Django-Templated-Email

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Info: A Django oriented templated email sending class
Author: Bradley Whittington (http://github.com/bradwhittington, http://twitter.com/darb)
Tests: _ _

Overview

django-templated-email is oriented towards sending templated emails. The library supports template inheritance, adding cc'd and bcc'd recipients, configurable template naming and location.

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

Make sure you are reading the correct documentation:

develop branch: https://github.com/vintasoftware/django-templated-email/blob/develop/README.rst

stable pypi/master: https://github.com/vintasoftware/django-templated-email/blob/master/README.rst

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'].

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. If you don't specify the plain block and 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 also specify a custom function that converts from HTML to the plain part :

def convert_html_to_text(html):
    ...

TEMPLATED_EMAIL_PLAIN_FUNCTION = convert_html_to_text

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'

You can also set a value for template_prefix and template_suffix 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.

Using with Django Anymail

Anymail integrates several transactional email service providers (ESPs) into Django, with a consistent API that lets you use ESP-added features without locking your code to a particular ESP. It supports Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid, SparkPost and more.

You can use it with django-templated-email, just follow their instructions in their quick start to configure it.

Optionally you can use their custom EmailMessage class with django-templated-email by using the following settings:

# This replaces django.core.mail.EmailMessage
TEMPLATED_EMAIL_EMAIL_MESSAGE_CLASS='anymail.message.AnymailMessage'

# This replaces django.core.mail.EmailMultiAlternatives
TEMPLATED_EMAIL_EMAIL_MULTIALTERNATIVES_CLASS='anymail.message.AnymailMessage'

Inline images

You can add inline images to your email using the InlineImage class.

First get the image content from a file or a ImageField:

# From a file
with open('lena.png', 'rb') as lena:
  image = lena.read()

# From an ImageField
# Suppose we have this model
class Company(models.Model):
  logo = models.ImageField()

image = company.logo.read()

Then create an instance of InlineImage:

from templated_email import InlineImage

inline_image = InlineImage(filename="lena.png", content=image)

Now pass the object on the context to the template when you send the email.

send_templated_mail(template_name='welcome',
                    from_email='from@example.com',
                    recipient_list=['to@example.com'],
                    context={'lena_image': inline_image})

Finally in your template add the image on the html template block:

<img src="{{ lena_image }}">

Note: All InlineImage objects you add to the context will be attached to the e-mail, even if they are not used in the template.

Add link to view the email on the web

# Add templated email to INSTALLED_APPS
INSTALLED_APPS = [
  ...
  'templated_email'
]

# and this to your url patterns
url(r'^', include('templated_email.urls', namespace='templated_email')),

# when sending the email use the *create_link* parameter.
send_templated_mail(
    template_name='welcome', from_email='from@example.com',
    recipient_list=['to@example.com'],
    context={}, create_link=True)

And, finally add the link to your template.

<!-- With the 'if' the link will only appear on the email. -->
{% if email_uuid %}
  <!-- Note: you will need to add your site since you will need to access
             it from the email -->
  You can view this e-mail on the web here:
  <a href="http://www.yoursite.com{% url 'templated_email:show_email' uuid=email_uuid %}">
    here
  </a>
{% endif %}

Notes:

A copy of the rendered e-mail will be stored on the database. This can grow if you send too many e-mails. You are responsible for managing it.
If you use InlineImage all images will be uploaded to your media storage, keep that in mind too.

Class Based Views

It's pretty common for emails to be sent after a form is submitted. We include a mixin to be used with any view that inherit from Django's FormMixin.

In your view add the mixin and the usual Django's attributes:

from templated_email.generic_views import TemplatedEmailFormViewMixin

class AuthorCreateView(TemplatedEmailFormViewMixin, CreateView):
    model = Author
    fields = ['name', 'email']
    success_url = '/create_author/'
    template_name = 'authors/create_author.html'

By default the template will have the form_data if the form is valid or from_errors if the form is not valid in it's context.

You can view an example here

Now you can use the following attributes/methods to customize it's behavior:

Attributes:

templated_email_template_name (mandatory if you don't implement templated_email_get_template_names()):: String naming the template you want to use for the email. ie: templated_email_template_name = 'welcome'.
templated_email_send_on_success (default: True):: This attribute tells django-templated-email to send an email if the form is valid.
templated_email_send_on_failure (default: False):: This attribute tells django-templated-email to send an email if the form is invalid.
templated_email_from_email (default: settings.TEMPLATED_EMAIL_FROM_EMAIL):: String containing the email to send the email from.

Methods:

templated_email_get_template_names(self, valid) (mandatory if you don't set templated_email_template_name):: If the method returns a string it will use it as the template to render the email. If it returns a list it will send the email only with the first existing template.
templated_email_get_recipients(self, form) (mandatory):: Return the recipient list to whom the email will be sent to. ie:

def templated_email_get_recipients(self, form):
    return [form.data['email']]

templated_email_get_context_data(kwargs)** (optional):: Use this method to add extra data to the context used for rendering the template. You should get the parent class's context from calling super. ie:

def templated_email_get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
    context = super(ThisClassView, self).templated_email_get_context_data(**kwargs)
    # add things to context
    return context

templated_email_get_send_email_kwargs(self, valid, form) (optional):: Add or change the kwargs that will be used to send the e-mail. You should call super to get the default kwargs. ie:

def templated_email_get_send_email_kwargs(valid, form):
  kwargs = super(ThisClassView, self).templated_email_get_send_email_kwargs(valid, form)
  kwargs['bcc'] = ['admin@example.com']
  return kwargs

templated_email_send_templated_mail(*args,kwargs)** (optional):: This method calls django-templated-email's send_templated_mail method. You could change this method to use a celery's task for example or to handle errors.

Future Plans

See https://github.com/vintasoftware/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**

Releasing a new version of this package:

Update CHANGELOG file.

Execute the following commands:

bumpversion [major,minor,patch]
python setup.py publish
git push origin master --tags

Commercial Support

This library, as others, is used in projects of Vinta clients. We are always looking for exciting work, so if you need any commercial support, feel free to get in touch: contact@vinta.com.br

tcostam / django-templated-email