/ examples/ pytest-read-email

PyTest Email Testing

Send and receive emails in Python from MailSlurp test email accounts.

Add dependencies

To use test email accounts in PyTests first sign up for a free MailSlurp account (opens new window).

Then install the MailSlurp python library and PyTest with pip:

pip install mailslurp-client pytest

Or add them to your requirements.txt:

mailslurp-client==7.0.9
pytest==4.3.1

Configure email client

Next add the MailSlurp client and configure it with your MailSlurp API Key.

import mailslurp_client
configuration = mailslurp_client.Configuration()
configuration.api_key['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_MAILSLURP_API_KEY'

Common usage

Create test email accounts

We can use MailSlurp to create test inboxes. These have real email addresses.

def test_can_create_email_address():
    with mailslurp_client.ApiClient(configuration) as api_client:
        # create an inbox using the inbox controller
        api_instance = mailslurp_client.InboxControllerApi(api_client)
        inbox = api_instance.create_inbox()
        # check the id and email_address of the inbox
        assert len(inbox.id) > 0
        assert "mailslurp.com" in inbox.email_address

Send emails

You can send emails in Python using MailSlurp too:

def test_can_send_email():
    with mailslurp_client.ApiClient(configuration) as api_client:
        # first create an inbox
        api_instance = mailslurp_client.InboxControllerApi(api_client)
        inbox = api_instance.create_inbox()
        # send email from the inbox
        send_email_options = mailslurp_client.SendEmailOptions()
        send_email_options.to = [inbox.email_address]
        send_email_options.subject = "Hello"
        send_email_options.body = """
        <h1>MailSlurp supports HTML</h1>
        """
        send_email_options.is_html = True
        api_instance.send_email(inbox.id, send_email_options=send_email_options)

Receive emails and extract contents

To receive emails in PyTest use MailSlurp's waitFor controllers to receive emails directly in code. This test demonstrates how to send an email then receive its content. In this way we can read emails in Python tests.

def test_can_receive_emails_and_extract_content():
    with mailslurp_client.ApiClient(configuration) as api_client:
        # create two inboxes for testing
        inbox_controller = mailslurp_client.InboxControllerApi(api_client)
        inbox_1 = inbox_controller.create_inbox()
        inbox_2 = inbox_controller.create_inbox()
        # send email from inbox 1 to inbox 2
        send_email_options = mailslurp_client.SendEmailOptions()
        send_email_options.to = [inbox_2.email_address]
        send_email_options.subject = "Hello inbox 2"
        send_email_options.body = "Your code is: 123"
        inbox_controller.send_email(inbox_1.id, send_email_options=send_email_options)
        # receive email for inbox 2
        waitfor_controller = mailslurp_client.WaitForControllerApi(api_client)
        email = waitfor_controller.wait_for_latest_email(inbox_id=inbox_2.id, timeout=30000, unread_only=True)
        assert email.subject == "Hello inbox 2"
        # extract content from body
        pattern = re.compile('Your code is: ([0-9]{3})')
        matches = pattern.match(email.body)
        code = matches.group(1)
        assert code == "123"

Next steps

MailSlurp is free for personal use. So check out www.mailslurp.com (opens new window) for more.