Sending HTML email using Python

Question

How can I send the HTML content in an email using Python? I can send simple text.

Answer 1

Here's sample code. This is inspired from code found on the Python Cookbook site (can't find the exact link)

def createhtmlmail (html, text, subject, fromEmail):
    """Create a mime-message that will render HTML in popular
    MUAs, text in better ones"""
    import MimeWriter
    import mimetools
    import cStringIO

    out = cStringIO.StringIO() # output buffer for our message 
    htmlin = cStringIO.StringIO(html)
    txtin = cStringIO.StringIO(text)

    writer = MimeWriter.MimeWriter(out)
    #
    # set up some basic headers... we put subject here
    # because smtplib.sendmail expects it to be in the
    # message body
    #
    writer.addheader("From", fromEmail)
    writer.addheader("Subject", subject)
    writer.addheader("MIME-Version", "1.0")
    #
    # start the multipart section of the message
    # multipart/alternative seems to work better
    # on some MUAs than multipart/mixed
    #
    writer.startmultipartbody("alternative")
    writer.flushheaders()
    #
    # the plain text section
    #
    subpart = writer.nextpart()
    subpart.addheader("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "quoted-printable")
    pout = subpart.startbody("text/plain", [("charset", 'us-ascii')])
    mimetools.encode(txtin, pout, 'quoted-printable')
    txtin.close()
    #
    # start the html subpart of the message
    #
    subpart = writer.nextpart()
    subpart.addheader("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "quoted-printable")
    #
    # returns us a file-ish object we can write to
    #
    pout = subpart.startbody("text/html", [("charset", 'us-ascii')])
    mimetools.encode(htmlin, pout, 'quoted-printable')
    htmlin.close()
    #
    # Now that we're done, close our writer and
    # return the message body
    #
    writer.lastpart()
    msg = out.getvalue()
    out.close()
    print msg
    return msg

if __name__=="__main__":
    import smtplib
    html = 'html version'
    text = 'TEST VERSION'
    subject = "BACKUP REPORT"
    message = createhtmlmail(html, text, subject, 'From Host ')
    server = smtplib.SMTP("smtp_server_address","smtp_port")
    server.login('username', 'password')
    server.sendmail('sender@host.com', 'target@otherhost.com', message)
    server.quit()