Django Email backend (keeps sending email from incorrect "sender")

Question

I have several instances in my project where I attempt to send an email within a Django view.

I want to be able to hardcode the email sender within the view. When I try to do so, though, it continues to send the emails from the default account specified in my settings file.

Here is an example:

        if testform.is_valid():
            beta=testform.save()
            subject="Hi Beta Tester"  
            sender="[email protected]"

            recipient=[testform.cleaned_data['email']]

            text=loader.get_template('registration/beta_email.txt')
            html=loader.get_template('registration/beta_email.html')

            site_name='mysite'
            d=Context({'site_name':site_name})
            text_content=text.render(d)
            html_content=html.render(d)
                #This sends two mail versions, plain text and html
            msg=EmailMultiAlternatives(subject, text_content, sender, recipient)
            msg.attach_alternative(html_content, "text/html")
            msg.send()

            return HttpResponseRedirect('/splash/')

I thought that I could send specify the sender argument explicitly here. And, yet, when I test it, the email is being sent from the address listed in my settings file, configured as the following:

       EMAIL_USE_TLS=True

       EMAIL_HOST='smtp.gmail.com'

       EMAIL_HOST_USER='[email protected]'

       EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD='private'

       DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL='[email protected]'

Do I just have to remove the DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL constant to make it work? I tried doing so and it seems to be working but I'm confused. In the Django documentation, it suggests that setting sender in the view should override the DEFAULT.

Answer 1

I've finally figured out the issue here. Unfortunately, gmail rewrites the from and the envelope on authenticated smtp.

If you want to get around that, you have to use a third party mail server (which doesn't act like such a prissy) and then send mail to gmail users.

Answer 2

For the sender e-mail try putting it in < > and you can add a name:

sender = "Formal Name <[email protected]>"

that is exactly the syntax I have in my e-mail sending view and it works.

There really shouldn't be a reason that adding the name to it would change how it's sending, but it may be worth trying and perhaps you want an easily readable name anyway.