Pywikibot/Mass user mailing/Send email.py

cat send_email.py

#!/usr/bin/python3

"""
Author: Geert Van Pamel, 2020-01-22, CC BY-SA 4.0, User:Geertivp

Send an e-mail to a list of Wikimedia users.
"""

import pywikibot
from datetime import datetime	# now, strftime, delta time, total_seconds

mailto = """
(list of usernames, one per line)
"""

mailsubject = 'Wiki Loves Heritage Belgium 2020'
mailbody = """Dear participant of Wiki Loves Heritage Belgium 2020,
(rest of body text)

-- Geert Van Pamel, Wikimedia Belgium
"""

# Login to Wikimedia account
site = pywikibot.Site('be', 'wikimedia')
site.login()    # Must login to send email
account = pywikibot.User(site, site.user())

try:    # Old accounts do not have a registration date
    print ('Account:', site.user(), account.registration().strftime('%Y-%m-%d'), account.groups())
except Exception:
    print ('Account:', site.user(), account.groups())

mailcnt = 0
mailerr = 0

for user in sorted(set(mailto.split('\n'))):
  if user != '':
    try:
        wikiuser = pywikibot.User(site, user)
        mailstat = wikiuser.send_email(subject=mailsubject, text=mailbody)
        print(user)
        mailcnt += 1
    except Exception as error:
        print('Error sending to %s,' % (user), format(error))
        mailerr += 1

print('%d mails sent\n%d failed' % (mailcnt, mailerr))

Known problems edit

You don't have permission to send mail: Please login before attempting to send mail
WARNING - API error ratelimited - As an anti-abuse measure, you are limited from performing this action too many times in a short space of time, and you have exceeded this limit. Please try again in a few minutes.: Use an account that has the noratelimit right
HTML mail not supported: Fallback to plain text instead

Tips edit

add your own username to the list (to have a copy of the message)
first send a test e-mail only to yourself
verify the result before running the mass mailing
send messages in the language of the users (group the distribution list per language)
use the script command to create a log file typescript