Python email using SMTP

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) i.e., Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which is a set of rules for transmitting from the source address to the destination address of the message, it an internet protocol.

The python smtplib provides a very convenient way to send e-mail. It smtp protocol for a simple package. You can use pip to install it.

Python create an SMTP object syntax is as follows:

    import smtplib    
    smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP ([host [, port [, local_hostname]]])

Parameter Description:

• Host: SMTP server host. You can specify the host ip address or domain name such as: gmail, this is an optional parameter.
• Port: If you provide a host parameters, you need to specify the port number used by the SMTP service, under normal circumstances SMTP port number is 25.
• Local_hostname: If the SMTP on your local machine, you only need to specify the server address is localhost.

Python SMTP object to send mail using sendmail method syntax is as follows:

    SMTP.sendmail (from_addr, to_addrs, msg [, mail_options, rcpt_options]

Parameter Description:

• from_addr: e-mail sender address.
• to_addrs: string list, send e-mail address.
• msg: Send a message

Here we must note that the third argument, msg is a string that represents the mail.

We know that the email message is generally composed of a title, sender, recipient, message content, attachments.

When sending mail, pay attention to msg format. This is a string, but the format is the format smtp defined in the protocol.

smtp examples

The following is a Python to send mail using a simple example:

    #!/usr/bin/python3
    import smtplib
    
    sender = '[e-mail]'
    receivers = [ '[e-mail]']
    
    message = "" "From: From Person <[e-mail]>
    To: To Person <[e-mail]>
    Subject: SMTP e-mail test
    
    This is a test e-mail message.
    "" "
    
    try:
       smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
       smtpObj.sendmail(sender, receivers, message)
       print("Successfully sent email")
    except SMTPException:
       print("Error: unable to send email")

send HTML formatted email Python

Python is different from the message transmitted HTML email message and sending plain text is set to the MIMEText. Specific code as follows:

    import smtplib
    from email.mime.text import MIMEText
    mailto_list = [ "[e-mail]"]
    mail_host = "smtp.XXX.com" # Set the server
    mail_user = "XXX" # Username
    mail_pass = "XXXX" # password
    mail_postfix = "XXX.com" # suffix Outbox
      
    def send_mail (to_list, sub, content): #to_list: Recipient; sub: Theme; content: the content of the message
        me = "hello" + "<" + mail_user + "@" + mail_postfix + ">" # hello herein can be arbitrarily set, on receipt, in accordance with the setting display
        msg = MIMEText(content, _subtype = 'html', _ charset = 'gb2312') # create an instance, the message format provided here html
        msg ['Subject'] = sub # Settings topic
        msg ['From'] = me
        msg ['To'] = ";". join(to_list)
        try:
            s = smtplib.SMTP()
            s.connect(mail_host) # smtp server connection
            s.login(mail_user, mail_pass) # login server
            s.sendmail(me, to_list, msg.as_string()) # Send e-mail
            s.close()
            return True
        except Exception, e:
            print(str(e))
            return False
    if __name__ == '__main__':
        if send_mail (mailto_list, "hello", "<a href='http://www.dev.to/'> dev.to </a>"):
            print("successfully sent")
        else:
            print("failed to send")

Or you can specify in the message body Content-type: text / html, the following example:

    #!/usr/bin/python3
    import smtplib
    
    message = "" "From: From Person <[e-mail]>
    To: To Person <[e-mail]>
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-type: text / html
    Subject: SMTP HTML e-mail test
    
    This is an e-mail message to be sent in HTML format
    
    <B> This is HTML message. </ B>
    <H1> This is headline. </ H1>
    "" "
    
    try:
       smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
       smtpObj.sendmail(sender, receivers, message)
       print("Successfully sent email")
    except SMTPException:
       print("Error: unable to send email")

Python send mail with attachments

Send e-mail with attachments, you first create MIMEMultipart() instance and construction attachments, if there are multiple attachments, you can turn structure. Finally, smtplib.smtp sent.

    from email.mime.text import MIMEText
    from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
    import smtplib
    
    # Create an instance with attachments
    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    
    # Structure Annex 1
    att1 = MIMEText(open (. 'example.zip', 'rb') read (), 'base64', 'gb2312')
    att1 ["Content-Type"] = 'application / octet-stream'
    att1 ["Content-Disposition"] = 'attachment; filename = "example.zip"' # where filename can be any write, write what name, what name appears in the message
    msg.attach (att1)
    
    # Structure Annex 2
    att2 = MIMEText(open (. 'example.txt', 'rb') read (), 'base64', 'gb2312')
    att2 ["Content-Type"] = 'application / octet-stream'
    att2 ["Content-Disposition"] = 'attachment; filename = "example.txt"'
    msg.attach (att2)
    
    # Plus headers
    msg ['to'] = '[e-mail]'
    msg ['from'] = '[e-mail]'
    msg ['subject'] = 'hello world'
    #send email
    try:
        server = smtplib.SMTP ()
        server.connect( 'smtp.XXX.com')
        server.login( 'XXX', 'XXXXX') # XXX user name, XXXXX is password
        server.sendmail(msg ['from'], msg ['to'], msg.as_string ())
        server.quit()
        print('transmission success')
    except Exception, e:
        print(str(e))

Related links:

• Read email (with POP3)
• Python smtplib module

Comments

[Alexandro Disla]

Nice

[nataliiapolomkina]

Great guide, thanks for sharing! There's also an option to send emails from Python using Mailtrap as it has natural integration with Python and can be used for testing as well