not sure where it is coming from.

there appears to be a feature in Rails 3 that auto-detects UTF-8 characaters somewhere in your email and encodes your headers appropriately.

When I started with a fresh Rails 3.0.7 project, I'm able to do the most simple html/plain email and get a content-type header that looks like this:

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="-- ==_mimepart_4dc1cf5d84985_1fc7800d21b0517aa"; charset=UTF-8

I notice that these emails -- which work find in Gmail -- don't have odd-looking =?UTF8?Q? symbols scattered throughout the headers

Then, on my project which is already started, when I go to generate an email with what looks like is the exact same settings & content, I get this:

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary*="utf8'en'--==_mimepart_4dc1d4f8459fb_22ab800d21b083558"; charset*=utf8'en'UTF-8

It appears that something is malformed here, and Gmail is hiccuping on that weird-looking boundary marker I think.

The trouble is, I'm not sure how to turn off the UTF-8 encoding thing or to keep it from kicking in. Actually I'm not sure what is making it kick in here and not on a brand new, from-scratch project.

Still investigating, but is it these UTF markers inside the headers that seems to be causing the problem.

Jason_FB · May 4, 2011, 11:33pm