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sendmailR (Part2): Sending files as mail attachments

Answer 1

+1 A:

I would give up on using R for this. Working, cross-platform, stable solutions for doing this in Python exist, and you can call Python from R.

If I had to fit a mixed effects model in a Python program I'd call R to do it - if I want to do a systems task like send email in R I'll call Python to do it. Its worth learning if you don't know it yet.

Spacedman 2010-08-26 07:14:18

If external tools are allowed, it is easier to just run `writeLines(message,p<-pipe('mutt -s blah -a att.ext -- [email protected]'));close(p)`. There is a Windows port of mutt, so it is cross-platform.

mbq 2010-08-26 10:39:35

Answer 2

+2 A:

A working (for me at least) function:

sendMessage<-function(contents,subject,from,to,attMIME,attachment,control){    
    require('sendmailR');
    require('base64');

msgTemplate<-'This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--|-|-|-|
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
%s
--|-|-|-|
Content-Type: %s;
 name="%s"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename="%s"

%s
--|-|-|-|--';

encAtt<-tempfile(); encode(attachment,encAtt);
paste(scan(encAtt,character(),quiet=T),collapse="\n")->encAtt;
sprintf(msgTemplate,contents,attMIME,attachment,attachment,encAtt)->msg;

sendmail(from,to,subject,msg,control,headers=list("Content-Type"='multipart/mixed;boundary="|-|-|-|"'));
}

Can be used like this:

png('a.png');hist(rnorm(700));dev.off()
sendMessage('<htm><head></head><body>Here you have a <b>nice</b> histogram:</body></html>',
'Nice picture',
'[email protected]',
'[email protected]',
'image/png',
'a.png',list(smtpServer="..."))

Be warned that message sent by this example will probably be marked as spam, since it is a short text and a big picture -- nevertheless for larger messages and, let's say, pdf attachments it should go through. If not, you may consider adding also a text version of the message.

EDIT: The most deep insight on how to make MIME messages can be found here.

mbq 2010-08-26 08:31:54

I suppose I'm in one of my 'slow-witted' days. I must admit that I didn't understand if I can do it or not. If you think that it's possible, could you please use my example and transform it appropriately?

gd047 2010-08-26 09:23:49

Certainly you can, you must just squeeze the message and attachment(s) into this crazy format and pass it as an actual message. I am planning to edit it to usable code, still this will take some time because now I have some other things to do.

mbq 2010-08-26 10:28:12

Ok, extended now.

mbq 2010-08-26 11:44:12

Hmmm. Error in waitFor(code) : SMTP Error: 5.7.1 Unable to relay for [email protected]

gd047 2010-08-26 13:36:22

As long as you really tried [email protected], I am not surprised. If not, this is a network error or bad SMTP configuration.

mbq 2010-08-26 14:03:51

One of the problems had to do with the use of 'control'. I used `sendMessage<-function(contents,subject,from,to,attMIME,attachment,ctrl)` and `sendmail(from,to,subject,msg,control=ctrl...` Now when I use google's smtpServer I get indeed a message with an attached picture, but I dont get the message body !!!

gd047 2010-08-27 08:35:48

I have found out where the problem is. I think I can work it out.

gd047 2010-08-27 10:52:57

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sendmailR (Part2): Sending files as mail attachments

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