E2E: Retrieve email-link - How to invoke callBack function for mailListener?

Question

I do have an E2E test for retrieving confirmation email after registration. I need the link in the confirmation email to login the user as the link in the email contains the token etc. for access.

The test runs fine, email is being sent to user, but when I try to get email and its content including link, it just doesn't invoke the function (callback) for it which causes the following error:

- Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.

The test is based on mailListener and following this posting which is quite helpful.

Here is the helper function which should be invoked and retrieve the mail with content. It's being embedded within spec.ts file before starting the suite describe():

function getLastEmail() {
    const deferred = protractor.promise.defer();
    console.log("Waiting for an email...");

    mailListener.on("mail", function(mail){
        console.log('Email received, parsing...');
        deferred.fulfill(mail);
    });
    return deferred.promise;
}

and here is the test where the function getLastEmail() is being called:

it('should retrieve email link and login with a registration code sent to an email', function () {
     browser.get("/login");
     browser.controlFlow().wait(getLastEmail())
         .then((email) => {
             expect(email['subject']).toEqual("Email subject");  
             expect(email['headers'].to).toEqual("myName@yyyy.com");
             console.log(email['text']);
         });
});

And here is the initialization of the Mail Listener which is also embedded in the spec.ts file in the top:

    // for confirmation email - added on 31.01.18
    var MailListener = require("mail-listener2");
    // here goes your email connection configuration
    var mailListener = new MailListener({
        username: "myName@yyyy.com",
        password: "myPassword",
        host: "imap.gmail.com",
        port: 993, // imap port 
        tls: true,
        tlsOptions: { rejectUnauthorized: false },
        mailbox: "INBOX", // mailbox to monitor 
        searchFilter: ["UNSEEN", "FLAGGED"], // the search filter being used after an IDLE notification has been retrieved 
        markSeen: true, // all fetched email willbe marked as seen and not fetched next time 
        fetchUnreadOnStart: true, // use it only if you want to get all unread email on lib start. Default is `false`, 
        mailParserOptions: { streamAttachments: true }, // options to be passed to mailParser lib. 
        // attachments: true, // download attachments as they are encountered to the project directory 
        // attachmentOptions: { directory: "attachments/" } // specify a download directory for attachments 
    });

    mailListener.start();

    mailListener.on("server:connected", function(){
        console.log("Mail listener initialized");
    });

    mailListener = mailListener;`

Can it be that the email credentials are not correct or the host name is wrong as in this case I would expect an error? What do I have to change to force the function: getLastEmail() to be invoked?

Answer 1

Issue fixed. I think this posting here is really too old and just doesn't work as it should be. First of all here is the one which would run without issues, and you also find the comments which explain what each function does etc.

Code in protractor.config.js added in onPrepare() method looks as following:

var MailListener = require("mail-listener2");

    var mailListener = new MailListener({
        username: "username", // email or userName
        password: "password", // password
        host: "your.emailserver.port", // e.g. imap.gmail.com
        port: 993,
        tls: true,
        fetchUnreadOnStart: true
    });
    mailListener.on("server:connected", function() {
        console.log("imapConnected");
    });
    mailListener.on("server:disconnected", function() {
        console.log("imapDisconnected");
    });
    mailListener.on("error", function(err) {
        console.log(err);
    });

    var count = 0;
    mailListener.on("mail", function(mail, seqno, attributes) {
        var mailuid = attributes.uid;
        var toMailbox = '[Gmail]/All Mail';
        var i = ++count;
        if (i > 2) {
            mailListener.stop(); // start listening
            return;
        }
        console.log('attempting to mark msg read/seen');
        mailListener.imap.addFlags(mailuid, '\\Seen', function(err) {
            if (err) {
                console.log('error marking message read/SEEN');
                return;
            }
            console.log('moving ' + (seqno || '?') + ' to ' + toMailbox);
            mailListener.imap.move(mailuid, toMailbox, function(err) {
                if (err) {
                    console.log('error moving message');
                    return;
                }
                console.log('moved ' + (seqno || '?'), mail.subject);
            });
        });
    });

    mailListener.start(); // start listening
    setTimeout(function() {
        mailListener.stop(); // start listening
    }, 60 * 1000);

    global.mailListener = mailListener;

Then after that, just adding a helper function after onPrepare() method like:

params: {
    getLastEmail: function() {
        const deferred = protractor.promise.defer();
        console.log("Waiting for email...");

        var count = 0;
        mailListener.on("mail", function(mail, seqno, attributes) {
            var mailuid = attributes.uid;
            var toMailbox = '[Gmail]/All Mail';
            var i = ++count;
            if (i > 2) {
                mailListener.stop(); // start listening
                return;
            }
            testContent = {
                i: i,
                subject: mail.subject,
                seqno: seqno,
                uid: attributes.uid,
                attributes: attributes,
                text: mail.html
            };
            deferred.fulfill(mail);
        });
        return deferred.promise;
    }
},

Then move to *.spec.ts file and call/invoke the helper function inside the test case etc. as following:

it('should do something', () => {
    browser.wait(browser.params.getLastEmail()).then( (email) => {....})

})

It's working for me straight forward and I wanted to share this with you guys as when searching I did see that a lot of users are struggling with mailListener feature/library.