Implement custom logging email backend for development: log outgoing emails to Loguru and stdout

.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
+# Use Django's file-based email backend for local development so messages
-EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend
+# 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

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 = {

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)})
 

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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"