GraphQL API for disposable email accounts
How to create real email addresses using GraphQL to send and receive emails in tests and frontend applications.
Did you know you can use GraphQL to send and receive emails? That's right - there is a free API at graphql.mailslurp.com you can use to create disposable email accounts for testing and application development.
Create a test project
Use NPM to initialize a new node project and add the AVA test library (you can use any test library you wish).
npm init ava -y
Then add the graphql-request
library so we can call the GraphQL endpoints.
npm install --save graphql-request
Our package json now looks something like this:
{
"name": "graphql",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "MailSlurp graphql usage example",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "ava"
},
"keywords": [],
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"devDependencies": {
"ava": "^4.0.0"
},
"dependencies": {
"graphql-request": "^3.7.0"
}
}
To use ESM style imports add the type: module
flag to your package.
{
"main": "index.mjs",
"type": "module"
}
Configure a graphql client for email accounts
Create an index.mjs
file and add the code below:
import {GraphQLClient} from "graphql-request";
export function getClient(apiKey) {
// create a new graphql-request client using the MailSlurp graphql endpoint
// and passing a headers map including your MailSlurp API Key using "x-api-key" header
return new GraphQLClient('https://graphql.mailslurp.com', {
headers: {
'x-api-key': apiKey,
},
});
}
Testing disposable email accounts with AVA
Now we have a client let us write some tests to demonstrate usage of email accounts. Create a file test.mjs
and add a test.
import test from 'ava';
test('bar', async t => {
const bar = Promise.resolve('bar');
t.is(await bar, 'bar');
});
If we run npm t
we will see passing tests in your console output.
npm run test
> graphql@1.0.0 test
> ava
✔ bar
─
1 test passed
Given that the dummy tests are passing we can add gql
queries to our test to create a disposable email account, send and email to it and receive said email.
Create an email address with GraphQL
Create a new disposable email account using MailSlurp's createInbox
mutation. Use a custom domain for permanent inboxes.
import test from 'ava';
import {gql} from "graphql-request";
import {getClient} from "./index.mjs";
const apiKey = process.env.API_KEY;
test('can create inbox', async t => {
const {createInbox} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
mutation {
createInbox {
id
emailAddress
}
}
`);
t.is(!!createInbox.id, true);
t.is(createInbox.emailAddress.indexOf('@mailslurp') > -1, true);
});
Send emails
test('can send an email', async t => {
// create an inbox
const {createInbox} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
mutation {
createInbox {
id
emailAddress
}
}
`);
// send an email using mutation
const {sendEmail} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
mutation {
sendEmail(fromInboxId: "${createInbox.id}", to: ["${createInbox.emailAddress}"], subject: "Test subject") {
from
to
subject
}
}
`);
t.is(sendEmail.from, createInbox.emailAddress)
t.is(sendEmail.subject, "Test subject")
t.is(sendEmail.to.indexOf(createInbox.emailAddress) > -1, true)
});
Receive and read emails in GraphQL
test('can send an email and receive the contents', async t => {
// create an inbox
const {createInbox} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
mutation {
createInbox {
id
emailAddress
}
}
`);
// send an email using mutation
const {sendEmail} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
mutation {
sendEmail(fromInboxId: "${createInbox.id}", to: ["${createInbox.emailAddress}"], subject: "Test subject", body: "Hello") {
from
to
subject
}
}
`);
// wait for the email to arrive
const {waitForLatestEmail} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
query {
waitForLatestEmail(inboxId: "${createInbox.id}", timeout: 60000, unreadOnly: true) {
id
from
to
subject
body
}
}
`);
t.is(waitForLatestEmail.body.indexOf("Hello") > -1 , true)
t.is(waitForLatestEmail.subject.indexOf(sendEmail.subject) > -1 , true)
t.is(waitForLatestEmail.from.indexOf(sendEmail.from) > -1 , true)
// delete the email afterwards
const {deleteEmail} = await getClient(apiKey).request(gql`
mutation {
deleteEmail(emailId: "${waitForLatestEmail.id}")
}
`);
t.is(deleteEmail === "deleted", true)
});