Send mail to multiple recipients in Java

Question

I want to send a message to multiple Recipients using following the method:

message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, String arg1);

Or

message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO,String arg1);

But one confusion is that in the second argument, how to pass multiple addresses like:

message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.CC, "abc@abc.example,abc@def.example,ghi@abc.example");

Or message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.CC, "abc@abc.example;abc@def.example;ghi@abc.example");

I can send a message using alternate methods too, but I want to know the purpose of the above method.

If I can’t use it (as till now I haven't got any answer for above requirement) then what is the need for this method to be in mail API.

Answer 1

InternetAddress.Parse is going to be your friend! See the worked example below:

String to = "med@joe.example, maz@frank.example, jezz@jam.example";
String toCommaAndSpaces = "med@joe.example maz@frank.example, jezz@jam.example";

1. Parse a comma-separated list of email addresses. Be strict. Require comma separated list.

2. If strict is true, many (but not all) of the RFC822 syntax rules for emails are enforced.

   msg.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC,
   InternetAddress.parse(to, true));
   

3. Parse comma/space-separated list. Cut some slack. We allow spaces seperated list as well, plus invalid email formats.

   msg.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.BCC,
   InternetAddress.parse(toCommaAndSpaces, false));
   

Answer 2

So ... it took many months, but still ... You can send email to multiple recipients by using the ',' as separator and

message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, "abc@abc.example,abc@def.example,ghi@abc.example");

is OK. At least in JavaMail 1.4.5

Answer 3

Internet E-mail address format (RFC 822):

(,)comma separated sequence of addresses

javax.mail - 1.4.7 parse(String[]) is not allowed. So we have to give a comma-separated sequence of addresses into InternetAddress objects. Addresses must follow the RFC822 syntax.

String toAddress = "mail@mail.example,mail2@mail.example";
InternetAddress.parse(toAddress);

(;) semi-colon separated sequence of addresses « If a group of address list is provided with delimiter as ";", then convert to a string array using the split method to use the following function.

String[] addressList = { "mail@mail.example", "mail2@mail.example" };

String toGroup = "mail@mail.example;mail2@mail.example";
String[] addressList2 = toGroup.split(";");

setRecipients(message, addressList);

public static void setRecipients(Message message, Object addresslist) throws AddressException, MessagingException {
    if (addresslist instanceof String) { // CharSequence
        message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse((String) addresslist));
    } else if (addresslist instanceof String[]) { // String[] « Array with collection of Strings/
        String[] toAddressList = (String[]) addresslist;
        InternetAddress[] mailAddress_TO = new InternetAddress[ toAddressList.length ];
        for (int i = 0; i < toAddressList.length; i++) {
            mailAddress_TO[i] = new InternetAddress(toAddressList[i]);
        }
        message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, mailAddress_TO);
    }
}

Full example

public static Properties getMailProperties(boolean addExteraProps) {
    Properties props = new Properties();
    props.put("mail.transport.protocol", MAIL_TRNSPORT_PROTOCOL);
    props.put("mail.smtp.host", MAIL_SERVER_NAME);
    props.put("mail.smtp.port", MAIL_PORT);

    // Sending Email to the GMail SMTP server requires authentication and SSL.
    props.put("mail.smtp.auth", true);
    if(ENCRYPTION_METHOD.equals("STARTTLS")) {
        props.put("mail.smtp.starttls.enable", true);
        props.put("mail.smtp.socketFactory.port", SMTP_STARTTLS_PORT); // 587
    } else {
        props.put("mail.smtps.ssl.enable", true);
        props.put("mail.smtp.socketFactory.port", SMTP_SSL_PORT); // 465
    }
    props.put("mail.smtp.socketFactory", SOCKETFACTORY_CLASS);
    return props;
}

public static boolean sendMail(String subject, String contentType, String msg, Object recipients) throws Exception {

    Properties props = getMailProperties(false);
    Session mailSession = Session.getInstance(props, null);
    mailSession.setDebug(true);

    Message message = new MimeMessage(mailSession);
    message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(USER_NAME));

    setRecipients(message, recipients);

    message.setSubject(subject);

    String htmlData = "<h1>This is actual message embedded in HTML tags</h1>";
    message.setContent(htmlData, "text/html");

    Transport transport = mailSession.getTransport(MAIL_TRNSPORT_PROTOCOL);
    transport.connect(MAIL_SERVER_NAME, Integer.valueOf(MAIL_PORT), USER_NAME, PASSWORD);
    message.saveChanges(); // Don't forget this

    transport.sendMessage(message, message.getAllRecipients());
    transport.close();
}

---

Using Appache SimpleEmail - commons-email-1.3.1

Example: email.addTo(addressList);

public static void sendSimpleMail() throws Exception {
    Email email = new SimpleEmail();
    email.setSmtpPort(587);

    DefaultAuthenticator defaultAuthenticator = new DefaultAuthenticator(USER_NAME, PASSWORD);

    email.setAuthenticator(defaultAuthenticator);
    email.setDebug(false);
    email.setHostName(MAIL_SERVER_NAME);
    email.setFrom(USER_NAME);
    email.setSubject("Hi");
    email.setMsg("This is a test mail... :-)");

    //email.addTo("mail@mail.example", "Yash");
    String[] toAddressList = { "mail@mail.example", "mail2@mail.example" }
    email.addTo(addressList);

    email.setTLS(true);
    email.setStartTLSEnabled(true);
    email.send();
    System.out.println("Mail sent!");
}

Answer 4

Try this way:

message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse("mail3@mail.example"));
String address = "mail@mail.example,mail2@mail.example";
InternetAddress[] iAdressArray = InternetAddress.parse(address);
message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, iAdressArray);

Answer 5

Just use the method message.setRecipients with multiple addresses separated by commas:

message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse("abc@abc.example,abc@def.com,ghi@abc.example"));

message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse("abc@abc.example,abc@def.com,ghi@abc.example"));

It works fine with only one address too:

message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse("abc@abc.example"));

Answer 6

If you invoke addRecipient multiple times, it will add the given recipient to the list of recipients of the given time (TO, CC, and BCC).

For example:

message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse("abc@abc.example"));
message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse("abc@def.example"));
message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse("ghi@abc.example"));

It will add the three addresses to CC.

---

If you wish to add all addresses at once, you should use setRecipients or addRecipients and provide it with an array of addresses

Address[] cc = new Address[] {InternetAddress.parse("abc@abc.example"),
                               InternetAddress.parse("abc@def.example"),
                               InternetAddress.parse("ghi@abc.example")};
message.addRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, cc);

---

You can also use InternetAddress.parse to parse a list of addresses:

message.addRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC,
                      InternetAddress.parse("abc@abc.example,abc@def.example,ghi@abc.example"));

Answer 7

An easy way to do it:

String[] listofIDS = {"ramasamygms@gmail.com", "ramasamycse94@gmail.com"};
        
for(String cc:listofIDS) {
    message.addRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse(cc));
}

Answer 8

If you want to send as CC using MimeMessageHelper:

List<String> emails = new ArrayList();
email.add("email1");
email.add("email2");

for (String string : emails) {
    message.addCc(string);
}

In the same way, you can use to add multiple recipients.

Answer 9

This code is working for me. Please try with this for sending mail to multiple recipients

private String recipient = "yamabs@gmail.com ,priya@gmail.com ";
String[] recipientList = recipient.split(",");
InternetAddress[] recipientAddress = new InternetAddress[recipientList.length];
int counter = 0;
for (String recipient : recipientList) {
    recipientAddress[counter] = new InternetAddress(recipient.trim());
    counter++;
}
message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, recipientAddress);

Answer 10

You can use n number of recipients with the below method:

String to[] = {"a@gmail.com"} // Mail ID you want to send;
InternetAddress[] address = new InternetAddress[to.length];
for(int i=0; i< to.length; i++)
{
    address[i] = new InternetAddress(to[i]);
}

msg.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, address);

Answer 11

You can have multiple addresses separated by comma

if (cc.indexOf(',') > 0)
    message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse(cc));   
else
    message.setRecipient(Message.RecipientType.CC, new InternetAddress(cc));

Answer 12

String[] mailAddressTo = new String[3];    
mailAddressTo[0] = emailId_1;    
mailAddressTo[1] = emailId_2;    
mailAddressTo[2] = "xyz@gmail.com";

InternetAddress[] mailAddress_TO = new InternetAddress[mailAddressTo.length];

for (int i = 0; i < mailAddressTo.length; i++)
{
    mailAddress_TO[i] = new InternetAddress(mailAddressTo[i]);
}

message.addRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, mailAddress_TO);ress_TO = new InternetAddress[mailAddressTo.length];