Here's the complete corrected roadmap for your Automated Email Sender project, with all the

necessary corrections integrated:

Detailed Roadmap: Automated Email Sender Project 📧

Step 1: Understanding the Basics of Email Communication 📨

What it is:

Emails are electronic messages sent over the internet. They follow specific protocols like SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to transfer messages between email servers.

What we are doing:

We’ll send emails automatically using Python’s built-in libraries. First, it’s essential to understand
how email communication works under the hood.

Outcome:

You'll learn the key components of an email (sender, recipient, subject, body, attachments) and the
role of SMTP servers for sending emails programmatically.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Python Environment 🐍

What it is:

Before we dive into coding, we need to set up your Python development environment and install
necessary libraries.

What we are doing:

1. Install Python: Download and install Python from python.org.

2. Install pip: Pip is a package installer for Python, which we’ll use to install additional
libraries.

Install the required libraries using the following command:

pip install smtplib

pip install email

pip install schedule # For time-based triggers

pip install sqlite3 # For database logging

pip install watchdog # For event-based triggers

Outcome:

Your system will be set up with Python and all necessary libraries installed to support email
automation, triggers, and logging emails into a database.
Step 3: Sending a Basic Email Using Python 📧

What it is:

This step will help you send your first email through Python. We’ll use the smtplib library to
connect to an SMTP server and send an email.

What we are doing:

You’ll write a Python script that sends a simple email using Gmail’s SMTP server.

1. Gmail’s SMTP details:

o SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com

o Port: 587 (for TLS)

2. Sample code to send an email:

3. import smtplib

4. from email.mime.text import MIMEText

5.

6. sender_email = "[email protected]"

7. receiver_email = "[email protected]"

8. password = input("Enter your email password: ")

9.

10. # Create the email content

11. message = MIMEText("This is a test email.")

12. message['Subject'] = "Test Email"

13. message['From'] = sender_email

14. message['To'] = receiver_email

15.

16. # Set up the server

17. server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)

18. server.starttls() # Start encryption

19. server.login(sender_email, password)

20.

21. # Send the email

22. server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message.as_string())

23. server.quit()
Outcome:

You’ll send a basic email from your Python script using Gmail’s SMTP server.

Step 4: Enhancing the Email Content (Adding Subject, Body, and Attachments) 📎

What it is:

Emails often contain more than just plain text—they may have attachments, HTML formatting, etc.
We’ll improve the email by adding a subject line, body, and file attachments.

What we are doing:

We’ll use the email library to create a more professional and detailed email.

1. Adding a subject and body:

2. from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart

3. from email.mime.text import MIMEText

4.

5. # Create the message object

6. message = MIMEMultipart()

7. message['From'] = sender_email

8. message['To'] = receiver_email

9. message['Subject'] = "Automated Email with Attachment"

10.

11. # Add body text

12. body = "This is an email with an attachment."

13. message.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))

14. Adding an attachment:

15. from email.mime.base import MIMEBase

16. from email import encoders

17.

18. filename = "file_to_attach.pdf"

19. with open(filename, "rb") as attachment:

20. part = MIMEBase("application", "octet-stream")

21. part.set_payload(attachment.read())

22.
 23. encoders.encode_base64(part)

24. part.add_header("Content-Disposition", f"attachment; filename={filename}")

25. message.attach(part)

Outcome:

You’ll be able to send an email with a subject line, body text, and attachments, enabling you to
send professional-looking emails programmatically.

Step 5: Implementing Time-Based Email Triggers ⏰

What it is:

Time-based triggers send emails at specific times, like every morning or on specific dates.

What we are doing:

We’ll use the schedule library to set up these time-based email triggers.

1. Installing the schedule library:

2. pip install schedule

3. Scheduling an email to send at a specific time:

4. import schedule

5. import time

6.

7. def send_email():

8. # Add the email-sending code from previous steps

9. pass

10.

11. # Schedule the email for 9 AM every day

12. schedule.every().day.at("09:00").do(send_email)

13.

14. while True:

15. schedule.run_pending()

16. time.sleep(1)

Outcome:

Your email script will now send an email automatically at the time you set, without needing
manual intervention.
Step 6: Logging Emails in a Database

What it is:

We need a way to track and log the emails we’ve sent, including details like the recipient, subject,
timestamp, and status (sent or failed).

What we are doing:

We’ll use SQLite, a lightweight database, to store this information.

1. Setting up SQLite:

2. import sqlite3

3.

4. conn = sqlite3.connect('email_logs.db')

5. c = conn.cursor()

6.

7. # Create table to log emails

8. c.execute('''CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS logs

9. (recipient TEXT, subject TEXT, body TEXT, timestamp TEXT, status TEXT)''')

10. Logging email details: After sending an email, log the recipient, subject, body, and status
into the database.

11. import datetime

12.

13. def log_email(recipient, subject, body, status):

14. timestamp = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

15. c.execute("INSERT INTO logs (recipient, subject, body, timestamp, status) VALUES (?, ?, ?,
?, ?)",

16. (recipient, subject, body, timestamp, status))

17. conn.commit()

Outcome:

Your script will now log each email sent to a database, including important details like the
recipient, subject, and status (sent/failed).

Step 7: Implementing Event-Based Triggers 🎯

What it is:

Event-based triggers send emails when specific events happen in real-time, such as a file being
modified or a new file being created.
What we are doing:

We’ll use the watchdog library to monitor events, like changes to a file, and trigger an email when
these events occur.

1. Installing the watchdog library:

2. pip install watchdog

3. Setting up event-based triggers:

4. import time

5. from watchdog.observers import Observer

6. from watchdog.events import FileSystemEventHandler

7.

8. class MyHandler(FileSystemEventHandler):

9. def on_modified(self, event):

10. # Add the email-sending code here

11. print(f'{event.src_path} has been modified. Email will be sent.')

12.

13. event_handler = MyHandler()

14. observer = Observer()

15. observer.schedule(event_handler, path='path_to_watch', recursive=False)

16. observer.start()

17.

18. try:

19. while True:

20. time.sleep(1)

21. except KeyboardInterrupt:

22. observer.stop()

23.

24. observer.join()

Outcome:

Your script will now send an email automatically when a specific event occurs, such as a file being
modified or created.

Step 8: Securing Email Credentials (Environment Variables) 🔒

We need to secure sensitive information like your email password, as hardcoding it in the script
can be risky.

What we are doing:

We’ll use environment variables to store your password securely.

1. Storing credentials securely:

o In your terminal or shell, set the environment variable:

2. export EMAIL_PASSWORD='your_password'

3. Retrieving credentials in Python:

4. import os

5. password = os.getenv('EMAIL_PASSWORD')

Outcome:

Your password will be securely stored and retrieved, preventing it from being exposed in your
code.

Step 9: Handling Errors and Exceptions Gracefully ⚠️

What it is:

It’s important to handle errors, such as network issues or incorrect email addresses, gracefully to
avoid crashes.

What we are doing:

We’ll use Python’s try-except blocks to handle exceptions during email sending.

1. Handling SMTP errors:

2. try:

server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message.as_string())

log_email(receiver_email, subject, body, 'Sent')

except Exception as e: print(f"Error sending email: {e}") log_email(receiver_email, subject, body,

#### **Outcome:**

Your script will **handle errors** gracefully and log failures instead of crashing, improving its
reliability.

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### **Step 10: Testing and Deployment** 🚀

#### **What it is:**

After everything is set up, you need to test the script thoroughly to ensure it works as expected
under different conditions.

#### **What we are doing:**

1. Test different triggers (time-based and event-based).

2. Test the logging mechanism.

3. Test the email sending process with valid and invalid email addresses.

4. After successful testing, deploy the script on a server or cloud platform (like **AWS** or
**Heroku**) to keep it running continuously.

#### **Outcome:**

Your **Automated Email Sender** will be deployed and ready to run **24/7**, automatically
sending emails based on the specified triggers.

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This complete roadmap will help you build an **Automated Email Sender** with all the required
features and best practices! 🎉