Mailgun

Anymail integrates with the Mailgun transactional email service, using their messages REST API.

Note

By default, Anymail connects to Mailgun’s US-based API servers. If you are using Mailgun’s EU region, be sure to change the MAILGUN_API_URL Anymail setting as shown below.

Settings

EMAIL_BACKEND

To use Anymail’s Mailgun backend, set:

EMAIL_BACKEND = "anymail.backends.mailgun.EmailBackend"

in your settings.py.

MAILGUN_API_KEY

Required for sending. Your Mailgun “Private API key” from the Mailgun API security settings:

ANYMAIL = {
    ...
    "MAILGUN_API_KEY": "<your API key>",
}

Anymail will also look for MAILGUN_API_KEY at the root of the settings file if neither ANYMAIL["MAILGUN_API_KEY"] nor ANYMAIL_MAILGUN_API_KEY is set.

MAILGUN_API_URL

The base url for calling the Mailgun API.

The default is MAILGUN_API_URL = "https://api.mailgun.net/v3", which connects to Mailgun’s US service. You must change this if you are using Mailgun’s European region:

ANYMAIL = {
  "MAILGUN_API_KEY": "...",
  "MAILGUN_API_URL": "https://api.eu.mailgun.net/v3",
  # ...
}

(Do not include your sender domain or “/messages” in the API URL. Anymail figures this out for you.)

MAILGUN_SENDER_DOMAIN

If you are using a specific Mailgun sender domain that is different from your messages’ from_email domains, set this to the domain you’ve configured in your Mailgun account.

If your messages’ from_email domains always match a configured Mailgun sender domain, this setting is not needed.

See Email sender domain below for examples.

MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY

New in version 6.1.

Required for tracking or inbound webhooks. Your “HTTP webhook signing key” from the Mailgun API security settings:

ANYMAIL = {
    ...
    "MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY": "<your webhook signing key>",
}

If not provided, Anymail will attempt to validate webhooks using the MAILGUN_API_KEY setting instead. (These two keys have the same values for new Mailgun users, but will diverge if you ever rotate either key.)

Email sender domain

Mailgun’s API requires identifying the sender domain. By default, Anymail uses the domain of each messages’s from_email (e.g., “example.com” for “from@example.com”).

You will need to override this default if you are using a dedicated Mailgun sender domain that is different from a message’s from_email domain.

For example, if you are sending from “orders@example.com”, but your Mailgun account is configured for “mail1.example.com”, you should provide MAILGUN_SENDER_DOMAIN in your settings.py:

ANYMAIL = {
    ...
    "MAILGUN_API_KEY": "<your API key>",
    "MAILGUN_SENDER_DOMAIN": "mail1.example.com"
}

If you need to override the sender domain for an individual message, use Anymail’s envelope_sender (only the domain is used; anything before the @ is ignored):

message = EmailMessage(from_email="[email protected]", ...)
message.envelope_sender = "[email protected]"  # the "anything@" is ignored

exp_extra support

Anymail’s Mailgun backend will pass all esp_extra values directly to Mailgun. You can use any of the (non-file) parameters listed in the Mailgun sending docs. Example:

message = AnymailMessage(...)
message.esp_extra = {
    'o:deliverytime-optimize-period': '24h',  # use Mailgun Send Time Optimization
    'o:time-zone-localize': '16:00',  # use Mailgun Timezone Optimization
    'o:testmode': 'yes',  # use Mailgun's test mode
}

Limitations and quirks

Attachments require filenames

Mailgun has an undocumented API requirement that every attachment must have a filename. Attachments with missing filenames are silently dropped from the sent message. Similarly, every inline attachment must have a Content-ID.

To avoid unexpected behavior, Anymail will raise an AnymailUnsupportedFeature error if you attempt to send a message through Mailgun with any attachments that don’t have filenames (or inline attachments that don’t have Content-IDs).

Ensure your attachments have filenames by using message.attach_file(filename), message.attach(content, filename="..."), or if you are constructing your own MIME objects to attach, mimeobj.add_header("Content-Disposition", "attachment", filename="...").

Ensure your inline attachments have Content-IDs by using Anymail’s inline image helpers, or if you are constructing your own MIME objects, mimeobj.add_header("Content-ID", "...") and mimeobj.add_header("Content-Disposition", "inline").

Changed in version 4.3: Earlier Anymail releases did not check for these cases, and attachments without filenames/Content-IDs would be ignored by Mailgun without notice.

Envelope sender uses only domain

Anymail’s envelope_sender is used to select your Mailgun sender domain. For obvious reasons, only the domain portion applies. You can use anything before the @, and it will be ignored.

Using merge_metadata with merge_data

If you use both Anymail’s merge_data and merge_metadata features, make sure your merge_data keys do not start with v:. (It’s a good idea anyway to avoid colons and other special characters in merge_data keys, as this isn’t generally portable to other ESPs.)

The same underlying Mailgun feature (“recipient-variables”) is used to implement both Anymail features. To avoid conflicts, Anymail prepends v: to recipient variables needed for merge_metadata. (This prefix is stripped as Mailgun prepares the message to send, so it won’t be present in your Mailgun API logs or the metadata that is sent to tracking webhooks.)

Additional limitations on merge_data with template_id

If you are using Mailgun’s stored handlebars templates (Anymail’s template_id), merge_data cannot contain complex types or have any keys that conflict with metadata. See Limitations with stored handlebars templates below for more details.

merge_metadata values default to empty string

If you use Anymail’s merge_metadata feature, and you supply metadata keys for some recipients but not others, Anymail will first try to resolve the missing keys in metadata, and if they are not found there will default them to an empty string value.

Your tracking webhooks will receive metadata values (either that you provided or the default empty string) for every key used with any recipient in the send.

AMP for Email

Mailgun supports sending AMPHTML email content. To include it, use message.attach_alternative("...AMPHTML content...", "text/x-amp-html") (and be sure to also include regular HTML and/or text bodies, too).

New in version 8.2.

Batch sending/merge and ESP templates

Mailgun supports ESP stored templates, on-the-fly templating, and batch sending with per-recipient merge data.

Changed in version 7.0: Added support for Mailgun’s stored (handlebars) templates.

Mailgun has two different syntaxes for substituting data into templates:

  • “Recipient variables” look like %recipient.name%, and are used with on-the-fly templates. You can refer to a recipient variable inside a message’s body, subject, or other message attributes defined in your Django code. See Mailgun batch sending for more information. (Note that Mailgun’s docs also sometimes refer to recipient variables as “template variables,” and there are some additional predefined ones described in their docs.)

  • “Template substitutions” look like {{ name }}, and can only be used in handlebars templates that are defined and stored in your Mailgun account (via the Mailgun dashboard or API). You refer to a stored template using Anymail’s template_id in your Django code. See Mailgun templates for more information.

With either type of template, you supply the substitution data using Anymail’s normalized merge_data and merge_global_data message attributes. Anymail will figure out the correct Mailgun API parameters to use.

Here’s an example defining an on-the-fly template that uses Mailgun recipient variables:

message = EmailMessage(
    from_email="[email protected]",
    # Use %recipient.___% syntax in subject and body:
    subject="Your order %recipient.order_no% has shipped",
    body="""Hi %recipient.name%,
            We shipped your order %recipient.order_no%
            on %recipient.ship_date%.""",
    to=["[email protected]", "Bob <[email protected]>"]
)
# (you'd probably also set a similar html body with %recipient.___% variables)
message.merge_data = {
    '[email protected]': {'name': "Alice", 'order_no': "12345"},
    '[email protected]': {'name': "Bob", 'order_no': "54321"},
}
message.merge_global_data = {
    'ship_date': "May 15"  # Anymail maps globals to all recipients
}

And here’s an example that uses the same data with a stored template, which could refer to {{ name }}, {{ order_no }}, and {{ ship_date }} in its definition:

message = EmailMessage(
    from_email="[email protected]",
    # The message body and html_body come from from the stored template.
    # (You can still use %recipient.___% fields in the subject:)
    subject="Your order %recipient.order_no% has shipped",
    to=["[email protected]", "Bob <[email protected]>"]
)
message.template_id = 'shipping-notification'  # name of template in our account
# The substitution data is exactly the same as in the previous example:
message.merge_data = {
    '[email protected]': {'name': "Alice", 'order_no': "12345"},
    '[email protected]': {'name': "Bob", 'order_no': "54321"},
}
message.merge_global_data = {
    'ship_date': "May 15"  # Anymail maps globals to all recipients
}

When you supply per-recipient merge_data, Anymail supplies Mailgun’s recipient-variables parameter, which puts Mailgun in batch sending mode so that each “to” recipient sees only their own email address. (Any cc’s or bcc’s will be duplicated for every to-recipient.)

If you want to use batch sending with a regular message (without a template), set merge data to an empty dict: message.merge_data = {}.

Mailgun does not natively support global merge data. Anymail emulates the capability by copying any merge_global_data values to every recipient.

Limitations with stored handlebars templates

Although Anymail tries to insulate you from Mailgun’s relatively complicated API parameters for template substitutions in batch sends, there are two cases it can’t handle. These only apply to stored handlebars templates (when you’ve set Anymail’s template_id attribute).

First, metadata and template merge data substitutions use the same underlying “custom data” API parameters when a handlebars template is used. If you have any duplicate keys between your tracking metadata (metadata/merge_metadata) and your template merge data (merge_data/merge_global_data), Anymail will raise an AnymailUnsupportedFeature error.

Second, Mailgun’s API does not allow complex data types like lists or dicts to be passed as template substitutions for a batch send (confirmed with Mailgun support 8/2019). Your Anymail merge_data and merge_global_data should only use simple types like string or number. This means you cannot use the handlebars {{#each item}} block helper or dotted field notation like {{object.field}} with data passed through Anymail’s normalized merge data attributes.

Most ESPs do not support complex merge data types, so trying to do that is not recommended anyway, for portability reasons. But if you do want to pass complex types to Mailgun handlebars templates, and you’re only sending to one recipient at a time, here’s a (non-portable!) workaround:

# Using complex substitutions with Mailgun handlebars templates.
# This works only for a single recipient, and is not at all portable between ESPs.
message = EmailMessage(
    from_email="[email protected]",
    to=["[email protected]"],  # single recipient *only* (no batch send)
    subject="Your order has shipped",  # recipient variables *not* available
)
message.template_id = 'shipping-notification'  # name of template in our account
substitutions = {
    'items': [  # complex substitution data
        {'product': "Anvil", 'quantity': 1},
        {'product': "Tacks", 'quantity': 100},
    ],
    'ship_date': "May 15",
}
# Do *not* set Anymail's message.merge_data, merge_global_data, or merge_metadata.
# Instead add Mailgun custom variables directly:
message.extra_headers['X-Mailgun-Variables'] = json.dumps(substitutions)

Status tracking webhooks

Changed in version 4.0: Added support for Mailgun’s June, 2018 (non-“legacy”) webhook format.

Changed in version 6.1: Added support for a new MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY setting, separate from your MAILGUN_API_KEY.

If you are using Anymail’s normalized status tracking, enter the url in the Mailgun webhooks config for your domain. (Be sure to select the correct sending domain—Mailgun’s sandbox and production domains have separate webhook settings.)

Mailgun allows you to enter a different URL for each event type: just enter this same Anymail tracking URL for all events you want to receive:

https://random:random@yoursite.example.com/anymail/mailgun/tracking/

Mailgun implements a limited form of webhook signing, and Anymail will verify these signatures against your MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY Anymail setting. By default, Mailgun’s webhook signature provides similar security to Anymail’s shared webhook secret, so it’s acceptable to omit the ANYMAIL_WEBHOOK_SECRET setting (and “{random}:{random}@” portion of the webhook url) with Mailgun webhooks.

Mailgun will report these Anymail event_types: delivered, rejected, bounced, complained, unsubscribed, opened, clicked.

The event’s esp_event field will be the parsed Mailgun webhook payload as a Python dict with "signature" and "event-data" keys.

Anymail uses Mailgun’s webhook token as its normalized event_id, rather than Mailgun’s event-data id (which is only guaranteed to be unique during a single day). If you need the event-data id, it can be accessed in your webhook handler as event.esp_event["event-data"]["id"]. (This can be helpful for working with Mailgun’s other event APIs.)

Note

Mailgun legacy webhooks

In late June, 2018, Mailgun introduced a new set of webhooks with an improved payload design, and at the same time renamed their original webhooks to “Legacy Webhooks.”

Anymail v4.0 and later supports both new and legacy Mailgun webhooks, and the same Anymail webhook url works as either. Earlier Anymail versions can only be used as legacy webhook urls.

The new (non-legacy) webhooks are preferred, particularly with Anymail’s metadata and tags features. But if you have already configured the legacy webhooks, there is no need to change.

If you are using Mailgun’s legacy webhooks:

  • The event.esp_event field will be a Django QueryDict of Mailgun event fields (the raw POST data provided by legacy webhooks).

  • You should avoid using “body-plain,” “h,” “message-headers,” “message-id” or “tag” as metadata keys. A design limitation in Mailgun’s legacy webhooks prevents Anymail from reliably retrieving this metadata from opened, clicked, and unsubscribed events. (This is not an issue with the newer, non-legacy webhooks.)

Inbound webhook

If you want to receive email from Mailgun through Anymail’s normalized inbound handling, follow Mailgun’s Receiving, Storing and Fowarding Messages guide to set up an inbound route that forwards to Anymail’s inbound webhook. (You can configure routes using Mailgun’s API, or simply using the Mailgun receiving config.)

The action for your route will be either:

forward("https://random:random@yoursite.example.com/anymail/mailgun/inbound/") forward("https://random:random@yoursite.example.com/anymail/mailgun/inbound_mime/")

  • forward is required to select Mailgun’s “forward” action (Anymail does not support using the “store” action)

  • random:random is an ANYMAIL_WEBHOOK_SECRET shared secret

  • yoursite.example.com is your Django site

Anymail accepts either of Mailgun’s “fully-parsed” (…/inbound/) and “raw MIME” (…/inbound_mime/) formats; the URL tells Mailgun which you want. Because Anymail handles parsing and normalizing the data, both are equally easy to use. The raw MIME option will give the most accurate representation of any received email (including complex forms like multi-message mailing list digests). The fully-parsed option may use less memory while processing messages with many large attachments.

If you want to use Anymail’s normalized spam_detected and spam_score attributes, you’ll need to set your Mailgun domain’s inbound spam filter to “Deliver spam, but add X-Mailgun-SFlag and X-Mailgun-SScore headers” (in the Mailgun domains config).

Anymail will verify Mailgun inbound message events using your MAILGUN_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY Anymail setting. By default, Mailgun’s webhook signature provides similar security to Anymail’s shared webhook secret, so it’s acceptable to omit the ANYMAIL_WEBHOOK_SECRET setting (and “random:random@” portion of the action) with Mailgun inbound routing.