django templated e-mail using markdown/html -- supports attaching files or streaming file attachments

gistfile1.py

from django.conf import settings

def email_template(
    template_name                = None,
    template_context             = None,
    subject                      = '',
    recipients                   = None,
    sender                       = settings.DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL,
    fail_silently                = False,
    use_markdown                 = False,
    file_name_attachment_list    = [],
    file_pointer_attachment_list = [],
    recipients_bcc               = None,
    headers                      = None
    ):
    """
    simple method for e-mailing a rendered template file
    use_markdown turns it into a multipart e-mail
    with an html version derived from the markdown text of the template

    `file_name_attachment_list` must be a list of full file paths (e.g. ['/foo/bar/baz/bet.jpg'])
    `file_pointer_attachment_list` must be a list of 3-tuples of the form [('filename.jpg',file_pointer_data,'mime/type'),]
    """
    print "Using new mailer"
    from django.core.mail import EmailMultiAlternatives, EmailMessage
    from django.template import loader, Context

    if recipients is None:
        recipients = []
    if recipients_bcc is None:
        recipients_bcc = []

    text_part = loader.get_template(template_name)
    subject_part = loader.get_template_from_string(subject)

    if template_context is None:
        context = Context({})
    else:
        context = Context(template_context)
    text_part = text_part.render(context)
    subject_part = subject_part.render(context)

    if use_markdown:  # do we want to produce an html version?
        import markdown
        html_part = markdown.markdown(text_part)
        # log.info('markdown: %s...'%html_part[:150])
        # print subject_part, text_part, sender, recipients,smtp
        msg = EmailMultiAlternatives(
            subject    = subject_part,
            body       = text_part,
            from_email = sender,
            to         = recipients,
            bcc        = recipients_bcc,
            headers    = headers,
        )
        msg.attach_alternative(html_part, "text/html")
    else:
        msg = EmailMessage(
            subject    = subject_part,
            body       = text_part,
            from_email = sender,
            to         = recipients,
            bcc        = recipients_bcc,
            headers    = headers,
        )

    # loop through the file attachements if needed
    if file_name_attachment_list:
        for item in file_name_attachment_list:
            msg.attach_file(item)

    # loop through the file pointer attachments if needed
    if file_pointer_attachment_list:
        for item in file_pointer_attachment_list:
            msg.attach(*item)
    return msg.send(fail_silently=fail_silently)