Java Mail API Help

[sam wootton]

Hi,

As always, many thanks for anyones help or advice.

I am trying to send email from my Servlet.

String host = "localhost";

      Properties properties = System.getProperties();

      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);

      Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

        try {

            MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

            message.setFrom(new InternetAddress("[e-mail]"));

            message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress("[e-mail]"));

            message.setSubject("New upload");

            message.setText("Bruno has uploaded the following songs to your repository");

            Transport.send(message);

      } catch (MessagingException mex) {
         mex.printStackTrace();
      }

I have:

/tomcat/lib/mail.jar
/tomcat/lib/mailapi.jar

In catalina.policy i have:

permission java.io.FilePermission" "/home/sam/tomcat/lib/mail.jar", "read";
permission java.io.FilePermission" "/home/sam/tomcat/lib/mailapi.jar", "read";
// following needed if System.getProperties() is used
permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";

No exception or error is being thrown, but i do not get an email sent to my address.

Im not sure why this isn't working.

I am using java 1.6, so i shouldn't need anything mnore than mail.jar.

Regards, Sam

[Rob Spoor]

Call session.setDebug(true) and check your output / log files. You'll be able to see exactly what JavaMail is doing.

[Paul Clapham]

I would suggest that you test sending of e-mail in a plain old Java application first, like a small command-line program which does just that and nothing else. Tomcat and Servlets aren't really easy to use for basic testing.

And make sure that your setup agrees with the assumptions that I see from your post:

1. You are running an SMTP server on the same computer where the code is running.

2. It is listening at port 25 (which is the default port for SMTP).

3. It doesn't require authentication.

4. It is configured so that it can relay e-mails which claim to come from a different domain (gmail.com in your case).

You should also become conversant with the administrative functions of that SMTP server, so that you can tell whether it has delivered an e-mail successfully. Or if it isn't your server, you should enlist the help of its administrator.

[sam wootton]

[Many thanks for your help.

I think the problem could be my local host sending. I thought i could just use googles smtp server. I did used to run postfix... but it was such a pain to administer, i ditched it.

DEBUG: setDebug: JavaMail version 1.4.5
DEBUG: getProvider() returning javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc]
DEBUG SMTP: useEhlo true, useAuth false
DEBUG SMTP: trying to connect to host "localhost", port 25, isSSL false
220 linux-tkec.site ESMTP Postfix
DEBUG SMTP: connected to host "localhost", port: 25

EHLO linux-tkec.site
250-linux-tkec.site
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE
250-VRFY
250-ETRN
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250 DSN
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "PIPELINING", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "SIZE", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "VRFY", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "ETRN", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "8BITMIME", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "DSN", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: use8bit false
MAIL FROM:<[e-mail]>
250 2.1.0 Ok
RCPT TO:<[e-mail]>
250 2.1.5 Ok
DEBUG SMTP: Verified Addresses
DEBUG SMTP:   [e-mail]
DATA
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <1825486557.1.1335817860037.JavaMail.tomcat@linux-tkec>
Subject: New upload to music-alms
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Bruno has uploaded the following songs to your music-alms repository
.
250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 0E5071068E6
QUIT
221 2.0.0 Bye
Sent message successfully....

So you cant send email from java, without the ocal machine running an SMTP server?


Regards, Sam

[sam wootton]

I guess if i had host as "smtp.gmail.com"

DEBUG: setDebug: JavaMail version 1.4.5
DEBUG: getProvider() returning javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc]
DEBUG SMTP: useEhlo true, useAuth false
DEBUG SMTP: trying to connect to host "smtp.gmail.com", port 25, isSSL false

Regards, Sam

[Paul Clapham]

Sure you can use the Gmail server. Have a look at the JavaMail FAQ for the issues involved with doing that, including how to do the authentication.

[sam wootton]

Hi,

Massive thanks!!! Got it all working great.

String host = "smtp.gmail.com";

      PasswordAuthentication authenticator = new javax.mail.PasswordAuthentication("[e-mail]","******");

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

      // Setup mail server
      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);
      properties.put("mail.smtp.port", 465);
      //properties.put("mail.smtp.port", "587");
      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.auth", "true");
      //properties.put("mail.smtp.ssl.enable", "true");
      properties.put("mail.smtp.starttls.enable", "true");
      properties.put("mail.smtp.username", "[e-mail]");
      properties.put("mail.smtp.password", "xxx");

      properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.submitter", authenticator.getUserName());

      Session session = Session.getInstance(properties,
		  new javax.mail.Authenticator() {
			protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {
				return new PasswordAuthentication("[e-mail]", "xxx");
			}
		  });

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

        try {



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

            message.setFrom(new InternetAddress("[e-mail]"));

            message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress("[e-mail]"));

            message.setSubject("New upload to music-alms");

            message.setText("Bruno has uploaded the following songs to your music-alms repository");

            Transport.send(message);

            System.out.println("Sent message successfully....");

      } catch (MessagingException mex) {
         mex.printStackTrace();
      }

Many thanks for everyones help.

Regards, Sam

(Edit: Hide password -- Paul C)
(Edit: and email address -- Rob)

[Paul Clapham]

Working now? Great!

However...

properties.put("mail.smtp.password", "xxx");

You didn't get this from the JavaMail FAQ, did you? Because there's no such property in JavaMail.

There's nothing wrong with using non-existent properties, in the sense that they don't cause the program to break. But it's unhelpful to future maintainers of the code because it gives them extra work to find out that they do nothing. Likewise it's unhelpful to post such code on the web because then unwary students will copy the code elsewhere, compounding the problem.

[sam wootton]

Ah thanks Paul Clapham, no i didnt. tbh, it was a mix of googling / forums / mail API reading. I started looking prior to reading your previous response.

Many thanks for your help, much appreciated!

Out of interest - how safe is storing my email pwd as compiled code, on tomcat?

I'm not that happy with it, or am i just paranoid?

Regards, Sam

[Tim Moores]

Depends - do you trust your sys admins? If not, I suggest to get hosting elsewhere.

[sam wootton]

Tim Moores

well, currently its just running locally (on Opensuse) - so i trust me.

the client-side is actually a swing desktop application, and i guess in the future it would have to use either the chosen hosts mx servers, or my own running next to tomcat. But thats a long way off (and this is only a peronsal project, so whether i ever get to that point is in question).

thanks again for your help.

I more wondered if it was possibleto hack a servlet to get info like that.

Regards, Sam

[Tim Moores]

If you somehow obtain physical access to the servlet's class/jar file then it's easy to decompile it and retrieve such information. But I'd argue that once someone has access to those files, and is bent on causing trouble, you have much bigger things to worry about.

In general, you should keep the connection details out of the Java code, maybe in a properties file, just like you'd do for DB and logging properties.