Question

I would like to be able to have a configuration file with an assortment of content to be mailed out. Each email would need to contain a subject and a body, with new lines.

For example:

[Message_One]
Subject: Hey there
Body: This is a test
      How are you?
      Blah blah blah

      Sincerely,
      SOS

[Message_Two]
Subject: Goodbye
Body: This is not a test
      No one cares
      Foo bar foo bar foo bar

      Regards

How would I get this to work with Python as a config file to randomly select between the content and/or grab one by it’s defined name (Message_One, Message_Two)?

Thanks

Answer 1

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from re import match
from collections import namedtuple
from pprint import pprint
from random import choice

Mail = namedtuple('Mail', 'subject, body')

def parseMails(filename):
    mails = {}
    with open(filename) as f:
        index = ''
        subject = ''
        body = ''
        for line in f:
            m = match(r'^\[(.+)\]$', line)
            if m:
                if index:
                    mails[index] = Mail(subject, body)
                index = m.group(1)
                body = ''
            elif line.startswith('Subject: '):
                subject = line[len('Subject: '):-1]
            else:
                body += line[len('Body: '):]
        else:
            mails[index] = Mail(subject, body)
    return mails

mails = parseMails('mails.txt')
index = choice(list(mails.keys()))
mail = mails[index]
pprint(mail)

---

Mail(subject='Goodbye', body='This is not a test\nNo one cares\nFoo bar foo bar foo bar\nRegards\n')

• parse the mails
• random choice one mail