Email enabling Spring Applications.

Using gmail smtp server, JavaMail and Spring IOC, we can quickly put together a simple mail sending application, without any SMTP server installation. Check this out for a detailed description of using gmail as smtp server. Thanks to Enrico for blogging smtp spring configuration.

Assuming you have used Spring before, here is a short tutorial:

1. Add mail.jar from JavaMail project to build path.
2. In spring bean configuration file add:
    1 <bean id=“mailSender” class=“org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl”>
    2     <property name=“host” value=“smtp.gmail.com”/>
    3     <property name=“username” value=“${gmail_username}”/>
    4     <property name=“password” value=“${gmail_password}”/>
    5     <property name=“javaMailProperties”>
    6         <props>
    7             <prop key=“mail.smtp.auth”>true</prop>
    8             <prop key=“mail.smtp.starttls.enable”>true</prop>
    9         </props>
   10     </property>
   11 </bean>
   12
   13 <!– this is a template message that we can pre-load with default state –>
   14 <bean id=“templateMessage” class=“org.springframework.mail.SimpleMailMessage”>
   15     <!– The from field is overwritten by gmail to your gmail ID. Go to Gmail Account Settings to choose default outgoing mail ID. –>
   16     <property name=“from” value=“notify@abcd-xyz.com”/>
   17     <property name=“subject” value=“Mail Notification.”/>
   18 </bean>
   19 
3. Create a class MailNotifier where you send mails.
    1 import org.springframework.mail.MailException;
    2 import org.springframework.mail.MailSender;
    3 import org.springframework.mail.SimpleMailMessage;
    4
    5 import com.abcd.beans.Member;
    6
    7
    8 /**
    9  * @author gubbi
   10  *
   11  */
   12
   13 public class MailNotifier {
   14   private MailSender mMailSender;
   15   private SimpleMailMessage mTemplateMessage;
   16
   17
   18   public void sendNotification(Member pMember) {
   19     SimpleMailMessage message = new SimpleMailMessage(mTemplateMessage);
   20
   21     message.setText("Dear " + pMember.getFirstName() + ",nSending test notification.");
   22     message.setTo(pMember.getEmail());
   23
   24     try{
   25       mMailSender.send(message);
   26     }
   27     catch(MailException ex) {
   28       ex.printStackTrace();
   29     }
   30   }
   31
   32
   33   /**
   34    * @param pMailSender the mailSender to set
   35    */
   36   public void setMailSender(MailSender pMailSender) {
   37     mMailSender = pMailSender;
   38   }
   39
   40
   41   /**
   42    * @param pTemplateMessage the templateMessage to set
   43    */
   44   public void setTemplateMessage(SimpleMailMessage pTemplateMessage) {
   45     mTemplateMessage = pTemplateMessage;
   46   }
   47 }
   48 
4. Add spring bean configuration for MailNotifier class:
   1 <bean id="mailNotifier" class="com.abcd.modules.MailNotifier">
   2     <property name="mailSender" ref="mailSender"/>
   3     <property name="templateMessage" ref="templateMessage"/>
   4 </bean>
   5 
5. This is it 

Check out Spring Reference for details about sending mails with attachments and using html templates for mail content. Let me know other methods of doing the same.