API:Emailuser

Emailuser
	Email a user.; This module cannot be used as a generator.
Prefix	none
Required rights	sendemail
Post only?	Yes
Generated help	Current
	≥ 1.13

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This page is part of the MediaWiki Action API documentation.

Token

To send an email, an email token is required. This token is equal to the edit token and the same for all recipients, but changes at every login. Email tokens can be obtained via action=query&meta=tokens , or by using the following method:

Obtaining an email token

api.php?action=query&meta=tokens [try in ApiSandbox]

Result
{ "batchcomplete": "", "query": { "tokens": { "csrftoken": "7773cbfff263682c97ffc74b8672cbf25a5e0045+\\" } } }

Sending email to users

You can send email to users who have a confirmed email address with action=emailuser. Sending email is subject to rate limits.

Parameters

target: User to send email to
subject: The subject of the message
text: The message
token: The token obtained in the previous request. Take care to encode the + as %2B
ccme: If set, a copy of the email will be sent to you

Examples

In this example, all parameters are passed in a GET request just for the sake of simplicity. However, action=emailuser requires POST requests; GET requests will cause an error.

Sending an email to User:Catrope

api.php?action=emailuser&target=Catrope&subject=Hi&text=Just%20wanted%20to%20say%20hi&token=58b54e0bab4a1d3fd3f7653af38e75cb+\ [try in ApiSandbox]

Result
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <api> <emailuser result="Success" /> </api>

Sample code

Python

#!/usr/bin/python3

"""
    send_email.py

    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Emailuser` module: sending POST request to send email to wiki user

    Author: Jayprakash12345
    MIT license
"""

import requests

S = requests.Session()

URL = "https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"

# Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
PARAMS_0 = {
    "action": "query",
    "meta": "tokens",
    "type": "login",
    "format": "json"
}

R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS_0)
DATA = R.json()

LOGIN_TOKEN = DATA['query']['tokens']['logintoken']

# Step 2: POST request to log in. Use of main account for login is not
# supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
# (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
PARAMS_1 = {
    "action": "login",
    "lgname": "your_bot_username",
    "lgpassword": "your_bot_password",
    "lgtoken": LOGIN_TOKEN,
    "format": "json"
}

R = S.post(URL, data=PARAMS_1)

# Step 3: GET request to fetch Email token
PARAMS_2 = {
    "action": "query",
    "meta": "tokens",
    "format": "json"
}

R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS_2)
DATA = R.json()

EMAIL_TOKEN = DATA['query']['tokens']['csrftoken']

# Step 4: POST request to send an email
PARAMS_3 = {
    "action": "emailuser",
    "target": "Test",
    "subject": "Hi",
    "text": "Just wanted to say hi",
    "token": EMAIL_TOKEN,
    "format": "json"
}

R = S.post(URL, data=PARAMS_3)
DATA = R.text

print(DATA)

PHP

<?php

/*
    send_email.php

    MediaWiki API Demos
	Demo of `Emailuser` module: sending POST request to send email to wiki user

    MIT license
*/

$endPoint = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php";

$login_Token = getLoginToken(); // Step 1
loginRequest( $login_Token ); // Step 2
$csrf_Token = getCSRFToken(); // Step 3
sendemail( $csrf_Token ); // Step 4

// Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
function getLoginToken() {
	global $endPoint;

	$params1 = [
		"action" => "query",
		"meta" => "tokens",
		"type" => "login",
		"format" => "json"
	];

	$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params1 );

	$ch = curl_init( $url );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );

	$output = curl_exec( $ch );
	curl_close( $ch );

	$result = json_decode( $output, true );
	return $result["query"]["tokens"]["logintoken"];
}

// Step 2: POST request to log in. Use of main account for login is not
// supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
// (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
function loginRequest( $logintoken ) {
	global $endPoint;

	$params2 = [
		"action" => "login",
		"lgname" => "your_bot_username",
		"lgpassword" => "your_bot_password",
		"lgtoken" => $logintoken,
		"format" => "json"
	];

	$ch = curl_init();

	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endPoint );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query( $params2 ) );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );

	$output = curl_exec( $ch );
	curl_close( $ch );

}

// Step 3: GET request to fetch CSRF token
function getCSRFToken() {
	global $endPoint;

	$params3 = [
		"action" => "query",
		"meta" => "tokens",
		"format" => "json"
	];

	$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params3 );

	$ch = curl_init( $url );

	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );

	$output = curl_exec( $ch );
	curl_close( $ch );

	$result = json_decode( $output, true );
	return $result["query"]["tokens"]["csrftoken"];
}

// Step 4: POST request to send an email
function sendemail( $csrftoken ) {
	global $endPoint;

	$params4 = [
		"action" => "emailuser",
		"target" => "ABCD",
		"subject" => "API test",
		"text" => "Good to see you",
		"token" => $csrftoken,
		"format" => "json"
	];

	$ch = curl_init();

	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endPoint );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query( $params4 ) );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );

	$output = curl_exec( $ch );
	curl_close( $ch );

	echo ( $output );
}

JavaScript

/*  
    send_email.js
 
    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Emailuser` module: sending POST request to send email to wiki user

    MIT license
*/

var request = require('request').defaults({jar: true}),
    url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php";

// Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
function getLoginToken() {
    var params_0 = {
        action: "query",
        meta: "tokens",
        type: "login",
        format: "json"
    };

    request.get({ url: url, qs: params_0 }, function (error, res, body) {
        if (error) {
            return;
        }
        var data = JSON.parse(body);
        loginRequest(data.query.tokens.logintoken);
    });
}

// Step 2: POST request to log in. 
// Use of main account for login is not
// supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
// (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
function loginRequest(login_token) {
    var params_1 = {
        action: "login",
        lgname: "bot_username",
        lgpassword: "bot_password",
        lgtoken: login_token,
        format: "json"
    };

    request.post({ url: url, form: params_1 }, function (error, res, body) {
        if (error) {
            return;
        }
        getCsrfToken();
    });
}

// Step 3: GET request to fetch CSRF token
function getCsrfToken() {
    var params_2 = {
        action: "query",
        meta: "tokens",
        format: "json"
    };

    request.get({ url: url, qs: params_2 }, function(error, res, body) {
        if (error) {
            return;
        }
        var data = JSON.parse(body);
        send_email(data.query.tokens.csrftoken);
    });
}

// Step 4: POST request to send an email
function send_email(csrf_token) {
    var params_3 = {
        action: "emailuser",
        target: "ABCD",
        subject: "API Test",
        text: "Hello",
        token: csrf_token,
        format: "json"
    };

    request.post({ url: url, form: params_3 }, function (error, res, body) {
        if (error) {
            return;
        }
        console.log(body);
    });
}

// Start From Step 1
getLoginToken();

MediaWiki JS

/*
	send_email.js

	MediaWiki API Demos
	Demo of `Emailuser` module: sending POST request to send email to wiki user

	MIT License
*/

var params = {
		action: 'emailuser',
		target: 'ABC',
		subject: 'Hi',
		text: 'Just wanted to say hi',
		format: 'json'
	},
	api = new mw.Api();

api.postWithToken( 'csrf', params ).done( function ( data ) {
	console.log( data );
} );

Possible errors

In addition to the usual stuff :

Code	Info
cantsend	You are not logged in, you do not have a confirmed email address, or you are not allowed to send email to other users, so you cannot send email.
blockedfrommail	You have been blocked from sending email.
usermaildisabled	User email has been disabled
notarget	⧼apierror-notarget⧽
noemail	This user has not specified a valid email address.
nowikiemail	This user has chosen not to receive email from other users.

Checking emailable status

Before trying to send an email, it is recommended to check if the user is emailable first. To do this, you can execute a list query on the user (or several users at once). Here is an example using Ajax:

new mw.Api().get( {
  action: 'query',
  list: 'users',
  ususers: mw.config.get( 'wgTitle' ),
  usprop: 'emailable',
  rawcontinue: ''
} ).done( function( getEmailable ) {
  alert( ( getEmailable.query.users[ 0 ][ 'emailable' ] !== undefined ) ? 'emailable' : 'not emailable' );
} );

If you are testing from a client-side script, it is also possible to simply check for the existence of the t-emailuser list item:

emailable = $( '#t-emailuser' ).length ? true : false;

The following documentation is the output of Special:ApiHelp/emailuser, automatically generated by the pre-release version of MediaWiki that is running on this site (MediaWiki.org).

action=emailuser

(main | emailuser)

This module requires read rights.
This module requires write rights.
This module only accepts POST requests.
Source: MediaWiki
License: GPL-2.0-or-later

Email a user.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/API:Email

Specific parameters:

Other general parameters are available.

target: User to send the email to.; This parameter is required.
subject: Subject header.; This parameter is required.
text: Email body.; This parameter is required.
ccme: Send a copy of this mail to me.; Type: boolean (details)
token: A "csrf" token retrieved from action=query&meta=tokens; This parameter is required.

Example:

Send an email to the user WikiSysop with the text Content.: api.php?action=emailuser&target=WikiSysop&text=Content&token=123ABC [open in sandbox]