# Send mail with node and outlook

No **extra setup**, no **sign up** for third party services, just import a module and use it in your application. Then send your mail. It's that simple. Now, let's go over detail:

## What is Nodemailer ?
Nodemailer is a module for Node.js applications to allow easy as cake email sending. Nodemailer is licensed under `MIT license`. Today it is the solution most Node.js users turn to by default and it also have zero dependencies.

### Installation
First initialize an empty project *(you can use it in your current application also).*
```
npm init -y
```

If you already have a project or just initialized one, now install nodemailer with this command:
```
npm i nodemailer
```

After you've installed **Nodemailer**, you will get something like this inside your `package.json`.
```json
{
  "name": "demo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "Aashish Panthi",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "nodemailer": "^6.6.3"
  }
}
```

### Create files
**Create** a **.js** file. I'm creating `index.js` file here and I recommend you to create same.
 
![index.js created.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1631552084774/00JwvMrSv.png)

And **create another file** with name `.env`, I mean with extension only😄. 
*Now your project structure will look something like this:*

![files showing for nodemailer .png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1631552640402/GrrBXj4F2.png)
 

### Let's write some code
Now, import your nodemailer module like this *(Common JS style)*:
```javascript
const nodemailer = require("nodemailer");
```

Or, use ES6 import/export like this:
```javascript
import nodemailer from 'nodemailer'
```

> To use import/export, you have to add `"type": "module"` inside your `package.json` file. 

Again it looks like this:

```json
{
  "name": "demo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "type": "module",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "Aashish Panthi",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "nodemailer": "^6.6.3"
  }
}
```

To send emails, you need a transporter object, like this one:
```javascript
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(transport)
```
**Transporter** is going to be an object that is able to send mail. Learn more about transporter [here](https://nodemailer.com/usage/).

`transport` contains **configuration**. But in this example, we are passing object directly.
```javascript
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
		service : hotmail,
		auth : {
			user : yourusername@outlook.com,
			pass : yourpassword
		}
	})
```

I don't feel the upper one safe to use, due to that reason we have created `.env` file earlier. Now let's create **environmental variables**.

```
EMAIL_SERVICE = hotmail
EMAIL_USERNAME = 
EMAIL_PASSWORD =
EMAIL_FROM =  
EMAIL_SENDER = 
```

Leave `EMAIL_SERVICE` as it is, but insert values to other blank variables. Like:
`EMAIL_USERNAME = usermail@outlook.com`, `EMAIL_PASSWORD = pass`, `EMAIL_FROM =  usermail@outlook.com` and `EMAIL_SENDER = Your Name`.

Now we need to use those variables inside our `index.js` file. To do so, we are going to install another simple module called `dotenv`, like this:

```
npm install dotenv
```

Let's import this module. Again we have two ways. Just follow one *(like you did while importing nodemailer)*.

**CJS**:
```javascript
const dotenv = require("dotenv");
```

**ES6**:
```javascript
import dotenv from 'dotenv'
```

At last, we need to **config** and we are done:
```javascript
dotenv.config()
```

Now, we can create a **transporter** like this:
```javascript
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
		service : process.env.EMAIL_SERVICE,
		auth : {
			user : process.env.EMAIL_USERNAME,
			pass : process.env.EMAIL_PASSWORD
		}
```

We need `options` object to **send email**, create one like this:
```javascript
    const options = {
        from : process.env.EMAIL_SENDER, 
        to: "person@example.com", 
        subject: "Reset password", 
        text: "Here is a reset token."
    }
```

I hope the above options are self descriptive. Well, let's see them one by one:
- `from`: sender email
- `to`: receiver email address (your target email id)
- `subject`: Subject of your email *(in my case it's reset password)*
- `text`: Message or body section

We are all set to send mail using node.js. call `transporter.sendMail` method and pass `options` object as a parameter. Then we have callback function, where we get status of our mail like `error` and `info`.

```javascript
 transporter.sendMail(options, (error, info) =>{
        if(error) console.log(error)
        else console.log(info)
    })
```
Above code snippet logs **error**, if we get error else it logs the **information**(status) of mail.

At last let's combine all our code snippets *(of index.js)* into one and wrap inside a function `sendMail`:

```javascript
import nodemailer from 'nodemailer';
import dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config();

const sendMail = (to, subject, message) =>{
    const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
		service : process.env.EMAIL_SERVICE,
		auth : {
			user : process.env.EMAIL_USERNAME,
			pass : process.env.EMAIL_PASSWORD
		}
	})

    const options = {
        from : process.env.EMAIL_SENDER, 
        to, 
        subject, 
        text: message,
    }
    
    transporter.sendMail(options, (error, info) =>{
        if(error) console.log(error)
        else console.log(info)
    })

}```
*I'm using ES6 modules in this demo.*

Now we can call `sendMail` function again and again (when we need). Let's call it 😎
```javascript
sendMail('aashish@mozej.com', 'Thank you!', 'Thank you so much for sticking with me');
```

**Run our `index.js` file**: 
![nodemailer email sent .png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1631612766806/AqAIRLRnM.png)

And our mail is sent.

Remember, you can do much more than this demo. Never stop exploring, never stop learning :) .