How to send emails programmatically (using MailSlurp)

You can send emails from any MailSlurp inbox that you have created.

Free MailSlurp accounts cannot send emails to some common email domains such as gmail and yahoo (paid accounts aren't affected). This is to reduce spam. To send emails to all addresses please use a paid account or contact support. For more information see the sending limits page.

Basic

The simplest email you can send only requires a recipient and an inbox.

await mailslurp.sendEmail(inboxId, {
  to: [recipientEmail],
});

This will send an empty email from the inboxes email address to the recipient. Most emails however are more complicated than this. Let us see the options next.

For all sending options see the SendEmailOptions reference docs. For forwarding and auto-forwarding rules see the forwarding guide.

Options

From and reply-to

Emails have a reply-to and from header. Emails use the inbox email address by default for from and reply-to. You can set these as options:

await mailslurp.sendEmail(inbox.id, {
  to: [recipientEmail],
  // can include names in addresses in the format below
  replyTo: '"Support" <support@my-ap.com>',
  // quote the property if a reserved word
  ['from']: inbox2.emailAddress,
});

Setting custom from headers is not recommended if you wish to maintain a good spam rating. You should instead set an inbox's name property and that will be included in the headers automatically along with the inbox's email address.

Recipients

You can provide to, cc, and bcc recipient lists. Each must be in array format.

Example:

await mailslurp.sendEmal(inbox.id, {
    // use lists of email addresses
    to: ["user1@hexample.com"],
    cc: ["a@1.com", "b@2.com"],
    // to specify a name use quotes `"` and angle brackets `<` and `>` in the named style
    from: [`"Admin Desk" <${inbox.emailAddress}>`]
});

Recipient format

Each recipient must be a valid email address and can either be specified directly or with a name:

Plain format: hello.team@myapp.com
Named format: "Sender Name" <sender@example.com>

Internationalization

If your email address uses special characters encode it first using Punycode local encoding on part before the @ sign.

张伟@mydomain.com = xn--cpqy30b@mydomain.com

Subject line

You can specify subject as follows:

await mailslurp.sendEmal(inbox.id, {
  to: ["me@test.com"],
  subject: "my subject line",
});

Body

The body of an email is a string. If the body includes HTML set html: true to ensure the correct content-type header is used with the email.

await mailslurp.sendEmal(inbox.id, {
  to: ["me@test.com"],
  body: "Hi there",
});

You can specify character encoding with the charset option, eg: charset: "utf8". See i18n guide for more information.

HTML encoding

You can also send HTML by setting html: true. All emails are UTF-8 by default and [support i18n].

Here is a full example with multiline HTML and UTF8 characters.

await mailslurp.sendEmal(inbox.id, {
  to: ["me@test.com"],
  body: `
  <article>
    <h1>γειά σου κόσμος</h1>
  </article>
`,
  charset: "utf8",
  html: true,
});

When sending HTML you should use tables and inlined CSS for better rendering in most clients.

Attachments

You can submit a list of attachment IDs when sending emails to attach files. You must upload the files before sending using the attachment upload endpoints.

// first upload attachments as base64 encoded string
const fs = require('fs');
const file = {
  base64Contents: Buffer.from(
    fs.readFileSync(attachmentPath, { encoding: 'base64' })
  ).toString(),
  contentType: 'image/png',
  filename: 'pixel.png',
};
const [attachmentId] = await mailslurp.uploadAttachment(file);

// send email with attachment ID in array
await mailslurp.sendEmail(inbox.id, {
  to: [emailAddress],
  attachments: [attachmentId],
});

Encoding

MailSlurp expects files as base 64 encoded strings. You can do this by reading a file as bytes and then converting those to base64. Here is an example using NodeJS:

import { readFileSync } from "fs";

const bytes = readFileSync(path);
const base64Contents = new Buffer(bytes).toString("base64");

Bounce rate and reputation

When you send emails from a free account Mailslurp monitors email bounces. A bounce is when an email is rejected by an email provider. To avoid bounce warnings upgrade to a paid account and use email verification or webhooks to manage bounces.

To ensure your account always delivers emails regardless of bounce status or payment failures use queue-backed email sending or the filterBouncedRecipients option when sending to remove any bounced recipients from your recipient list.

// use the `filterBouncedRecipients` to filter
// out previously bounced recipients and avoid errors
await mailslurp.sendEmail(inboxId, {
  to: [recipient, bouncedRecipient],
  filterBouncedRecipients: true,
});
// will only email `recipient` and will skip a known bounced recipient

Email verification

MailSlurp provides email verification services to reduce bounce rates and increase delivery.

Validate email lists

You can verify email addresses before sending via the validation methods:

const verificationResult =
  await mailslurp.emailVerificationController.validateEmailAddressList({
    validateEmailAddressListOptions: {
      emailAddressList: [recipient],
    },
  });
// returns a map of `{ emailAddress: isValid }`
expect(
  verificationResult.resultMapEmailAddressIsValid[recipient]
).toBeTruthy();
// or lookup results in arrays
expect(verificationResult.invalidEmailAddresses.length).toEqual(0);
expect(verificationResult.validEmailAddresses.length).toEqual(1);

Filter invalid addresses while sending

You can also verify email during sending so that all recipients are automatically validated. Configure the validation options when sending to either filter out and remove bad recipients from the recipient list or throw an error to prevent sending.

// the `validateEmailAddresses` option will verify then filter and remove bad recipients
// you can also configure the method to throw instead with `VALIDATE_ERROR_IF_INVALID`
await mailslurp.sendEmail(inboxId, {
  to: [recipient, bouncedRecipient],
  validateEmailAddresses:
    SendEmailOptionsValidateEmailAddressesEnum.VALIDATE_FILTER_REMOVE_INVALID,
});

Queues and scheduling

You can delay email sending by using a job schedule. Use message queues to send with asynchronous message queues that can recover if delivery fails.

Sending emails with a queue

MailSlurp supports sending emails using SQS-backed message queues. This means that outbound emails are placed on a queue and can be retried and recovered if sending is blocked for your account or a recipient is not accepting messages. Check your plan for feature support.

await mailslurp.inboxController.sendEmailWithQueue({
  inboxId: inboxId,
  sendEmailOptions: {
    to: [recipient],
    subject: 'Sent with a queue',
    body:
      'Use queues to allow recovery of failed email ' +
      'sending when account reaches limits or has payment issues',
  },
  // validate before adding to queue to fail early
  validateBeforeEnqueue: false,
});

Sending emails with a delay

Schedule email sending at later dates like so:

await mailslurp.inboxController.sendWithSchedule({
  inboxId: inboxId,
  sendEmailOptions: {
    to: [recipient],
    subject: 'Send with schedule',
    body: 'Scheduled email',
  },
  validateBeforeEnqueue: true,
  sendAtNowPlusSeconds: 5,
});

See the scheduling guide for more.

Templates

MailSlurp supports sending emails with predefined templates.

Capabilities

Templates can be created in code or designed in the dashboard. Templates support HTML, variables, and handlebars templating syntax. Unlike other services MailSlurp will warn you if you try to send a template with missing variables.

Creating templates

MailSlurp supports email templates for sending automated emails with variable replacements.

await mailslurp.templateController.createTemplate({
  createTemplateOptions: {
    name: 'Welcome',
    content: 'Welcome to our app',
  },
});

Variable syntax

If you want to use variables in your templates simple wrap each variable in double curly braces:

const template = await mailslurp.templateController.createTemplate({
  createTemplateOptions: {
    name: 'Welcome email',
    content: 'Hello {{firstName}}. Welcome to {{brandName}}.',
  },
});
expect(template.id).toBeTruthy();
expect(template.variables).toEqual([
  {
    name: 'firstName',
    variableType: TemplateVariableVariableTypeEnum.STRING,
  },
  {
    name: 'brandName',
    variableType: TemplateVariableVariableTypeEnum.STRING,
  },
]);

MailSlurp will recognize the firstName and brandName variables which can then be supplied as a map of templateVariables in sendEmail() methods. They will also be displayed in the dashboard:

email templates

Passing variable values

When you send an email with a template you can pass a map of template variables and values.

const templateObject = await mailslurp.templateController.getTemplate({
  templateId,
});
expect(templateObject.content).toContain(
  'Hello {{firstName}}. Welcome to {{brandName}}.'
);
const sent = await mailslurp.sendEmail(inboxId, {
  to: [emailAddress],
  subject: 'Welcome {{firstName}}',
  template: templateId,
  templateVariables: {
    firstName: 'Sally',
    brandName: 'My Company',
  } as any,
});

MailSlurp will validate emails and return an error if passed variable names do not match template variables.

Contacts and groups

MailSlurp also supports contact and contact groups. You can create these in the dashboard.

To send an email to a contact use the toContacts property:

await mailslurp.sendEmail(inbox.id, { toContacts: [contactId1, contactId2] });

To send emails to each contact in a group use the toGroup property.

await mailslurp.sendEmail(inbox.id, { toGroup: groupId });

Next Steps

See documentation

Sending emails in code and tests

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