How to Send an Email With Gmail as Provider Using Python

Gmail is one of the most widely used email services in the world, with over 1.5 billion active users.

Python is a versatile and popular programming language that can be used for a wide range of tasks, including sending emails.

In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps of sending an email using Gmail as your email provider and Python as your programming language.

Enable the Gmail API

To send an email using Gmail and Python, you first need to enable the Gmail API in your Google Cloud Console.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Google Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/).
  2. Click the project drop-down and select or create the project for which you want to add the Gmail API.
  3. In the left-hand navigation menu, click APIs & Services > Library.
  4. In the search bar, type “Gmail API” and select it.
  5. Click the Enable button.

Install Required Libraries

Once you have enabled the Gmail API, you need to install the required libraries.

The libraries you need are the Google API Client and the Google Auth Client.

You can install these libraries using pip, the Python package manager.

Open a command prompt and type the following commands:

pip install --upgrade google-api-python-client
pip install --upgrade google-auth google-auth-oauthlib google-auth-httplib2

Set Up Authentication

To use the Gmail API, you need to authenticate your application.

You can do this by creating credentials and authorizing them to access the Gmail API.

Follow these steps to set up authentication:

  1. In the left-hand navigation menu of the Google Cloud Console, click APIs & Services > Credentials.
  2. Click the Create credentials button and select “OAuth client ID”.
  3. Select “Desktop app” and enter a name for your application.
  4. Click the Create button.
  5. Click the Download button to download your credentials as a JSON file.
  6. Save the JSON file in the same directory as your Python script.

Write the Python Script

With the Gmail API enabled, the required libraries installed, and authentication set up, you can now write the Python script to send an email using Gmail.

Here is an example script that you can use as a starting point:

pythonCopy codeimport os
import base64
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage

def send_email(subject, body, to, image_file=None):
    try:
        creds = Credentials.from_authorized_user_file('credentials.json', ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send'])
        service = build('gmail', 'v1', credentials=creds)
        message = MIMEMultipart()
        text = MIMEText(body)
        message.attach(text)

        if image_file:
            with open(image_file, 'rb') as f:
                image_data = f.read()
                image = MIMEImage(image_data, name=os.path.basename(image_file))
                message.attach(image)

        message['to'] = to
        message['subject'] = subject
        create_message = {'raw': base64.urlsafe_b64encode(message.as_bytes()).decode()}
        send_message = (service.users().messages().send(userId="me", body=create_message).execute())
        print(F'sent message to {to} Message Id: {send_message["id"]}')
    except HttpError as error:
        print(F'An error occurred: {error}')
        send

Customize the Python Script

In the previous step, we provided a Python script that you can use as a starting point for sending an email using Gmail and Python.

However, you need to customize this script to match your requirements.

Here are the parameters you need to update in the send_email function:

  • subject: The subject of the email.
  • body: The body of the email.
  • to: The email address of the recipient.
  • image_file: The path to the image file you want to attach to the email.

If you do not want to include an image in your email, you can leave the image_file parameter as None.

Test the Python Script

Once you have customized the Python script, it’s time to test it.

Open a command prompt, navigate to the directory where you saved the Python script and the credentials JSON file, and run the following command:

python your-script-name.py

Replace “your-script-name.py” with the name of your Python script.

If everything is set up correctly, the script should send an email to the specified recipient.

Conclusion

Sending emails with Gmail and Python can be a useful tool for automating tasks, sending notifications, or simply sending emails.

By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can set up the Gmail API, install the required libraries, authenticate your application, and write a Python script to send emails.

With a little bit of customization and testing, you can use this script to send emails with Gmail and Python in no time.

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