Django send_mail: AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'encode'

Question

I've already read this, this and this but no valid answer. I'm trying to send mail with Django with html_message and it seems the only way to go is:

send_mail(
    subject=_(u"My news"),
    message=message, html_message=html_message,
    from_email=u'contact@cogofly.com',
    recipient_list=[personne.user.email, ])

(though there's no BCC whereas EmailMessage() function has one...). When I try those lines I get:

in send_newsletter, recipient_list=[personne.user.email, ]
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'encode'

What am I doing wrong?

Here's my settings.py configuration:

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend'

and nothing else about mail sending (i'm on a development machine)

and I'm trying to follow the documentation here:

Here's the whole error stack trace:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\PyCharm 2016.1\helpers\pycharm\django_manage.py", line 41, in <module>
    run_module(manage_file, None, '__main__', True)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\runpy.py", line 176, in run_module
    fname, loader, pkg_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\runpy.py", line 82, in _run_module_code
    mod_name, mod_fname, mod_loader, pkg_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code
    exec code in run_globals
  File "C:\Users\Olivier\PycharmProjects\cogofly\manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 354, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 346, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 394, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 445, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "C:/Users/Olivier/PycharmProjects/cogofly\app\management\commands\sendnewsletter.py", line 124, in handle
    self.send_newsletter(p)
  File "C:/Users/Olivier/PycharmProjects/cogofly\app\management\commands\sendnewsletter.py", line 92, in send_newsletter
    recipient_list=[personne.user.email, ])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\mail\__init__.py", line 62, in send_mail
    return mail.send()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\mail\message.py", line 303, in send
    return self.get_connection(fail_silently).send_messages([self])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\mail\backends\console.py", line 36, in send_messages
    self.write_message(message)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\mail\backends\console.py", line 18, in write_message
    msg = message.message()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\mail\message.py", line 266, in message
    msg = SafeMIMEText(self.body, self.content_subtype, encoding)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\mail\message.py", line 184, in __init__
    self.set_payload(_text, utf8_charset)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\email\message.py", line 226, in set_payload
    self.set_charset(charset)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\email\message.py", line 268, in set_charset
    cte(self)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\email\encoders.py", line 73, in encode_7or8bit
    orig.encode('ascii')
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'encode'

Here's my code:

class Command(ActivitesMixin, MessagesNotReadMixin, InvitationsMixin,
              LikesMixin, BaseCommand):
    help = 'Send the newsletter to members'
    can_import_settings = True

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(Command, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.requires_system_checks = True  # test bd bien synchro, entre autres
        self.output_transaction = True  # dump visuel de SQL

    def add_arguments(self, parser):
        parser.add_argument('--reset_all_news',
                            action='store_true',
                            dest='reset_all_news',
                            default=None,
                            help='Reset ALL news and resend ALL to EVERYBODY')
        parser.add_argument('--reset_personne_id',
                            action='store_true',
                            dest='reset_personne_id',
                            default=None,
                            help='Reset newsletter of a specific person')

    def send_newsletter(self, personne):
        if personne.site_language is None:
            return
        if personne.site_web is None:
            return
        print personne.site_language, personne.site_web

        translation.activate(personne.site_language.locale)
        f = get_format('DATE_INPUT_FORMATS')[1]
        m = _(u"Here is the latest news on your contacts, "
              u"along with other notifications that might be of "
              u"interest to you, since your last connection:")
        message = [m, u"\n"]
        html_message = [m, u"\n"]
        # prendre toutes les activites dans la langue de la personne :
        news_sent = PersonneActiviteNewsletter.objects.filter(personne=personne)
        a = self.activites(personne, personne.site_language).exclude(
            pk__in=news_sent.values_list('activite__pk'))

        for activite in a:
            message.append(_(u"- {}, {}:\n{}\n").format(
                activite.date_last_modif.strftime(f),
                activite.date_last_modif.strftime('%H:%M'),
                activite.description(with_date=False)))
            html_message.append(_(u"- {}, {}:\n{}\n").format(
                activite.date_last_modif.strftime(f),
                activite.date_last_modif.strftime('%H:%M'),
                activite.description(with_date=False, tag='b')))

        n = self.messages_not_read(personne).count()
        if n > 0:
            m = ungettext(u'You have {} message not read.\n',
                          u'You have {} messages not read.\n', n).format(n)
            message.append(m)
            html_message.append(m)
        n = self.messages_not_read(personne).count()
        if n > 0:
            m = ungettext(u'You have {} invitation not read.\n',
                          u'You have {} invitations not read.\n', n).format(n)
            message.append(m)
            html_message.append(m)
        n = self.likes(personne).count()
        if n > 0:
            m = ungettext(u'You have {} like!\n',
                          u'You have {} likes!\n', n).format(n)
            message.append(m)
            html_message.append(m)

        print personne.user.email
        print type(personne.user.email)
        print settings.EMAIL_BACKEND
        send_mail(
            subject=_(u"Cogofly's news"),
            message=message, html_message=html_message,
            from_email=u'contact@cogofly.com',
            recipient_list=[personne.user.email, ])

        translation.deactivate()

    def handle(self, *args, **options):
        if options['reset_all_news']:
            try:
                reset = bool(options['reset_all_news'])
            except ValueError:
                raise CommandError('reset_all_news has to be a boolean')

        if options['reset_personne_id']:
            try:
                personne_id = int(options['reset_all_news'])
            except ValueError:
                raise CommandError('reset_personne_id has to be an integer')

            try:
                p = Personne.objects.get(pk=personne_id)
            except Personne.DoesNotExist:
                raise CommandError('Personne {} not found'.format(personne_id))

            self.send_newsletter(personne=p)
        else:
            tab = Personne.objects.filter(est_detruit__isnull=True)
            for p in tab.filter(date_v_fin__isnull=True,
                                est_active__exact=True):
                self.send_newsletter(p)

Please, print: `type(personne.user.email)` and show what's it's type. — Gocht, Jul 07 '16 at 15:08
I have just tried the same code and it works fine, please, add your config for emailing in your settings — Gocht, Jul 07 '16 at 15:22
It seems that it's about the fact that it tries to output things on the console. I'll put the whole error in my question. — Olivier Pons, Jul 07 '16 at 15:33
Yes, while you are in a development environment you will see the output in your console by running this command here -> https://docs.djangoproject.com/es/1.9/topics/email/#configuring-email-for-development — Gocht, Jul 07 '16 at 15:34
I think you need to show your command and your send_newsletter function. — Gocht, Jul 07 '16 at 15:38

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 07 '16 at 15:59

After your last update, I can see in your function send_newsletter this line:

...
html_message = [m, u"\n"]
...

And then you add content to html_message using append function. So, you create a list and even when docs does not specified this, that should be a string with HTML format:

html_message = "<strong>Hi there!</strong>"

Try passing a string in your attribute html_message in send_mail function.

Django send_mail: AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'encode'

1 Answers1