NEW: Version 2 of the Paubox Email API SDK for Python is available to beta test now. It includes code for newer features like bulk message sending, dynamic templates, and more. We will be deprecating the old in the near future.
This is the official Python3 package for the Paubox Email API.
The Paubox Email API allows your application to send secure, HIPAA compliant email via Paubox and track email deliveries and opens.
You will need to have a Paubox account. You can sign up here.
Once you have an account, follow the instructions on the REST API dashboard to verify domain ownership and generate API keys. Further quickstart instructions for this process can be found here.
Your API key is the only credential you need — a username/endpoint name is no longer required to authenticate. The client defaults to the Paubox API host at https://api.paubox.com/v1/email.
While you can simply hard-code your authentication credentials, it's often better practice to tuck these values away in an environment or configuration file. Our following code snippets leverage the use of the config python package to load our credentials. To set config up, include your API key credentials in a config file (e.g. config.cfg)
PAUBOX_API_KEY: 'YOUR_API_KEY'
If you need to point the client at a different host, set the optional PAUBOX_HOST environment variable (or pass a host argument to PauboxApiClient) to override the default https://api.paubox.com/v1/email.
Then, install the config package using pip3 to load API credentials from the
config.cfg file:
$ pip3 install config
$ pip3 install paubox-python3
Sending via Paubox is easy. This is the minimum content needed to send an email.
import paubox
from paubox.helpers.mail import Mail
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
recipients = ["recipient@example.com"]
from_ = "sender@yourdomain.com"
subject = "Testing!"
content = {"text/plain": "Hello World!"}
mail = Mail(from_, subject, recipients, content)
response = paubox_client.send(mail.get())
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)import paubox
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
mail = {
"data": {
"message": {
"recipients": [
"recipient@example.com"
],
"headers": {
"subject": "Testing!",
"from": "sender@yourdomain.com"
},
"content": {
"text/plain": "Hello World!",
}
}
}
}
response = paubox_client.send(mail)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)If you want to send non-PHI mail that does not need to be HIPAA compliant, you can allow the message delivery to take place even if a TLS connection is unavailable.
This means the message will not be converted into a secure portal message when a nonTLS connection is encountered. For this, just pass allowNonTLS as True as shown below:
import paubox
from paubox.helpers.mail import Mail
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
recipients = ["recipient@example.com"]
from_ = "sender@yourdomain.com"
subject = "Testing!"
content = {
"text/plain": "Hello World!"
}
optional_headers = {
'reply_to': 'replies@yourdomain.com',
'allowNonTLS': True
}
mail = Mail(from_, subject, recipients, content, optional_headers)
response = paubox_client.send(mail.get())
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)import paubox
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
mail = {
"data": {
"message": {
"recipients": [
"recipient@example.com"
],
'allowNonTLS': True,
"headers": {
"subject": "Testing!",
"from": "Sender <sender@yourdomain.com>",
"reply-to": "Reply-to <replies@yourdomain.com>"
},
"content": {
"text/plain": "Hello World!",
}
}
}
}
response = paubox_client.send(mail)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)Paubox Secure Notifications allow an extra layer of security, especially when coupled with an organization's requirement for message recipients to use 2-factor authentication to read messages (this setting is available to org administrators in the Paubox Admin Panel).
Instead of receiving an email with the message contents, the recipient will receive a notification email that they have a new message in Paubox.
To enable this, pass the forceSecureNotification header as True as shown below:
import paubox
from paubox.helpers.mail import Mail
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
recipients = ["recipient@example.com"]
from_ = "sender@yourdomain.com"
subject = "Testing!"
content = {
"text/plain": "Hello World!"
}
optional_headers = {
'reply_to': 'replies@yourdomain.com',
'forceSecureNotification': True
}
mail = Mail(from_, subject, recipients, content, optional_headers)
response = paubox_client.send(mail.get())
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)import paubox
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
mail = {
"data": {
"message": {
"recipients": [
"recipient@example.com"
],
'forceSecureNotification': 'true',
"headers": {
"subject": "Testing!",
"from": "Sender <sender@yourdomain.com>",
"reply-to": "Reply-to <replies@yourdomain.com>"
},
"content": {
"text/plain": "Hello World!"
}
}
}
}
response = paubox_client.send(mail)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)import paubox
import base64
from paubox.helpers.mail import Mail
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
recipients = ["recipient@example.com"]
from_ = "sender@yourdomain.com"
subject = "Testing!"
attachment_content = base64.b64encode(bytes("Hello World!", encoding="utf-8")).decode()
content = {
"text/plain": "Hello World!",
"text/html": "<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>"
}
optional_headers = {
"attachments": [{
"fileName": "the_file.txt",
"contentType": "text/plain",
"content": attachment_content
}],
'reply_to': 'replies@yourdomain.com',
'bcc': 'recipient2@example.com',
'cc':['recipientcc@example.com'],
'forceSecureNotification': 'true',
'allowNonTLS': True
}
mail = Mail(from_, subject, recipients, content, optional_headers)
response = paubox_client.send(mail.get())
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)import paubox
import base64
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
attachment_content = base64.b64encode("Hello World!".encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
mail = {
"data": {
"message": {
"recipients": [
"recipient@example.com"
],
"bcc": ["recipient2@example.com"],
'cc':['recipientcc@example.com'],
'forceSecureNotification':'true',
'allowNonTLS': True,
"headers": {
"subject": "Testing!",
"from": "Sender <sender@yourdomain.com>",
"reply-to": "Reply-to <replies@yourdomain.com>"
},
"content": {
"text/plain": "Hello World!",
"text/html": "<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>"
},
"attachments": [{
"fileName": "the_file.txt",
"contentType": "text/plain",
"content": attachment_content
}]
}
}
}
response = paubox_client.send(mail)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.headers)
print(response.text)The SOURCE_TRACKING_ID of a message is returned in the response.text of your send request. Use response.to_dict to access the response text as a dictionary.
import paubox
from config import Config
with open("config.cfg") as config_file:
paubox_config = Config(config_file)
paubox_client = paubox.PauboxApiClient(paubox_config['PAUBOX_API_KEY'])
disposition_response = paubox_client.get("SOURCE_TRACKING_ID")
print(disposition_response.status_code)
print(disposition_response.headers)
print(disposition_response.text)The Paubox Forms API lets you retrieve form definitions and submit responses. These endpoints are public — no API key is required.
Retrieve a form's metadata, HTML, JSON schema, and CSS by its UUID.
import paubox
forms_client = paubox.PauboxFormsClient()
response = forms_client.get_form("your-form-uuid-here")
print(response.status_code) # 200
print(response.to_dict) # dict with id, title, form_html, form_json, form_css, etc.import paubox
forms_client = paubox.PauboxFormsClient()
response = forms_client.submit_form(
"your-form-uuid-here",
form_data={"first_name": "Jane", "last_name": "Doe", "email": "jane@example.com"}
)
print(response.status_code) # 201Attachments must be base64-encoded. Maximum total request size is 250 MB.
import paubox
import base64
forms_client = paubox.PauboxFormsClient()
with open("consent.pdf", "rb") as f:
encoded = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode("utf-8")
response = forms_client.submit_form(
"your-form-uuid-here",
form_data={"first_name": "Jane", "signature": "{signature_field}"},
attachments=[{"name": "consent.pdf", "content": encoded}]
)
print(response.status_code) # 201Beyond the public endpoints above, PauboxFormsClient can manage forms and retrieve/export submissions. These endpoints require authentication:
- Pass a Paubox scoped API key carrying the
formsscope as theapi_keyconstructor argument. The key is sent as a Bearer token (Authorization: Bearer <key>) on every authenticated call. JWTs are also accepted. - The public endpoints (
get_form,submit_form) never send auth headers, even whenapi_keyis set. - Calling an authenticated method without an
api_keyraisesValueErrorbefore any network call.
import paubox
forms_client = paubox.PauboxFormsClient(api_key="YOUR_SCOPED_API_KEY")import paubox
forms_client = paubox.PauboxFormsClient(api_key="YOUR_SCOPED_API_KEY")
# List forms (paginated; pass the customer_id your key is scoped to —
# API-key calls that omit it are rejected with 403 Forbidden)
response = forms_client.list_forms(customer_id=12345, search="intake", order="asc", order_by="title", page=1, items=25)
print(response.to_dict["results"]) # list of forms
print(response.to_dict["page_info"]) # {"count", "pages", "page", "items"}
# Get a single form (authenticated variant of get_form)
response = forms_client.get_form_by_id("your-form-uuid-here")
print(response.to_dict["data"])
# Create a form
response = forms_client.create_form(
title="Patient Intake Form",
form_json={"fields": [{"name": "first_name", "type": "text"}]},
customer_id=12345,
description="New patient intake",
recipient="intake@yourdomain.com,frontdesk@yourdomain.com",
active=True
)
print(response.to_dict["id"]) # UUID of the new form
# Update a form — only the arguments you pass are changed
response = forms_client.update_form("your-form-uuid-here", title="Updated Title", active=False)
print(response.to_dict["detail"]) # "Form updated successfully"
# Archive / unarchive (archiving also deactivates the form)
forms_client.archive_form("your-form-uuid-here")
forms_client.unarchive_form("your-form-uuid-here")
# Copy a form
response = forms_client.copy_form("your-form-uuid-here", "Copy of Patient Intake Form")
print(response.to_dict["id"]) # UUID of the copy
# Form stats
response = forms_client.get_form_stats()
print(response.to_dict) # {"active_form_count", "total_submission_count", "submissions_last_7_days"}import paubox
forms_client = paubox.PauboxFormsClient(api_key="YOUR_SCOPED_API_KEY")
# List a form's submissions (paginated)
response = forms_client.list_submissions("your-form-uuid-here", page=1, items=50)
for submission in response.to_dict["data"]:
print(submission["id"], submission["submitter_email"])
print(submission["form_data"]) # JSON string — parse with json.loads if needed
# Export all submissions as CSV
response = forms_client.export_submissions_csv("your-form-uuid-here")
with open("submissions.csv", "wb") as f:
f.write(response.content)
# Export a single submission as CSV
response = forms_client.export_submissions_csv("your-form-uuid-here", "submission-uuid-here")
with open("submission.csv", "wb") as f:
f.write(response.content)
# Export a single submission as PDF
response = forms_client.export_submission_pdf("your-form-uuid-here", "submission-uuid-here")
with open("submission.pdf", "wb") as f:
f.write(response.content)The Paubox-python3 SDK is maintained by Paubox, Inc.
We want to empower our users building applications with the Paubox Email API, and so we encourage you to file bug reports/create GitHub issues and pull requests. Chances are other developers using our Email API might be having similar ideas about new features or approaches to improving the SDK, so we encourage you to upvote or comment on existing issues or pull requests!
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Copyright © 2021, Paubox, Inc.
Questions, ideas, or want to share what you built? Join the Paubox Community — the single home for discussions across every Paubox SDK and API.
🔐 Found a security issue? Email devops@paubox.com — please don't post it publicly.