Step by Step Guide to Building a Mailparser API Integration in Ruby

Introduction

Hey there, fellow Ruby enthusiast! Ready to supercharge your email parsing game? Let's dive into the world of Mailparser API integration. This nifty tool will help you extract structured data from emails like a pro. We'll walk through the process, keeping things snappy and to the point.

Prerequisites

Before we jump in, make sure you've got:

• Ruby 2.5 or higher
• The mailparser gem
• A Mailparser account with an API key

Got all that? Great! Let's roll.

Setting up the environment

First things first, let's get our environment ready:

gem install mailparser

Now, let's set up our API credentials:

require 'mailparser'

Mailparser.configure do |config|
  config.api_key = 'your_api_key_here'
end

Basic API Connection

Time to test the waters:

client = Mailparser::Client.new

begin
  client.get_account_info
  puts "Connection successful!"
rescue Mailparser::Error => e
  puts "Oops! Something went wrong: #{e.message}"
end

If you see "Connection successful!", you're golden!

Retrieving parsed data

Let's fetch some parsed results:

inbox_id = 'your_inbox_id'
results = client.get_parsed_results(inbox_id)

results.each do |result|
  puts result.inspect
end

Need to handle pagination? No sweat:

all_results = []
page = 1

loop do
  results = client.get_parsed_results(inbox_id, page: page)
  break if results.empty?
  all_results.concat(results)
  page += 1
end

Working with Mailparser Inboxes

Creating a new inbox is a breeze:

new_inbox = client.create_inbox(name: 'My Awesome Inbox')
puts "New inbox created with ID: #{new_inbox.id}"

Updating settings? Easy peasy:

client.update_inbox(inbox_id, name: 'Even More Awesome Inbox')

And if you need to clean house:

client.delete_inbox(inbox_id)

Managing parsing rules

Let's set up some parsing magic:

rule = client.create_rule(inbox_id,
  name: 'Extract Subject',
  filter: 'SUBJECT',
  parser: 'TEXT'
)

Tweaking rules is just as simple:

client.update_rule(inbox_id, rule.id,
  name: 'Extract Enhanced Subject'
)

And when a rule has served its purpose:

client.delete_rule(inbox_id, rule.id)

Handling webhooks

Set up your webhook endpoint and let Mailparser do the heavy lifting:

require 'sinatra'

post '/webhook' do
  payload = JSON.parse(request.body.read)
  # Process the webhook data
  puts "Received data for email: #{payload['email_id']}"
  status 200
end

Error handling and best practices

Always be prepared for the unexpected:

begin
  # Your Mailparser API calls here
rescue Mailparser::RateLimitError => e
  puts "Whoa there! We're going too fast. Let's wait a bit."
  sleep(e.retry_after)
  retry
rescue Mailparser::Error => e
  puts "Houston, we have a problem: #{e.message}"
end

Advanced usage

Want to level up? Try batch operations:

results = client.get_parsed_results(inbox_id, limit: 100, sort: '-received_at')

Testing and debugging

Don't forget to test your integration:

require 'minitest/autorun'
require 'webmock/minitest'

class MailparserTest < Minitest::Test
  def setup
    Mailparser.configure do |config|
      config.api_key = 'test_api_key'
    end
    @client = Mailparser::Client.new
  end

  def test_get_account_info
    stub_request(:get, "https://api.mailparser.io/v1/account")
      .to_return(status: 200, body: '{"email": "[email protected]"}')

    response = @client.get_account_info
    assert_equal '[email protected]', response['email']
  end
end

Conclusion

And there you have it! You're now armed with the knowledge to build a robust Mailparser API integration in Ruby. Remember, practice makes perfect, so don't be afraid to experiment and push the boundaries.

Happy coding, and may your emails always parse smoothly!