Sending attached file fails when sent to Box folder via Python app; works when sent to email address

I am trying to use the SMTP functions within Python to send a file to a Box folder. This works when I use Outlook or AT&T web mail (both sending to my own Box account and the one I need to send to at another University), so I know I am authorized. When I use my app to send a file to my own email address, it works; the file appears in my in-box and is correct. When I try to send using my Python code, I get:

Your attempt to email file(s) into 'a folder' was not successful. This could be due to the following reasons:

- Your collaboration privilege did not allow you to upload into the folder (I have checked this - I have the privilege and it works using an email client)

- A file of the same name already exists and the folder owner disabled file-overwriting for this folder (I have checked this, there is no such existing file).

- The file you attached exceeded file size limit (It is a small file, a few kB).

- The owner of this folder does not have sufficient space in their account (my University account has unlimited storage).

- You did not attach a file (yes, it is there; when I change nothing but the destination email and send it to my own account, the file goes through and is correct).

Is this related to the MIMEType or something like that? I would rather not use the Box API if I can avoid it, because this should be dirt-simple. What is the email handler in the Box system looking for that I am not providing?

CODE

import smtplib, tarfile

import sys, getopt, os

from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart

from email.mime.text import MIMEText

from email.mime.base import MIMEBase

from email import encoders

from mimetypes import guess_type

from email.encoders import encode_base64

def main(argv):

username = ''

password = ''

thePath = ''

try:

opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv,"hu:p:s:d:",["uid=","pwd=","source=","dest="])

except getopt.GetoptError:

print("options error")

print 'filesend.py -u <userId> -p <password> -s <sourcepath> -d <destination>'

sys.exit(2)

print("#args=" + str(len(opts)))

if(len(opts) != 4):

print("missing arg(s)")

print 'filesend.py -u <userId> -p <password> -s <sourcepath> -d <destination>'

sys.exit(2)

print("opts: ",opts)

for opt, arg in opts:

if opt == '-h':

print 'filesend.py -u <userId> -p <password> -s <sourcepath> -d <destination>'

sys.exit()

elif opt in ("-u", "--uid"):

username = arg

elif opt in ("-p", "--pwd"):

password = arg

elif opt in ("-s", "--source"):

thePath = arg

elif opt in ("-d","--dest"):

dest = arg

print("uid = " + username + " pwd =" + password + " sourcepath =" + thePath + " dest=" + dest)

dirList = os.listdir(thePath)

for theFile in dirList:

if theFile.endswith('.csv'):

print("now compress " + theFile)

cFile = thePath + "/" + theFile + ".tar"

tar = tarfile.open(cFile, mode="w:gz")

tar.add(thePath + "/" + theFile)

tar.close

# r = os.system("rm " + thePath + "/" + theFile)

else:

cFile = thePath + "/" + theFile

print"Try to send file: " + cFile

sender_email = username

receiver_email = dest

message = MIMEMultipart()

message["From"] = sender_email

message['To'] = receiver_email

message['Subject'] = "Data File from Grape"

body = "Grape file"

body = MIMEText(body)

message.attach(body)

filename = cFile

mimetype, encoding = guess_type(filename)

mimetype = mimetype.split('/',1)

fp = open(filename, 'rb')

attachment = MIMEBase(mimetype[0],mimetype[1])

attachment.set_payload(fp.read())

fp.close()

encode_base64(attachment)

attachment.add_header('Content-Dispoosition', 'attachment',

filename=os.path.basename(filename))

print('filename basename = ' + filename)

my_message = str(message)

# email_session = smtplib.SMTP('smtp2go.com',2525)

email_session = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.mail.yahoo.com',587)

email_session.starttls()

email_session.login(sender_email,password)

email_session.sendmail(sender_email,receiver_email,my_message)

email_session.quit()

print("YOUR MAIL HAS BEEN SENT SUCCESSFULLY")

# r = os.system("rm " + file)

if __name__ == "__main__":

main(sys.argv[1:])

William Engelke

January 30, 2021 00:04

Problem found: when sending a file to Box by using email, the email text must have an html header; a plain text text message will cause the attachment to be rejected.

PATRICIO HERNAN BESTEIRO

July 13, 2021 15:52

@william, could you share an example of how you make it work? thanks in advance!

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