How to use IBM App Connect with Amazon SES

Use Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) to send and receive email by using your own email addresses and domains in a simple and cost-effective manner.

Availability:

App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
Local connector in containers (Long Term Support Cycle-3 release) 13.0.7.0-r1 or later
Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.8.0-r3 or later
Local connector in containers (Long Term Support Cycle-2 release)

Connecting to Amazon SES

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Connect > Applications and APIs page or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Amazon SES administrator to obtain these values.

Amazon SES authorization types and connection fields:

API KEY: Secret access key: The secret access key for your Amazon SES account, as generated in the Security Credentials page in the AWS Management Console; Access key ID: The access key ID for your Amazon SES account, as generated in the Security Credentials page in the AWS Management Console; Region: The region of your Amazon SES instance, for example, us-east-1. You can find the value for the Region parameter at the end of the URL when you are logged in to the AWS Management Console (for example, https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/console/home?region=us-east-2#).
Tip: For more information, see AWS service endpoints on the AWS documentation page.; Role ARN: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that specifies an IAM role in AWS.

BASIC OIDC: Region: The region of your Amazon SES instance, for example, us-east-1. You can find the value for the Region parameter at the end of the URL when you are logged in to the AWS Management Console (for example, https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/console/home?region=us-east-2#).
Tip: For more information, see AWS service endpoints on the AWS documentation page.; Client ID: Specify the unique identifier assigned to an application within an OpenID Connect (OIDC) system; Client secret: Specify the client secret that is used to authenticate the client application; ID token: The security token in OpenID Connect (OIDC) that contains claims about the authentication of a user, such as their identity and session validity, typically represented as a JSON Web Token (JWT); Refresh token: The refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret; Role ARN: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that specifies an IAM role in AWS, defining the permissions granted to users authenticated via an OpenID Connect-compatible identity provider; OIDC server URL: Specify the URL of the OpenID Connect (OIDC) server or identity provider that handles authentication and provides tokens for clients

To obtain the connection values for Amazon SES, see Obtaining connection values for Amazon SES.

To connect to an Amazon SES endpoint from App Connect Designer Applications and APIs page for the first time, expand Amazon SES, then click Connect.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Applications and APIs page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Amazon SES, take note of the following considerations:

(General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer.
For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
(General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Amazon SES events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

Amazon SES actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object	Action	Description
Configuration sets	Retrieve configuration sets	Retrieves the configuration sets from Amazon SES
Configuration sets	Retrieve configuration set by name	Retrieves the configuration sets from Amazon SES by using the name
Contact lists	Retrieve contact lists	Retrieves the contact lists from Amazon SES
	Retrieve contact list by name	Retrieves the contact list from Amazon SES by using the name
	Update contact list information	Updates the contact list information in Amazon SES
Contacts	Retrieve contacts	Retrieves the contacts from Amazon SES
	Create contact	Creates a contact in Amazon SES
	Delete contact	Deletes a contact in Amazon SES
	Retrieve contact by email address	Retrieves the contacts from Amazon SES by using the email address
	Update contact	Updates the contact in Amazon SES
Email identities	Retrieve email identities	Retrieves the email identities from Amazon SES
	Delete email identity	Deletes the email identity in Amazon SES
	Retrieve email identity by email address	Retrieves the email identities from Amazon SES by using the email address
Email templates	Retrieve email templates	Retrieves the email templates from Amazon SES
	Create email template	Creates an email template in Amazon SES
	Delete email template	Deletes the email template from Amazon SES
	Retrieve email template by name	Retrieves the email templates from Amazon SES by using the name
	Update email template	Updates the email template in Amazon SES
Emails	Send bulk emails	Composes an email message to multiple destinations
	Send email	Sends an email
	Send email using template	Sends an email by using a template

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Amazon SES

Use templates to create flows for Amazon SES

Learn how to use App Connect templates to create flows that complete actions on Amazon SES. For example, open Discover, and then search for Amazon SES.

Learn more

Use App Connect to build flows that integrate with Amazon SES.

Read the blog post in the IBM® Community to learn how to send an email by using a template from Amazon SES whenever a lead is created in Salesforce. Click Read the blog to go to the blog.

Read the blog

Model Context Protocol (MCP) support

The Amazon SES connector supports MCP, and all Amazon SES actions for the listed objects can be added to an MCP server as tools. For more information on how to configure an MCP server, see Creating and managing MCP servers.