What is the best way to deliver email attachments?

Problem

I’m having trouble figuring out how to send an attachment via email in Python. With the smtplib, I’ve successfully sent simple messages. Please describe how to send an attachment as an attachment in an email. Other posts exist online, but as a Python newbie, I find them difficult to comprehend.

Asked by Richard

Solution #1

Here’s another:

import smtplib
from os.path import basename
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.utils import COMMASPACE, formatdate


def send_mail(send_from, send_to, subject, text, files=None,
              server="127.0.0.1"):
    assert isinstance(send_to, list)

    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['From'] = send_from
    msg['To'] = COMMASPACE.join(send_to)
    msg['Date'] = formatdate(localtime=True)
    msg['Subject'] = subject

    msg.attach(MIMEText(text))

    for f in files or []:
        with open(f, "rb") as fil:
            part = MIMEApplication(
                fil.read(),
                Name=basename(f)
            )
        # After the file is closed
        part['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="%s"' % basename(f)
        msg.attach(part)


    smtp = smtplib.SMTP(server)
    smtp.sendmail(send_from, send_to, msg.as_string())
    smtp.close()

It’s very similar to the first example… However, it should be simpler to drop.

Answered by Oli

Solution #2

Oli’s improved version for Python 3 is available here.

import smtplib
from pathlib import Path
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.utils import COMMASPACE, formatdate
from email import encoders


def send_mail(send_from, send_to, subject, message, files=[],
              server="localhost", port=587, username='', password='',
              use_tls=True):
    """Compose and send email with provided info and attachments.

    Args:
        send_from (str): from name
        send_to (list[str]): to name(s)
        subject (str): message title
        message (str): message body
        files (list[str]): list of file paths to be attached to email
        server (str): mail server host name
        port (int): port number
        username (str): server auth username
        password (str): server auth password
        use_tls (bool): use TLS mode
    """
    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['From'] = send_from
    msg['To'] = COMMASPACE.join(send_to)
    msg['Date'] = formatdate(localtime=True)
    msg['Subject'] = subject

    msg.attach(MIMEText(message))

    for path in files:
        part = MIMEBase('application', "octet-stream")
        with open(path, 'rb') as file:
            part.set_payload(file.read())
        encoders.encode_base64(part)
        part.add_header('Content-Disposition',
                        'attachment; filename={}'.format(Path(path).name))
        msg.attach(part)

    smtp = smtplib.SMTP(server, port)
    if use_tls:
        smtp.starttls()
    smtp.login(username, password)
    smtp.sendmail(send_from, send_to, msg.as_string())
    smtp.quit()

Answered by Ehsan Iran-Nejad

Solution #3

This is the code I used in the end:

import smtplib
from email.MIMEMultipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.MIMEBase import MIMEBase
from email import Encoders


SUBJECT = "Email Data"

msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg['Subject'] = SUBJECT 
msg['From'] = self.EMAIL_FROM
msg['To'] = ', '.join(self.EMAIL_TO)

part = MIMEBase('application', "octet-stream")
part.set_payload(open("text.txt", "rb").read())
Encoders.encode_base64(part)

part.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename="text.txt"')

msg.attach(part)

server = smtplib.SMTP(self.EMAIL_SERVER)
server.sendmail(self.EMAIL_FROM, self.EMAIL_TO, msg.as_string())

The code is very similar to Oli’s post.

The code is based on a post about a problem with a binary file email attachment.

Answered by Richard

Solution #4

from email.MIMEMultipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.MIMEText import MIMEText
from email.MIMEImage import MIMEImage
import smtplib

msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg.attach(MIMEText(file("text.txt").read()))
msg.attach(MIMEImage(file("image.png").read()))

# to send
mailer = smtplib.SMTP()
mailer.connect()
mailer.sendmail(from_, to, msg.as_string())
mailer.close()

Adapted from here.

Answered by Oli

Solution #5

Another approach to use Python 3 (if you’re looking):

import smtplib
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email import encoders

fromaddr = "sender mail address"
toaddr = "receiver mail address"

msg = MIMEMultipart()

msg['From'] = fromaddr
msg['To'] = toaddr
msg['Subject'] = "SUBJECT OF THE EMAIL"

body = "TEXT YOU WANT TO SEND"

msg.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))

filename = "fileName"
attachment = open("path of file", "rb")

part = MIMEBase('application', 'octet-stream')
part.set_payload((attachment).read())
encoders.encode_base64(part)
part.add_header('Content-Disposition', "attachment; filename= %s" % filename)

msg.attach(part)

server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
server.starttls()
server.login(fromaddr, "sender mail password")
text = msg.as_string()
server.sendmail(fromaddr, toaddr, text)
server.quit()

Make sure your Gmail account allows “less secure apps.”

Answered by Sudarshan

Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3362600/how-to-send-email-attachments