nodemailer-smtp-transport

What is nodemailer-smtp-transport?

The nodemailer-smtp-transport package is a transport module for Nodemailer that allows you to send emails using the SMTP protocol. It provides a way to configure and use SMTP servers to send emails programmatically.

What are nodemailer-smtp-transport's main functionalities?

Basic SMTP Transport Configuration

This code demonstrates how to configure and use the nodemailer-smtp-transport package to send an email using an SMTP server. It sets up the SMTP transport with the necessary authentication details and sends an email with both text and HTML content.

const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
const smtpTransport = require('nodemailer-smtp-transport');

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpTransport({
  host: 'smtp.example.com',
  port: 587,
  secure: false, // true for 465, false for other ports
  auth: {
    user: 'username',
    pass: 'password'
  }
}));

const mailOptions = {
  from: '[e-mail]',
  to: '[e-mail]',
  subject: 'Hello',
  text: 'Hello world',
  html: '<b>Hello world</b>'
};

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

Using OAuth2 for Authentication

This code demonstrates how to use OAuth2 for authentication with the nodemailer-smtp-transport package. It configures the transport with OAuth2 credentials and sends an email using Gmail's SMTP server.

const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
const smtpTransport = require('nodemailer-smtp-transport');

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpTransport({
  service: 'gmail',
  auth: {
    type: 'OAuth2',
    user: '[e-mail]',
    clientId: 'your-client-id',
    clientSecret: 'your-client-secret',
    refreshToken: 'your-refresh-token',
    accessToken: 'your-access-token'
  }
}));

const mailOptions = {
  from: '[e-mail]',
  to: '[e-mail]',
  subject: 'Hello',
  text: 'Hello world',
  html: '<b>Hello world</b>'
};

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

Other packages similar to nodemailer-smtp-transport

nodemailer

Nodemailer is a module for Node.js applications to allow easy email sending. It supports various transport methods, including SMTP, and can be used directly without the need for additional transport modules like nodemailer-smtp-transport. It is more versatile and widely used.

emailjs

EmailJS is a library for sending emails from JavaScript applications. It supports SMTP and provides a simple API for sending emails. Compared to nodemailer-smtp-transport, EmailJS is more lightweight but may lack some advanced features and flexibility.

sendgrid

SendGrid is a cloud-based service that provides an API for sending emails. It offers robust features like email tracking, analytics, and high deliverability. Unlike nodemailer-smtp-transport, which requires an SMTP server, SendGrid handles the email delivery infrastructure for you.

README

SMTP transport module for Nodemailer

Applies for Nodemailer v1.x and not for v0.x where transports are built-in.

Setup

Install with npm

npm install nodemailer-smtp-transport

Require to your script

var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
var smtpTransport = require('nodemailer-smtp-transport');

Usage

Create a Nodemailer transport object

var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpTransport(options))

or (by using smtpTransport as default)

var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(options)

Where

• options defines connection data
  • options.port is the port to connect to (defaults to 25 or 465)
  • options.host is the hostname or IP address to connect to (defaults to 'localhost')
  • options.secure defines if the connection should use SSL (if true) or not (if false)
  • options.auth defines authentication data (see authentication section below)
  • options.ignoreTLS turns off STARTTLS support if true
  • options.name optional hostname of the client, used for identifying to the server
  • options.localAddress is the local interface to bind to for network connections
  • options.connectionTimeout how many milliseconds to wait for the connection to establish
  • options.greetingTimeout how many milliseconds to wait for the greeting after connection is established
  • options.socketTimeout how many milliseconds of inactivity to allow
  • options.logger optional bunyan compatible logger instance. If set to true then logs to console. If value is not set or is false then nothing is logged
  • options.debug if set to true, then logs SMTP traffic, otherwise logs only transaction events
  • options.authMethod defines preferred authentication method, eg. 'PLAIN'
  • options.tls defines additional options to be passed to the socket constructor, eg. {rejectUnauthorized: true}
  • getSocket optional method that is called every time a new connection is made against the SMTP server. This method can provide an existing socket to be used instead of creating a new one

Alternatively you can use connection url with protocol 'smtp:' or 'smtps:'. Use query arguments for additional configuration values.

Example

var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpTransport({
    host: 'localhost',
    port: 25,
    auth: {
        user: 'username',
        pass: 'password'
    }
}));

Or with connection url (gmail)

var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(
    smtpTransport('smtps://username%40gmail.com:[e-mail]')
);

Authentication

If authentication data is not present, the connection is considered authenticated from the start.

Set authentcation data with options.auth

Where

• auth is the authentication object
  • auth.user is the username
  • auth.pass is the password for the user
  • auth.xoauth2 is the OAuth2 access token (preferred if both pass and xoauth2 values are set) or an XOAuth2 token generator object.

If a XOAuth2 token generator is used as the value for auth.xoauth2 then you do not need to set the value for auth.user. XOAuth2 generator generates required accessToken itself if it is missing or expired. In this case if the authentication fails, a new token is requested and the authentication is retried once. If it still fails, an error is returned.

Install xoauth2 module to use XOauth2 token generators (not included by default)

npm install xoauth2 --save

XOAuth2 Example

NB! The correct OAuth2 scope for Gmail is https://mail.google.com/

var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
var generator = require('xoauth2').createXOAuth2Generator({
    user: '{username}',
    clientId: '{Client ID}',
    clientSecret: '{Client Secret}',
    refreshToken: '{refresh-token}',
    accessToken: '{cached access token}' // optional
});

// listen for token updates
// you probably want to store these to a db
generator.on('token', function(token){
    console.log('New token for %s: %s', token.user, token.accessToken);
});

// login
var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(({
    service: 'gmail',
    auth: {
        xoauth2: generator
    }
}));

// send mail
transporter.sendMail({
    from: '[e-mail]',
    to: '[e-mail]',
    subject: 'hello world!',
    text: 'Authenticated with OAuth2'
}, function(error, response) {
   if (error) {
        console.log(error);
   } else {
        console.log('Message sent');
   }
});

Using well-known services

If you do not want to specify the hostname, port and security settings for a well known service, you can use it by its name (case insensitive)

smtpTransport({
    service: 'gmail',
    auth: ..
});

See the list of all supported services here.

Verify connection configuration

You can verify your configuration with verify(callback) call. If it returns an error, then something is not correct, otherwise the server is ready to accept messages.

// verify connection configuration
transporter.verify(function(error, success) {
   if (error) {
        console.log(error);
   } else {
        console.log('Server is ready to take our messages');
   }
});

License

MIT