[[mail]]
= Email

This section describes how to send email with the Spring Framework.

.Library dependencies
****
The following JAR needs to be on the classpath of your application in order to use the
Spring Framework's email support:

* The https://jakartaee.github.io/mail-api/[Jakarta Mail] library

This library is freely available on the web -- for example, in Maven Central as
`com.sun.mail:jakarta.mail`. Please make sure to use the latest 2.x version (which uses
the `jakarta.mail` package namespace) rather than Jakarta Mail 1.6.x (which uses the
`javax.mail` package namespace).
****

The Spring Framework provides a helpful utility library for sending email that shields
you from the specifics of the underlying mailing system and is responsible for
low-level resource handling on behalf of the client.

The `org.springframework.mail` package is the root level package for the Spring
Framework's email support. The central interface for sending emails is the `MailSender`
interface. A simple value object that encapsulates the properties of a simple mail such
as `from` and `to` (plus many others) is the `SimpleMailMessage` class. This package
also contains a hierarchy of checked exceptions that provide a higher level of
abstraction over the lower level mail system exceptions, with the root exception being
`MailException`. See the {spring-framework-api}/mail/MailException.html[javadoc]
for more information on the rich mail exception hierarchy.

The `org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender` interface adds specialized
JavaMail features, such as MIME message support to the `MailSender` interface
(from which it inherits). `JavaMailSender` also provides a callback interface called
`org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessagePreparator` for preparing a `MimeMessage`.



[[mail-usage]]
== Usage

Assume that we have a business interface called `OrderManager`, as the following example shows:

include-code::./OrderManager[tag=snippet,indent=0]

Further assume that we have a requirement stating that an email message with an
order number needs to be generated and sent to a customer who placed the relevant order.


[[mail-usage-simple]]
=== Basic `MailSender` and `SimpleMailMessage` Usage

The following example shows how to use `MailSender` and `SimpleMailMessage` to send an
email when someone places an order:

include-code::./SimpleOrderManager[tag=snippet,indent=0]

The following example shows the bean definitions for the preceding code:

include-code::./MailConfiguration[tag=snippet,indent=0]


[[mail-usage-mime]]
=== Using `JavaMailSender` and `MimeMessagePreparator`

This section describes another implementation of `OrderManager` that uses the `MimeMessagePreparator`
callback interface. In the following example, the `mailSender` property is of type
`JavaMailSender` so that we are able to use the JavaMail `MimeMessage` class:

[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	import jakarta.mail.Message;
	import jakarta.mail.MessagingException;
	import jakarta.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
	import jakarta.mail.internet.MimeMessage;

	import jakarta.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
	import org.springframework.mail.MailException;
	import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
	import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessagePreparator;

	public class SimpleOrderManager implements OrderManager {

		private JavaMailSender mailSender;

		public void setMailSender(JavaMailSender mailSender) {
			this.mailSender = mailSender;
		}

		public void placeOrder(final Order order) {
			// Do the business calculations...
			// Call the collaborators to persist the order...

			MimeMessagePreparator preparator = new MimeMessagePreparator() {
				public void prepare(MimeMessage mimeMessage) throws Exception {
					mimeMessage.setRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO,
							new InternetAddress(order.getCustomer().getEmailAddress()));
					mimeMessage.setFrom(new InternetAddress("mail@mycompany.example"));
					mimeMessage.setText("Dear " + order.getCustomer().getFirstName() + " " +
							order.getCustomer().getLastName() + ", thanks for your order. " +
							"Your order number is " + order.getOrderNumber() + ".");
				}
			};

			try {
				this.mailSender.send(preparator);
			}
			catch (MailException ex) {
				// simply log it and go on...
				System.err.println(ex.getMessage());
			}
		}

	}
----

NOTE: The mail code is a crosscutting concern and could well be a candidate for
refactoring into a xref:core/aop.adoc[custom Spring AOP aspect], which could then
be run at appropriate joinpoints on the `OrderManager` target.

The Spring Framework's mail support ships with the standard JavaMail implementation.
See the relevant javadoc for more information.



[[mail-javamail-mime]]
== Using the JavaMail `MimeMessageHelper`

A class that comes in pretty handy when dealing with JavaMail messages is
`org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper`, which shields you from
having to use the verbose JavaMail API. Using the `MimeMessageHelper`, it is
pretty easy to create a `MimeMessage`, as the following example shows:

[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	// of course you would use DI in any real-world cases
	JavaMailSenderImpl sender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();
	sender.setHost("mail.host.com");

	MimeMessage message = sender.createMimeMessage();
	MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message);
	helper.setTo("test@host.com");
	helper.setText("Thank you for ordering!");

	sender.send(message);
----


[[mail-javamail-mime-attachments]]
=== Sending Attachments and Inline Resources

Multipart email messages allow for both attachments and inline resources. Examples of
inline resources include an image or a stylesheet that you want to use in your message but
that you do not want displayed as an attachment.

[[mail-javamail-mime-attachments-attachment]]
==== Attachments

The following example shows you how to use the `MimeMessageHelper` to send an email
with a single JPEG image attachment:

[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	JavaMailSenderImpl sender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();
	sender.setHost("mail.host.com");

	MimeMessage message = sender.createMimeMessage();

	// use the true flag to indicate you need a multipart message
	MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, true);
	helper.setTo("test@host.com");

	helper.setText("Check out this image!");

	// let's attach the infamous windows Sample file (this time copied to c:/)
	FileSystemResource file = new FileSystemResource(new File("c:/Sample.jpg"));
	helper.addAttachment("CoolImage.jpg", file);

	sender.send(message);
----

[[mail-javamail-mime-attachments-inline]]
==== Inline Resources

The following example shows you how to use the `MimeMessageHelper` to send an email
with an inline image:

[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	JavaMailSenderImpl sender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();
	sender.setHost("mail.host.com");

	MimeMessage message = sender.createMimeMessage();

	// use the true flag to indicate you need a multipart message
	MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, true);
	helper.setTo("test@host.com");

	// use the true flag to indicate the text included is HTML
	helper.setText("<html><body><img src='cid:identifier1234'></body></html>", true);

	// let's include the infamous windows Sample file (this time copied to c:/)
	FileSystemResource res = new FileSystemResource(new File("c:/Sample.jpg"));
	helper.addInline("identifier1234", res);

	sender.send(message);
----

WARNING: Inline resources are added to the `MimeMessage` by using the specified `Content-ID`
(`identifier1234` in the above example). The order in which you add the text
and the resource are very important. Be sure to first add the text and then
the resources. If you are doing it the other way around, it does not work.


[[mail-templates]]
=== Creating Email Content by Using a Templating Library

The code in the examples shown in the previous sections explicitly created the content of the email message,
by using methods calls such as `message.setText(..)`. This is fine for simple cases, and it
is okay in the context of the aforementioned examples, where the intent was to show you
the very basics of the API.

In your typical enterprise application, though, developers often do not create the content
of email messages by using the previously shown approach for a number of reasons:

* Creating HTML-based email content in Java code is tedious and error prone.
* There is no clear separation between display logic and business logic.
* Changing the display structure of the email content requires writing Java code,
  recompiling, redeploying, and so on.

Typically, the approach taken to address these issues is to use a template library (such
as FreeMarker) to define the display structure of email content. This leaves your code
tasked only with creating the data that is to be rendered in the email template and
sending the email. It is definitely a best practice when the content of your email messages
becomes even moderately complex, and, with the Spring Framework's support classes for
FreeMarker, it becomes quite easy to do.

