Sending E-Mail or SMS/Text Messages Using GMail and Python

Thought I would share some Python code that I use when I want an alert via text message.  I originally used this in conjunction with a script to parse a web-page every minute and let me know when a particular Bitcoin miner was available.  Yes, they sold out that fast!

This is also terrific for IT-type alerts.  On my Ubuntu NAS, I have mdadm configured to call this script if there are any drive failures in my RAID.

It’s fully cross-platform and works in Windows, Mac, and Linux.  As long as you have Python installed, just edit a few lines and you have your own customizable alert system for just about anything your computer can communicate with.

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

'''
https://scottcking.com

Quickie walkthrough on sending an e-mail or SMS/text message
using GMail's SMTP server and Python.  This is 100% cross platform
and will work in Windows, Mac, Linux.

This code passes Pylint with a perfect 10.0 score.
http://www.pylint.org

Extensive list of SMS gateways:
Complete List of Email to SMS Gateways


Enjoy!

'''


import smtplib


def main():
    ''' Send an e-mail or SMS text via GMail SMTP '''

    gmail_username = 'username@gmail.com'       # sender's gmail username
    gmail_password = 'password'                 # sender's gmail password
    smtp_server = 'smtp.gmail.com'
    smtp_port = 587

    msg_from = 'somebody@somewhere.com'         # who the message is 'from'
    msg_subject = 'GMail SMTP to SMS'           # message subject
    msg_to = 'phone_number@your_sms_gateway'    # ex: 18005558989@tmomail.net
    msg_text = "I'm on a boat!"

    # If intent is SMS/text, remove/comment the header subject line
    # If intent is e-mail, add/uncomment the header subject line
    # A comment in python is a '#' symbol placed at the beginning of the line

    headers = ['From: {}'.format(msg_from),
               'Subject: {}'.format(msg_subject),
               'To: {}'.format(msg_to),
               'MIME-Version: 1.0',
               'Content-Type: text/html']

    msg_body = '\r\n'.join(headers) + '\r\n\r\n' + msg_text

    session = smtplib.SMTP(smtp_server, smtp_port)
    session.ehlo()
    session.starttls()
    session.ehlo()
    session.login(gmail_username, gmail_password)
    session.sendmail(msg_from, msg_to, msg_body)
    session.quit()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()