I’m working on a project where I need to redirect incoming emails to other recipients using the Gmail API. I’ve been searching through the documentation but can’t seem to find any built-in methods or sample code for this functionality.
What I’m trying to achieve is taking an existing email from my inbox and sending it to another email address, but with some additional text or comments added to the original message content.
Has anyone successfully implemented email redirection using Gmail API? I’m looking for guidance on the proper approach or any code examples that demonstrate how to accomplish this task. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I encountered this exact scenario about six months ago when building an email processing system. The key insight I learned is that you’re essentially creating a new email rather than redirecting the original one. After retrieving the message using messages.get(), I found it crucial to properly parse the message payload structure since emails can have complex nested parts. When constructing the forwarded message with messages.send(), make sure to encode the message body correctly using base64url encoding. One gotcha I ran into was handling the original sender information - you’ll want to clearly indicate in your added text who the original sender was since the new message will appear to come from your authenticated account. Also consider rate limiting since the Gmail API has quotas that can affect bulk operations.
hey! yeah, you can’t redirect emails directly via gmail API, but it’s more about forwarding. use messages.get() to get the email, add your notes, then messages.send() to forward it. it’s a bit tricky but it gets the job done!
The Gmail API doesn’t provide a direct redirect feature, but I’ve managed to address similar needs by following a two-step approach. Start by using the messages.get() method to retrieve the original email, ensuring you include the full format to capture all necessary headers and body content. After that, utilize messages.send() to create a new message, allowing you to alter the recipient, add any additional comments, and maintain the original content.
An essential tip I’ve discovered is to handle the threading of messages correctly. If you wish for the forwarded email to appear within the original conversation thread, it’s crucial to include the relevant headers such as References and In-Reply-To. Additionally, pay close attention to various content types, especially if the original email consists of HTML content or attachments. For authentication, ensure you have at least the gmail.send scope for sending messages and gmail.readonly scope for accessing the original email details.