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Send email messages with Ruby

This page explains how to use the Nylas Ruby SDK and Email API to send email messages.

Before you begin

Before you start, you must have done the following tasks:

Create and send an email draft

This section walks through how to create and send an email draft with the Nylas Ruby SDK.

The following example creates a Draft object and assigns it a subject and some body text.

request_body = { 
  subject: 'From Nylas',
  body: 'This email was sent using the Nylas Email API. Visit https://nylas.com for details.',
  to: [{ name: 'My Nylas Friend', email: 'swag@example.com'}]
}

draft, _ = nylas.drafts.create(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", request_body: request_body)

You can also add file attachments, message tracking features, and reply-to values. For more information about the data you can add to a draft, see the Drafts reference documentation.

Next, add a recipient to the draft and send it.

Below is the full example showing how to draft and send an email message.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'nylas' 

nylas = Nylas::Client.new(api_key: "<NYLAS_API_KEY>")

request_body = { 
  subject: 'From Nylas',
  body: 'This email was sent using the Nylas Email API. Visit https://nylas.com for details.',
  to: [{ name: 'My Nylas Friend', email: 'swag@example.com'}]
}
    
draft, _ = nylas.drafts.create(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", request_body: request_body)
draft, _ = nylas.drafts.send(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", draft_id: "<DRAFT_ID>")

Reply to an email message

The first step to reply to an email message is to find the thread you want to reply to. The example below gets the most recent email message in an end user's inbox by returning only the first thread.

thread, _ = nylas.threads.find(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", 
    thread_id: "<THREAD_ID>")

Next, create a draft that has the same thread_id and subject as the thread you're replying to, and assign its recipients.

request_body = { 
  subject: thread[:subject],
  body: 'This is my reply',
  to: [{ name: thread[:participants][0][:name],
      email: thread[:participants][0][:email]}],
  reply_to_message_id: thread[:message_ids][0]
}

draft, _ = nylas.drafts.create(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", request_body: request_body)

Below is the full example showing how to reply to an email message.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'nylas' 

nylas = Nylas::Client.new(
    api_key: "<NYLAS_API_KEY>"
)

request_body = { 
  subject: thread[:subject],
  body: 'This is my reply',
  to: [{ name: thread[:participants][0][:name],
      email: thread[:participants][0][:email]}],
  reply_to_message_id: thread[:message_ids][0]
}
    
draft, _ = nylas.drafts.create(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", request_body: request_body)
draft, _ = nylas.drafts.send(identifier: "<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>", draft_id: "<DRAFT_ID>")

Attach a file to an email message

The Attachments endpoint allows you to create and modify files that you can attach to email messages. The following examples show how to take a file that's saved locally and upload it to Nylas for use with the Email API.

file = Nylas::FileUtils.attach_file_request_builder('attachment.pdf')

Next, create a draft and attach the file to it.

request_body = {
  to: [{name: 'My Nylas Friend', email: 'swag@example.com'}],
  subject: "With Love, from Nylas",
  body: "This email was sent using the Nylas Email API. Visit https://nylas.com for details.",
  attachments: [file]
}

nylas.messages.send(identifier: ENV["NYLAS_GRANT_ID"], request_body: request_body)

Below is the full example showing how to attach a file to an email message.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'nylas' 

nylas = Nylas::Client.new(api_key: "<NYLAS_API_KEY>")
file = Nylas::FileUtils.attach_file_request_builder('attachment.pdf')

request_body = {
  to: [{name: 'My Nylas Friend', email: 'swag@example.com'}],
  subject: "With Love, from Nylas",
  body: "This email was sent using the Nylas Email API. Visit https://nylas.com for details.",
  attachments: [file]
}

nylas.messages.send(identifier: ENV["NYLAS_GRANT_ID"], request_body: request_body)

Explore the Email API

If you've made it to this point, congratulations! You've learned how to send an email message with the Nylas Ruby SDK and Email API! 🎉

There's plenty more that you can do with Nylas. Take a look at the following resources to learn more: