django-email-extras 0.3.4
A Django reusable app providing the ability to send PGP encrypted and multipart emails using the Django templating system.

Created by `Stephen McDonald <http://twitter.com/stephen_mcd>`_

Introduction
============

django-email-extras is a Django reusable app providing the
ability to send PGP encrypted and multipart emails using
Django templates. These features can be used together or
separately. When configured to send PGP encrypted email,
the ability for Admin users to manage PGP keys is also
provided.

A tool for automatically opening multipart emails in a
local web browser during development is also provided.


Dependencies
============

  * `python-gnupg <https://bitbucket.org/vinay.sajip/python-gnupg>`_ is
    required for sending PGP encrypted email.


Installation
============

The easiest way to install django-email-extras is directly from PyPi
using `pip <https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/>`_ by running the command
below::

    $ pip install -U django-email-extras

Otherwise you can download django-email-extras and install it directly
from source::

    $ python setup.py install


Usage
=====

Once installed, first add ``email_extras`` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``
setting and run the migrations. Then there are two functions for sending email
in the ``email_extras.utils`` module:

  * ``send_mail``
  * ``send_mail_template``

The former mimics the signature of ``django.core.mail.send_mail``
while the latter provides the ability to send multipart emails
using the Django templating system. If configured correctly, both
these functions will PGP encrypt emails as described below.


Sending PGP Encrypted Email
===========================

`PGP explanation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy>`_

Using `python-gnupg <https://bitbucket.org/vinay.sajip/python-gnupg>`_, two
models are defined in ``email_extras.models`` - ``Key`` and ``Address``
which represent a PGP key and an email address for a successfully
imported key. These models exist purely for the sake of importing
keys and removing keys for a particular address via the Django
Admin.

When adding a key, the key is imported into the key ring on
the server and the instance of the ``Key`` model is not saved. The
email address for the key is also extracted and saved as an
``Address`` instance.

The ``Address`` model is then used when sending email to check for
an existing key to determine whether an email should be encrypted.
When an ``Address`` is deleted via the Django Admin, the key is
removed from the key ring on the server.


Sending Multipart Email with Django Templates
=============================================

As mentioned above, the following function is provided in
the ``email_extras.utils`` module::

  send_mail_template(subject, template, addr_from, addr_to,
      fail_silently=False, attachments=None, context=None,
      headers=None)

The arguments that differ from ``django.core.mail.send_mail`` are
``template`` and ``context``. The ``template`` argument is simply
the name of the template to be used for rendering the email contents.

A template consists of both a HTML file and a TXT file each responsible
for their respective versions of the email and should be stored in
the ``email_extras`` directory where your templates are stored,
therefore if the name ``contact_form`` was given for the ``template``
argument, the two template files for the email would be:

  * ``templates/email_extras/contact_form.html``
  * ``templates/email_extras/contact_form.txt``

The ``attachments`` argument is a list of files to attach to the email.
Each attachment can be the full filesystem path to the file, or a
file name / file data pair.

The ``context`` argument is simply a dictionary that is used to
populate the email templates, much like a normal request context
would be used for a regular Django template.

The ``headers`` argument is a dictionary of extra headers to put on
the message. The keys are the header name and values are the header
values.


Configuration
=============

There are two settings you can configure in your project's
``settings.py`` module:

  * ``EMAIL_EXTRAS_USE_GNUPG`` - Boolean that controls whether the PGP
    encryption features are used. Defaults to ``True`` if
    ``EMAIL_EXTRAS_GNUPG_HOME`` is specified, otherwise ``False``.
  * ``EMAIL_EXTRAS_GNUPG_HOME`` - String representing a custom location
    for the GNUPG keyring.
  * ``EMAIL_EXTRAS_GNUPG_ENCODING`` - String representing a gnupg encoding.
    Defaults to GNUPG ``latin-1`` and could be changed to e.g. ``utf-8``
    if needed.  Check out
    `python-gnupg docs <https://pythonhosted.org/python-gnupg/#getting-started>`_
    for more info.
  * ``EMAIL_EXTRAS_ALWAYS_TRUST_KEYS`` - Skip key validation and assume
    that used keys are always fully trusted.


Local Browser Testing
=====================

When sending multipart emails during development, it can be useful
to view the HTML part of the email in a web browser, without having
to actually send emails and open them in a mail client. To use
this feature during development, simply set your email backend as follows
in your development ``settings.py`` module::

  EMAIL_BACKEND = 'email_extras.backends.BrowsableEmailBackend'

With this configured, each time a multipart email is sent, it will
be written to a temporary file, which is then automatically opened
in a local web browser. Suffice to say, this should only be enabled
during development!