Django ForwardEmail

A Django package for integrating with the ForwardEmail API service, providing multi-site email configuration and Django email backend support.

Features

• Multi-site Support: Configure different ForwardEmail settings for each Django site
• Django Email Backend: Drop-in replacement for Django's default email backend
• Service Class: Direct API integration for custom email sending logic
• Admin Interface: User-friendly Django admin interface for managing configurations
• Type Safety: Full type hints and mypy compatibility
• Comprehensive Logging: Debug-friendly logging for troubleshooting

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Django 4.2+

Installation

pip install django-forwardemail

Quick Start

1. Add to Django Settings

Add django_forwardemail to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    'django.contrib.sites',  # Required for multi-site support
    'django_forwardemail',
]

# Optional: Set ForwardEmail as your default email backend
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django_forwardemail.backends.ForwardEmailBackend'

# Optional: Configure ForwardEmail API base URL (defaults to https://api.forwardemail.net)
FORWARD_EMAIL_BASE_URL = 'https://api.forwardemail.net'

2. Run Migrations

python manage.py migrate django_forwardemail

3. Configure in Django Admin

1. Go to Django Admin → Sites → Sites and ensure you have your site configured
2. Go to Django Admin → Django ForwardEmail → Email Configurations
3. Create a new configuration with:
   • Site: Select your site
   • API Key: Your ForwardEmail API key
   • From Email: Default sender email address
   • From Name: Default sender name
   • Reply To: Default reply-to address

Usage

Using Django's Email System

Once configured, you can use Django's standard email functions:

from django.core.mail import send_mail, EmailMultiAlternatives

# Simple text email
send_mail(
    'Subject here',
    'Here is the message.',
    'from@example.com',
    ['to@example.com'],
    fail_silently=False,
)

# HTML email with text fallback
msg = EmailMultiAlternatives(
    'Subject here',
    'Plain text version of the message.',
    'from@example.com',
    ['to@example.com']
)
msg.attach_alternative('<h1>HTML version</h1><p>of the message.</p>', "text/html")
msg.send()

Using the Service Class Directly

For more control, use the ForwardEmailService directly:

from django_forwardemail.services import ForwardEmailService
from django.contrib.sites.models import Site

# Get the current site
site = Site.objects.get_current()

# Send simple text email
response = ForwardEmailService.send_email(
    to='recipient@example.com',
    subject='Test Email',
    text='This is a test email.',
    site=site,
)

# Send HTML email with text fallback
response = ForwardEmailService.send_email(
    to='recipient@example.com',
    subject='HTML Test Email',
    text='This is the plain text version.',
    html='<h1>HTML Email</h1><p>This is a <strong>test</strong> email.</p>',
    site=site,
)

# Send with custom from/reply-to
response = ForwardEmailService.send_email(
    to='recipient@example.com',
    subject='Custom Sender Email',
    text='This email has custom sender info.',
    from_email='custom@example.com',
    reply_to='support@example.com',
    site=site,
)

Using in Django Views

Here's how to integrate email sending in your Django views:

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.contrib import messages
from django.http import HttpResponseRedirect
from django_forwardemail.services import ForwardEmailService
from django.contrib.sites.shortcuts import get_current_site

def contact_view(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        name = request.POST.get('name')
        email = request.POST.get('email')
        message = request.POST.get('message')
        
        try:
            # Send notification email
            ForwardEmailService.send_email(
                to='admin@example.com',
                subject=f'Contact Form: {name}',
                text=f'From: {name} <{email}>\n\nMessage:\n{message}',
                html=f'''
                <h2>Contact Form Submission</h2>
                <p><strong>From:</strong> {name} &lt;{email}&gt;</p>
                <p><strong>Message:</strong></p>
                <p>{message}</p>
                ''',
                reply_to=email,
                request=request,  # Automatically detects site
            )
            
            messages.success(request, 'Your message has been sent!')
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/contact/')
            
        except Exception as e:
            messages.error(request, f'Failed to send message: {str(e)}')
    
    return render(request, 'contact.html')

Template-based Emails

For complex emails, use Django templates:

from django.template.loader import render_to_string
from django_forwardemail.services import ForwardEmailService

def send_welcome_email(user, request):
    # Render email templates
    text_content = render_to_string('emails/welcome.txt', {
        'user': user,
        'site_name': 'Your Site',
    })
    
    html_content = render_to_string('emails/welcome.html', {
        'user': user,
        'site_name': 'Your Site',
    })
    
    # Send email
    ForwardEmailService.send_email(
        to=user.email,
        subject='Welcome to Your Site!',
        text=text_content,
        html=html_content,
        request=request,
    )

Async Email Sending with Celery

For high-volume applications, use Celery for async email sending:

from celery import shared_task
from django_forwardemail.services import ForwardEmailService
from django.contrib.sites.models import Site

@shared_task
def send_email_async(to, subject, text, html=None, site_id=1):
    """Send email asynchronously using Celery."""
    try:
        site = Site.objects.get(id=site_id)
        ForwardEmailService.send_email(
            to=to,
            subject=subject,
            text=text,
            html=html,
            site=site,
        )
        return f"Email sent successfully to {to}"
    except Exception as e:
        return f"Failed to send email: {str(e)}"

# Usage in views
def some_view(request):
    # Queue email for background processing
    send_email_async.delay(
        to='user@example.com',
        subject='Background Email',
        text='This email was sent in the background.',
        site_id=request.site.id,
    )

Multi-site Configuration

For multi-site setups, create separate EmailConfiguration objects for each site:

from django.contrib.sites.models import Site
from django_forwardemail.models import EmailConfiguration

# Configure for site 1
site1 = Site.objects.get(domain='site1.example.com')
EmailConfiguration.objects.create(
    site=site1,
    api_key='your-api-key-1',
    from_email='noreply@site1.example.com',
    from_name='Site 1',
    reply_to='support@site1.example.com',
)

# Configure for site 2
site2 = Site.objects.get(domain='site2.example.com')
EmailConfiguration.objects.create(
    site=site2,
    api_key='your-api-key-2',
    from_email='noreply@site2.example.com',
    from_name='Site 2',
    reply_to='support@site2.example.com',
)

API Reference

ForwardEmailService

send_email(**kwargs)

Send an email through the ForwardEmail API.

Parameters:

• to (str): Recipient email address
• subject (str): Email subject line
• text (str): Plain text email content
• from_email (str, optional): Sender email address (uses config default if not provided)
• html (str, optional): HTML email content
• reply_to (str, optional): Reply-to email address (uses config default if not provided)
• request (HttpRequest, optional): Django request object for site detection
• site (Site, optional): Django Site object (auto-detected if not provided)
• base_url (str, optional): ForwardEmail API base URL

Returns:

• Dict[str, Any]: API response from ForwardEmail

Raises:

• ImproperlyConfigured: If site configuration is missing
• Exception: If email sending fails

EmailConfiguration Model

Django model for storing ForwardEmail configurations per site.

Fields:

• site: ForeignKey to Django Site
• api_key: ForwardEmail API key
• from_email: Default sender email address
• from_name: Default sender name
• reply_to: Default reply-to address
• created_at: Timestamp when created
• updated_at: Timestamp when last updated

Settings

FORWARD_EMAIL_BASE_URL

Default: 'https://api.forwardemail.net'

The base URL for the ForwardEmail API. You typically don't need to change this unless you're using a custom ForwardEmail instance.

EMAIL_BACKEND

Set this to 'django_forwardemail.backends.ForwardEmailBackend' to use ForwardEmail as your default email backend.

MAILERS

Django 6.1 deprecates EMAIL_BACKEND in favour of MAILERS and removes it in Django 7.0. On Django 6.1+ you can configure the backend as a mailer alias instead:

# settings.py
MAILERS = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND': 'django_forwardemail.backends.ForwardEmailBackend',
    },
}

Extra backend options go under OPTIONS, and unknown options are reported as an InvalidMailer error. Both settings are supported; use EMAIL_BACKEND if you also need to run on Django 6.0 or earlier.

Development

Running Tests

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Run tests with coverage
pytest --cov=django_forwardemail

Code Quality

# Format code
black django_forwardemail/

# Lint code
flake8 django_forwardemail/

# Type checking
mypy django_forwardemail/

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests for your changes
5. Ensure all tests pass
6. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
7. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
8. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Documentation: https://django-forwardemail.readthedocs.io/
• Issues: https://github.com/Pacficient-Labs/django-forwardemail/issues
• ForwardEmail Documentation: https://forwardemail.net/docs

Changelog

1.0.1

• Allow send_mail() and the email backend to work without an explicitly provided site or request by falling back to the current site (and then the first site)
• Development status promoted to Production/Stable

1.0.0 (2025-08-30)

• STABLE RELEASE - Production-ready ForwardEmail integration
• Multi-site email configuration support with automatic site detection
• Django email backend integration with full compatibility
• ForwardEmail API service class with comprehensive error handling
• Django admin interface for easy configuration management
• Full backward compatibility with existing Django email patterns
• Comprehensive test suite covering Django 4.2+ and Python 3.10+
• Modern type hints and logging integration
• Extensive documentation and usage examples
• Automated CI/CD pipeline with PyPI publishing