How to Send Emails in Java: A Step-by-Step Guide

To send an e-mail using your Java Application is simple enough but to start with you should have JavaMail API and Java Activation Framework (JAF) installed on your machine.

• You can download latest version of JavaMail (Version 1.2) from Java's standard website.

• You can download latest version of JAF (Version 1.1.1) from Java's standard website.

Download and unzip these files, in the newly created top level directories you will find a number of jar files for both the applications. You need to add mail.jar and activation.jar files in your CLASSPATH.

Send a Simple E-mail

Here is an example to send a simple e-mail from your machine. It is assumed that your localhost is connected to the Internet and capable enough to send an e-mail.

Example

// File Name SendEmail.java

import java.util.*;
import javax.mail.*;
import javax.mail.internet.*;
import javax.activation.*;

public class SendEmail {

   public static void main(String [] args) {    
      // Recipient's email ID needs to be mentioned.
      String to = "abcd@gmail.com";

      // Sender's email ID needs to be mentioned
      String from = "web@gmail.com";

      // Assuming you are sending email from localhost
      String host = "localhost";

      // Get system properties
      Properties properties = System.getProperties();

      // Setup mail server
      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);

      // Get the default Session object.
      Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

      try {
         // Create a default MimeMessage object.
         MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

         // Set From: header field of the header.
         message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(from));

         // Set To: header field of the header.
         message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(to));

         // Set Subject: header field
         message.setSubject("This is the Subject Line!");

         // Now set the actual message
         message.setText("This is actual message");

         // Send message
         Transport.send(message);
         System.out.println("Sent message successfully....");
      } catch (MessagingException mex) {
         mex.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Compile and run this program to send a simple e-mail −

Output

$ java SendEmail
Sent message successfully....

If you want to send an e-mail to multiple recipients then the following methods would be used to specify multiple e-mail IDs −

void addRecipients(Message.RecipientType type, Address[] addresses)
   throws MessagingException

Here is the description of the parameters −

• type − This would be set to TO, CC or BCC. Here CC represents Carbon Copy and BCC represents Black Carbon Copy. Example: Message.RecipientType.TO

• addresses − This is an array of e-mail ID. You would need to use InternetAddress() method while specifying email IDs.

Send an HTML E-mail

Here is an example to send an HTML e-mail from your machine. Here it is assumed that your localhost is connected to the Internet and capable enough to send an e-mail.

This example is very similar to the previous one, except here we are using setContent() method to set content whose second argument is "text/html" to specify that the HTML content is included in the message.

Using this example, you can send as big as HTML content you like.

Example

// File Name SendHTMLEmail.java

import java.util.*;
import javax.mail.*;
import javax.mail.internet.*;
import javax.activation.*;

public class SendHTMLEmail {

   public static void main(String [] args) {
      // Recipient's email ID needs to be mentioned.
      String to = "abcd@gmail.com";

      // Sender's email ID needs to be mentioned
      String from = "web@gmail.com";

      // Assuming you are sending email from localhost
      String host = "localhost";

      // Get system properties
      Properties properties = System.getProperties();

      // Setup mail server
      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);

      // Get the default Session object.
      Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

      try {
         // Create a default MimeMessage object.
         MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

         // Set From: header field of the header.
         message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(from));

         // Set To: header field of the header.
         message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(to));

         // Set Subject: header field
         message.setSubject("This is the Subject Line!");

         // Send the actual HTML message, as big as you like
         message.setContent("<h1>This is actual message</h1>", "text/html");

         // Send message
         Transport.send(message);
         System.out.println("Sent message successfully....");
      } catch (MessagingException mex) {
         mex.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Compile and run this program to send an HTML e-mail −

Output

$ java SendHTMLEmail
Sent message successfully....

Send Attachment in E-mail

Here is an example to send an e-mail with attachment from your machine. Here it is assumed that your localhost is connected to the internet and capable enough to send an e-mail.

Example

// File Name SendFileEmail.java

import java.util.*;
import javax.mail.*;
import javax.mail.internet.*;
import javax.activation.*;

public class SendFileEmail {

   public static void main(String [] args) {     
      // Recipient's email ID needs to be mentioned.
      String to = "abcd@gmail.com";

      // Sender's email ID needs to be mentioned
      String from = "web@gmail.com";

      // Assuming you are sending email from localhost
      String host = "localhost";

      // Get system properties
      Properties properties = System.getProperties();

      // Setup mail server
      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);

      // Get the default Session object.
      Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

      try {
         // Create a default MimeMessage object.
         MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

         // Set From: header field of the header.
         message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(from));

         // Set To: header field of the header.
         message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO,new InternetAddress(to));

         // Set Subject: header field
         message.setSubject("This is the Subject Line!");

         // Create the message part 
         BodyPart messageBodyPart = new MimeBodyPart();

         // Fill the message
         messageBodyPart.setText("This is message body");
         
         // Create a multipar message
         Multipart multipart = new MimeMultipart();

         // Set text message part
         multipart.addBodyPart(messageBodyPart);

         // Part two is attachment
         messageBodyPart = new MimeBodyPart();
         String filename = "file.txt";
         DataSource source = new FileDataSource(filename);
         messageBodyPart.setDataHandler(new DataHandler(source));
         messageBodyPart.setFileName(filename);
         multipart.addBodyPart(messageBodyPart);

         // Send the complete message parts
         message.setContent(multipart );

         // Send message
         Transport.send(message);
         System.out.println("Sent message successfully....");
      } catch (MessagingException mex) {
         mex.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Compile and run this program to send an HTML e-mail −

Output

$ java SendFileEmail
Sent message successfully....

User Authentication Part

If it is required to provide user ID and Password to the e-mail server for authentication purpose, then you can set these properties as follows −

props.setProperty("mail.user", "myuser");
props.setProperty("mail.password", "mypwd");

Rest of the e-mail sending mechanism would remain as explained above.