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Gmail is Google’s email service that provides secure, reliable email communication for personal and business use. It offers features like spam filtering, search capabilities, and integration with other Google services, making it a popular choice for email management and communication.

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Configuring Gmail as a Destination

In the Destinations tab, click on the “Add destination” button located on the top right of your screen. Then, select the Gmail option from the list of connectors. Click Next and you’ll be prompted to add your access.

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1. Add account access

You’ll need to configure your Gmail destination settings:
  • Gmail Authorization: Authorize nekt with your Gmail account. Make sure you are doing it with the email address you want to use to send the email.
  • Recipients: The list of email addresses that should receive the email. It should be a comma-separated list such as john.doe@example.com, jane.doe@gmail.com and so on.
  • Email subject: The subject of the email. If you want to add a datestamp to the subject, please include the parameter {datestamp} in brackets.
  • Email body: The email body message to send. There are two variables you can include in the email body that will be replaced by dynamic information during execution:
    • Data preview: This will include a preview of your data (max of 100 records) in the email body in a tabular form. This is useful to give the recipients a quick glimpse on the data. In order to use data, include the variable {data_preview} in your email body.
    • Datestamp: This will include the current date timestamp in the format YYYY-MM-DD in the email body. Useful if you want to add a date reference to the email body. To use that include the variable {datestamp} in your email body.
  • Maximum preview size: The total number of rows to preview in the message body. Maximum is 100.
  • Send email with empty data: Whether the email should be sent in case the input table is empty (due to filtering or other conditions). If this option is True, then you have the option to specify a different email body to be used in such cases.
CSV Attachment Options:
  • Attach data as CSV: When enabled, the full dataset will be attached to the email as a CSV file. This is useful when you need to share the complete data with recipients, not just a preview.
  • CSV filename: The filename for the CSV attachment. You can use the {datestamp} placeholder to include the current date in the filename. For example: report_{datestamp}.csv would generate report_2024-01-15.csv.
When CSV attachment is enabled, all records from your data source will be included in the attachment, regardless of the preview size setting. The data preview in the email body and the CSV attachment work independently.
Example Email: This is an example of how the email would look like when using {datestamp} in the subject and {data_preview} in the email body: Once you’re done, click Next.

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2. Select your data to send

The next step is letting us know which data you want to attach to the email. Select the layer and then the desired table.
The table can be found more easily by typing its name.
Click Next.

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3. Configure data destination

Describe your destination for easy identification within your organization. You can inform things like what data it sends, to which team it belongs, etc. To define your Trigger, consider how often you want this email to be sent to the list of recipients. This decision usually depends on how frequently you need the new table data updated (every day, once a week, only at specific times, etc.). Click Done.

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4. Check your new destination

Once completed, you’ll receive confirmation that your new destination is set up! You can view your new destination on the Destinations page. Now, for the email to be actually sent, you have to wait for the pipeline to run. You can monitor it on the Destinations page to see its execution and completion. If needed, manually trigger the pipeline by clicking on the refresh icon. Once executed, your email should be sent.
If you encounter any issues, reach out to us via Slack, and we’ll gladly assist you!

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Implementation Notes

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Email Delivery

  • The connector uses Gmail’s SMTP service to send emails
  • Emails with attachments use multipart MIME formatting to properly handle both text content and file attachments
  • All email content is properly encoded to ensure compatibility across different email clients

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Data Handling

  • The data preview in the email body is limited to the configured maximum preview size
  • CSV attachments contain the complete dataset regardless of preview size settings
  • Dynamic variables ({datestamp}, {data_preview}) are processed at runtime during email generation

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Authentication & Security

  • OAuth2 authentication ensures secure access to Gmail services
  • Email credentials and recipient lists are stored securely
  • All data transmission uses encrypted connections