This AWS CDK construct allows you to setup email forwarding mappings in AWS SES to receive emails from your domain and forward them to another email address. All of this is possible without hosting your own email server, you just need a domain.
For example, if you own a domain example.org and want to receive emails for [email protected] and [email protected], you can forward emails to [email protected].
This is achieved by using a Lambda function that forwards the emails using aws-lambda-ses-forwarder.
This construct is creating quite a few resources under the hood and can also automatically verify your domain and email addresses in SES. Consider reading the Architecture section below if you want to know more about the details.
Forward all emails received under [email protected] to [email protected]:
new EmailForwardingRuleSet(this, 'EmailForwardingRuleSet', {
// make the underlying rule set the active one
enableRuleSet: true,
// define how emails are being forwarded
emailForwardingProps: [{
// your domain name you want to use for receiving and sending emails
domainName: 'example.org',
// a prefix that is used for the From email address to forward your mails
fromPrefix: 'noreply',
// a list of mappings between a prefix and target email address
emailMappings: [{
// the prefix matching the receiver address as <prefix>@<domainName>
receivePrefix: 'hello',
// the target email address(es) that you want to forward emails to
targetEmails: ['[email protected]']
}]
}]
});Forward all emails for a domain example.org to [email protected]:
new EmailForwardingRuleSet(this, 'EmailForwardingRuleSet', {
// make the underlying rule set the active one
enableRuleSet: true,
// define how emails are being forwarded
emailForwardingProps: [{
// your domain name you want to use for receiving and sending emails
domainName: 'example.org',
// a prefix that is used for the From email address to forward your mails
fromPrefix: 'noreply',
// a list of mappings between a prefix and target email address
emailMappings: [{
// matches all email addresses for 'example.org'
receiveEmail: '@example.org',
// the target email address(es) that you want to forward emails to
targetEmails: ['[email protected]']
}]
}]
});Forward all emails to [email protected] to [email protected] and verify the domain example.org in SES:
new EmailForwardingRuleSet(this, 'EmailForwardingRuleSet', {
emailForwardingProps: [{
domainName: 'example.org',
// let the construct automatically verify your domain
verifyDomain: true,
fromPrefix: 'noreply',
emailMappings: [{
receivePrefix: 'hello',
targetEmails: ['[email protected]']
}]
}]
});If you don't want to verify your domain in SES or you are in the SES sandbox, you can still send emails to verified email addresses.
Use the property verifyTargetEmailAddresses in this case and set it to true.
For a full & up-to-date reference of the available options, please look at the source code of EmailForwardingRuleSet and EmailForwardingRule.
Since the verification of domains requires to lookup the Route53 domains in your account, you need to define your AWS account and region. You can do it like this in your CDK stack:
const app = new cdk.App();
class EmailForwardingSetupStack extends cdk.Stack {
constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
super(scope, id, props);
new EmailForwardingRuleSet(this, 'EmailForwardingRuleSet', {
// define your config here
});
}
}
new EmailForwardingSetupStack(app, 'EmailForwardingSetupStack', {
env: {
account: '<account-id>',
region: '<region>'
}
});- Build a landing page on AWS and offer an email address to contact you.
- Use various aliases to register for different services and forward all mails to the same target email address.
There are probably more - happy to hear them :)
npm i -D @seeebiii/ses-email-forwardingTake a look at package.json to make sure you're installing the correct version compatible with your current AWS CDK version. See more details on npmjs.com: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@seeebiii/ses-email-forwarding
<dependency>
<groupId>de.sebastianhesse.cdk-constructs</groupId>
<artifactId>ses-email-forwarding</artifactId>
<version>4.0.1</version>
</dependency>See more details on mvnrepository.com: https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/de.sebastianhesse.cdk-constructs/ses-email-forwarding/
package com.example;
import de.sebastianhesse.cdk.ses.email.forwarding.EmailForwardingProps;
import de.sebastianhesse.cdk.ses.email.forwarding.EmailForwardingRuleSet;
import de.sebastianhesse.cdk.ses.email.forwarding.EmailMapping;
import java.util.Arrays;
import software.amazon.awscdk.core.App;
import software.amazon.awscdk.core.Construct;
import software.amazon.awscdk.core.Environment;
import software.amazon.awscdk.core.Stack;
import software.amazon.awscdk.core.StackProps;
public class SesEmailForwardingJavaTestApp {
public static void main(final String[] args) {
App app = new App();
new SesEmailForwardingJavaTestStack(app, "CdkEmailForwardingJavaTestStack", StackProps.builder()
.env(Environment.builder()
.account("123456789") // TODO: replace with your account id
.region("us-east-1") // TODO: replace with your region
.build()
)
.build());
app.synth();
}
static class SesEmailForwardingJavaTestStack extends Stack {
public SesEmailForwardingJavaTestStack(final Construct scope, final String id) {
this(scope, id, null);
}
public SesEmailForwardingJavaTestStack(final Construct scope, final String id, final StackProps props) {
super(scope, id, props);
EmailForwardingProps exampleProperties = EmailForwardingProps.builder()
.domainName("example.org")
// true if you own the domain in Route53, false if you need to manually verify it
.verifyDomain(true)
.fromPrefix("noreply")
.emailMappings(Arrays.asList(
EmailMapping.builder()
.receiveEmail("[email protected]")
.targetEmails(Arrays.asList("[email protected]"))
.build(),
EmailMapping.builder()
.receiveEmail("[email protected]")
.targetEmails(Arrays.asList("[email protected]"))
.build()
)
)
.build();
EmailForwardingRuleSet.Builder.create(this, "example-rule-set")
.ruleSetName("example-rule-set")
.emailForwardingProps(Arrays.asList(exampleProperties))
.build();
}
}
}pip install ses-email-forwardingSee more details on PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/ses-email-forwarding/
An artifact is pushed up to NuGet.org: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Ses.Email.Forwarding/
# Create a new directory
mkdir ExampleApplication && cd ExampleApplication
# Scaffold a C# CDK project
cdk init --language csharp
# Add dependencies
cd src/ExampleApplication
dotnet add package Ses.Email.Forwarding
dotnet add package Amazon.CDK.AWS.SNS.Subscriptions
# Remove example stack and global suppressions (silenced by way of using discards)
rm ExampleApplicationStack.cs GlobalSuppressions.csusing Amazon.CDK;
using Amazon.CDK.AWS.SNS;
using Amazon.CDK.AWS.SNS.Subscriptions;
using SebastianHesse.CdkConstructs;
using Construct = Constructs.Construct;
namespace ExampleApplication
{
public sealed class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
var app = new App();
_ = new MailboxStack(app, nameof(MailboxStack), new StackProps
{
Env = new Environment
{
// Replace with desired account
Account = "000000000000",
// Replace with desired region
Region = "us-east-1"
}
});
app.Synth();
}
}
public sealed class MailboxStack : Stack
{
public MailboxStack(Construct scope, string id, IStackProps props = null) : base(scope, id, props)
{
var notificationTopic = new Topic(this, nameof(EmailForwardingProps.NotificationTopic));
// 'Bounce' and 'Complaint' notification types, in association with the domain being verified, will be sent
// to this email address
notificationTopic.AddSubscription(new EmailSubscription("[email protected]"));
_ = new EmailForwardingRuleSet(this, nameof(EmailForwardingRuleSet), new EmailForwardingRuleSetProps
{
EmailForwardingProps = new IEmailForwardingProps[]
{
new EmailForwardingProps
{
// If your domain name has already been verified as a domain identity in SES, this does not
// need to be toggled on
VerifyDomain = true,
// This is the prefix that will be used in the email address used to forward emails
FromPrefix = "noreply",
// This domain name will be used to send and receive emails
DomainName = "example.org",
// A list of mappings between a prefix and target email addresses
EmailMappings = new IEmailMapping[]
{
new EmailMapping
{
// Emails received by [email protected] will be forwarded
ReceivePrefix = "hello",
// Emails will be forwarded to [email protected]
TargetEmails = new []
{
"[email protected]"
}
}
},
// This notification topic be published to when events in association with 'Bounce' and
// 'Complaint' notification types occur
NotificationTopic = notificationTopic
}
}
});
}
}
}This package provides two constructs: EmailForwardingRuleSet and EmailForwardingRule.
The EmailForwardingRuleSet is a wrapper around ReceiptRuleSet but adds a bit more magic to e.g. verify a domain or target email address.
Similarly, EmailForwardingRule is a wrapper around ReceiptRule but adds two SES rule actions to forward the email addresses appropriately.
This means if you want the full flexibility, you can use the EmailForwardingRule construct in your stack.
You can also send emails over SES using this construct because it provides the basics for sending emails: a verified SES domain or email address identity.
You need to do the following if you're using the EmailForwardingRuleSetConstruct:
- Set the
verifyDomainorverifyTargetEmailAddressestotrue. - Create SMTP credentials in AWS SES and save them somewhere.
- Setup your email program or application to use the SMTP settings.
The EmailForwardingRuleSet creates a EmailForwardingRule for each forward mapping.
Each rule contains an S3Action to store the incoming emails and a Lambda Function to forward the emails to the target email addresses.
The Lambda function is just a thin wrapper around the aws-lambda-ses-forwarder library.
Since this library expects a JSON config with the email mappings, the EmailForwardingRule will create an SSM parameter to store the config.
(Note: this is not ideal because an SSM parameter is limited in the size and hence, this might be changed later)
The Lambda function receives a reference to this parameter as an environment variable (and a bit more) and forwards everything to the library.
In order to verify a domain or email address, the EmailForwardingRuleSet construct is using the package @seeebiii/ses-verify-identities.
It provides constructs to verify the SES identities.
For domains, it creates appropriate Route53 records like MX, TXT and Cname (for DKIM).
For email addresses, it calls the AWS API to initiate email address verification.
- Encrypt email files on S3 bucket by either using S3 bucket encryption (server side) or enable client encryption using SES actions
I'm happy to receive any contributions! Just open an issue or pull request :)
These commands should help you while developing:
npx projeninit projen and synthesize changes in .projenrc.js to the projectyarn buildcompile typescript to jsyarn watchwatch for changes and compileyarn testperform the jest unit testsyarn eslintvalidate code against best practices
Thanks a lot to arithmetric for providing the NPM package aws-lambda-ses-forwarder. This CDK construct is using it in the Lambda function to forward the emails.
Sebastian Hesse - Freelancer for serverless cloud projects on AWS.
MIT License
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