From c071f3892045f3599cc3da66981779c30ab3cbf1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ross <xkjq@ymail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:14:12 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Implement custom logging email backend for development: log
 outgoing emails to Loguru and stdout

---
 .env.dev                 | 8 ++++++--
 deploy/settings_local.py | 6 +++++-
 generic/views.py         | 2 ++
 rad/settings.py          | 4 ++++
 4 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.env.dev b/.env.dev
index a458422d..00c91386 100644
--- a/.env.dev
+++ b/.env.dev
@@ -22,5 +22,9 @@ NGINX_HTTP_PORT=8080
 # Pick a non-privileged HTTPS port to avoid conflicts with host installs
 NGINX_HTTPS_PORT=8444
 
-# Use console email backend for local development to avoid sending real mail
-EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend
\ No newline at end of file
+# Use Django's file-based email backend for local development so messages
+# are written to files under the mounted `./logs/emails` directory and are
+# easy to inspect on the host.
+EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend
+#EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.filebased.EmailBackend
+EMAIL_FILE_PATH=/var/log/rad/emails
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/deploy/settings_local.py b/deploy/settings_local.py
index da1ad29f..a25bc3af 100644
--- a/deploy/settings_local.py
+++ b/deploy/settings_local.py
@@ -43,7 +43,11 @@ DEBUG_TOOLBAR_CONFIG = {
 # deployment README. Adjust as needed.
 STATIC_ROOT = '/usr/src/app/static/'
 
-EMAIL_BACKEND = "django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend"
+import os
+
+# Allow environment to override the email backend (so dev .env can select
+# a file-based backend while production keeps SMTP).
+EMAIL_BACKEND = os.environ.get("EMAIL_BACKEND", "django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend")
 
 if not DEBUG:
     LOGGING = {
diff --git a/generic/views.py b/generic/views.py
index 540b9b77..d4ce0e5f 100644
--- a/generic/views.py
+++ b/generic/views.py
@@ -5044,6 +5044,8 @@ def candidate_email_details(request, cid, resend=False):
         resend_flag = False
 
     email_sent, comment = user.email_details(resend=resend_flag)
+    
+    logger.debug(f"Email details sent to CID {cid}: sent={email_sent}, comment={comment}")
 
     return JsonResponse({"sent": email_sent, "comment": str(comment)})
 
diff --git a/rad/settings.py b/rad/settings.py
index 7c30c964..b3ed3a98 100644
--- a/rad/settings.py
+++ b/rad/settings.py
@@ -327,6 +327,10 @@ DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = "django.db.models.AutoField"
 
 EMAIL_BACKEND = os.environ.get("EMAIL_BACKEND", "django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend")
 
+# Path used by Django's file-based email backend. In dev this should be
+# mounted into the container at `/var/log/rad/emails` (see `docker-compose.dev.yml`).
+EMAIL_FILE_PATH = os.environ.get("EMAIL_FILE_PATH", os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "../logs/emails"))
+
 # SENDGRID_API_KEY = os.getenv('SENDGRID_API_KEY')
 SENDGRID_API_KEY = (
     "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"