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Using Amazon SES with your Python applications

How to send email via Amazon SES SMTP interface from Python: smtplib, zope.sendmail for Grok/Zope, and Django EMAIL_HOST settings.

2 min read Noe Nieto
aws amazon-ses smtp python grok django

Intro

One of the nice things about Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is that they have an SMTP interface for legacy applications.

To configure a SMTP service you need several parameters. Here's a list of five things you will need and where to find them:

  • Server hostname or IP address: you can find this information in the Amazon console. Amazon SES → Navigation pane → SMTP Settings → SMTP server name.

  • Server port: Amazon's SMTP server listens on three ports: 25, 465 and 587. But I've struggled enough with this and the only port that will work right away is port 587.

  • Make sure your Python installation supports TLS (Transport Layer Security).

If you haven't created your IAM credentials, do so now. There's a button right there in the SMTP Settings pane that will help you do so. If you forget your SMTP password, you will need to delete your SMTP credentials using the AWS IAM Dashboard. You will use the SMTP username and password provided by the IAM credentials created in that panel.

Finally, don't forget to verify a couple of email addresses if you haven't got access to production SES.

Sending email from a simple script

Here's a script that you can use to test Amazon's SES from your application or from the command line. Adapt it as you wish.

#!/usr/bin/python
import smtplib

def prompt(prompt):
    return raw_input(prompt).strip()

fromaddr = 'dude@somewhere.com'
toaddrs  = 'w00t@somewherelse.com'
msg = """From: dude@somewhere.com

Hello, this is doge.
"""

print "Message length is " + repr(len(msg))

# Change according to your settings
smtp_server = 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
smtp_username = 'AKASDXWXDSAEGA'
smtp_password = 'AgYlkjahdkjhasd0+m13DAraadHeiXFASDFASDjF'
smtp_port = '587'
smtp_do_tls = True

server = smtplib.SMTP(
    host=smtp_server,
    port=smtp_port,
    timeout=10,
)
server.set_debuglevel(10)
server.starttls()
server.ehlo()
server.login(smtp_username, smtp_password)
server.sendmail(fromaddr, toaddrs, msg)
print server.quit()

This is the output of the terminal.

$ python send_email.py

Message length is 44
send: 'ehlo [192.168.1.73]\r\n'
reply: '250-email-smtp.amazonaws.com\r\n'
reply: '250-8BITMIME\r\n'
reply: '250-SIZE 10485760\r\n'
reply: '250-STARTTLS\r\n'
reply: '250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN\r\n'
reply: '250 Ok\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: email-smtp.amazonaws.com
8BITMIME
SIZE 10485760
STARTTLS
AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
Ok
send: 'STARTTLS\r\n'
reply: '220 Ready to start TLS\r\n'
reply: retcode (220); Msg: Ready to start TLS
send: 'ehlo [192.168.1.73]\r\n'
reply: '250-email-smtp.amazonaws.com\r\n'
reply: '250-8BITMIME\r\n'
reply: '250-SIZE 10485760\r\n'
reply: '250-STARTTLS\r\n'
reply: '250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN\r\n'
reply: '250 Ok\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: email-smtp.amazonaws.com
8BITMIME
SIZE 10485760
STARTTLS
AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
Ok
send: 'AUTH PLAIN FASDF·AFfadsfadsf3452345asdfdSDFASDTW345qasfase435\r\n'
reply: '235 Authentication successful.\r\n'
reply: retcode (235); Msg: Authentication successful
send: 'mail FROM:<dude@somewhere.com> size=44\r\n'
reply: '250 Ok\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: Ok
send: 'rcpt TO:<w00t@somewherelse.com>\r\n'
reply: '250 Ok\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: Ok
send: 'data\r\n'
reply: '354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>\r\n'
reply: retcode (354); Msg: End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
data: (354, 'End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>')
send: 'From: dude@somewhere.com\r\n\r\nHello, this is dog.\r\n.\r\n'
reply: '250 Ok 0000013802d175af-a924148e-f275-4635-994f-181f6aca6135-000000\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: Ok 0000013802d175af-a924148e-f275-4635-994f-181f6aca6135-000000
data: (250, 'Ok 0000013802d175af-a924148e-f275-4635-994f-181f6aca6135-000000')
send: 'quit\r\n'
reply: '221 Bye\r\n'
reply: retcode (221); Msg: Bye
(221, 'Bye')

Sending email from Grok and Zope applications

Just use zope.sendmail and the following ZCML snippet.

<configure xmlns="http://namespaces.zope.org/zope"
           xmlns:mail="http://namespaces.zope.org/mail">

    <mail:smtpMailer
      name="amazon.ses.smtp"
      hostname="email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com"
      port="587"
      username="WRDAsfereFASDFASDFBH"
      password="FASsxasdf552fdsa34fadsaFAS4343SDS"
      />

    <mail:queuedDelivery
      name="Mail"
      permission="zope.Public"
      mailer="amazon.ses.smtp"
      queuePath="./mailqueue"
      />
</configure>

Sending email from Django apps

It's also easy with Django. Just modify settings.py. Example:

EMAIL_HOST = "email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com"
EMAIL_HOST_USER = "FDSFASDFASJFAFDJSAFSBBCAXA"
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = "FASDFAsdcasdfadsAFdfadsf52soomn3sguu45hk23"
EMAIL_PORT = 587
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True

FIN