Add an heartbeat functionnality

[Natim]

Is there a way to get if the pyramid_mailer is correctly configured (connection with the SMTP server is possible with given credentials).

I know I could do that by sending an email to a wrong mailbox, but I would like to avoid doing that if possible.
Is it possible to add a ping() method to the mailer that would answer true or false depending of is the connection was successful or not?

[Natim]

Something like that could do it:

    def ping(self):
        connection = self.smtp_factory()

        # send EHLO
        code, response = connection.ehlo()
        if code < 200 or code >= 300:
            code, response = connection.helo()
            if code < 200 or code >= 300:
                raise RuntimeError(
                        'Error sending HELO to the SMTP server '
                        '(code=%s, response=%s)' % (code, response))

        # encryption support
        have_tls = connection.has_extn('starttls')
        if not have_tls and self.force_tls:
            raise RuntimeError('TLS is not available but TLS is required')

        if have_tls and HAVE_SSL and not self.no_tls:
            connection.starttls()
            connection.ehlo()

        if connection.does_esmtp:
            if self.username is not None and self.password is not None:
                connection.login(self.username, self.password)
        elif self.username:
            raise RuntimeError(
                    'Mailhost does not support ESMTP but a username '
                    'is configured')

        # Do not send a message
        try:
            connection.quit()
        except SSLError:
            # something weird happened while quiting
            connection.close()

Every other mailer (than SMTP related ones) should return True.