views:

57

answers:

3

Hi,

I'm coding in PHP w/ CodeIgniter and I'd like to test some of the features in my app that send emails.

For some reason, I couldn't send emails through my email account in my local server (XAMPP), and I also don't want some SPAM filter to think I'm spamming while I'm testing.

So is there any email service that I can use for testing purposes? preferably one that doesn't enforce SSL, since I have problems getting that to work on my local server.

Appreciate your help.

+1  A: 

As long as you're not sending out dozens or hundreds of test E-Mails, use whatever your everyday E-Mail provider is (e.g. GMail). Set the SMTP server of your mailing function to point to Google's. (I think SSL is optional with GMail, but I may be wrong.)

If your mailing library doesn't support using an external SMTP server, switch to a different one. But I think CodeIgniter has you covered there.

Pekka
A: 

If you just want to test the application functionality, check out Papercut. This utility simulates the sending of email without having to set up a mail server, works great!

edit: had wrong link.

jaltiere
Nice, although very un-aptly named! Papercuts *hurt*. As much as do test E-Mails sent to 500 recipients :)
Pekka
Thanks, but how do I use this? there's no documentation for this thing. :\
KeyStroke
Just install it and use "localhost" as your SMTP server. It will intercept emails and you will be able to see them from the app in the system tray. (even HTML formatted email, which is cool)
jaltiere
A: 

I like to set up a test SMTP service on my development machine and just send to that. There are several good options listed under this question.

Don Kirkby