Create a Draft and Send an Email

Enterprise email API requires two steps to send an email: first create a draft and save the returned email ID, then send that draft. For batch notifications or marketing emails, use the Direct Mail product.

Call Sequence

1. Call Create a Draft Email.
2. Read the draft ID from the message.id field in the response.
3. Call Send a Draft Email.
4. Save the request ID and business result for auditing and troubleshooting.

Python Example

import requests

API_BASE = "https://alimail-cn.aliyuncs.com"


def send_mail(access_token: str, mailbox: str, message: dict) -> None:
    headers = {
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    }
    draft = requests.post(
        f"{API_BASE}/v2/users/{mailbox}/messages",
        headers=headers,
        json={"message": message},
        timeout=15,
    )
    draft.raise_for_status()
    draft_id = draft.json()["message"]["id"]

    sent = requests.post(
        f"{API_BASE}/v2/users/{mailbox}/messages/{draft_id}/send",
        headers=headers,
        json={"saveToSentItems": True},
        timeout=15,
    )
    sent.raise_for_status()

Production code should also validate recipients, limit the scope of a single send, and add idempotent control for duplicate requests. Sending is a real external action; during integration testing, prioritize using a test email account.

Reference: Original Example.