Paubox Rails

This gem extends the Paubox Ruby Gem for use with ActionMailer in Ruby on Rails.

The Paubox Email API allows your application to send secure, HIPAA compliant email via Paubox and track deliveries and opens.

Compatibility

This gem has been tested and confirmed working with Rails 4-6

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'paubox_rails'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install paubox_rails

Getting Paubox API Credentials

You will need to have a Paubox account. You can sign up here.

Once you have an account, follow the instructions on the Rest API dashboard to verify domain ownership and generate API credentials.

Configuring API Credentials

Create a new file at config/initializers/paubox.rb and add the following.

Paubox.configure do |config|
  config.api_key = ENV['PAUBOX_API_KEY']
end

Note: Keep your unencrypted API credentials out of version control. Set as environment variables in a file that's not checked into version control, such as config/application.yml or config/secrets.yml. Better yet, use Rails Encrypted Secrets.

Setting ActionMailer Delivery Method

Add the following to the configuration block in config/application.rb or the desired environment config in config/environments (e.g. config/environments/production.rb for production.)

config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :paubox

Usage

You can use Action Mailer as you normally would in a Rails app.

See the Paubox Ruby Gem for more advanced usage examples.

Allowing non-TLS message delivery with Action Mailer

Set allow_non_tls to true in the delivery_method_options hash argument and pass this into the mailer action.

For example:

class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
  def welcome_email
    @user = params[:user]
    @url  = user_url(@user)
    delivery_options = { allow_non_tls: true }
    mail(to: @user.email,
         subject: "Welcome!",
         delivery_method_options: delivery_options)
  end
end

Paubox Forms

The gem includes a client for the Paubox Forms API. The respondent-facing endpoints (fetching a form definition and submitting a response) are public — no API key or authentication is required. The form management endpoints (listing, creating, updating, exporting submissions, etc.) require a scoped API key — see Authenticated usage below.

Get form metadata

Retrieves a form's full definition (HTML, JSON schema, CSS, metadata).

client = PauboxRails::Forms::Client.new
# or use the convenience factory:
client = PauboxRails::Forms.client

form = client.get_form('550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000')
puts form['title']            # => "Patient Intake Form"
puts form['active']           # => true
puts form['submission_count'] # => 42

Raises PauboxRails::Forms::NotFoundError if the form UUID does not exist.

Submit a form response

Submits a respondent's answers for a form. On success, Paubox stores the submission, increments the submission count, and emails recipients (if configured).

client.submit_form(
  '550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000',
  form_data: {
    first_name: 'Jane',
    last_name:  'Smith',
    email:      'jane@example.com'
  }
)
# => true

With file attachments

Attachments must be base64-encoded. Maximum request size is 250 MB.

require 'base64'

client.submit_form(
  '550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000',
  form_data: { first_name: 'Jane' },
  attachments: [
    {
      name:    'consent.pdf',
      content: Base64.strict_encode64(File.read('consent.pdf'))
    }
  ]
)

Raises PauboxRails::Forms::BadRequestError on a 400 response, or PauboxRails::Forms::NotFoundError if the form is not found.

Authenticated usage (form management)

The management endpoints require a Paubox API key scoped to forms. Generate a scoped API key from your Paubox dashboard and grant it the forms scope, then pass it to the client:

client = PauboxRails::Forms.client(api_key: ENV['PAUBOX_FORMS_API_KEY'])

Or rely on the environment-variable fallback — the client reads PAUBOX_FORMS_API_KEY by default:

client = PauboxRails::Forms.client

The key is sent as an Authorization: Bearer header. Calling an authenticated method without a key raises PauboxRails::Forms::MissingApiKeyError before any HTTP request is made. A missing or invalid key — including a key without the forms scope — is rejected with 401 and raises PauboxRails::Forms::UnauthorizedError; a 403 (PauboxRails::Forms::ForbiddenError) means the key is valid but its customer does not have access to the target form or customer.

Some examples:

# List forms (customer_id is required; filtering, ordering, and pagination are optional)
result = client.list_forms(customer_id: 123, search: 'intake', order_by: 'updated_at', page: 1)
result['results'] # => array of forms

# Create a form
created = client.create_form(
  title:       'Patient Intake Form',
  form_json:   { fields: [{ name: 'first_name', type: 'text' }] },
  customer_id: 123,
  version:     1
)
created['id'] # => UUID of the new form

# List a form's submissions
client.list_submissions(form_id, page: 1, items: 25)

# Export submissions as CSV (raw string)
File.write('submissions.csv', client.submissions_csv(form_id))

Also available: get_form_details, update_form, archive_form, unarchive_form, copy_form, form_stats, and submission_pdf. See api.md for the full Forms API reference.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/paubox/paubox-rails.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Copyright

💬 Community & support

Questions, ideas, or want to share what you built? Join the Paubox Community — the single home for discussions across every Paubox SDK and API.

🔐 Found a security issue? Email devops@paubox.com — please don't post it publicly.