Here's the complete corrected roadmap for your Automated Email Sender project, with all the
necessary corrections integrated:
Detailed Roadmap: Automated Email Sender Project 📧
Step 1: Understanding the Basics of Email Communication 📨
What it is:
Emails are electronic messages sent over the internet. They follow specific protocols like SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to transfer messages between email servers.
What we are doing:
We’ll send emails automatically using Python’s built-in libraries. First, it’s essential to understand
how email communication works under the hood.
Outcome:
You'll learn the key components of an email (sender, recipient, subject, body, attachments) and the
role of SMTP servers for sending emails programmatically.
Step 2: Setting Up Your Python Environment 🐍
What it is:
Before we dive into coding, we need to set up your Python development environment and install
necessary libraries.
What we are doing:
1. Install Python: Download and install Python from python.org.
2. Install pip: Pip is a package installer for Python, which we’ll use to install additional
libraries.
Install the required libraries using the following command:
pip install smtplib
pip install email
pip install schedule # For time-based triggers
pip install sqlite3 # For database logging
pip install watchdog # For event-based triggers
Outcome:
Your system will be set up with Python and all necessary libraries installed to support email
automation, triggers, and logging emails into a database.
Step 3: Sending a Basic Email Using Python 📧
What it is:
This step will help you send your first email through Python. We’ll use the smtplib library to
connect to an SMTP server and send an email.
What we are doing:
You’ll write a Python script that sends a simple email using Gmail’s SMTP server.
1. Gmail’s SMTP details:
o SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com
o Port: 587 (for TLS)
2. Sample code to send an email:
3. import smtplib
4. from email.mime.text import MIMEText
5.
6. sender_email = "your_email@gmail.com"
7. receiver_email = "receiver@example.com"
8. password = input("Enter your email password: ")
9.
10. # Create the email content
11. message = MIMEText("This is a test email.")
12. message['Subject'] = "Test Email"
13. message['From'] = sender_email
14. message['To'] = receiver_email
15.
16. # Set up the server
17. server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
18. server.starttls() # Start encryption
19. server.login(sender_email, password)
20.
21. # Send the email
22. server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message.as_string())
23. server.quit()
Outcome:
You’ll send a basic email from your Python script using Gmail’s SMTP server.
Step 4: Enhancing the Email Content (Adding Subject, Body, and Attachments) 📎
What it is:
Emails often contain more than just plain text—they may have attachments, HTML formatting, etc.
We’ll improve the email by adding a subject line, body, and file attachments.
What we are doing:
We’ll use the email library to create a more professional and detailed email.
1. Adding a subject and body:
2. from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
3. from email.mime.text import MIMEText
4.
5. # Create the message object
6. message = MIMEMultipart()
7. message['From'] = sender_email
8. message['To'] = receiver_email
9. message['Subject'] = "Automated Email with Attachment"
10.
11. # Add body text
12. body = "This is an email with an attachment."
13. message.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))
14. Adding an attachment:
15. from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
16. from email import encoders
17.
18. filename = "file_to_attach.pdf"
19. with open(filename, "rb") as attachment:
20. part = MIMEBase("application", "octet-stream")
21. part.set_payload(attachment.read())
22.
23. encoders.encode_base64(part)
24. part.add_header("Content-Disposition", f"attachment; filename={filename}")
25. message.attach(part)
Outcome:
You’ll be able to send an email with a subject line, body text, and attachments, enabling you to
send professional-looking emails programmatically.
Step 5: Implementing Time-Based Email Triggers ⏰
What it is:
Time-based triggers send emails at specific times, like every morning or on specific dates.
What we are doing:
We’ll use the schedule library to set up these time-based email triggers.
1. Installing the schedule library:
2. pip install schedule
3. Scheduling an email to send at a specific time:
4. import schedule
5. import time
6.
7. def send_email():
8. # Add the email-sending code from previous steps
9. pass
10.
11. # Schedule the email for 9 AM every day
12. schedule.every().day.at("09:00").do(send_email)
13.
14. while True:
15. schedule.run_pending()
16. time.sleep(1)
Outcome:
Your email script will now send an email automatically at the time you set, without needing
manual intervention.
Step 6: Logging Emails in a Database
What it is:
We need a way to track and log the emails we’ve sent, including details like the recipient, subject,
timestamp, and status (sent or failed).
What we are doing:
We’ll use SQLite, a lightweight database, to store this information.
1. Setting up SQLite:
2. import sqlite3
3.
4. conn = sqlite3.connect('email_logs.db')
5. c = conn.cursor()
6.
7. # Create table to log emails
8. c.execute('''CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS logs
9. (recipient TEXT, subject TEXT, body TEXT, timestamp TEXT, status TEXT)''')
10. Logging email details: After sending an email, log the recipient, subject, body, and status
into the database.
11. import datetime
12.
13. def log_email(recipient, subject, body, status):
14. timestamp = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
15. c.execute("INSERT INTO logs (recipient, subject, body, timestamp, status) VALUES (?, ?, ?,
?, ?)",
16. (recipient, subject, body, timestamp, status))
17. conn.commit()
Outcome:
Your script will now log each email sent to a database, including important details like the
recipient, subject, and status (sent/failed).
Step 7: Implementing Event-Based Triggers 🎯
What it is:
Event-based triggers send emails when specific events happen in real-time, such as a file being
modified or a new file being created.
What we are doing:
We’ll use the watchdog library to monitor events, like changes to a file, and trigger an email when
these events occur.
1. Installing the watchdog library:
2. pip install watchdog
3. Setting up event-based triggers:
4. import time
5. from watchdog.observers import Observer
6. from watchdog.events import FileSystemEventHandler
7.
8. class MyHandler(FileSystemEventHandler):
9. def on_modified(self, event):
10. # Add the email-sending code here
11. print(f'{event.src_path} has been modified. Email will be sent.')
12.
13. event_handler = MyHandler()
14. observer = Observer()
15. observer.schedule(event_handler, path='path_to_watch', recursive=False)
16. observer.start()
17.
18. try:
19. while True:
20. time.sleep(1)
21. except KeyboardInterrupt:
22. observer.stop()
23.
24. observer.join()
Outcome:
Your script will now send an email automatically when a specific event occurs, such as a file being
modified or created.
Step 8: Securing Email Credentials (Environment Variables) 🔒
What it is:
We need to secure sensitive information like your email password, as hardcoding it in the script
can be risky.
What we are doing:
We’ll use environment variables to store your password securely.
1. Storing credentials securely:
o In your terminal or shell, set the environment variable:
2. export EMAIL_PASSWORD='your_password'
3. Retrieving credentials in Python:
4. import os
5. password = os.getenv('EMAIL_PASSWORD')
Outcome:
Your password will be securely stored and retrieved, preventing it from being exposed in your
code.
Step 9: Handling Errors and Exceptions Gracefully ⚠️
What it is:
It’s important to handle errors, such as network issues or incorrect email addresses, gracefully to
avoid crashes.
What we are doing:
We’ll use Python’s try-except blocks to handle exceptions during email sending.
1. Handling SMTP errors:
2. try:
server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message.as_string())
log_email(receiver_email, subject, body, 'Sent')
except Exception as e: print(f"Error sending email: {e}") log_email(receiver_email, subject, body,
'Failed')
#### **Outcome:**
Your script will **handle errors** gracefully and log failures instead of crashing, improving its
reliability.
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### **Step 10: Testing and Deployment** 🚀
#### **What it is:**
After everything is set up, you need to test the script thoroughly to ensure it works as expected
under different conditions.
#### **What we are doing:**
1. Test different triggers (time-based and event-based).
2. Test the logging mechanism.
3. Test the email sending process with valid and invalid email addresses.
4. After successful testing, deploy the script on a server or cloud platform (like **AWS** or
**Heroku**) to keep it running continuously.
#### **Outcome:**
Your **Automated Email Sender** will be deployed and ready to run **24/7**, automatically
sending emails based on the specified triggers.
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This complete roadmap will help you build an **Automated Email Sender** with all the required
features and best practices! 🎉
