SENDING EMAILS IN DJANGO: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE
Published: 2023-04-14 07:45:43


**Sending Emails in Django.**
 

Django is a popular Python web framework that provides a robust set of tools for building web applications. One key feature of web applications is the ability to send and receive email messages. Sending email messages in Django can be easily accomplished by built-in SMTP and EmailMessage classes. In this article, I'll introduce you to sending emails in Django and the best practices for going about it, which will accelerate and make email delivery easier.

In addition to the built-in **_EmailMessage_** and **_SMTP_** classes, Django includes support for other email-related features, such as email templates, email attachments, and email logging. With these tools, developers can customize the look and feel of their email messages, attach files to their emails, and track email activity for debugging and analysis purposes. By using Django's email-related features, developers can build web applications that are not only powerful and feature-rich but also capable of sending and receiving email messages with ease. 

**Prerequisites**

You’ll be best equipped for this tutorial if you already have a solid foundation in some web application concepts. You should understand how [HTTP requests and responses](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/django-request-and-response-cycle-httprequest-and-httpresponse-objects/), [create a Django development environment and start a Django project](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Server-side/Django/development_environment).

**Using **send_mail()** to send email messages**

Let's kick off our tutorial with a simple code to show how to send an email.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y7mdi6y2h3x1o9eo2x6d.png)	
 
Here is a detailed list of parameters of send_mail ():
•	**_subject_**- the subject of your email
•	**_from_email_** – the sender
•	**_recipient_list_ **– the receiver
•	**_message _**– the body of the email
•	**_fail_silently_** – Boolean, If True send_mail will not raise an exception error.
•	**_html_message_** – if provided the resulting email will be an alternative email message as _text/plain_ content type while the html message will be the _text/html_ content type.
The mail is sent using the SMTP host and port specified in the settings.py of the main project. To authenticate the SMTP server [EMAIL_HOST_USER](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#std-setting-EMAIL_HOST_USER) and [EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#std-setting-EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD)  are used. [EMAIL_USE_TLS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#std-setting-EMAIL_USE_TLS) and [EMAIL_USE_SSL](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#std-setting-EMAIL_USE_SSL) are then used to provide a secure connection. DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL is used to provide a default sender email.
 
![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/x55u07uwrj9kqash2966.png)

**Sending Mass emails using _send_mass_mail_()**

It is more or less the same as send_mail () but here you have to use a datatuple parameter that holds the messages.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1w57xbw6xx45k3wy405k.png)
 

The main difference between send_mail () and send_mass_mail () is that send_mail () opens a connection with the SMTP server each time it is executed while send_mass_mail () uses a single connection to send all its messages.

**Using _EmailMessage _class to send emails**

Both _send_mail()_ and _send_mass_mail()_ make use of EmailMessage class. But most of the _EmailMessage_ features are not available to send_mail ().
_EmailMessage _is responsible for creating the email message itself.
 
![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/nk8vb5enh0779fvnscua.png)

The parameters include _body, from_email (), to, bcc, attachments, headers, cc, and reply_to_ in that order.
The EmailMessage also has methods like _recipients (), attach ()_, and [many more](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/topics/email/#topic-email-backends)

**Sending emails to the console or terminal**

During development in Django, it can be useful to send email messages to the console or terminal instead of sending them to real email addresses. This allows developers to test email functionality without the need for a real email server or the risk of accidentally sending emails to real users. Luckily, Django provides a simple way to redirect email messages to the console using the **EmailBackend** class.
To use the **EmailBackend** class, developers can update the _EMAIL_BACKEND_ setting in their Django settings file to point to the console backend:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/l8b29sirg8e3ewlddyuo.png)
 
By using the console backend, developers can easily test their email functionality during development without the need for a real email server or the risk of accidentally sending emails to real users.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, sending emails in Django is a straightforward process that can be accomplished using the built-in _EmailMessage _and _SMTP _classes. By leveraging these classes and other email-related features provided by Django, developers can send personalized email messages to users, notify administrators of errors or system events, and perform other email-related tasks.

During development, Django also provides a convenient way to redirect email messages to the console or terminal, allowing developers to test their email functionality without the need for a real email server or the risk of accidentally sending emails to real users.

Overall, Django's email-related features provide a powerful and flexible toolset for building web applications that are capable of sending and receiving email messages with ease. Whether you're sending simple text emails or complex HTML messages with attachments, Django's email functionality can help you communicate with your users effectively and efficiently.
**Attributions**
**Credits**
•	[Django Documentation](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/topics/email/#topic-email-backends)
•	[Geeks for geeks](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/django-request-and-response-cycle-httprequest-and-httpresponse-objects/)