Sending with Gmail

No mail server of your own? A Gmail account can send Tesria’s email. It suits a small team: a handful of password resets, invitations and notifications a day.

Gmail will not let a program like Tesria use your everyday password. There are two other ways, and you can switch between them at any time:

• An app password: a separate, 16-letter password that works only for the program you give it to. About five minutes, and the quickest start. If it ever leaks, you delete it and nothing else is affected.

• Sign in with Google: you sign in once, on Google’s own page, and Tesria never holds a password at all. It needs a small Google Cloud project, about fifteen minutes the first time, and it keeps working when the Gmail password changes, which ends every app password.

Before you start

• A Gmail account you can sign in to.

• For an app password: 2-Step Verification turned on for that account. Google only offers app passwords when it is. If it is off, turn it on at myaccount.google.com/security, under How you sign in to Google.

The quick way: an app password

Step 1: Make an app password

1. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and sign in to the Gmail account the wiki will send from.

2. Type a name you will recognize later, such as Tesria, and choose Create.

3. Google shows the password once, as four groups of four letters. Copy it now; you cannot see it again. If you lose it, delete it and make another.

Step 2: Fill in Tesria’s email settings

Choose Admin, then Settings. In the Email section, choose your provider under Provider: that fills in the server for you. Then fill in the rest:

Under How Tesria signs in, choose App password. Then choose Save mail settings.

Step 3: Turn it on and send a test

Turn on Send email at the top of the section, then choose Send test email to me. The test goes to the email address on your own Tesria account. Check that it arrived, including in the spam folder.

The lasting way: sign in with Google

Here you make a small “app” of your own in Google Cloud, tell Google that Tesria is allowed to come back to it, and then sign in once. It is your own because every Tesria has its own address, and Google only sends a sign-in back to addresses the app has registered. It costs nothing.

Step 1: Create a Google Cloud project

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in. Any Google account you will keep works; it does not have to be the one that sends.

2. Open the project list at the top, choose New project, name it Tesria, and choose Create.

Step 2: Describe the app to Google

1. With the new project selected, open Google Auth Platform (search for it at the top) and choose Get started.

2. Give the app a name, such as Tesria, and a support email address (your own).

3. For who may use it, choose External. A Google Workspace organization can choose Internal instead, and then only its own accounts can sign in, with no warning screens.

4. Add a contact email and finish.

Step 3: Publish it, so the sign-in lasts

Under Audience, choose Publish app and confirm, so its status reads In production. This matters: an External app left in Testing has its sign-ins ended by Google after seven days, and email would stop a week later. (An Internal app has no such status; skip this step.)

Step 4: Create the client

1. Under Clients, choose Create client.

2. For the application type, choose Web application and name it Tesria.

3. Under Authorized redirect URIs, choose Add URI and paste the address Tesria shows in its email settings, under Redirect address to register with Google (step 5 shows where).

4. Choose Create, then copy the Client ID and the Client secret.

Step 5: Sign in from Tesria

In Admin, Settings, Email, choose Gmail or Google Workspace under Provider and leave Sign in with Google chosen. Paste the client ID and secret, then choose Sign in with Google.

Step 6: Allow it on Google’s page

1. Choose the Gmail account the wiki will send from.

2. Google says Google hasn’t verified this app. That is expected: the app is the one you made a few minutes ago. Choose Advanced, then Go to Tesria.

3. Google asks to let the app read, compose, send and delete your email. That is how Google describes the only permission that allows sending from another program, which is one more reason to use an account made for the wiki. Tesria only sends. Choose Continue or Allow.

Google returns you to Tesria, which says Signed in. Email now goes out from and the address. Tesria has filled in the server, the username and the From address itself.

Step 7: Only on a local name: paste the address back

With a Desktop app client, Google cannot return to Tesria, so after you allow it your browser opens a page that does not load, at an address starting with http://127.0.0.1. That is expected. Copy the whole address from the address bar, go back to Tesria’s tab, paste it into Paste the address of the page that did not load, and choose Finish signing in.

Step 8: Send a test

Turn on Send email at the top of the section if it is off, choose Send test email to me, and check that the message arrived, including in the spam folder.

If the test fails

• “Username and Password not accepted” with an app password means Gmail refused it. Check that the username is the whole address, and paste the app password again. Your everyday Gmail password does not work here.

• The email arrives from a different address than the From address. Gmail sends only as the account that signs in, so use that address.

• An app password worked, then stopped. Changing the Gmail account’s password deletes all of its app passwords. Make a new one and enter it in the Password box.

• A signed-in Tesria stopped sending after a week. The app was still in Testing (step 3). Publish it, then choose Sign in again with Google.

• Administrators get the alert Email stopped: the mail sign-in was refused. Google ended the sign-in, for example because someone removed Tesria’s access in the Google account. The email settings show Google’s reason; choose Sign in again with Google.

Good to know

• Gmail limits how much one account sends in a day. A small team never reaches it. If your wiki has hundreds of people who all want email notifications, use one of the Sending services instead.

• You can switch off either way at any time. Delete the app password, or remove Tesria under your Google account’s third-party connections. Tesria stops sending until you set it up again.