ipy_alerts

An IPython extension that implements a cell magic which will send an email when the cell has finished running.

Installation

(from within IPython)

%install_ext https://raw.github.com/zulily/ipy_alerts/master/ipy_alerts.py

Usage

%load_ext ipy_alerts
%%ipy_alerts -e to@example.com -s "hey there" -b "email body!" -f from@example.com -p pa$$w0rd

import time
time.sleep(1)

An email will be sent after the cell has completed, here after a 1 second pause.

Parameters

• --to_email, -e: the email recipient
• --subject, -s: the email subject
• --body, -b: the email body
• --from_email, -f: the email sender
• --from_password, -p: the password of the email sender account
• --email_config, -c: the location of a config file to check for the above parameters

All parameters (except email_config) must be eventually set in order for the email to be sent. The Configuration section below describes the various options for configuring ipy_alerts without explicitly passing the values at execution time.

Configuration

Instead of passing all required parameters at execution time, ipy_alerts has 3 different methods for configuring parameters. If desired, a combination of methods can be used, and ipy_alerts will use the following precedence order to determine the configuration parameters:

• parameters passed at execution time (highest precedence)
• explicit config file
• environment variables
• IPython config (lowest precedence)

At this time, the email client is assumed to be gmail and cannot be modified via parameters. Modifying the code to use a different email client should be straightforward.

1. Explicit Config File

As mentioned above, it's possible to setup a config file which contains some/all of the config parameters. This file should be readable by ConfigParser and have a section titled ipy_alerts.

Example:

[ipy_alerts]
from_password:mypass
from_email:alerts@example.com
subject:Your model just finished.
to_email:example@example.com

This file path can be specified with the --email_config, -c option, and defaults to ~/.ipy_alerts.ini

Example execution: %ipy_alerts -b "Model XYZ just finished" -c ~/.ipy_alerts.ini.

2. Environment Variables

ipy_alerts will look for environment variables using the naming convention IPY_ALERTS_<PARAMETER>.

Example: export IPY_ALERTS_FROM_EMAIL=from@example.com

3. IPython Config

ipy_alerts will look in your current IPython config, in a section called ipy_alerts for config parameters.

Example:

c.ipy_alerts = {'from_password': 'mypassword', 'from_email': 'alerts@example.com'}