How to work with email using Gmail and RPA Framework

Sending email messages is one of the most common requirements when automating processes: it could be a report about the results of the process or maybe part of the automation itself, like emailing invoices as attachments.

The RPA Framework adds libraries that make handling email easy and convenient. This article will show you how to use the RPA.Email.ImapSmtp library to send email messages from a Gmail account.

The library is meant to work with any SMTP server, not just Gmail. It can also read and manage email messages in any email account accessible via IMAP.

Configuration of the Gmail account

After May 30th, 2022, Google will require the use of Two Factor Authentication to access Gmail accounts.
You will need to set up an App password and use that password when sending an email (GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD).
The other option is to use OAuth2, for which we have an OAuth2 setup example bot

If you have been using the "Less secure app access", meaning just your username and password, you will need to change to either of the options above before May 30th, 2022

Sending plain text email messages

Here is an example robot that sends a plain text message:

1. We are adding the RPA.Email.ImapSmtp library at the top in the *** Settings *** section, passing the server name for Gmail and the SMTP port to use as configuration. The port can be omitted when using the default value (in this case, 587). It is used here to display that it can be configured if needed.
2. In the *** Variables *** section, we set the required variables: the Gmail account username and GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD, and the email message recipient.
3. In the *** Tasks *** section we add a new task Send test email, where we call the Authorize keyword passing our credentials, and then the Send Message keyword, specifying the sender, recipient, subject and body of the message.

Note: It is not a good practice to write credentials in your robot code. We recommend to use Control Room vault to store your secrets securely.

Sending email messages with attachments

You can send files as attachments to a message.

To send a file called results.csv residing in the same directory where you run the robot, the code becomes:

All we needed to do was add the line ... attachments=results.csv to the Send Message keyword.

Sending an email with multiple attachments

If you want to send an email message with multiple attachments, you must pass a list of file paths as the attachments arguments of the Send Message keyword instead of a simple string.

If you have two files, results1.csv and results2.csv, in the same directory where you run the robot, the example code becomes:

1. We are adding the @{ATTACHMENTS} list variable, filling it with the paths of our two files.
2. We are passing the variable containing the list as the attachments arguments of the Send Message keyword.

To create and manage lists inside your keywords, check out the Collections library, part of the Built-in libraries provided by Robot Framework.

Sending HTML email messages with inline images

You can send images in the body of the email message using HTML.

To embed an image file called image.png residing in the same directory where you run the robot, the code becomes:

In this case, we need to modify the Send Message keyword:

• adding html=True to tell the SMTP server that we are sending an email in HTML format
• adding the names (and path) of the images that we will use in the email body using the images parameter (images=image.png)
• now we can use the image in the body of the message, using HTML formatting: body=<p>See this image: <img src='image.png' alt='approved image'/></p>

This is what the generated message will look like in an email client:

Sending multiple attachments and saving them

This robot sends multiple attachments, collects the messages by criterion (email subject) using the List Messages keyword, logs some information regarding each email, and saves the attachments using the Save Attachment keyword. It also uses a vault for the credentials.

Listing email messages by criteria

The above example robot uses the List Messages keyword to list messages matching the given criteria. Learn more about the search syntax in the RFC 3501, IMAP4rev1 Protocol Specification.

IMAP search criteria examples and description

• See the official RFC 3501, IMAP4rev1 Protocol Specification.
• See the IMAP search example robot by Alejandro Antunes for practical examples.

Combining IMAP search criteria (ANDing)

There is no "AND" operator. Combine search keys by appending them right after each other: