Send email with nodejs

Prerequisites

an e-mail address (to be used for sending e-mails)

the package nodemail

npm install nodemail

# For typescript projects
npm install nodemail @types/nodemail

The email address used must have « 2-factor authentication enabled ». To find out how to activate it, click here: 2-factor authentication

Also, you’ll need to provide nodemail with your account authentication information. This includes your email address and a password, but not just any password.

Google has a platform that allows you to generate separate passwords. These passwords are only used for third-party services such as email clients, email applications (like Nodemailer), and other tools that require secure access to your Google Account.

To do this, you need to :

Go to link : https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

Make sure you are logged in to your sender account

Create a new application

Copy the supplied password

💡 If the interface is empty, this means you haven’t activated 2-factor authentication

Development

First, here’s a complete example for those of you who understand quickly. Let’s say you want to send a nice email to several friends. Here’s how to do it:

Don’t forget to replace your.email@gmail.com and your_password with your own authentication information.

Explanation

Import module :

const nodemailer = require(‘nodemailer‘);

We start by importing nodemailer. Of course, you can also use the ES6 syntax import nodemail from ‘nodemail’;

Create a “transporter” :

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: ‘gmail‘,
auth: {
user: ‘your.email@gmail.com‘,
pass: ‘your_password‘
}
});

Here, we configure our mailman with our Gmail account information. We give him our email address and password so he can access our mailbox and send messages for us.

Prepare the email :

let mailOptions = {
from: ‘“Fred Foo 👻” <foo@example.com>‘, // Who sends the email
to: ‘ami1@example.com, ami2@example.com‘, // Who to send the email to
subject: ‘Hello ✔‘, // Email subject
text: ‘Hello world?‘, // Plain text or
html: ‘<b>Hello world?</b>‘ // HTML content
};

We write our email. We define who’s sending it (here, Fred Foo), who it’s for (several friends), the subject (e.g. “Hello ✔”), and the content (a nice message in text or HTML).

Send the email :

transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, (error, info) => {
if (error) {
return console.log(error);
}
console.log(‘Message sent: %s‘, info.messageId);
console.log(‘Preview URL: %s‘, nodemailer.getTestMessageUrl(info));
});

Finally, we ask our digital letter carrier to send the e-mail. If there’s a problem (for example, if the password is incorrect), we display the error. Otherwise, we indicate that the e-mail has been sent and even provide a link to view the e-mail sent (handy for checking).

💡 Never put your password in plain text in your code! Use environment variables or password management services to keep your information safe.

Basically, it’s like asking a trusted mailman to send an e-mail using your Gmail account.

Now you need to be able to send emails anywhere in the world. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Happy coding ✨

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