(Gmail) Sending emails from spreadsheet. How to add signature with image? - google-apps-script

Question

Due to the large amount of emails i'm sending with GMAIL i decided to automatize this process using a script and following this tutorial.Tutorial: Sending emails from a Spreadsheet
The "Message" is being generated by another function i created, called prepareEmails.
The problems are the following:
1) How can i tell prepareEmails to add my personal signature? I can't simply copy its text into that function, because my signature contains an image (for which i have the URL), and i want that image to be into the signature.
2) How can i make my signature BOLD?
Thanks everybody

Answer 1

There is an open Issue 2441 requesting the ability to append gmail signatures to email when using the GMailService. Visit and star it to receive updates.
As #wchiquito suggests, you can craft a script to attach images, producing a signature. You can also use HTML tags such as <B></B> to render text in bold, and so on.
Here's a different approach that will instead use a draft email as a template. This way, you can produce your signature with a variety of fonts and images using the online editor, and end up with a capability similar to automatic signature insertion.
The template needs to be saved in your Drafts folder, and it needs to have a tag indicating where the body of emails should go.
Example
function sendWithTemplate() {
var msgBody = "Test of sending a message using a template with a signature.";
sendGmailTemplate(Session.getActiveUser().getEmail(), 'test', msgBody );
}
Script
/**
* Insert the given email body text into an email template, and send
* it to the indicated recipient. The template is a draft message with
* the subject "TEMPLATE"; if the template message is not found, an
* exception will be thrown. The template must contain text indicating
* where email content should be placed: {BODY}.
*
* #param {String} recipient Email address to send message to.
* #param {String} subject Subject line for email.
* #param {String} body Email content, may be plain text or HTML.
* #param {Object} options (optional) Options as supported by GmailApp.
*
* #returns GmailApp the Gmail service, useful for chaining
*/
function sendGmailTemplate(recipient, subject, body, options) {
options = options || {}; // default is no options
var drafts = GmailApp.getDraftMessages();
var found = false;
for (var i=0; i<drafts.length && !found; i++) {
if (drafts[i].getSubject() == "TEMPLATE") {
found = true;
var template = drafts[i];
}
}
if (!found) throw new Error( "TEMPLATE not found in drafts folder" );
// Generate htmlBody from template, with provided text body
var imgUpdates = updateInlineImages(template);
options.htmlBody = imgUpdates.templateBody.replace('{BODY}', body);
options.attachments = imgUpdates.attachments;
options.inlineImages = imgUpdates.inlineImages;
return GmailApp.sendEmail(recipient, subject, body, options);
}
/**
* This function was adapted from YetAnotherMailMerge by Romain Vaillard.
* Given a template email message, identify any attachments that are used
* as inline images in the message, and move them from the attachments list
* to the inlineImages list, updating the body of the message accordingly.
*
* #param {GmailMessage} template Message to use as template
* #returns {Object} An object containing the updated
* templateBody, attachments and inlineImages.
*/
function updateInlineImages(template) {
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Get inline images and make sure they stay as inline images
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
var templateBody = template.getBody();
var rawContent = template.getRawContent();
var attachments = template.getAttachments();
var regMessageId = new RegExp(template.getId(), "g");
if (templateBody.match(regMessageId) != null) {
var inlineImages = {};
var nbrOfImg = templateBody.match(regMessageId).length;
var imgVars = templateBody.match(/<img[^>]+>/g);
var imgToReplace = [];
if(imgVars != null){
for (var i = 0; i < imgVars.length; i++) {
if (imgVars[i].search(regMessageId) != -1) {
var id = imgVars[i].match(/realattid=([^&]+)&/);
if (id != null) {
var temp = rawContent.split(id[1])[1];
temp = temp.substr(temp.lastIndexOf('Content-Type'));
var imgTitle = temp.match(/name="([^"]+)"/);
if (imgTitle != null) imgToReplace.push([imgTitle[1], imgVars[i], id[1]]);
}
}
}
}
for (var i = 0; i < imgToReplace.length; i++) {
for (var j = 0; j < attachments.length; j++) {
if(attachments[j].getName() == imgToReplace[i][0]) {
inlineImages[imgToReplace[i][2]] = attachments[j].copyBlob();
attachments.splice(j, 1);
var newImg = imgToReplace[i][1].replace(/src="[^\"]+\"/, "src=\"cid:" + imgToReplace[i][2] + "\"");
templateBody = templateBody.replace(imgToReplace[i][1], newImg);
}
}
}
}
var updatedTemplate = {
templateBody: templateBody,
attachments: attachments,
inlineImages: inlineImages
}
return updatedTemplate;
}
Credit where credit is due: The "Yet Another Mail Merge" script includes code that preserves inline images in emails during a mail merge - I've borrowed from that. Thanks Romain!

Answer 2

Currently the API does not offer anything to include the signature to messages, however, if you have control of the signature, you can use the method sendEmail(recipient, subject, body, options) available in classes GmailApp/MailApp. The options parameter allows you to set additional parameters to get what you need, for example, include images, with which the signature can build manually, and sets text in bold.
I invite you to take a look at the documentation/examples and post any questions you may have. An interesting example can be found here.