README.md

simplesmtp

This is a module to easily create custom SMTP servers and clients - use SMTP as a first class protocol in Node.JS!

Autogenerated docs

SMTP Server

Usage

Create a new SMTP server instance with

var smtp = simplesmtp.createServer([options]);

And start listening on selected port

smtp.listen(25, [function(err){}]);

SMTP options can include the following:

• name - the hostname of the server, will be used for informational messages
• debug - if set to true, print out messages about the connection
• timeout - client timeout in milliseconds, defaults to 60 000 (60 sec.)
• secureConnection - start a server on secure connection
• SMTPBanner - greeting banner that is sent to the client on connection
• requireAuthentication - if set to true, require that the client must authenticate itself
• validateSender - if set to true, emit 'validateSender' with email and callback when the client enters MAIL FROM:<address>
• validateRecipients - if set to true, emit 'validateRecipient' with email and callback when the client enters RCPT TO:<address>
• maxSize - maximum size of an e-mail in bytes (currently informational only)
• credentials - TLS credentials ({key:'', cert:'', ca:''}) for the server
• authMethods - allowed authentication methods, defaults to ["PLAIN", "LOGIN"]
• disableEHLO - if set to true, support HELO command only

Example

var simplesmtp = require("simplesmtp"),
    fs = require("fs");

var smtp = simplesmtp.createServer();
smtp.listen(25);

smtp.on("startData", function(envelope){
    console.log("Message from:", envelope.from);
    console.log("Message to:", envelope.to);
    envelope.saveStream = fs.createWriteStream("/tmp/message.txt");
});

smtp.on("data", function(envelope, chunk){
    envelope.saveStream.write(chunk);
});

smtp.on("dataReady", function(envelope, callback){
    envelope.saveStream.end();
    console.log("Incoming message saved to /tmp/message.txt");
    callback(null, "ABC1"); // ABC1 is the queue id to be advertised to the client
    // callback(new Error("That was clearly a spam!"));
});

Events

• startData (envelope) - DATA stream is opened by the client (envelope is an object with from, to, host and remoteAddress properties)
• data (envelope, chunk) - e-mail data chunk is passed from the client
• dataReady (envelope, callback) - client is finished passing e-mail data, callback returns the queue id to the client
• authorizeUser (envelope, username, password, callback) - will be emitted if requireAuthentication option is set to true. callback has two parameters (err, success) where success is Boolean and should be true, if user is authenticated successfully
• validateSender (envelope, email, callback) - will be emitted if validateSender option is set to true
• validateRecipient (envelope, email, callback) - will be emitted it validataRecipients option is set to true

SMTP Client

Usage

SMTP client can be created with simplesmptp.connect(port[,host][, options]) where

• port is the port to connect to
• host is the hostname to connect to (defaults to "localhost")
• options is an optional options object (see below)

Connection options

The following connection options can be used with simplesmtp.connect:

• secureConnection - use SSL
• name - the name of the client server
• auth - authentication object {user:"...", pass:"..."}
• ignoreTLS - ignore server support for STARTTLS
• debug - output client and server messages to console
• instanceId - unique instance id for debugging (will be output console with the messages)

Connection events

Once a connection is set up the following events can be listened to:

• 'idle' - the connection to the SMTP server has been successfully set up and the client is waiting for an envelope
• 'message' - the envelope is passed successfully to the server and a message stream can be started
• 'ready' (success) - the message was sent
• 'rcptFailed' (addresses) - not all recipients were accepted (invalid addresses are included as an array)
• 'error' (err) - An error occurred. The connection is closed and an 'end' event is emitted shortly
• 'end' - connection to the client is closed

Sending an envelope

When an 'idle' event is emitted, an envelope object can be sent to the server. This includes a string from and an array of strings to property.

Envelope can be sent with client.useEnvelope(envelope)

// run only once as 'idle' is emitted again after message delivery
client.once("idle", function(){
    client.useEnvelope({
        from: "me@example.com",
        to: ["receiver1@example.com", "receiver2@example.com"]
    });
});

The to part of the envelope includes all recipients from To:, Cc: and Bcc: fields.

If setting the envelope up fails, an error is emitted. If only some (not all) recipients are not accepted, the mail can still be sent but an rcptFailed event is emitted.

client.on("rcptFailed", function(addresses){
    console.log("The following addresses were rejected: ", addresses);
});

If the envelope is set up correctly a 'message' event is emitted.

Sending a message

When 'message' event is emitted, it is possible to send mail. To do this you can pipe directly a message source (for example an .eml file) to the client or alternatively you can send the message with client.write calls (you also need to call client.end() once the message is completed.

If you are piping a stream to the client, do not leave the 'end' event out, this is needed to complete the message sequence by the client.

client.on("message", function(){
    fs.createReadStream("test.eml").pipe(client);
});

Once the message is delivered a 'ready' event is emitted. The event has an parameter which indicates if the message was transmitted( (true) or not (false).

client.on("ready", function(success){
    if(success){
        console.log("The message was transmitted successfully");
    }
});

Error types

Emitted errors include the reason for failing in the name property

• UnknowAuthError - the client tried to authenticate but the method was not supported
• AuthError - the username/password used were rejected
• SenderError - the sender e-mail address was rejected
• RecipientError - all recipients were rejected (if only some of the recipients are rejected, a 'rcptFailed' event is raised instead

About reusing the connection

You can reuse the same connection several times but you can't send a mail through the same connection concurrently. So if you catch and 'idle' event lock the connection to a message process and unlock after 'ready'.

On 'error' events you should reschedule the message and on 'end' events you should recreate the connection.

Closing the client

By default the client tries to keep the connection up. If you want to close it, run client.quit() - this sends a QUIT command to the server and closes the connection

client.quit();

SMTP Client Connection pool

simplesmtp has the option for connection pooling if you want to reuse a bulk of connections.

Usage

Create a connection pool of SMTP clients with

simplesmtp.createClientPool(port[,host][, options])

where

• port is the port to connect to
• host is the hostname to connect to (defaults to "localhost")
• options is an optional options object (see below)

Connection options

The following connection options can be used with simplesmtp.connect:

• secureConnection - use SSL
• name - the name of the client server
• auth - authentication object {user:"...", pass:"..."}
• ignoreTLS - ignore server support for STARTTLS
• debug - output client and server messages to console
• maxConnections - how many connections to keep in the pool (defaults to 5)

Send an e-mail

E-mails can be sent through the pool with

pool.sendMail(mail[, callback])

where

• mail is a MailComposer compatible object
• callback (error, failedRecipients) - is the callback function to run after the message is delivered or an error occured. failedRecipients is an array with e-mail addresses that were rejected.

Errors

In addition to SMTP client errors another error name is used

• DeliveryError - used if the message was not accepted by the SMTP server

License

MIT