How to Send Email using Java – JavaMail | Plain Text and HTML Email

In this tutorial, we will learn how to send email using Java. In order to send mail in Java we need to have the JavaMail API dependency added to the class path. 

Folder Structure:

1. 1. Create a new Maven QuickStartProject  “JavaEmail” and create a package for our src files “com.javainterviewpoint“
   2. Now add the following dependency in the POM.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

	<groupId>com.javainterviewpoint</groupId>
	<artifactId>JavaEmail</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<packaging>jar</packaging>

	<name>JavaEmail</name>
	<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

	<properties>
		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>com.sun.mail</groupId>
			<artifactId>javax.mail</artifactId>
			<version>1.6.0</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
</project>

3. Create the Java classes SendingEmail.java and SendEmailHTMLTemplate.java under  com.javainterviewpoint folder.

Send Email using Java

JavaMail Plain Text

package com.javainterviewpoint;

import java.util.Properties;

import javax.mail.Message;
import javax.mail.MessagingException;
import javax.mail.Session;
import javax.mail.Transport;
import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;

public class SendingEmail
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // Receiver's email ID
        String receiver = "[email protected]";

        // Sender's email ID
        String sender = "[email protected]";

        // Sending email from localhost
        String host = "localhost";

        // Port of SMTP
        String port = "25";

        // Getting system properties
        Properties properties = System.getProperties();

        // Setting up the mail server
        properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);
        properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.port", port);

        // Get default session object
        Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

        try
        {
            // Create MimeMessage object
            MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

            // Set the Senders mail to From
            message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(sender));

            // Set the recipients email address
            message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(receiver));

            // Subject of the email
            message.setSubject("Java Send Email Example");

            // Body of the email
            message.setText("Welcome to Java Interviewpoint");

            // Send email
            Transport.send(message);
            System.out.println("Mail sent successfully");
        } catch (MessagingException me)
        {
            me.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

• Create variables for sender, receiver, host and port
• Get the properties from the System.getProperties()

Properties properties = System.getProperties();

• Set the “mail.smtp.host” and “mail.smtp.port” to the properties instance using the setProperty() method

properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);
properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.port", port);

• Get the Java Mail Session instance passing the properties to the getDefaultInstance() method

Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

• Create a new MimeMessage object passing the session

MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

• In order to set the sender and receivers email address we will be using the InternetAddress class.
• Senders email address is set using the setFrom() method of the MimeMessage class, it takes up the InternetAddress class, we will pass the sender string to its constructor.

message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(sender));

• The recipients email address is passed to the addRecipient() method. The recipient type can be Message.RecipientType.TO, Message.RecipientType.CC or Message.RecipientType.BCC

message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(receiver));

• Set the subject with setSubject() and set the plaintext body content with setText()

message.setSubject("Java Send Email Example");
message.setText("Welcome to Java Interviewpoint");

• Now call the send() method of the Transport class passing the message (MimeMessage) to send the mail

Transport.send(message);

Output:

Mail sent successfully

Note: 

You should be having any SMTP server running, if not you will be getting the below error

 com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn't connect to host, port: localhost, 25; timeout -1;
  nested exception is:
	java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
	at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:2194)
	at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.protocolConnect(SMTPTransport.java:726)
	at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:366)
	at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:246)
	at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:195)
	at javax.mail.Transport.send0(Transport.java:254)
	at javax.mail.Transport.send(Transport.java:124)

In my case, i am using Apache James SMTP Server

JavaMail – Java HTML Email template

package com.javainterviewpoint;

import java.util.Properties;

import javax.mail.Message;
import javax.mail.MessagingException;
import javax.mail.Session;
import javax.mail.Transport;
import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;

public class SendEmailHTMLTemplate
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // Receiver's email ID
        String receiver = "[email protected]";

        // Sender's email ID
        String sender = "[email protected]";

        // Sending email from localhost
        String host = "localhost";

        // Port of SMTP
        String port = "25";

        // Getting system properties
        Properties properties = System.getProperties();

        // Setting up the mail server
        properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.host", host);
        properties.setProperty("mail.smtp.port", port);

        // Create default session object
        Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties);

        try
        {
            // Create MimeMessage object
            MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);

            // Set the Senders mail to From
            message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(sender));

            // Set the recipients email address
            message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(receiver));

            // Subject of the email
            message.setSubject("Java Send Email Example");

            // HTML email template
            String messageBody = "<h3>Welcome to JavaInterviewPoint!</h3><br>";
            messageBody += "<b>Java Mail Template example</b><br>";
            
            // Body of the HTML Email
            message.setContent(messageBody, "text/html");

            // Send email
            Transport.send(message);
            System.out.println("Mail sent successfully");
        } catch (MessagingException me)
        {
            me.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}