Secret Santa program. Takes a list of names and emails and some details to connect to an SMTP server and pairs each person with another person and sends out emails to each participant informing them who they are secret Santa for.

config.json

{
	"email": "example@gmail.com",
	"password": "yourpasswordhere",
	"server": "smtp.gmail.com",
	"port": 587
}

names.txt

John Doe, john.doe@example.com
Jane Doe, jane.doe@example.com
Joe Bloggs, joe.bloggs@example.com

santa.py

# Secret Santa Program
# Author: 	Samuel Jackson
# Date:		2013-11-13 

import random
import smtplib
import json
import sys
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

# rotate list l by n elements
def rotate(l, n):
	return l[n:] + l[:n]

# load a list of names from file, seperated by a newline
def loadData(fname):
	try:
		with open(fname) as fhandle:
		    lines = fhandle.readlines()

		lines = [line.strip().split(',') for line in lines]
		lines = map(list, zip(*lines))
	except EnvironmentError, e:
		sys.exit("Oh no! Unexpected exception loading names file: " + str(e))

	return lines

#load config data from json file
def loadJsonData(fname):
	
	try:
		with open(fname) as fhandle:
			jsonData = json.load(fhandle)
	except EnvironmentError, e:
		sys.exit("Oh no! Unexpected exception loading config file: " + str(e))

	return jsonData

# given a list of recipients and messages, send each one
def sendMail(emails):
	configData = loadJsonData('config.json')
	
	print "Conncting to STMP server..."

	#start up & login to smtp server
	server = smtplib.SMTP(configData["server"], configData["port"])
	server.starttls()
	server.login(configData["email"], configData["password"])

	print "Connected."

	#send emails to each of the recipients
	for reciever, message in emails:

		msg = MIMEText(message)
		msg['Subject'] = 'RAL Students Secret Santa!'
		msg['From'] = "Samuel Jackson"
		msg['To'] = reciever

		server.sendmail(configData["email"], [reciever], msg.as_string())
		print 'Message sent to ' + reciever
		
	server.quit()

#randomly shuffled list of names
gifters, emailsAddresses = loadData('names.txt')

#make dictionary of emails and names
emailsAddresses = dict(zip(gifters, emailsAddresses))

random.shuffle(gifters)

#rotate list by one
#this ensures nobody gets themselves 
recievers = list(gifters)
recievers = rotate(recievers, 1)

santaList = dict(zip(gifters, recievers))

#build body of email message
messages = [gifter + ' you are the secret santa for ' + reciever 
			for gifter, reciever in santaList.iteritems()]

#make list of messages and recipients
emails = zip([emailsAddresses[gifter] for gifter, reciever in santaList.iteritems()], messages)

#send the emails!
try:
	sendMail(emails)
except smtplib.SMTPException, e:
	print "Oh No! Unexpected STMP exception: ", e