Automate Email and SMS Alerts with Python!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setting up the Script
3. Importing Libraries
4. Creating the Email Alert Function
5. Setting Up Gmail Account
6. Creating the Message
7. Setting Up Email and Password
8. Setting Up Server Parameters
9. Testing the Function
10. Sending Text Message Alerts
11. Conclusion

Introduction

In this article, we will explore how to send email and text alerts using a Gmail account. This can be useful in various scenarios, such as checking the status of servers, monitoring bots, or as a general air check in your programs. We will focus on using Python to set up a script that allows us to send email and text alerts programmatically.

Setting up the Script

To begin, we need to set up our script and create a function for sending email alerts. This function will take in parameters such as the subject, body, and recipient's address.

Importing Libraries

First, we need to import the necessary libraries for our script. We will import the smtplib library for the SMTP functionality and the email.message library for creating email messages. Make sure these libraries are installed by using the pip install command if needed.

Creating the Email Alert Function

Next, we will create the function called email_alert to handle sending the email alerts. This function will take in the subject, body, and recipient's address as parameters. Inside the function, we will use the email.message.EmailMessage class to create an email message object. We will set the content of the message to the body parameter passed into the function.

Setting Up Gmail Account

To send emails through our script, we need to create a Gmail account and modify some settings to allow third-party apps. You can either use your existing Gmail account or create a new one. It is important to note that the password shown in the example is not a real password and should be replaced with your own.

Creating the Message

Once the Gmail account is set up, we will set the subject of the email message to the parameter passed into the function. We will also set the recipient's address using the msg['To'] property.

Setting Up Email and Password

To authenticate with the Gmail server, we need to provide the email address and password. We will set these values using variables. We will also specify the SMTP server and port to be used for sending the email. In this case, we will use smtp.gmail.com as the server and port 587.

Setting Up Server Parameters

Now, we can work with the server variable and its methods. We will use server.starttls() to enable TLS encryption, which is required by Gmail. Then, we will log in using the server.login() method, passing in the email address and password variables. Finally, we will call server.quit() to close the connection to the server.

Testing the Function

To test our function, we will create a quick test method. We will use an if __name__ == "__main__" statement to ensure that the code inside this block is only executed if the script is run directly. We will call the email_alert function and provide the necessary parameters, such as the subject, body, and recipient's address.

Sending Text Message Alerts

In addition to sending email alerts, our script can also be used to send text message alerts. We can achieve this by appending the appropriate email address to the recipient's phone number. A website link will be provided in the article to assist with finding the correct email address format for different carriers.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this article, you should now have a script that allows you to send email and text alerts programmatically. This can be a valuable tool for monitoring and staying informed about important events in your programs. Feel free to explore further customization or integration possibilities in your own projects.