MIME attachments, and alternatives

[David Fisher]

bill ramsay <bill.ramsay at clear.net.nz> writes:

> Hello
> 
> I am writing a program that sends simple text files to a remote
> device.
> 
> the files have to be in the format textX.dat  where X = numbers in the
> range 0 up to 10 depending upon the situation. these files are stored
> in a directory called attachments.
> 
> The files themselves are single line affairs in ascii.
> 
> the files have to be sent in base64.  
> 
> the final email has a simple subject line,  to and from addresses,
> and the attachments.
> 
> so far so good,  I have written the program to do this,  don't laugh
> here it comes.
> 
> the print statements are just there so that i can follow whats going
> on at the moment.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> import os
> import smtplib
> import mimetypes
> 
> from email import Encoders
> from email.MIMEMultipart import MIMEMultipart
> from email.MIMEText import MIMEText
> 
> 
> def send_dat_files(subject_matter,serial,fromAddr,toAddr):
> 
>     base = os.getcwd()
>     print base
>     attachpath = base+'\\attachments'
> 
>     if not os.path.exists(attachpath):
>         os.mkdir(attachpath)
>     
>     # Create the enclosing (outer) message
> 
>     if subject_matter == 'SU':
>         subjectstring = 'KKK_KRDS1_'+serial+'_SU'
> 
>     outer = MIMEMultipart()
>     outer['Subject'] = subjectstring
>     outer['To'] = toAddr
>     outer['From'] = fromAddr
> 
>     outer.add_header('Content-Description','Remote Management System')
>     
>     outer.epilogue = ''
> 
>     fileNames=[f for f in os.listdir(attachpath)]
>     for fileName in fileNames:
>         path = attachpath+'\\'+fileName
>         f=open(path,"rb")
>         bodytext = f.read()  
>         f.close()
>         ctype, encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(path)
>         maintype, subtype = ctype.split('/', 1)     
>         if maintype == 'text':
>             msg = MIMEText(bodytext)
>             
>         else:
>             print 'we got a problem here'
>             break 
>             
>             Encoders.encode_base64(msg)
>         # Set the filename parameter
>         filestart,extension = fileName.split('.',1)
>         fileName = filestart+'.dat'
>         msg.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment',
> filename=fileName)
>         outer.attach(msg)
> 
>     # Now send the message
> 
> 
>     s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.paradise.net.nz')
>     print 'connecting'
>     
>     s.sendmail(fromAddr, toAddr, outer.as_string())
>     print 'sent email'
>     s.quit()
> 
> sender = email at address
> copieraddr = email at address
> 
> 
> send_dat_files('SU', '65AN88888',sender,copieraddr)
> 
> 
> _____________________________________
> 
> 
> questions are:
> 
> 1.  you may note that i have to change the file extension to .dat,
> this is a requirement of the receiving device,  when i do that to the
> file attachment directly,  the encoding does not work.  any idea why?
> 

Easy one, 
        ctype, encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(path)
is guessing the mime type from the filename
change the filename and ...


> 2.  the attachment files will be generated by anothe bit of code that
> i am writing, it strikes me as being a bit clunky to wirte these to an
> extenal folder then copy then in to the above,  is there anywhay that
> i can take a string,  then pretend that it is a file and attach it to
> the email?
> 

well, i'm not sure what the problem is.  You get 'bodytext' from file(path).read()
So you could just not read a file and insert anything you want into 'bodytext'
Is this a trick question? :)

><{{{*>


> sorry if this is a bit long.
> 
> look forward to hearing from anyone
> 
> kind regards
> 
> bill ramsay.