send email to gmail (STARTTLS) using ruby >=1.8.7

gistfile1.rb

# send email using STARTTLS; Net::SMTP#enable_starttls requires ruby >=1.8.7
# this hack is needed for rails <2.3; apparently >=2.3 has something for this already

ActionMailer::Base.class_eval do
  private
  def perform_delivery_smtp(mail)
    destinations = mail.destinations
    mail.ready_to_send

    smtp = Net::SMTP.new(smtp_settings[:address], smtp_settings[:port])
    smtp.enable_starttls
    smtp.start(smtp_settings[:domain], 
                smtp_settings[:user_name], 
                smtp_settings[:password], 
                smtp_settings[:authentication]) do |smtp|
      smtp.sendmail(mail.encoded, mail.from, destinations)
    end
  end
end

ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
  :address => "smtp.gmail.com",
  :port => 587,
  :user_name => 'your.email@yourdomain.com',
  :password => 'secret',
  :authentication => :plain,
}