SMTP Send

SMTP Send

Type: smtp-send  ·  Package: SMTP / IMAP Email Activities v1.0.5

Sends an email through an SMTP server, without Outlook installed. It supports several recipients, carbon copy (CC) and blind carbon copy (BCC), reply-to address, text or HTML body, and attachments. It is the activity for sending notifications, reports and confirmations from a robot, also in unattended execution.

How it works

1. Builds the message: sender (from, or username if not set), recipients, subject, body (text or HTML depending on isHtml) and attachments. If an attachment is missing, it fails before connecting, so no incomplete email goes out.
2. Connects to host:port with the security encryption (default auto on port 587: STARTTLS if the server offers it), signs in with username and password, sends and disconnects.

Recipients (to, cc, bcc) can be a text with addresses separated by commas ("ana@company.com, luis@company.com") or a list. Each address can carry a display name: "Ana Smith <ana@company.com>". The connection data is that of the sending server.

Each run sends a new email: if you put it inside a Retry, a retry after a send that did go through produces a duplicate.

Required parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
host	string	—	SMTP server (e.g. smtp.gmail.com).
username	string	—	Username used to sign in (usually the full address).
password	credential	—	Password or App Password. Use credential("name")["password"].
to	string | List	—	Recipient(s): text with comma-separated addresses, or a list of addresses. At least one is required.
subject	string	—	Subject.
body	string	—	Email body (plain text, or HTML with isHtml = true).

Optional parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
port	int	587	SMTP port. With security = ssl it is usually 465.
from	string	username	Sender address; accepts "Name <address>". Many servers require it to be the signed-in account or an authorized alias.
replyTo	string	—	Address that receives replies (Reply-To).
isHtml	bool	false	The body is HTML.
cc	string | List	—	CC: comma-separated text or list.
bcc	string | List	—	BCC: comma-separated text or list.
attachments	string | List	—	A text with one file path, or a list of paths. All files must exist.
security	string	"auto"	Encryption: auto, none, ssl or starttls. See Encryption and ports.

Output

This activity does not return a value. The log says how many recipients (to + cc + bcc) the email was sent to.

Common errors

Message	Cause and fix
'host' is required. (and the same for username, subject, body)	The parameter is missing or the expression returned null. For an empty body use "".
At least one recipient is required in 'to'.	to is empty or the list contains no texts.
Attachment file not found.	A path in attachments does not exist. Check it first with File Exists; the email is not sent.
Error parsing an address	An address in from, to, cc, bcc or replyTo is invalid (for example, separated with ; instead of a comma).
Server authentication error	Wrong username or password, or the account requires an App Password.
Connection or TLS error	Wrong host or port, or security does not match the port (for example ssl on 587). Use 587 + auto/starttls or 465 + ssl.

Example

Send an invoice attached using secure credentials, with a copy to the collections team:

SMTP Send
  host        = "smtp.gmail.com"
  username    = credential("mail-bot")["user"]
  password    = credential("mail-bot")["password"]
  from        = "Billing <" + credential("mail-bot")["user"] + ">"
  to          = customer.email
  cc          = "collections@company.com"
  subject     = "Invoice " + invoiceNumber
  body        = "<p>Please find invoice <b>" + invoiceNumber + "</b> attached. Thank you for your purchase.</p>"
  isHtml      = true
  attachments = arr("C:/invoices/" + invoiceNumber + ".pdf")

Password and App Password

Do not write the password in plain text: store it in a credential. And remember that Gmail with 2-step verification requires an App Password, not the normal password. See connecting to the server.

Related activities

• IMAP Read — read incoming emails.
• Outlook Send Email — alternative through the Outlook client.