Python: Sending Multipart html emails which contain embedded images

Question

I've been playing around with the email module in python but I want to be able to know how to embed images which are included in the html.

So for example if the body is something like

<img src="../path/image.png"></img>

I would like to embed image.png into the email, and the src attribute should be replaced with a content-id. Does anybody know how to do this?

Answer 1

Here is an example I found.

Recipe 473810: Send an HTML email with embedded image and plain text alternate:

HTML is the method of choice for those wishing to send emails with rich text, layout and graphics. Often it is desirable to embed the graphics within the message so recipients can display the message directly, without further downloads.

Some mail agents don't support HTML or their users prefer to receive plain text messages. Senders of HTML messages should include a plain text message as an alternate for these users.

This recipe sends a short HTML message with a single embedded image and an alternate plain text message.

# Send an HTML email with an embedded image and a plain text message for
# email clients that don't want to display the HTML.

from email.MIMEMultipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.MIMEText import MIMEText
from email.MIMEImage import MIMEImage

# Define these once; use them twice!
strFrom = '[email protected]'
strTo = '[email protected]'

# Create the root message and fill in the from, to, and subject headers
msgRoot = MIMEMultipart('related')
msgRoot['Subject'] = 'test message'
msgRoot['From'] = strFrom
msgRoot['To'] = strTo
msgRoot.preamble = 'This is a multi-part message in MIME format.'

# Encapsulate the plain and HTML versions of the message body in an
# 'alternative' part, so message agents can decide which they want to display.
msgAlternative = MIMEMultipart('alternative')
msgRoot.attach(msgAlternative)

msgText = MIMEText('This is the alternative plain text message.')
msgAlternative.attach(msgText)

# We reference the image in the IMG SRC attribute by the ID we give it below
msgText = MIMEText('<b>Some <i>HTML</i> text</b> and an image.<br><img src="cid:image1"><br>Nifty!', 'html')
msgAlternative.attach(msgText)

# This example assumes the image is in the current directory
fp = open('test.jpg', 'rb')
msgImage = MIMEImage(fp.read())
fp.close()

# Define the image's ID as referenced above
msgImage.add_header('Content-ID', '<image1>')
msgRoot.attach(msgImage)

# Send the email (this example assumes SMTP authentication is required)
import smtplib
smtp = smtplib.SMTP()
smtp.connect('smtp.example.com')
smtp.login('exampleuser', 'examplepass')
smtp.sendmail(strFrom, strTo, msgRoot.as_string())
smtp.quit()