Why Do We Need Email Automation?

In the course of work, there are times when you need to send the same email to multiple recipients by just changing the name or periodically send data collected from external sources to the required recipients.

Such repetitive tasks can consume a lot of unnecessary time and can also lead to mistakes during the simple operations.

However, by using a Python program, these repetitive email tasks can be automated through programming.

Automating Emails with Python

To automate email sending in Python, you need to use the smtplib library to connect to an SMTP server and write code to send emails.

The smtplib library can be installed on your computer using the command pip install smtplib.

Below is an example of Python code to send different emails to 3 people each consisting of a username and an email.

Note : In the CodeFriends practice environment, the recipient's email is limited to the email registered with CodeFriends to prevent abuse of email sending.

Python Code to Automatically Send Emails to Users

# Import the smtplib library
import smtplib

# Import libraries to compose the email
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

# Import library for composing email body and subject
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart

# Sender's email configuration
sender_email = "sender@example.com"

# Sender's email password
password = "your_password"

# Recipient list (username and email)
recipients = [
    {"username": "Alice", "email": "alice@example.com"},
    {"username": "Bob", "email": "bob@example.com"},
    {"username": "Charlie", "email": "charlie@example.com"}
]

# SMTP server configuration
smtp_server = "smtp.example.com"

# SMTP server port number
# What is a Port?
# A number used by programs in a network to communicate
port = 587

# Function to send the email
def send_email(username, receiver_email):
    # Email subject
    subject = "CodeFriends Update Notice"

    # Email body
    body = f"Hello {username}, Here is the latest update from CodeFriends."

    # Compose the email
    msg = MIMEMultipart()

    # Set email sender, recipient, subject
    msg['From'] = sender_email
    msg['To'] = receiver_email
    msg['Subject'] = subject

    # Add email body
    msg.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))

    try:
        # Connect to the SMTP server
        server = smtplib.SMTP(smtp_server, port)

        # TLS (email encryption) connection
        server.starttls()

        # Login to the email
        server.login(sender_email, password)

        # Convert email message to string
        text = msg.as_string()

        # Send the email
        server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, text)
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error occurred while sending email to {username}: {e}")
    finally:
        server.quit()  # Disconnect from the server

# Send email to each user
for recipient in recipients:
    send_email(recipient["username"], recipient["email"])

Code Explanation

1. Recipient List

The recipients list is defined in a dictionary format with each consisting of username and email.

This list contains the information of the 3 users to whom the emails will be sent.

2. Email Sending Function

The send_email function is responsible for sending an email to each user.

The function takes username and receiver_email as parameters and includes the username in the email subject and body.

3. Sending Emails

A for loop is used to send emails sequentially to each user in the recipients list.

Each user will receive an email personalized with their name.

By using this code, you can easily send customized emails to each user.

All you need to do is change the SMTP server address (smtp.example.com), sender email, and password to actual values and run the code.

Practice

In the practice code editor, enter the email registered with CodeFriends in the receiver_email or make sure it is correctly reflected, and run the code.

When you run the code, a test email will be sent to the email registered with CodeFriends.

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