Email to PDF to email

This script will check an imap folder for unread emails. Any unread email that does not have an attachment will be converted to a pdf and then emailed to the address you specify. The script is run at a configurable interval.

This was built to integrate with paperless-ng which works with pdf attachements. However, I get many documents that are html only, so I wanted them converted to pdf for storage in paperless-ng.

Usage

The following parameters are used (defaults in parentheses):

• IMAP_URL
• IMAP_USERNAME
• IMAP_PASSWORD
• SMTP_USERNAME (optional) uses imap username if not provided
• SMTP_PASSWORD (optional) uses imap password if not provided
• IMAP_FOLDER Which folder to watch for unread emails
• SMTP_URL
• MAIL_SENDER: Address the mail with pdf should be sent from
• MAIL_DESTINATION: Where to send the resulting pdf
• SMTP_PORT: (587)
• SMTP_TLS: (True)
• INTER_RUN_INTERVAL: Time in seconds that the system should wait between running the script
• PRINT_FAILED_MSG: Flag to control printing of error messages
• HOSTS: Semicolon separated list of hosts that should be added to /etc/hosts to prevent dns lookup failures
• WKHTMLTOPDF_OPTIONS: Python dict (json) representation of wkhtmltopdf_options that can be passed to the used pdfkit library
• MAIL_MESSAGE_FLAG: Flag to apply to email after processing.
  Must be one of: SEEN (default), ANSWERED, FLAGGED, UNFLAGGED, DELETED
• IMAP_FILTER: Criteria to use when searching for mail to be processed. If no value is provided, a suitable value is determined based on the MAIL_MESSAGE_FLAG. See imap-tools search criteria documentation for how to specify the filter. This should be in the text format (e.g. (TEXT "hello" NEW) rather than AND(text="hello", new=True))

Docker-Compose

1. Use prebuilt image

This image is stored in the github registry, so you can use it without downloading this code repository. The image address is ghcr.io/rob-luke/emails-html-to-pdf:latest. So to use it in a docker-compose it would be something like...

version: "3.8"

services:

  email2pdf:
    image: ghcr.io/rob-luke/emails-html-to-pdf:latest
    container_name: email2pdf
    environment:
      - IMAP_URL=imap.provider.com
      - [email protected]
      - IMAP_PASSWORD=randompassword
      - IMAP_FOLDER=Paperless
      - SMTP_URL=smtp.provider.com
      - [email protected]
      - [email protected]
      - INTER_RUN_INTERVAL=600
      - HOSTS=127.0.0.1 tracking.paypal.com
      - WKHTMLTOPDF_OPTIONS={"load-media-error-handling":"ignore"}

2. Build image yourself

Open the docker-compose file and enter your details in the environment. This will run the script every minute.

docker-compose up -d

Python

Or if you prefer you can run the script manually by running these commands.

poetry install
poetry run src/main.py

Hints

Possible Errors

PayPal Mail with HostNotFoundErrors

• try adding 127.0.0.1 tracking.paypal.com to the HOSTS env (check for missing domain in error log)
• add {"load-media-error-handling":"ignore"} as WKHTMLTOPDF_OPTIONS option (could be the tracking pixel that is not beeing loaded
• append "enable-local-file-access":true or "load-error-handling":"ignore"to WKHTMLTOPDF_OPTIONS if you get a file://... error
• add 127.0.0.1 true to the HOSTS env if you get a http:///true/... error

Development

The recommended editor for development is either IntelliJ or Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code

For Visual Studio Code, it is recommended to use the devcontainer included in the repository. With the Remote - Containers extension installed, you should be prompted to open the devcontainer when opening the folder.

For debugging, copy the env.example file and rename it to just env. Then edit the variables inside to the required values for testing. These will be automatically configured when launching via either the debug menu or by pressing F5. The env file is included in the gitignore.

Formatting issues will cause the github build to fail. To fix formatting issues in your script, open the file and run the "Format Document" command.