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Community Blog How to Apply API Gateway for DirectMail in Python

How to Apply API Gateway for DirectMail in Python

In this article, you will get some information on Alibaba Cloud DirectMail for DevOps using REST API in Python.

My favorite language for rapid prototyping and learning a new cloud service is Python. Python makes most tasks so simple that I can test a new API in minutes. This allows me to focus on learning and not on the details of how an API works in a particular language. However, for enterprise level code where a mistake could cost millions of dollars, I use C++.

The Alibaba SDK for DirectMail does not support Python. It does support PHP, Java and C#. A very common use case for DirectMail is delivering emails for dynamic and static websites. For dynamic websites PHP is perfect. For static websites, integrating Function Compute with DirectMail is perfect. However, Function Compute does not support PHP. This means that you develop in one language on your desktop and another in the cloud.

This led me to the idea of using the DirectMail REST API. This means that I can use Python and learn how to use the REST API and in particular how to create the Signature that is not documented very well. Nothing like picking a difficult challenge to really learn a new service.

In this article I will focus on the DirectMail REST API and include a real working example in Python.

Calculating the correct dates

# Correctly formatted date and time
now = datetime.datetime.utcnow()

# Date used by the HTTP "Date" header
date = now.strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S GMT")

# Date used by the API parameter "Timestamp"
utc = now.isoformat(timespec='seconds') + 'Z'

Complete Program to Call DirectMail REST API and Send an Email

Download sendEmail.zip.

############################################################
# Version 1.00
# Date Created: 2018-05-26
# Last Update:  2018-05-27
# https://www.neoprime.io
# Copyright (c) 2018, NeoPrime, LLC
############################################################

""" Alibaba Cloud DirectMail REST API With Signing """

import base64
import datetime
import hmac
import hashlib
import urllib
import uuid
import json
import requests

# My library for processing Alibaba Cloud Services (ACS) credentials
import mycred_acs

# From the DirectMail Console
dm_account = "<enter your value here>"
dm_alias = "<enter your value here>"

debug = 0

def set_connection_logging():
    """ Enable HTTP connection logging """
    if debug is 0:
        return

    import logging
    import http.client as http_client

    http_client.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1

    # You must initialize logging, otherwise you'll not see debug output.
    logging.basicConfig()
    logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
    requests_log = logging.getLogger("requests.packages.urllib3")
    requests_log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
    requests_log.propagate = True
    return

def get_uuid():
    """ return a uuid as a signing nonce """
    return str(uuid.uuid4())

def percentEncode(path):
    """ Encode a URL """
    res = urllib.parse.quote(path)
    res = res.replace('+', '%20')
    res = res.replace('*', '%2A')
    res = res.replace('%7E', '~')
    return res

def my_urlencode(query):
    """ Encode a Query """
    res = urllib.parse.urlencode(query)
    res = res.replace('+', '%20')
    res = res.replace('*', '%2A')
    res = res.replace('%7E', '~')
    return res

def build_request_string(table):
    """ Build canonical list """
    items = sorted(iter(table.items()), key=lambda d: d[0])
    enc = my_urlencode(items)
    return enc

def sign(string, secret):
    """ Sign REST API Request """
    nsecret = secret + '&'

    h = hmac.new(
        bytes(nsecret, "utf-8"),
        bytes(string, "utf-8"),
        hashlib.sha1)

    #sig = base64.b64encode(h.digest())
    sig = str(base64.encodebytes(h.digest()).strip(), "utf-8")
    return sig

def sendEmail(credentials, subject, body, body_text, to_list):
    """ Send an email using Alibaba DirectMail """
    # HTTP Method
    method = "POST"

    # Correctly formatted date and time
    now = datetime.datetime.utcnow()
    date = now.strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S GMT")
    utc = now.isoformat(timespec='seconds') + 'Z'

    # HTTP Host header
    host = "dm.ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com"

    # URL for POST
    url = "https://dm.ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com/"

    parameters = {}

    # Add the DirectMail public request parameters
    parameters["Format"] = "json"
    parameters["AccessKeyId"] = credentials['AccessKey']
    parameters["SignatureMethod"] = "HMAC-SHA1"
    parameters["SignatureType"] = ""
    parameters["SignatureVersion"] = "1.0"
    parameters["SignatureNonce"] = get_uuid()
    parameters["Timestamp"] = utc
    #parameters["Version"] = "2015-11-23"
    parameters["Version"] = "2017-06-22"
    parameters["RegionId"] = "ap-southeast-1"

    # Add parameters that are always set
    parameters["Action"] = "SingleSendMail"
    parameters["AddressType"] = "1"
    parameters["ReplyToAddress"] = "true"

    # Add the DirectMail API parameters
    parameters["AccountName"] = dm_account
    parameters["FromAlias"] = dm_alias
    parameters["ToAddress"] = to_list
    parameters["Subject"] = subject
    parameters["HtmlBody"] = body
    parameters["textBody"] = body_text

    # Build the request string for the signing process
    params = build_request_string(parameters)

    # Create the actual string to sign
    stringToSign = method + "&%2F&" + percentEncode(params)

    #print("String to Sign")
    #print(stringToSign)

    Signature = sign(stringToSign, credentials['AccessKeySecret'])
    #print("Signature", Signature)

    parameters["Signature"] = Signature

    headers = {
        'Date': date,
        'Host': host
    }

    set_connection_logging()

    print("Sending Email to", parameters["ToAddress"])
    r = requests.post(url, data=parameters, headers=headers)

    if r.status_code != 200:
        print("Error: Email Send Failed:", r.status_code)
        print(r.text)
        return 1

    #print(r.text)

    result = json.loads(r.text)
    print("Success: Request ID:", result['RequestId'])

    return 0

# Load the Alibaba Cloud Credentials (AccessKey)
cred = mycred_acs.LoadCredentials()

dm_subject = "Welcome to Alibaba Cloud DirectMail"

dm_body = "<h2>Welcome to Alibaba Cloud DirectMail<h2>You are receiving this email as part of a test program.<br /><br />Click for <a href='https://www.neoprime.io/info/alibaba/'>more information<a>.<br /><br /><a href='https://www.alibabacloud.com/'><img src='https://www.neoprime.io/info/alibaba/img/alibaba-600x263.png' alt='Alibaba' width='700'><a>"

dm_body_text = "Welcome to Alibaba Cloud DirectMail\nYou are receiving this email as part of a test program."

dm_to_list = "test@test.com, test2@test.com

sendEmail(cred, dm_subject, dm_body, dm_body_text, dm_to_list)

Execute with Python 3.x: python sendEmail.py

For details, please go to Cloud DevOps Cookbook Part 4 – API Gateway and DirectMail with Python 3.0.

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