SoFunction
Updated on 2025-04-11

Simple task automation with Python

In modern work and life, task automation can greatly improve efficiency and accuracy. Python, as a powerful and easy to learn programming language, is ideal for automating tasks. This article will use several simple and practical cases to show how to automate tasks in Python, with detailed code and explanation.

1. Automatically send email reminders

Suppose you need to automatically send an email at 5 pm every day to remind team members to complete the tasks of the day. You can use Python's smtplib library and schedule library to achieve this.

step:

Install the necessary libraries:

pip install schedule

Write a script:

import smtplib
from  import MIMEMultipart
from  import MIMEText
import schedule
import time
from datetime import datetime
 
def send_email():
    # Email content settings    sender_email = "your_email@"
    receiver_email = "team_member@"
    password = "your_email_password"  # Note: Do not hardcode passwords in production environments. It is recommended to use environment variables or secure storage.    subject = "Daily Reminder"
    body = "Don't forget to complete your tasks for today!"
 
    # Create a MIMEMultipart object    message = MIMEMultipart()
    message["From"] = sender_email
    message["To"] = receiver_email
    message["Subject"] = subject
 
    # Add the message body to the MIMEText object    (MIMEText(body, "plain"))
 
    # Send email    try:
        server = ("", 587)  # Adjust SMTP server and port according to your mail service provider        ()
        (sender_email, password)
        text = message.as_string()
        (sender_email, receiver_email, text)
        print("Email sent successfully!")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Failed to send email: {e}")
    finally:
        ()
 
# Set timed tasks().("17:00").do(send_email)
 
# Keep the script running and check the taskwhile True:
    schedule.run_pending()
    (1)  # wait1Check again in seconds

explain:

  • smtplib is used to send mail.
  • MIMEMultipart and MIMEText are used to create mail content.
  • The schedule library is used for scheduled task scheduling.
  • (1) Make sure that the script does not check tasks frequently, but checks once a second.

Notes:

In production environments, avoid hard-coded passwords, you can use environment variables or secure storage.

Make sure the SMTP server and port are set up correctly.

2. Automatically backup files

Suppose you need to automatically back up files in a specific folder to another location every day. You can use Python's shutil library and os library to achieve this function.

step:

Write a script:

import shutil
import os
import time
from datetime import datetime
 
def backup_files(source_dir, destination_dir):
    try:
        # If the target directory does not exist, create        if not (destination_dir):
            (destination_dir)
 
        # Get the current time to name the backup folder        timestamp = ().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
        backup_dir = (destination_dir, f"backup_{timestamp}")
 
        # Copy the entire folder        (source_dir, backup_dir)
        print(f"Backup completed successfully to {backup_dir}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Backup failed: {e}")
 
# Set the source directory and the destination directorysource_directory = "/path/to/source/folder"
destination_directory = "/path/to/backup/folder"
 
# Use cron or scheduled tasks to run this script regularly (for example, every day at 1 a.m.)# On Linux, you can add lines like the following in crontab -e:# 0 1 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/this/
 
# To show the effect, the function is called directly herebackup_files(source_directory, destination_directory)

explain:

  • Used to copy the entire folder.
  • Used to create the target directory (if not exists).
  • ().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S") is used to generate timestamps and name the backup folder.

Notes:

  • Make sure the paths to the source and destination directories are correct.
  • In production environments, scripts are usually run regularly using the operating system's scheduled task features (such as Linux's cron or Windows's task scheduler).

3. Automatically download web content

Suppose you need to automatically download the content of a certain web page every day and save it to a local file. You can use Python's requests library to implement this functionality.

step:

Install the necessary libraries:

pip install requests

Write a script:

import requests
import schedule
import time
from datetime import datetime
 
def download_webpage(url, filename):
    try:
        response = (url)
        response.raise_for_status()  # If the request fails, throw an HTTPError exception 
        # Save web page content to file        with open(filename, "w", encoding="utf-8") as file:
            ()
        print(f"Downloaded {url} to {filename}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Failed to download webpage: {e}")
 
# Set the URL of the web page to be downloaded and the file name to be savedwebpage_url = ""
file_name = "webpage_content.html"
 
# Set up timed tasks, such as downloading at 3 pm every day().("15:00").do(download_webpage, webpage_url, file_name)
 
# Keep the script running and check the taskwhile True:
    schedule.run_pending()
    (1)  # wait1Check again in seconds

explain:

  • (url) is used to send HTTP GET requests.
  • response.raise_for_status() is used to check whether the request is successful.
  • with open(filename, "w", encoding="utf-8") as file: Used to write web page content to a file.

Notes:

  • Make sure the web page URL is correct.
  • In a production environment, use the operating system's scheduled task functionality to run scripts regularly.
  • Handle possible network exceptions and HTTP errors.

Summarize

This article shows how to use Python to implement three simple task automation cases: automatic sending email reminders, automatic backup of files, and automatic download of web content. Through these cases, you can see Python's powerful capabilities in task automation.

In practical applications, you can adjust these scripts as needed to achieve more complex functions. For example, you can add logging, error handling, notification mechanisms, etc. to improve the robustness and usability of your scripts.

In addition, other Python libraries and tools can be combined with them, such as pandas for data processing, matplotlib for data visualization, selenium for automated web interaction, etc., to further expand the ability of task automation.

Task automation can not only improve personal work efficiency, but also help enterprises achieve process optimization and cost savings. Therefore, mastering the skills of Python task automation is of great significance to improving personal competitiveness and career development.

This is the end of this article about using Python to implement simple task automation. For more related content on Python task automation, please search for my previous articles or continue browsing the related articles below. I hope everyone will support me in the future!