How to send an email to multiple recipients in Spring

Question

The email gets sents only to the last email address in the String[] to array. I'm intending to send to all email addresses added to the array. How can I make that work?

public void sendMail(String from, String[] to, String subject, String msg, List attachments) throws MessagingException {

    // Creating message  
    sender.setHost("smtp.gmail.com");
    MimeMessage mimeMsg = sender.createMimeMessage();
    MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(mimeMsg, true);
    Properties props = new Properties();
    props.put("mail.smtp.starttls.enable", "true");
    props.put("mail.smtp.auth", "true");
    props.put("mail.smtp.port", "425");

    Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, null);

    helper.setFrom(from);

    helper.setTo(to);

    helper.setSubject(subject);
    helper.setText(msg + "<html><body><h1>hi welcome</h1><body></html", true);

    Iterator it = attachments.iterator();

    while (it.hasNext()) {
        FileSystemResource file = new FileSystemResource(new File((String) it.next()));
        helper.addAttachment(file.getFilename(), file);
    }

    // Sending message  
    sender.send(mimeMsg);
}

Assuming that the correct method is invoked (the `setTo(String[])` one) it should just work. What I don't get is why you are setting the session properties and host in this method, that should be in the configuration. — M. Deinum, Nov 11 '14 at 14:33

score 47 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 24 '22 at 23:29

47

You have the choice to use the following 4 methods. I have provided examples of the two methods useful in this case. I have consolidated this information from the commentators below.

helper.setTo(InternetAddress.parse("email1@test.com,email2@test.com"))
helper.setTo(new String[]{"email1@test.com", "email2@test.com"});

From the Javadoc:

edited Mar 24 '22 at 23:29

xlm

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answered Nov 11 '14 at 14:25

Jens

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1

The second method doesn't work (with a comma-separated values inside string). – naXa stands with Ukraine Jan 23 '17 at 13:17
@naXa Why you think so? – Jens Jan 23 '17 at 13:21
5

I've just tested it. And I get `AddressException: Illegal address`. – naXa stands with Ukraine Jan 23 '17 at 13:25
1

@naXa the reason can not be the comma separated value in `to` problem must be some other thing – Jens Jan 23 '17 at 13:48
@Downvoter. Thanks for downvoting without explaination. – Jens Sep 25 '17 at 06:14
I can confirm that the second method doesn't work with Spring 4.2.8.RELEASE. – Gerardo Lastra Jan 18 '18 at 12:10
@GerardoLastra can you explain what *dosn't work* means – Jens Jan 18 '18 at 12:20
@Jens org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMailMessage.setTo throws org.springframework.mail.MailParseException: Could not parse mail; nested exception is javax.mail.internet.AddressException: Illegal address in string ``redacted@domain.com,redacted@domain.com'' – Gerardo Lastra Jan 19 '18 at 12:56
@GerardoLastra can you printout the result of `StringUtils.join(to,",")` please – Jens Jan 19 '18 at 13:00
You have it in the exception message. redacted@domain.com,redacted@domain.com – Gerardo Lastra Jan 20 '18 at 16:44
@GerardoLastra have removed the second suggestion. – Jens Jan 20 '18 at 16:54
@Jens Good, but the answer text is still wrong. It's not a comma separated list of anything, but a varargs argument. – Gerardo Lastra Jan 21 '18 at 14:10
@Sree you are worng setTo accept multiple strings as string array: https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/mail/javamail/MimeMessageHelper.html#setTo-java.lang.String:A- – Jens May 16 '19 at 11:25
FWIW you can do either `setTo(String[]{...})` or `setTo(str1, str2, ...)`. In Java varargs are syntactic sugar for arrays i.e. `T...` same as `T[]`. There are some gotchas though. See https://stackoverflow.com/q/2925153/885922 – xlm Mar 24 '22 at 23:28

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 05 '17 at 13:31

11

The better approach is to create an array containing the address of multiple recipients.

    MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper( message, true );
    helper.setTo( String[] to );

answered Jun 05 '17 at 13:31

Surya Nair

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Hello. Is adding String array working for sending mail to multiple recipients? When I added this line of code I see synthax error "unexpected token" – Orkhan Hasanli Nov 23 '18 at 23:11

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 11 '20 at 17:13

Add all email ids in a String[] array

public String[] sendEmailIds() {
String[] emailIds = new String[4];
emailIds[0] = "abc@mail.com";
emailIds[1] = "deg@mail.com";
emailIds[2] = "sgh@mail.com";
emailIds[3] = "hht@mail.com";
return emailIds;
}

SimpleMailMessage mailMessage = new SimpleMailMessage();
mailMessage.setTo(sendEmailIds());
mailMessage.setSubject(subject);
mailMessage.setText(message);
mailMessage.setFrom(fromEmailAddress);
javaMailSender.send(mailMessage);

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 30 '18 at 17:50

5

just try like this.

helper.setTo(InternetAddress.parse("email1@test.com,email2@test.com"))

answered Aug 30 '18 at 17:50

Sree

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Worked fine for me – Kimi Raikkonen 9790 Feb 24 '23 at 08:02

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 26 '17 at 13:52

2

You can try this, instead of

helper.setTo(to);

String multipleEmailIds = "abc@abc.com, abc@abc.com"
mimeMsg.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse(multipleEmailIds ));

edited Oct 26 '17 at 13:52

Jens

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answered Jun 19 '17 at 13:54

Sreenath S

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Naved Ali · Answer 6 · 2016-12-19T10:23:43.117

I think better approach is to declare "to" attribute as array in spring.xml file , pass values and use method setTo(string[]) as suggested by Deinum in comment. Process is define 'to' in xml file as

<property name="to">
    <array>
    <value>abc@gmail.com</value>
    <value>xyz@gmail.com</value>
    </array>
</property>

Now generate getter setter method for this array containing address of multiple recipient and pass it to setTo(String[]) method as :-

helper.setTo(to);

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 02 '20 at 09:59

It's working well with the SimpleMailMessage. like the answer of Siri

String[] to = {"user1@gmail.com", "user2@gmail.com"};
        
SimpleMailMessage simpleMailMessage = new SimpleMailMessage();
simpleMailMessage.setTo(to);
simpleMailMessage.setSubject("subject of mail");
simpleMailMessage.setText("content of mail");

try {
    javaMailSender.send(simpleMailMessage);
} catch (MailSendException e) {
     //...
}

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 27 '22 at 07:23

I had the same issue, I used this and it worked for me. Set your receiptants in a String like receitants = "xxx@gmail, xqz@gmail.com";

MimeMessage message = javaMailSender.createMimeMessage();
MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, true);

helper.setSubject(subject);
helper.setFrom(sender);
message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse(receipants));
message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.CC, InternetAddress.parse(ccrecepients));

helper.setText(body, true);
javaMailSender.send(message);

score -3 · Answer 9 · edited Sep 01 '16 at 11:25

-3

<bean id="mailSender" class="org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl">
      <property name="host" value="smtp.ccc.corp"/>
      <property name="port" value="25"/>
      <property name="javaMailProperties"><props>
        <prop key="mail.smtp.sendpartial">true</prop>
      </props></property>
</bean>

set mail.smtp.sendpartial true. I am sure its work for you

edited Sep 01 '16 at 11:25

Saeid

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answered Sep 01 '16 at 10:33

mangukiya mayur

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How to send an email to multiple recipients in Spring

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