Inbound Parse is a feature SendGrid has that allows a domain to receive emails and then parse their contents for further processing. Inbound Parse is rather useful for handling incoming emails, automating responses, or integrating email data into your applications. Now, let’s go ahead and set up and begin to use Inbound Parse with SendGrid.
Step 1. Create a new SendGrid account.
Before one can have the ability to use Inbound Parse, one needs to have a SendGrid account. In the case that you do not have an account yet, perform the following steps:
- Sign up: Follow this link to the [SendGrid Website] (https://sendgrid.com/) and create one.
- Verify Your Account: Verify the account via the email to be sent for confirmation.
- Plan Selection: From the drop-down options, choose a plan you would like to purchase. SendGrid has a free plan where you can send a limited number of emails per day, which is really great for testing.
Step 2: Set Up a Domain
Inbound Parse requires a domain to receive emails at. You can use an existing domain or configure a new one. If you do not already have a domain, you can purchase a domain from any domain registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Configuration of Domain DNS Records
- Access Your DNS Settings: First, you need to log in to your domain registrar and go to the DNS settings for your domain.
- Adding MX records: Add Mail Exchanger records to point to the SendGrid mail servers. The MX records shall be set this way:
- Hostname: @, or your domain
- Type: MX
- Priority: 10
- Value: mx.sendgrid.net
- Save Changes: Save changes to your DNS and allow time for the DNS change to propagate. This can take as much as 24 hours.
Step 3: Configure Settings of Inbound Parse
Once you have configured your domain, you can now configure settings for Inbound Parse in SendGrid’s dashboard.
- Log In to SendGrid: Log in to your account on the SendGrid website.
- Settings: On the Dashboard, click “Settings” on the left-hand menu.
- Inbound Parse: Under Settings, click “Inbound Parse.”
- Add a New Parse Setting: Click the “Add Host & URL” button.
Configure Your Parse Settings
- Hostname: We are going to use the domain or subdomain we set up to receive emails.
- URL: Paste a URL here where you want SendGrid to POST parsed email data. Usually, this would be an endpoint to your server that handles incoming email.
- Spam Check: This will enable spam checking that will prevent spams.
- Send Raw: You may want to receive raw MIME messages.
- Save: Click “Save” and save the settings.
Step 4— Handle incoming emails
Now that you have configured your Inbound Parse settings, you will need to set up your server to handle the data of the incoming emails.
Create a Webhook Endpoint
- Set Up a Server: Provision for a web server (run) which is capable of handling HTTP POST requests. You can do this with any web framework, like Express.js, running Node.js, or maybe Python’s Flask.
- Create an Endpoint: Configure an endpoint in your server to begin accepting the POST requests from SendGrid.
Example in Node.js (Express.js)
“`javascript
const express = require(‘express’);
const bodyParser = require(‘body-parser’);
const app = express();
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.post(‘/parse’, (req, res) => {
const emailData = req.body;
console.log(emailData);
// Process the email data as needed
res.status(200).send(‘Email received’);
});
“`
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on port ${PORT}`);
});
“`
Example in Python (Flask)
“`python
from flask import Flask, request
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route(‘/parse’, methods=[‘POST’])
def parse_email():
email_data = request.form
print(email_data)
Process the email data as needed
return ‘Email received’, 200
if __name__ == ‘__main__’:
app.run(port=3000)
“`
Step 5: Test Your Setup
Finally test the whole setup to include that everything is working as expected. Test to send a test email to the address configured for Inbound Parse. Check in server logs for verification of your server receiving the email data by inspecting the logs or at the output of your endpoint. In case of any errors, verify your DNS Settings, SendGrid settings, and your server code.
Conclusion
Setting up Sendgrid Inbound Parse will allow you to automate the processing of incoming emails. It’s a super-powerful capability for many styles of applications. With this step-through guide, you should now be able to set up and use Inbound Parse with a good degree of success. Happy emailing!
FAQs
What is Inbound Parse?
Parse API Inbound External API Parsing enables receiving e-mails on your domain and parsing the content for further processing.
Why should I use Inbound Parse?
More specifically, Inbound Parse can be applied in cases when automatization is required for responses by parsing email data into applications to get a fast process of incoming emails without having to check them manually.
How do I know if my DNS settings are correct?
You can check that your DNS records have been set up correctly for your domain using online tools such as MXToolbox.
Am I able to use a subdomain with Inbound Parse?
Yes. You are able to use a subdomain with Inbound Parse. I will just make sure the MX record settings for the subdomain are set to SendGrid’s mail servers.
What information does a Parse API provide about an email?
Inbound Parse gives granular information on the email, like its subject, sender, recipient, body, and attachments.
By following these steps, you will be well on your way to power up with inbound parse through SendGrid and simplify email processing tasks.