SES client sent an email with a configuration set that does not contain a tracking pixel.

[Acowboyz]

Describe the Issue

I wanted to track the email open and click events, but I encountered a failure.

I used the "Send test email" button on AWS to send an email, and it worked:

<img alt="" src="http://xxxx.com/CI0/01010188fbeb7f7d-a51a320a-ea37-4ebb-a739-368f5c0996c0-000000/jS3zf4JSzdnhmhVZ7ixYAlHHsx_JZ5qQ1kI_CbmvI64=306" style="display: none; width: 1px; height: 1px;">

However, when using the following boto3 code, it does not include a tracking pixel.

Code

def send_email_with_tracking():
    # Create a new Boto3 SES client
    client = boto3.client('ses', region_name='us-west-2')  # Replace with your desired region

    # Specify your custom configuration set name
    configuration_set_name = 'xxxx'

    # Create the email message
    message = {
        'Subject': {
            'Data': 'Your subject',
            'Charset': 'UTF-8'
        },
        'Body': {
            'Text': {
                'Data': 'Your message',
                'Charset': 'UTF-8'
            }
        }
    }

    # Specify your sender and recipient email addresses
    source_email = 'xxxx'
    destination_email = 'xxxx'
    # Send the email
    response = client.send_email(
        Source=source_email,
        Destination={
            'ToAddresses': [destination_email]
        },
        Message=message,
        ConfigurationSetName=configuration_set_name,
    )

Environments

MacOS 11.6
Python 3.9.7
boto3 1.24.6

[jonemo]

The tracking pixel is HTML email content. Therefore your message dict should contain an entry Html in addition (or instead of) the Text.

Detailed docs for the request syntax are here: https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/ses/client/send_email.html

[Acowboyz]

@jonemo
Thank you for your reply.
I came across this document, but I'm still confused about how to generate the tracking pixel content and how to create the tracking URL specifically.

[jonemo]

I only have passing experience with SES myself, but my understanding is that the tracking pixel gets inserted automatically for you (assuming your SES configuration set has the tracking pixel setting enabled).

However, note that tracking pixels are, by definition, HTML and can only exist in emails with HTML content. Please try sending an email with any HTML content and check if the tracking pixel is present. Your code snippet above sends an email with text content only and no HTML content.

[Acowboyz]

Thank you for your replay.
Finally, I figured out that I need to add an HTML part so that AWS SES can inject the tracking pixel.

Code

If you are using the send_email API.

def send_email_with_tracking():
    # Create a new Boto3 SES client
    client = boto3.client('ses', region_name='us-west-2')  # Replace with your desired region

    # Specify your custom configuration set name
    configuration_set_name = 'xxxx'

    # Create the email message
    message = {
        'Subject': {
            'Data': 'Your subject',
            'Charset': 'UTF-8'
        },
        'Body': {
            'Html': {
                'Charset': 'UTF-8',
                'Data': 'This message body contains HTML formatting. It can, for example,',
            },
            'Text': {
                'Data': 'Your message',
                'Charset': 'UTF-8'
            }
        }
    }

    # Specify your sender and recipient email addresses
    source_email = 'xxxx'
    destination_email = 'xxxx'
    # Send the email
    response = client.send_email(
        Source=source_email,
        Destination={
            'ToAddresses': [destination_email]
        },
        Message=message,
        ConfigurationSetName=configuration_set_name,
    )

If you are using the send_raw_email API.

def send_raw_email_with_tracking(
        sender: str,
        receiver: str,
        # mail things
        subject: str,
        html: str,
        text: str,
):
    msg = mime_multipart.MIMEMultipart()
    msg["Subject"] = subject
    msg["From"] = sender
    msg["To"] = receiver
    # Set message body
    text = mime_text.MIMEText(text, "plain")
    msg.attach(text)
    html = mime_text.MIMEText(html, "html")
    msg.attach(html)

    try:
        response = ses_client.send_raw_email(
            Source=sender,
            Destinations=[receiver],
            RawMessage={"Data": msg.as_string()},
            ConfigurationSetName="xxx"
        )
        return response
    except Exception as e:
        return {}