email package provides tools for managing email messages, including MIME and other RFC 2822-based message documents.
Module Import
from email.message import EmailMessage
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage
import smtplib
Creating Email Messages
Simple Text Email
from email.message import EmailMessage
msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = 'Hello'
msg['From'] = 'sender@example.com'
msg['To'] = 'recipient@example.com'
msg.set_content('This is the email body.')
print(msg.as_string())
HTML Email
from email.message import EmailMessage
msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = 'HTML Email'
msg['From'] = 'sender@example.com'
msg['To'] = 'recipient@example.com'
msg.set_content('Plain text version') # Fallback
msg.add_alternative("""
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello!</h1>
<p>This is an <b>HTML</b> email.</p>
</body>
</html>
""", subtype='html')
Email with Attachment
from email.message import EmailMessage
import os
msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = 'File Attached'
msg['From'] = 'sender@example.com'
msg['To'] = 'recipient@example.com'
msg.set_content('Please find attached file.')
# Attach file
with open('document.pdf', 'rb') as f:
file_data = f.read()
file_name = os.path.basename('document.pdf')
msg.add_attachment(file_data, maintype='application',
subtype='pdf', filename=file_name)
Sending Email
Using SMTP
from email.message import EmailMessage
import smtplib
# Create message
msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = 'Test Email'
msg['From'] = 'sender@example.com'
msg['To'] = 'recipient@example.com'
msg.set_content('Test message body')
# Send via SMTP
with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.example.com', 587) as smtp:
smtp.starttls() # Enable encryption
smtp.login('username', 'password')
smtp.send_message(msg)
print('Email sent successfully')
Using Gmail
from email.message import EmailMessage
import smtplib
msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = 'Gmail Test'
msg['From'] = 'your-email@gmail.com'
msg['To'] = 'recipient@example.com'
msg.set_content('Email sent via Gmail')
# Send via Gmail SMTP
with smtplib.SMTP_SSL('smtp.gmail.com', 465) as smtp:
smtp.login('your-email@gmail.com', 'your-app-password')
smtp.send_message(msg)
Parsing Email Messages
from email import message_from_string
from email.policy import default
email_text = """From: sender@example.com
To: recipient@example.com
Subject: Test
Email body content.
"""
msg = message_from_string(email_text, policy=default)
print(f"From: {msg['From']}")
print(f"To: {msg['To']}")
print(f"Subject: {msg['Subject']}")
print(f"Body: {msg.get_content()}")
MIME Multipart
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage
# Create multipart message
msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg['Subject'] = 'Multipart Message'
msg['From'] = 'sender@example.com'
msg['To'] = 'recipient@example.com'
# Add text part
text = MIMEText('This is the text part.', 'plain')
msg.attach(text)
# Add HTML part
html = MIMEText('<h1>HTML Part</h1>', 'html')
msg.attach(html)
# Add image
with open('image.jpg', 'rb') as f:
img = MIMEImage(f.read())
img.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment', filename='image.jpg')
msg.attach(img)
Practical Example
Email Utility Class
from email.message import EmailMessage
import smtplib
from pathlib import Path
class EmailSender:
def __init__(self, smtp_server, smtp_port, username, password):
self.smtp_server = smtp_server
self.smtp_port = smtp_port
self.username = username
self.password = password
def send_email(self, to, subject, body, attachments=None, html=False):
msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = subject
msg['From'] = self.username
msg['To'] = to
if html:
msg.set_content(body) # Plain text fallback
msg.add_alternative(body, subtype='html')
else:
msg.set_content(body)
# Add attachments
if attachments:
for attachment in attachments:
path = Path(attachment)
with path.open('rb') as f:
msg.add_attachment(f.read(),
maintype='application',
subtype='octet-stream',
filename=path.name)
# Send email
with smtplib.SMTP(self.smtp_server, self.smtp_port) as smtp:
smtp.starttls()
smtp.login(self.username, self.password)
smtp.send_message(msg)
# Usage
sender = EmailSender('smtp.gmail.com', 587,
'your-email@gmail.com', 'your-password')
sender.send_email(
to='recipient@example.com',
subject='Test Email',
body='<h1>Hello!</h1><p>This is a test.</p>',
html=True,
attachments=['document.pdf', 'image.jpg']
)
For Gmail, use an App Password instead of your regular password for better security.
Never hardcode email credentials in your source code. Use environment variables or secure credential storage.
smtplib
SMTP protocol client
json
JSON encoding/decoding