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Chris Caron edited this page Feb 2, 2024 · 35 revisions

E-Mail Notifications

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  • Attachment Support: yes
  • Message Format: Text
  • Message Limit: 32768 Characters per message

Using Built-In Email Services

If you are using one of the following Built-In E-Mail services, then setting up this notification service has never been easier. If the email provider you use isn't on the list, and you'd like to request it, just open up a ticket and let me know. The alternative the the below list is to use a custom email server configuration; these are a little bit more complicated to set up, but still work great. Custom email configuration is discussed in the next section.

The following syntax works right out of the box:

  • mailto://{user}:{app-password}@yahoo.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@hotmail.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@live.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@gmail.com
  • mailto://{user}:{app-password}@fastmail.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@zoho.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@yandex.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@sendgrid.com?from=noreply@{validated_domain}
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@qq.com
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@163.com

Secure connections are always implied whether you choose to use mailto:// or mailtos://

Note Google Users using the 2 Step Verification Process will be required to generate an app-password from here that you can use in the {password} field.

Note Yahoo Users will be required to generate an app-password from here that you can use in the {password} field.

Note Fastmail Users are required to generate a custom App password before you can connect it up to send email to (from a 3rd party tool like this one). You must assign the SMTP option to the new App you generate. This Fastmail portion of this plugin currently supports the following 116 domains. Just make sure you identify the email address you're using when you build the mailto:// url and everything will work as intended.

Note SendGrid users just need to be sure to use a Validated Domain (through their service) as part of the required from= email address (on the URL) or it will not work. It's additionally worth pointing out that sendgrid:// has it's own separate integration as well if you do not need to use the SMTP service.

Email Address Formatting

When defining your email address you want to send to, you can format them in 2 ways:

  • Classic: just.an.email@domain.com
  • Name/Email: John<just.an.email@domain.com>

Annotating your emails with names allow your delivered emails to have a nicer look/feel. You can also leverage these formats with the from= directive (defined below) allowing you to change who the email otherwise identifies who is sending it (providing your Mail Provider allows for it).

Using Custom Servers Syntax

If you're using a specific SMTP Server or one that simply isn't in the Built-In list defined in the previous section then things get a wee-bit more complicated.

First off, secure vs insecure emails are defined by mailto:// (port 25) and mailtos:// (port 587) where mailtos:// will enable TLS prior to sending the user and password.

Here are some more example syntax you can use when doing the custom approach:

  • mailto://{user}:{password}@{domain}
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@{domain}:{port}?smtp={smtp_server}
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@{domain}:{port}?from={from_email}
  • mailto://{user}:{password}@{domain}:{port}?from={from_name} <{from_email}>

Using a local relay server that does not require authentication? No problem, use this:

  • mailto://{user}:{password}@{domain}:{port}?from={from_email}&to={to_email}

Some mail servers will require your {user} to be your full email address. In these cases, you'll need to specify your username in the url as an attribute like so:

  • mailto://{password}@{domain}:{port}?user={user}

Custom Syntax Examples

If your SMTP server is identified by a different hostname/domain than what is identified by the suffix of your email, then you'll need to specify it as an argument; for example: If you want to adjust the email's ReplyTo address, then you can do the following:

  • mailtos://user:password@server.com?smtp=smtp.server.com&from=noreply@server.com

You can also adjust the ReplyTo's Name too:

  • mailtos://user:password@server.com?smtp=smtp.server.com&from=Optional%20Name<noreply@server.com>

To send an email notification via a smtp server that does not require authentication, simply leave out the user and pass parameters in the URL:

  • mailto://server.com?smtp=smtp.server.com&from=noreply@server.com&to=myemail@server.com

Since URLs can't have spaces in them, you'll need to use '%20' as a place-holder for one (if needed). In the example above, the email would actually be received as Optional Name.

Got a local passwordless SMTP relay service you're hosting? No problem, the following URL will work:

  • mailto://localhost

Multiple To Addresses

By default your mailto:// URL effectively works out to be mailto://user:pass@domain and therefore attempts to send your email to user@domain unless you've otherwise specified a to=. But you can actually send an email to more then one address using the same URL. Here are some examples (written slightly differently but accomplish the same thing) that send an email to more then one address:

  • mailto://user:pass@domain/?to=target@example.com,target2@example.com
  • mailto://user:pass@domain/target@example.com/target2@example.com
  • mailto://user:pass@domain/Accounting<accounting@example.com>/Billing<billing@example.com>

There is no limit to the number of addresses you either separate by comma (,) and/or add to your mailto:// path separated by a slash (/).

The Carbon Copy (cc=) and Blind Carbon Copy (bcc=) however are applied to each email sent. Hence if you send an email to 3 target users, the entire cc and bcc lists will be part of all 3 emails.

Parameter Breakdown

Variable Required Description
user Yes The account login to your SMTP server; if this is an email you must specify this near the end of the URL as an argument. You can over-ride this by specifying ?user= on the URL string.
Note: Both the user and pass are not required if you're using an anonymous login.
pass Yes The password required to send an email via your SMTP Server. You can over-ride this by specifying ?pass= on the URL string.
Note: Both the user and pass are not required if you're using an anonymous login.
domain Yes If your email address was test@example.com then example.com is your domain. You must provide this as part of the URL string!
port No The port your SMTP server is listening on. By default the port is 25 for mailto:// and 587 for all mailtos:// references.
smtp No If the SMTP server differs from your specified domain, then you'll want to specify it as an argument in your URL.
from No If you want the email address Reply-To address to be something other then your own email address, then you can specify it here. You can express this as a regular user@email.com or you can also set it as A User<user@email.com>.
to No This will enforce (or set the address the email is sent To). This is only required in special circumstances. The notification script is usually clever enough to figure this out for you.
name No With respect to {from_email}, this allows you to provide a name with your Reply-To address.
Note: This field has become redundant and become synonymous to from=. It still behaves as it did in previous versions, but you can also follow the A User<user@email.com> syntax as well. To eliminate ambiguity; the values parsed from the from= will always trump the name=.
cc No Carbon Copy email address(es). More than one can be separated with a space and/or comma.
bcc No Blind Carbon Copy email address(es). More than one can be separated with a space and/or comma.
mode No This is only referenced if using mailtos:// (a secure url). The Mode allows you to change the connection method. Some sites only support SSL (mode=ssl) while others only support STARTTLS (mode=starttls). The default value is starttls. If you define a mode with a mailto:// declaration, it is upgraded to be a mailtos:// when the URL is processed.

To eliminate any confusion, any url parameter (key=value) specified will over-ride what was detected in the url; hence:

  • mailto://usera:pass123@domain.com?user=foobar: the user of foobar would over-ride the user usera specified. However since the password was not over-ridden, the password of pass123 would be used still.

Example

Send a email notification to our hotmail account:

# It's really easy if you're using a built in provider
# Built-In providers look after handling the little details such as
# the SMTP server, port, enforcing a secure connection, etc
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
    mailto:///example:mypassword@hotmail.com

# Send an email to a custom provider:
# Assuming the {domain} is example.com
# Assuming the {user} is george
# Assuming the {password} is pass123
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   mailto://george:pass123@example.com

# The above URL could also have been written like:
#  mailto://example.com?user=george&pass=pass123

# In some cases, the {user} is an email address.  In this case
# you can place this information in the URL parameters instead:
# Assuming the {domain} is example.com
# Assuming the {user} is george@example.com
# Assuming the {password} is pass123
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   "mailto://example.com?user=george@example.com&pass=pass123"

# Note that the ampersand (&) that is used in the URL to separate
# one argument from another is also interpreted by the CLI as
# run in the background.  So to make sure the URL sticks together
# and your terminal doesn't break your URL up, make sure to wrap
# it in quotes!

# Send an email to a smtp relay server your hosting on your box:
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   mailto://localhost

Users with custom SMTP Servers will require a slightly more complicated configuration:

# Assuming the {smtp_server} is mail.example.com
# Assuming the {send_from} is joe@example.com
# Assuming the {login} is user1@example.com
# Assuming the {password} is pass123
# Assuming you want to use starttls (port 587)
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   "mailtos://_?user=user1@example.com&pass=pass123&smtp=mail.example.com&from=joe@example.com"

# Notes (for above URL):
# - Since no `to=` was specified above, the `from` address is notified
# - mailtos:// defaults to starttls on 587; if you want to use port 465 (SSL)
#   you would just need to add `mode=ssl` to the parameter of your URL.

# Here is a more complicated example where you want to use `ssl` and a custom port

# Assuming the {smtp_server} is mail.example.com
# Assuming the {send_from} is joe@example.com
# Assuming the {login} is user1@example.com
# Assuming the {password} is pass123
# Assuming you want to use ssl on port 12522
# Assuming you want your email to go to bob@example.com and jane@yahoo.ca
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   "mailtos://example.com:12522?user=user1@example.com&pass=pass123&smtp=mail.example.com&from=joe@example.com&to=bob@example.com,jane@yahoo.ca&mode=ssl"

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