Issue 31 add email api and email configurations

[Viloetsisi]

Change Summary

This PR implements the full backend email functionality for Issue #31.
It introduces Django email configuration, a reusable email utility function, and updates the environment variable template.
The integration was validated successfully by sending real test emails inside the DevContainer.

Change Form

• The pull request title has an issue number
  Includes: issue-31-Add_email_API_and_email_configurations

• The change works by "Smoke testing" or quick testing
  A real email was successfully sent using send_simple_email() inside manage.py shell, confirming Gmail App Password setup works.

• The change has tests
  NA — No automated email tests added due to time constraints and because email sending typically requires mocking external SMTP servers.

• The change has documentation
  .env.example updated to include required email environment variables and developer instructions.

Other Information

• Merge conflicts with settings.py (due to new S3 configuration from main) were resolved cleanly.
• Installed django-storages[boto3] to support new S3 backend introduced in main.
• Adjusted DevContainer .env database host to ensure backend starts correctly after merging latest main.
• Email sending was confirmed to work with Gmail App Passwords and correct SMTP configuration.

Related issue

• Resolve Add email API and email configurations #31

[Viloetsisi]

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR implements email functionality for Issue #31, adding Django email configuration, a reusable email utility function, and updating environment variable templates. The implementation supports SMTP email sending with configurable backends.

Key changes:

• Email configuration added to Django settings with environment variable support
• Reusable send_simple_email() utility function for sending emails
• Comprehensive .env.example documentation for email setup with Gmail App Password guidance

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
server/requirements.txt	Complete dependencies list for the project
server/api/settings.py	Added email configuration section with SMTP settings and environment variable support
server/api/email_utils.py	New utility module with send_simple_email() wrapper function for Django's send_mail
server/.env.example	Updated with email configuration variables and developer setup instructions

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[ErikaKK]

I got a few questions, will talk tomorrow

[ErikaKK]

please remove this. we are using poetry to manage dependencies

[ErikaKK]

need a few changes, pls add html template for the email

[ErikaKK]

This looks like optional, so pls remove this, bc the title of the subject can tell it's bloom email

[ErikaKK]

we'll have html content for the email message. I just added the design in figma:

pls update according to this

[ErikaKK]

please remove settings.DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL or

[ErikaKK]

DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = os.environ.get("EMAIL_HOST_USER", "")

[Viloetsisi]

Key changes:

• Updated email_utils.py to support HTML templates and new wrapper functions.
• Added two new templates (booking_confirmed.html, booking_cancelled.html) under api/templates/emails.
• Updated Django TEMPLATES config to include api/templates.
• Cleaned up env configuration by removing unused DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL.

I have tested the updated email templates in the Django shell by rendering them directly with sample context data. This generated local HTML preview files, which match the expected design and display correctly as shown in the screenshots.

[ErikaKK]

please don't hard code, think about using a function and pass the details. pls use the bloom logo that you can find in figma thanks!