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Problem with sending text file as an attachment using this Gmail OAuth script
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Problem with sending text file as an attachment using this Gmail OAuth script
#1
I'm using a script that sends an email via Gmail using OAuth, which I got from here. I tested the script twice with with 2 different attachments, one was a bmp file & the other was a txt file. The bmp file went through perfectly fine, but the txt file gets modified by the script into a bunch of random characters before it sends it to gmail. It doesn't give any error, just does it. I'm not sure why this is happening, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Python 3.6.4, Windows 10

import httplib2
import os
import oauth2client
from oauth2client import client, tools
import base64
from email import encoders

#needed for attachment
import smtplib  
import mimetypes
from email import encoders
from email.message import Message
from email.mime.audio import MIMEAudio
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication
#List of all mimetype per extension: http://help.dottoro.com/lapuadlp.php  or http://mime.ritey.com/

from apiclient import errors, discovery  #needed for gmail service




## About credentials
# There are 2 types of "credentials": 
#     the one created and downloaded from https://console.developers.google.com/apis/ (let's call it the client_id) 
#     the one that will be created from the downloaded client_id (let's call it credentials, it will be store in C:\Users\user\.credentials)


        #Getting the CLIENT_ID 
            # 1) enable the api you need on https://console.developers.google.com/apis/
            # 2) download the .json file (this is the CLIENT_ID)
            # 3) save the CLIENT_ID in same folder as your script.py 
            # 4) update the CLIENT_SECRET_FILE (in the code below) with the CLIENT_ID filename


        #Optional
        # If you don't change the permission ("scope"): 
            #the CLIENT_ID could be deleted after creating the credential (after the first run)

        # If you need to change the scope:
            # you will need the CLIENT_ID each time to create a new credential that contains the new scope.
            # Set a new credentials_path for the new credential (because it's another file)
def get_credentials():
    # If needed create folder for credential
    home_dir = os.path.expanduser('~') #>> C:\Users\Me
    credential_dir = os.path.join(home_dir, '.credentials') # >>C:\Users\Me\.credentials   (it's a folder)
    if not os.path.exists(credential_dir):
        os.makedirs(credential_dir)  #create folder if doesnt exist
    credential_path = os.path.join(credential_dir, 'gmail-python-email-send.json')

    #Store the credential
    store = oauth2client.file.Storage(credential_path)
    credentials = store.get()

    if not credentials or credentials.invalid:
        CLIENT_SECRET_FILE = 'client_id to send Gmail.json'
        APPLICATION_NAME = 'Gmail API Python Send Email'
        #The scope URL for read/write access to a user's calendar data  

        SCOPES = 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send'

        # Create a flow object. (it assists with OAuth 2.0 steps to get user authorization + credentials)
        flow = client.flow_from_clientsecrets(CLIENT_SECRET_FILE, SCOPES)
        flow.user_agent = APPLICATION_NAME

        credentials = tools.run_flow(flow, store)

    return credentials




## Get creds, prepare message and send it
def create_message_and_send(sender, to, subject,  message_text_plain, message_text_html, attached_file):
    credentials = get_credentials()

    # Create an httplib2.Http object to handle our HTTP requests, and authorize it using credentials.authorize()
    http = httplib2.Http()

    # http is the authorized httplib2.Http() 
    http = credentials.authorize(http)        #or: http = credentials.authorize(httplib2.Http())

    service = discovery.build('gmail', 'v1', http=http)

    ## without attachment
   # message_without_attachment = create_message_without_attachment(sender, to, subject, message_text_html, message_text_plain)
   # send_Message_without_attachement(service, "me", message_without_attachment, message_text_plain)


    ## with attachment
    message_with_attachment = create_Message_with_attachment(sender, to, subject, message_text_plain, message_text_html, attached_file)
    send_Message_with_attachement(service, "me", message_with_attachment, message_text_plain,attached_file)

def create_message_without_attachment (sender, to, subject, message_text_html, message_text_plain):
    #Create message container
    message = MIMEMultipart('alternative') # needed for both plain & HTML (the MIME type is multipart/alternative)
    message['Subject'] = subject
    message['From'] = sender
    message['To'] = to

    #Create the body of the message (a plain-text and an HTML version)
    message.attach(MIMEText(message_text_plain, 'plain'))
    message.attach(MIMEText(message_text_html, 'html'))

    raw_message_no_attachment = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(message.as_bytes())
    raw_message_no_attachment = raw_message_no_attachment.decode()
    body  = {'raw': raw_message_no_attachment}
    return body



def create_Message_with_attachment(sender, to, subject, message_text_plain, message_text_html, attached_file):
    """Create a message for an email.

    message_text: The text of the email message.
    attached_file: The path to the file to be attached.

    Returns:
    An object containing a base64url encoded email object.
    """

    ##An email is composed of 3 part :
        #part 1: create the message container using a dictionary { to, from, subject }
        #part 2: attach the message_text with .attach() (could be plain and/or html)
        #part 3(optional): an attachment added with .attach() 

    ## Part 1
    message = MIMEMultipart() #when alternative: no attach, but only plain_text
    message['to'] = to
    message['from'] = sender
    message['subject'] = subject

    ## Part 2   (the message_text)
    # The order count: the first (html) will be use for email, the second will be attached (unless you comment it)
    message.attach(MIMEText(message_text_html, 'html'))
    message.attach(MIMEText(message_text_plain, 'plain'))

    ## Part 3 (attachement) 
    # # to attach a text file you containing "test" you would do:
    # # message.attach(MIMEText("test", 'plain'))

    #-----About MimeTypes:
    # It tells gmail which application it should use to read the attachement (it acts like an extension for windows).
    # If you dont provide it, you just wont be able to read the attachement (eg. a text) within gmail. You'll have to download it to read it (windows will know how to read it with it's extension). 

    #-----3.1 get MimeType of attachment
        #option 1: if you want to attach the same file just specify it’s mime types

        #option 2: if you want to attach any file use mimetypes.guess_type(attached_file) 

    my_mimetype, encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(attached_file)

    # If the extension is not recognized it will return: (None, None)
    # If it's an .mp3, it will return: (audio/mp3, None) (None is for the encoding)
    #for unrecognized extension it set my_mimetypes to  'application/octet-stream' (so it won't return None again). 
    if my_mimetype is None or encoding is not None:
        my_mimetype = 'application/octet-stream' 


    main_type, sub_type = my_mimetype.split('/', 1)# split only at the first '/'
    # if my_mimetype is audio/mp3: main_type=audio sub_type=mp3

    #-----3.2  creating the attachement
        #you don't really "attach" the file but you attach a variable that contains the "binary content" of the file you want to attach

        #option 1: use MIMEBase for all my_mimetype (cf below)  - this is the easiest one to understand
        #option 2: use the specific MIME (ex for .mp3 = MIMEAudio)   - it's a shorcut version of MIMEBase

    #this part is used to tell how the file should be read and stored (r, or rb, etc.)
    if main_type == 'text':
        print("text")
        temp = open(attached_file, 'r')  # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode'
        attachement = MIMEText(temp.read(), _subtype=sub_type)
        temp.close()

    elif main_type == 'image':
        print("image")
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')
        attachement = MIMEImage(temp.read(), _subtype=sub_type)
        temp.close()

    elif main_type == 'audio':
        print("audio")
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')
        attachement = MIMEAudio(temp.read(), _subtype=sub_type)
        temp.close()            

    elif main_type == 'application' and sub_type == 'pdf':   
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')
        attachement = MIMEApplication(temp.read(), _subtype=sub_type)
        temp.close()

    else:                              
        attachement = MIMEBase(main_type, sub_type)
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')
        attachement.set_payload(temp.read())
        temp.close()

    #-----3.3 encode the attachment, add a header and attach it to the message
    encoders.encode_base64(attachement)  #https://docs.python.org/3/library/email-examples.html
    filename = os.path.basename(attached_file)
    attachement.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment', filename=filename) # name preview in email
    message.attach(attachement) 


    ## Part 4 encode the message (the message should be in bytes)
    message_as_bytes = message.as_bytes() # the message should converted from string to bytes.
    message_as_base64 = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(message_as_bytes) #encode in base64 (printable letters coding)
    raw = message_as_base64.decode()  # need to JSON serializable (no idea what does it means)
    return {'raw': raw} 



def send_Message_without_attachement(service, user_id, body, message_text_plain):
    try:
        message_sent = (service.users().messages().send(userId=user_id, body=body).execute())
        message_id = message_sent['id']
        # print(attached_file)
        print (f'Message sent (without attachment) \n\n Message Id: {message_id}\n\n Message:\n\n {message_text_plain}')
        # return body
    except errors.HttpError as error:
        print (f'An error occurred: {error}')




def send_Message_with_attachement(service, user_id, message_with_attachment, message_text_plain, attached_file):
    """Send an email message.

    Args:
    service: Authorized Gmail API service instance.
    user_id: User's email address. The special value "me" can be used to indicate the authenticated user.
    message: Message to be sent.

    Returns:
    Sent Message.
    """
    try:
        message_sent = (service.users().messages().send(userId=user_id, body=message_with_attachment).execute())
        message_id = message_sent['id']
        # print(attached_file)

        # return message_sent
    except errors.HttpError as error:
        print (f'An error occurred: {error}')


def main():
    to = "[email protected]"
    sender = "[email protected]"
    subject = "Details"
    message_text_html  = ""
    message_text_plain = ""
    attached_file = "C:\\Users\\Virtual\\Downloads\\System details.txt"
    create_message_and_send(sender, to, subject, message_text_plain, message_text_html, attached_file)


if __name__ == '__main__':
        main()
Reply
#2
It might be because your are encoding (base64) the attachment in the line 203.

encoders.encode_base64(attachement)  #https://docs.python.org/3/library/email-examples.html
The MIMEImage, MIMEAudio, MIMEApplication already uses base64 encoding as default. So you don't need to encode the attachment.

You will need only encode it, for MIMEBase.

So what you can try to do is change the code to this:

    else:                              
        attachement = MIMEBase(main_type, sub_type)
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')
        attachement.set_payload(temp.read())
        temp.close()
        #-----3.3 encode the attachment, add a header and attach it to the message
        encoders.encode_base64(attachement)  #https://docs.python.org/3/library/email-examples.html

    filename = os.path.basename(attached_file)
Give it a try and see if it will work now.
Reply
#3
(Feb-06-2018, 10:59 AM)lghauth Wrote: It might be because your are encoding (base64) the attachment in the line 203.

encoders.encode_base64(attachement)  #https://docs.python.org/3/library/email-examples.html
The MIMEImage, MIMEAudio, MIMEApplication already uses base64 encoding as default. So you don't need to encode the attachment.

You will need only encode it, for MIMEBase.

So what you can try to do is change the code to this:

    else:                              
        attachement = MIMEBase(main_type, sub_type)
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')
        attachement.set_payload(temp.read())
        temp.close()
        #-----3.3 encode the attachment, add a header and attach it to the message
        encoders.encode_base64(attachement)  #https://docs.python.org/3/library/email-examples.html

    filename = os.path.basename(attached_file)
Give it a try and see if it will work now.

Removing

encoders.encode_base64(attachement)  #https://docs.python.org/3/library/email-examples.html
does fix the issue of the text file being converted to base64, but it gives rise to another issue i.e. Notepad ignoring line breaks https://superuser.com/questions/362087/n...linebreaks The original text file doesn't have this problem, it only occurs due to the python script. Since Notepad comes with Windows as default & Windows has OS monopoly, I can't tell my colleagues to download Notepad++ to view the text file properly.
Reply
#4
By default when you open a file in text mode, Python 3 will convert all "newlines" to "\n" and Windows uses "\r\n". Thats
why you are having this issue.

From Python documentation https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/input...ting-files

In text mode, the default when reading is to convert platform-specific line endings (\n on Unix, \r\n on Windows) to just \n.

To fix you have 2 options, you can try to read line by line (by using readline) and add "\r\n" in the end of each line.
Or you can try to open the Text File in binary mode:

 if main_type == 'text':
        print("text")
        temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')  # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode'
        attachement = MIMEText(temp.read(), _subtype=sub_type)
        temp.close()
I didn't test the solution above, but you can give a try and see if it Works.
Reply
#5
Quote:To fix you have 2 options, you can try to read line by line (by using readline) and add "\r\n" in the end of each line.
Or you can try to open the Text File in binary mode:

Python Code: (Double-click to select all)
if main_type == 'text':
       print("text")
       temp = open(attached_file, 'rb')  # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode'
       attachement = MIMEText(temp.read(), _subtype=sub_type)
       temp.close()
I didn't test the solution above, but you can give a try and see if it Works.

Using 'rb' will send an error 'bytes' object has no attribute as it's mentioned in the comment besides the code you posted. How would the code be with readline?
Reply
#6
You will need to do something like this, to read line by line:

if main_type == 'text':
       print("text")
       output_file = ""
       with open(attached_file, 'r') as fp:  # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode'
           while True:
               cur_line = fp.readline()
               if cur_line == '':
                   break

               output_file += cur_line.replace('\n', '\r\n')

       attachement = MIMEText(output_file, _subtype=sub_type)
Or try this, see if it works:

if main_type == 'text':
       print("text")
       temp = open(attached_file, 'r')  # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode'
       attachement = MIMEText(temp.read().replace('\n', '\r\n'), _subtype=sub_type)
       temp.close()
 
Reply
#7
(Feb-07-2018, 07:00 PM)lghauth Wrote: You will need to do something like this, to read line by line:
 if main_type == 'text': print("text") output_file = "" with open(attached_file, 'r') as fp: # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode' while True: cur_line = fp.readline() if cur_line == '': break output_file += cur_line.replace('\n', '\r\n') attachement = MIMEText(output_file, _subtype=sub_type) 
Or try this, see if it works:
 if main_type == 'text': print("text") temp = open(attached_file, 'r') # 'rb' will send this error: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'encode' attachement = MIMEText(temp.read().replace('\n', '\r\n'), _subtype=sub_type) temp.close() 

I tried both those codes, still same problem. Notepad is ignoring line breaks. I also tried few solutions I found from stack overflow & they didn't work either. No idea what the problem is. Anyway, I don't want to trouble you any more. So I came up with an alternative. I modified the script to convert the txt file to zip file & then send it to Gmail. That way I have no issues. Thanks for all your help.
Reply


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