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How to Send Automated Email Messages in Python

Last Updated : 31 Aug, 2021

In this article, we are going to see how to send automated email messages which involve delivering text messages, essential photos, and important files, among other things. in Python.

We’ll be using two libraries for this: email, and smtplib, as well as the MIMEMultipart object. This object has multiple subclasses; these subclasses will be used to build our email message.

MIMEText: It consists of simple text. This will be the body of the email.
MIMEImage: This would allow us to add images to our emails.
MIMEAudio: If we wish to add audio files, we may do it easily with the help of this subclass.
MIMEApplication: This can be used to add anything or any other attachments.

Step-by-step Implementation

Step 1: Import the following modules

Python3

from email.mime.text import MIMEText 
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage 
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication 
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart 
import smtplib 
import os

Step 2: Let’s set up a connection to our email server.

Provide the server address and port number to initiate our SMTP connection
Then we’ll use smtp.ehlo to send an EHLO (Extended Hello) command.
Now, we’ll use smtp.starttls to enable transport layer security (TLS) encryption.

Python3

smtp = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587) 
smtp.ehlo() 
smtp.starttls() 
smtp.login('[email protected]', 'Your Password') 

Step 3: Now, built the message content.

Assign the MIMEMultipart object to the msg variable after initializing it.
The MIMEText function will be used to attach text.

Python3

msg = MIMEMultipart() 
msg['Subject'] = subject 
msg.attach(MIMEText(text))

Step 4: Let’s look at how to attach pictures and multiple attachments.

Attaching Images:

First, read the image as binary data.
Attach the image data to MIMEMultipart using MIMEImage, we add the given filename use os.basename

Python3

img_data = open(one_img, 'rb').read() 
msg.attach(MIMEImage(img_data,  
                     name=os.path.basename(one_img)))

Attaching Several Files:

Read in the attachment using MIMEApplication.
Then we edit the attached file metadata.
Finally, add the attachment to our message object.

Python3

with open(one_attachment, 'rb') as f: 
    file = MIMEApplication( 
        f.read(), name=os.path.basename(one_attachment) 
    ) 
    file['Content-Disposition'] = f'attachment; \ 
    filename="{os.path.basename(one_attachment)}"' 
    msg.attach(file) 

Step 5: The last step is to send the email.

Make a list of all the emails you want to send.
Then, by using the sendmail function, pass parameters such as from where, to where, and the message content.
At last, just quit the server connection.

Python3

to = ["[email protected]", "[email protected]", "[email protected]"] 
smtp.sendmail(from_addr="Your Login Email", 
              to_addrs=to, msg=msg.as_string()) 
smtp.quit()

Below is the full implementation:

Python3

# Import the following module 
from email.mime.text import MIMEText 
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage 
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication 
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart 
import smtplib 
import os 
  
# initialize connection to our 
# email server, we will use gmail here 
smtp = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587) 
smtp.ehlo() 
smtp.starttls() 
  
# Login with your email and password 
smtp.login('Your Email', 'Your Password') 
  
  
# send our email message 'msg' to our boss 
def message(subject="Python Notification",  
            text="", img=None, 
            attachment=None): 
    
    # build message contents 
    msg = MIMEMultipart() 
      
    # Add Subject 
    msg['Subject'] = subject   
      
    # Add text contents 
    msg.attach(MIMEText(text))   
  
    # Check if we have anything 
    # given in the img parameter 
    if img is not None: 
          
        # Check whether we have the lists of images or not! 
        if type(img) is not list:   
            
              # if it isn't a list, make it one 
            img = [img]  
  
        # Now iterate through our list 
        for one_img in img: 
            
              # read the image binary data 
            img_data = open(one_img, 'rb').read()   
            # Attach the image data to MIMEMultipart 
            # using MIMEImage, we add the given filename use os.basename 
            msg.attach(MIMEImage(img_data, 
                                 name=os.path.basename(one_img))) 
  
    # We do the same for 
    # attachments as we did for images 
    if attachment is not None: 
          
        # Check whether we have the 
        # lists of attachments or not! 
        if type(attachment) is not list: 
            
              # if it isn't a list, make it one 
            attachment = [attachment]   
  
        for one_attachment in attachment: 
  
            with open(one_attachment, 'rb') as f: 
                
                # Read in the attachment 
                # using MIMEApplication 
                file = MIMEApplication( 
                    f.read(), 
                    name=os.path.basename(one_attachment) 
                ) 
            file['Content-Disposition'] = f'attachment;\ 
            filename="{os.path.basename(one_attachment)}"' 
              
            # At last, Add the attachment to our message object 
            msg.attach(file) 
    return msg 
  
  
# Call the message function 
msg = message("Good!", "Hi there!", 
              r"C:\Users\Dell\Downloads\Garbage\Cartoon.jpg", 
              r"C:\Users\Dell\Desktop\slack.py") 
  
# Make a list of emails, where you wanna send mail 
to = ["[email protected]", 
      "[email protected]", "[email protected]"] 
  
# Provide some data to the sendmail function! 
smtp.sendmail(from_addr="[email protected]", 
              to_addrs=to, msg=msg.as_string()) 
  
 # Finally, don't forget to close the connection 
smtp.quit()

Output:

Schedule Email Messages

For scheduling the mail, we will make use of the schedule package in python. It is very lightweight and easy to use.

Install the module

pip install schedule

Now look at the different functions that are defined in a schedule module and their use:

The below function will call the function mail every 2 seconds.

schedule.every(2).seconds.do(mail)

This will call the function mail every 10 minutes.

schedule.every(10).minutes.do(mail)

This will call the function in every hour.

schedule.every().hour.do(mail)

Calling every day at 10:30 AM.

schedule.every().day.at("10:30").do(mail)

Calling a particular day.

schedule.every().monday.do(mail)

Below is the implementation:

Python3

import schedule 
import time 
from email.mime.text import MIMEText 
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage 
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication 
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart 
import smtplib 
import os 
  
# send our email message 'msg' to our boss 
def message(subject="Python Notification",  
            text="", img=None, attachment=None): 
    
    # build message contents 
    msg = MIMEMultipart() 
      
    # Add Subject 
    msg['Subject'] = subject   
      
    # Add text contents 
    msg.attach(MIMEText(text))   
  
    # Check if we have anything 
    # given in the img parameter 
    if img is not None: 
  
          # Check whether we have the 
        # lists of images or not! 
        if type(img) is not list: 
            
              # if it isn't a list, make it one 
            img = [img]   
  
        # Now iterate through our list 
        for one_img in img: 
            
              # read the image binary data 
            img_data = open(one_img, 'rb').read()   
              
            # Attach the image data to MIMEMultipart 
            # using MIMEImage, 
            # we add the given filename use os.basename 
            msg.attach(MIMEImage(img_data,  
                                 name=os.path.basename(one_img))) 
  
    # We do the same for attachments 
    # as we did for images 
    if attachment is not None: 
  
          # Check whether we have the 
        # lists of attachments or not! 
        if type(attachment) is not list: 
            
              # if it isn't a list, make it one 
            attachment = [attachment]   
  
        for one_attachment in attachment: 
  
            with open(one_attachment, 'rb') as f: 
                
                # Read in the attachment using MIMEApplication 
                file = MIMEApplication( 
                    f.read(), 
                    name=os.path.basename(one_attachment) 
                ) 
            file['Content-Disposition'] = f'attachment;\ 
            filename="{os.path.basename(one_attachment)}"' 
              
            # At last, Add the attachment to our message object 
            msg.attach(file) 
    return msg 
  
  
def mail(): 
    
    # initialize connection to our email server, 
    # we will use gmail here 
    smtp = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587) 
    smtp.ehlo() 
    smtp.starttls() 
      
    # Login with your email and password 
    smtp.login('Email', 'Password') 
  
    # Call the message function 
    msg = message("Good!", "Hi there!", 
                  r"C:\Users\Dell\Downloads\Garbage\Cartoon.jpg", 
                  r"C:\Users\Dell\Desktop\slack.py") 
      
    # Make a list of emails, where you wanna send mail 
    to = ["[email protected]", 
          "[email protected]", "[email protected]"] 
  
    # Provide some data to the sendmail function! 
    smtp.sendmail(from_addr="[email protected]", 
                  to_addrs=to, msg=msg.as_string()) 
      
    # Finally, don't forget to close the connection 
    smtp.quit()   
  
  
schedule.every(2).seconds.do(mail) 
schedule.every(10).minutes.do(mail) 
schedule.every().hour.do(mail) 
schedule.every().day.at("10:30").do(mail) 
schedule.every(5).to(10).minutes.do(mail) 
schedule.every().monday.do(mail) 
schedule.every().wednesday.at("13:15").do(mail) 
schedule.every().minute.at(":17").do(mail) 
  
while True: 
    schedule.run_pending() 
    time.sleep(1)

Output:

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