Hi all!

Jakob Rief pointed this discussion out to me. I've been going around lately 
to make some advertisement for my idea of class-based emails.

I've implemented a package called "django-pony-express" which in a nutshell 
provides to things:

* A class-based way of creating new emails (very similar to class-based 
views)
* A test suite for easy unit-testing of emails (we are currently working on 
bringing this to Django core)

Here's a documentation link: 
https://django-pony-express.readthedocs.io/en/latest/features/introduction.html#create-a-single-email
 


The idea is to create emails like you create views. All important stuff is 
encapsulated but you can overwrite everything you need. There are a bunch 
of examples in the docs.

Apart from not having to deal with low-level email API stuff (which is a 
pain IMHO), it provides lots of neat improvements I had to (re-)invent in 
every project I was working on.

What do you people think about this? I got quite good feedback in Vigo and 
in my opinion, the solution is very Django-esque.

I'd be happy to go into more detail if required but wanted to keep this 
first commend brief.

Best from Cologne
Ronny
Mike Edmunds schrieb am Montag, 24. Juni 2024 um 21:14:47 UTC+2:

> > Would this be designed to be compatible with "Proposal 14: Background 
> Workers"?
>
> I wouldn't expect this to impact background workers one way or the other. 
> The same goes for the async email proposal(s) floating around.
>
> Virtually all of this work would occur in django.core.mail.message, where 
> Python's `email` APIs are used. A goal is to avoid changes that would break 
> existing email backends (Django or third-party).
>
> The background workers proposal will implement a new background SMTP 
> EmailBackend (in django.core.mail.backends). The existing SMTP EmailBackend 
> doesn't directly use Python's `email` APIs, and there should be no reason 
> for background SMTP to be any different. (It might be helpful to know that 
> Python's `email` library isn't involved in *sending* email; that's 
> handled by Python's `smtplib`, which Django uses only in the SMTP 
> EmailBackend.)
>
> The existing SMTP EmailBackend *does* use one function I expect will 
> become deprecated: django.core.mail.message.sanitize_address(). I haven't 
> yet investigated whether that use is still necessary, or whether it's there 
> to get around past bugs/limitations in Python's smtplib. If any of it is 
> still needed for SMTP, I'd probably want to move that code into the SMTP 
> EmailBackend(s).
>
> - Mike
> On Sunday, June 23, 2024 at 10:22:03 PM UTC-7 Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>
>> Would this be designed to be compatible with "Proposal 14: Background 
>> Workers"?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 23, 2024 at 10:46 PM Mike Edmunds <medm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I want to propose updating django.core.mail to replace use of Python's 
>>> legacy email.message.Message (and other legacy email APIs) with 
>>> email.message.EmailMessage (and other modern APIs).
>>>
>>> If there's interest, I can put together a more detailed proposal and/or 
>>> ticket, but was hoping to get some initial feedback first. (I searched for 
>>> relevant discussions in django-developers and the issue tracker, and didn't 
>>> find any. Apologies if this has come up before.)
>>>
>>> [Note: I maintain django-anymail 
>>> <https://github.com/anymail/django-anymail>, which implements Django 
>>> integration with several transactional email service providers.]
>>>
>>>
>>> *Background*
>>>
>>> Since Python ~3.6, Python's email package has included two largely 
>>> separate implementations:
>>>
>>>    - a "modern (unicode friendly) API" based on 
>>>    email.message.EmailMessage and email.policy.default
>>>    - a "legacy API" providing compatibility with older Python versions, 
>>>    based on email.message.Message and email.policy.compat32
>>>
>>> (See https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.html, especially toward 
>>> the end.)
>>>
>>> django.core.mail currently uses the legacy API.
>>>
>>>
>>> *Why switch?*
>>>
>>> There are no plans to deprecate Python's legacy email API, and it's 
>>> working, so why change Django?
>>>
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Fewer bugs:* The modern API fixes a *lot* of bugs in the legacy 
>>>    API. My understanding is legacy bugs will generally not be fixed. (And 
>>> in 
>>>    fact, there are some cases where the legacy API deliberately replicates 
>>>    earlier buggy behavior.)
>>>    
>>>    Django #35497 <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35497> is an 
>>>    example of a legacy bug (with a problematic proposed workaround) which 
>>> is 
>>>    just fixed in the modern API.
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Simpler, safer code:* A substantial portion 
>>>    
>>> <https://github.com/django/django/blob/stable/5.1.x/django/core/mail/message.py#L32-L190>
>>>  of 
>>>    django.core.mail's internals implements workarounds and security fixes 
>>> for 
>>>    problems in the legacy API. This would be greatly simplified—maybe 
>>>    eliminated completely—using the modern API.
>>>    
>>>    Examples: the modern API prevents CR/NL injections in message 
>>>    headers. It serializes and folds address headers properly—even ones with 
>>>    unicode names. It enforces single-instance headers where appropriate.
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Easier to work with:* The modern API adds some nice conveniences 
>>>    for developers working in django.core.mail, third-party library 
>>> developers, 
>>>    and (depending on what we choose to expose) users of Django's mail APIs.
>>>    
>>>    Examples: populating the "Date" header with a datetime or an address 
>>>    header with Address 
>>>    
>>> <https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.headerregistry.html#email.headerregistry.Address>
>>>  objects—without 
>>>    needing intricate knowledge of email header formats. Using 
>>>    email.policy to generate a 7-bit clean serialization (without having 
>>>    to muck about with the MIME parts 
>>>    
>>> <https://github.com/anymail/django-anymail/blob/v11.0/anymail/backends/amazon_ses.py#L168-L179>
>>>    ).
>>>    
>>>
>>> *Concerns & risks*
>>>
>>> Compatibility and security, of course…
>>>
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Backwards compatibility (for API users):* django.core.mail largely 
>>>    insulates callers from the underlying Python email package. There are a 
>>> few 
>>>    places where this leaks (e.g., attachments 
>>>    
>>> <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/topics/email/#django.core.mail.EmailMessage:~:text=send()%20is%20called.-,attachments,-%3A%20A%20list%20of>
>>>  allows 
>>>    legacy email MIMEBase 
>>>    <https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.mime.html> objects), but in 
>>>    general the switch should be transparent. (And I have some ideas for 
>>>    supporting the other cases.)
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Backwards compatibility (for third-party libraries):* Some 
>>>    libraries may use internals I'd propose removing (e.g., SafeMIME and 
>>>    friends); we'd handle this through deprecation.
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Backwards compatibility (bug-level):* There's probably some code 
>>>    out there that unintentionally depends on legacy email bugs (or the 
>>>    specific ways Django works around them). I don't have any examples, but 
>>> I 
>>>    also don't have a good solution for when they surface. Plus, while 
>>> Python's 
>>>    modern email API is pretty mature at this point, there are still new 
>>> bugs 
>>>    being reported against it. Email is complicated.
>>>    - 
>>>    
>>>    *Security:* As noted above, the modern API should be more secure 
>>>    than the legacy one. But we also have a nice collection of email 
>>> security 
>>>    tests—which *mostly* don't depend on internal implementation. We'd 
>>>    keep these.
>>>    
>>> -- 
>>>
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>>>
>>

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