vinta-django-templated-email 0.5
A Django oriented templated / transaction email abstraction
License: MIT

==============================
Django-Templated-Email
==============================
:Info: A Django oriented templated email sending class
:Author: Bradley Whittington (http://github.com/bradwhittington, http://twitter.com/darb)
:Tests: .. image:: https://api.travis-ci.org/bradwhittington/django-templated-email.png

Overview
=================
django-templated-email is oriented towards sending templated emails 
intended for use with transactional mailers (with support for MailchimpSTS, 
and PostageApp), but as a default with a backend class which uses django's 
templating system, and django's core.mail functions. The library supports 
template inheritence, adding cc'd and bcc'd recipients, configurable 
template naming and location, with easy switching between backends/providers.

The send_templated_email method can be thought of as the render_to_response
shortcut for email.

Getting going - installation
==============================

Installing::

    pip install django-templated-email

You can add the following to your settings.py (but it works out the box)::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_BACKEND = 'templated_email.backends.vanilla_django.TemplateBackend'

    # You can use a shortcut version
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_BACKEND = 'templated_email.backends.vanilla_django'

    # You can also use a class directly
    from templated_email.backends.vanilla_django import TemplateBackend
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_BACKEND = TemplateBackend 


Sending templated emails
==============================

Example usage using vanilla_django TemplateBackend backend

Python to send mail::

    from templated_email import send_templated_mail
    send_templated_mail(
            template_name='welcome',
            from_email='from@example.com',
            recipient_list=['to@example.com'],
            context={
                'username':request.user.username,
                'full_name':request.user.get_full_name(),
                'signup_date':request.user.date_joined
            },
            # Optional:
            # cc=['cc@example.com'],
            # bcc=['bcc@example.com'],
            # headers={'My-Custom-Header':'Custom Value'},
            # template_prefix="my_emails/",
            # template_suffix="email",
    )

If you would like finer control on sending the email, you can use **get_templated_email**, which will return a django **EmailMessage** object, prepared using the **vanilla_django** backend::

    from templated_email import get_templated_mail
    get_templated_mail(
            template_name='welcome',
            from_email='from@example.com',
            to=['to@example.com'],
            context={
                'username':request.user.username,
                'full_name':request.user.get_full_name(),
                'signup_date':request.user.date_joined
            },
            # Optional:
            # cc=['cc@example.com'],
            # bcc=['bcc@example.com'],
            # headers={'My-Custom-Header':'Custom Value'},
            # template_prefix="my_emails/",
            # template_suffix="email",
    )

You can also **cc** and **bcc** recipients using **cc=['example@example.com']**. Some backends have other parameters you can override, see below.

Your template
-------------

The templated_email/ directory needs to be the templates directory.

The backend will look in *my_app/templates/templated_email/welcome.email* ::

    {% block subject %}My subject for {{username}}{% endblock %}
    {% block plain %}
      Hi {{full_name}}, 

      You just signed up for my website, using:
          username: {{username}}
          join date: {{signup_date}}

      Thanks, you rock!
    {% endblock %}

If you want to include an HTML part to your emails, simply use the 'html' block ::

    {% block html %}
      <p>Hi {{full_name}},</p>

      <p>You just signed up for my website, using:
          <dl>
            <dt>username</dt><dd>{{username}}</dd>
            <dt>join date</dt><dd>{{signup_date}}</dd>
          </dl>
      </p>

      <p>Thanks, you rock!</p>
    {% endblock %}

The plain part can also be calculated from the HTML using `html2text <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/html2text>`_. If you don't specify the plain block and `html2text <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/html2text>`_ package is installed, the plain part will be calculated from the HTML part. You can disable this behaviour in settings.py ::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_AUTO_PLAIN = False

You can globally override the template dir, and file extension using the following variables in settings.py ::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR = 'templated_email/' #use '' for top level template dir, ensure there is a trailing slash
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_FILE_EXTENSION = 'email'

For the **vanilla_django** and **mailchimp_sts** backends you can set a value for **template_prefix** and **template_suffix** (or use the less backend-portable **template_dir** / **file_extension**) for every time you call **send_templated_mail**, if you wish to store a set of templates in a different directory. Remember to include a trailing slash.

Please note / Warning about template inheritence
------------------------------------------------
There is very basic support for template inheritence (using **{% extends ... %}** in templates). You will run into issues if you use **{{block.super}}**, and will result in blank parts of emails.

Legacy Behaviour
----------------

The 0.2.x version of the library looked in django template directories/loaders 
for **templated_email/welcome.txt** ::

    Hey {{full_name}},

    You just signed up for my website, using:
        username: {{username}}
        join date: {{signup_date}}

    Thanks, you rock!

It will use **templated_email/welcome.html** for the html part 
of the email allowing you to make it so much pretty. 

Future Plans
------------

See https://github.com/bradwhittington/django-templated-email/issues?state=open

Using django_templated_email in 3rd party applications
=======================================================

If you would like to use django_templated_email to handle mail in a reusable application, you should note that:

* Your calls to **send_templated_mail** should set a value for **template_dir**, so you can keep copies of your app-specific templates local to your app (although the loader will find your email templates if you store them in *<your app>/templates/templated_email*, if **TEMPLATED_EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR** has not been overidden)
* If you do (and you should) set a value for **template_dir**, remember to include a trailing slash, i.e. *'my_app_email/'*
* The deployed app may use a different backend which doesn't use the django templating backend, and as such make a note in your README warning developers that if they are using django_templated_email already, with a different backend, they will need to ensure their email provider can send all your templates (ideally enumerate those somewhere convenient)

Notes on specific backends
==============================

Using vanilla_django
--------------------------

This is the default backend, and as such requires no special configuration, and will work out of the box. By default it assumes the following settings (should you wish to override them)::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR = 'templated_email/' #Use '' for top level template dir
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_FILE_EXTENSION = 'email'

For legacy purposes you can specify email subjects in your settings file (but, the preferred method is to use a **{% block subject %}** in your template)::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_DJANGO_SUBJECTS = {
        'welcome':'Welcome to my website',
    }

Additionally you can call **send_templated_mail** and optionally override the following parameters::

    template_prefix='your_template_dir/'  # Override where the method looks for email templates (alternatively, use template_dir)
    template_suffix='email'               # Override the file extension of the email templates (alternatively, use file_extension)
    cc=['fubar@example.com']              # Set a CC on the mail
    bcc=['fubar@example.com']             # Set a BCC on the mail
    template_dir='your_template_dir/'     # Override where the method looks for email templates
    connection=your_connection            # Takes a django mail backend connection, created using **django.core.mail.get_connection**
    auth_user='username'                  # Override the user that the django mail backend uses, per **django.core.mail.send_mail**
    auth_password='password'              # Override the password that the django mail backend uses, per **django.core.mail.send_mail**

Using PostageApp
--------------------------

To use the PostageApp (http://postageapp.com) send method, you will need to install python-postageapp::

    pip install -e git://github.com/bradwhittington/python-postageapp.git#egg=postageapp

And add the following to your settings.py::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_BACKEND = 'templated_email.backends.postageapp_backend.TemplateBackend'

    POSTAGEAPP_API_KEY = 'yourapikey'

    #If you are already using django-postageapp:

    EMAIL_POSTAGEAPP_API_KEY = POSTAGEAPP_API_KEY

Using MAILCHIMP STS
--------------------------

To use the MailChimp STS send method, you will need to install mailsnake (please note, until the main mailsnake has STS support, you need to use my fork)::

    pip install -e git://github.com/nitinhayaran/greatape.git#egg=greatape

And add the following to your settings.py::

    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_BACKEND = 'templated_email.backends.mailchimp_sts.TemplateBackend'

    MAILCHIMP_API_KEY = 'yourapikey'

    # For the django back-end specifically
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_MAILCHIMP = {
        'welcome':{
          'subject':'Welcome to my website',
          'track_opens':True,
          'track_clicks':False,
          'tags':['my','little','pony'],
        }
    }

The Mailchimp STS sender uses the same template processor as the VanillaDjango backend, so you can override the following settings globally::
    
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR = 'templated_email/' #use '' for top level template dir
    TEMPLATED_EMAIL_FILE_EXTENSION = 'email'

You can also override the *template_dir* variable when calling *send_templated_mail*

.. _Django: http://djangoproject.com