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Amazon Web Service (AWS) - Simple Email Service (SES) Notifications

Overview

You’ll need to create an account with Amazon Web Service (AWS) first to use this. If you don’t have one, you’ll need your credit card (even though the first 12 months are free). Alternatively, if you already have one (or are using it through your company), you’re good to go to the next step.

The next thing you’ll need to do is generate an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.:

  1. From the AWS Management Console search for IAM under the AWS services section or simply click here.
  2. Expand the section reading Access keys (access key ID and secret access key)
  3. Click on Create New Access Key
  4. It will present the information to you on screen and let you download a file containing the same information. I suggest you do so since there is no way to retrieve this key again later on (unless you delete it and create a new one).

So at this point, it is presumed you’re set up, and you got your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key on hand.

You now have all the tools you need to send SES (Email) messages.

If you want to take advantage of sending your notifications to topics: from the AWS Management Console search for Simple Notification Service under the AWS services section and configure as many topics as you want. You’ll be able to reference them as well using this notification service.

Valid syntax is as follows:

  • ses://{from}/{aws_access_key}/{aws_secret_key}/{region}/
  • ses://{from}/{aws_access_key}/{aws_secret_key}/{region}/{ToEmail1}/{ToEmail2}/{ToEmailN}/
VariableRequiredDescription
fromYesThe originating source of the Email Address AWS is sending on behalf. AWS will validate this against your account (when paired with your aws_access_key and aws_secret_key)
accessYesThe generated Access Key ID from the AWS Management Console
secretYesThe generated Access Key Secret from the AWS Management Console
regionYesThe region code might look like us-east-1, us-west-2, cn-north-1, etc
target_emailsYesOn ore more emails separated by a slash to deliver your notification to. If no email is specified then the from email is notified.
replyNoIf you want the email address ReplyTo address to be something other then your own email address, then you can specify it here.
toNoThis will enforce (or set the address the email is sent To). This is only required in special circumstances. The notification script is usually clever enough to figure this out for you.
nameNoWith respect to {fromemail}, this allows you to provide a name with your _ReplyTo address.
ccNoCarbon Copy email address(es). More than one can be separated with a space and/or comma.
bccNoBlind Carbon Copy email address(es). More than one can be separated with a space and/or comma.
VariableDescription
overflowThis parameter can be set to either split, truncate, or upstream. This determines how Apprise delivers the message you pass it. By default this is set to upstream
👉 upstream: Do nothing at all; pass the message exactly as you received it to the service.
👉 truncate: Ensure that the message will fit within the service’s documented upstream message limit. If more information was passed then the defined limit, the overhead information is truncated.
👉 split: similar to truncate except if the message doesn’t fit within the service’s documented upstream message limit, it is split into smaller chunks and they are all delivered sequentially there-after.
formatThis parameter can be set to either text, html, or markdown. Some services support the ability to post content by several different means. The default of this varies (it can be one of the 3 mentioned at any time depending on which service you choose). You can optionally force this setting to stray from the defaults if you wish. If the service doesn’t support different types of transmission formats, then this field is ignored.
verifyExternal requests made to secure locations (such as through the use of https) will have certificates associated with them. By default, Apprise will verify that these certificates are valid; if they are not then no notification will be sent to the source. In some occasions, a user might not have a certificate authority to verify the key against or they trust the source; in this case you will want to set this flag to no. By default it is set to yes.
ctoThis stands for Socket Connect Timeout. This is the number of seconds Requests will wait for your client to establish a connection to a remote machine (corresponding to the connect()) call on the socket. The default value is 4.0 seconds.
rtoThis stands for Socket Read Timeout. This is the number of seconds the client will wait for the server to send a response. The default value is 4.0 seconds.
emojisEnable Emoji support (such as providing :+1: would translate to 👍). By default this is set to no.
Note: Depending on server side settings, the administrator has the power to disable emoji support at a global level; but default this is not the case.
tzIdentify the IANA Time Zone Database you wish to operate as. By default this is detected based on the configuration the server hosting Apprise is running on. You can set this to things like America/Toronto, or any other properly formated Timezone describing your area.

Send a SES (Email):

Terminal window
# Assuming our {AccessKeyID} is AHIAJGNT76XIMXDBIJYA
# Assuming our {AccessKeySecret} is bu1dHSdO22pfaaVy/wmNsdljF4C07D3bndi9PQJ9
# Assuming our {Region} is us-east-2
# Assuming our {Email} - test@test.com
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
ses://test@test.com/AHIAJGNT76XIMXDBIJYA/bu1dHSdO22pfaaVy/wmNsdljF4C07D3bndi9PQJ9/us-east-2/