Flask Mail

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Flask Mail and explore its features, benefits, and how to use it in your web application.

If you need to include a feature for sending emails to users or clients in your web application, you’ll find that Flask Mail extension can help you set up a simple interface with any email server. This extension streamlines the process and makes it much easier to integrate email functionality into your web application.

To start using Flask Mail extension, you will need to install it using the pip utility. This is the first step towards integrating email functionality into your Flask web application.

pip install Flask-Mail

After installing Flask Mail extension, you’ll need to configure it by setting the values of certain application parameters. This step is necessary to ensure that Flask Mail is properly set up and can function correctly in your web application.

Within the flask mail module, you’ll find definitions for several crucial classes that play an important role in the functioning of the Flask Mail extension.

Mail class

The purpose of this class is to handle email messaging needs, and its constructor is structured in the following way:

flask-mail.Mail(app = None)

As a parameter for the constructor, the Flask application object is required. The above object is used by the constructor to establish a connection between Flask and the Flask Mail extension.
Methods of Mail class

Message Class

This class is responsible for encapsulating an email message, and the constructor for the Message class includes several parameters.

These parameters determine the various attributes and properties of the email message.

flask-mail.Message(subject, recipients, body, html, sender, cc, bcc,
reply-to, date, charset, extra_headers, mail_options, rcpt_options)

Message Class Methods

attach(): This method is used to include an attachment in the email message, and it requires the following parameters:

• filename: name of file to attach
• content_type: MIME type of file
• data: raw file data
• disposition: content disposition, if any.

add_recipient(): This function is used to add an additional recipient to the email message.

The Flask Mail configuration in the example below utilizes Google’s gmail service SMTP server as the MAIL_SERVER.

In your code, make sure to include the necessary imports for the Mail and Message classes from the flask mail module.

from flask_mail import Mail, Message

Next, Flask-Mail is configured using the settings provided below. These settings dictate how Flask-Mail will function within your web application.

app.config['MAIL_SERVER']='smtp.gmail.com'
app.config['MAIL_PORT'] = 465
app.config['MAIL_USERNAME'] = '[email protected]'
app.config['MAIL_PASSWORD'] = '*****'
app.config['MAIL_USE_TLS'] = False
app.config['MAIL_USE_SSL'] = True

Make an instance of Mail class.

mail = Mail(app)

Within a Python function that is mapped to a URL rule (‘/’), you should create a Message object to set up the details of the email message you wish to send using Flask Mail.

@app.route("/")

def index():

   msg = Message('Hello', sender = '[email protected]', recipients = ['[email protected]'])

   msg.body = "This is the email body"

   mail.send(msg)

   return "Sent"

Below you can find the full code for the Flask web application that incorporates Flask Mail. To run this script, execute it in the Python Shell and visit http://localhost:5000/ in your web browser.

from flask import Flask

from flask_mail import Mail, Message

app =Flask(__name__)

mail=Mail(app)

app.config['MAIL_SERVER']='smtp.gmail.com'

app.config['MAIL_PORT'] = 465

app.config['MAIL_USERNAME'] = '[email protected]'

app.config['MAIL_PASSWORD'] = '*****'

app.config['MAIL_USE_TLS'] = False

app.config['MAIL_USE_SSL'] = True

mail = Mail(app)

@app.route("/")

def index():

   msg = Message('Greetings', sender = '[email protected]', recipients = ['[email protected]'])

   msg.body = "Hey developer this is a Flask message sent from Flask-Mail"

   mail.send(msg)

   return "Sent"

if __name__ == '__main__':

   app.run(debug = True)

It is important to keep in mind that the security measures provided by the Gmail service may prevent the login attempt described above. To work around this issue, it may be necessary to lower the security level. You can do this by logging into your Gmail account and following this link to make the necessary adjustments.

Example Explanation

In above example, we are creating a Flask application that utilizes the Flask Mail extension to send an email message. We start by importing the necessary modules – Flask and Flask Mail.

Next, we create an instance of the Flask application and instantiate the Mail class using it. We then set the configuration options for the email server we want to use, in this case, Gmail.

After that, we define a route for the application using the @app.route() decorator. The route we define is the root route ‘/’, which means that it will be the default page displayed when a user navigates to our application.

Inside the route function, we create an instance of the Message class, which is used to encapsulate the email message we want to send. We specify the message’s sender, recipient, and subject. We also set the message body with the msg.body attribute.

Finally, we use the mail.send() method to send the email message. If the message is sent successfully, the ‘Sent’ message will be returned to the client’s browser. If there are any errors, they will be displayed in the terminal window where we started the application.

Flask Mail Benefits

Flask-Mail provides a simple way to configure email settings. You can easily specify the email server, port number, username, and password in your Flask application.

Flask-Mail allows you to create customized email messages that can include HTML content, images, and attachments.

Flask-Mail provides support for email queueing, which allows you to send emails asynchronously and avoid blocking the main application thread.

Flask-Mail supports multiple email backends such as SMTP, Gmail, and SendGrid. This means that you can use your preferred email service provider without changing your code.

Flask-Mail provides built-in error handling for common email-related issues such as connection failures, authentication errors, and message sending failures. This helps to improve the reliability of your email sending process.

Flask-Mail is designed to integrate seamlessly with Flask, making it easy to send emails from your Flask application.

Conclusion

Flask Mail extension is a valuable tool for any web application that requires email functionality. With its simple setup process, customizable options, and ability to handle various email servers, it can streamline your email messaging requirements. By using Flask Mail, you can easily send emails to your users and clients with just a few lines of code. So, if you’re looking for an efficient and easy-to-use way to manage email functionality in your Flask application, Flask Mail is definitely worth considering!