Email Checker Actor

A powerful Apify Actor that validates email addresses through multiple verification levels. This actor performs comprehensive email validation including format checking, DNS verification, and mailbox existence testing.

Features

• Multi-level validation: Three progressive validation levels
• Format validation: Checks email syntax and structure
• DNS verification: Validates domain MX records
• Mailbox existence check: Tests if the email account actually exists
• Detailed reporting: Provides specific messages for each validation step
• Apify SDK integration: Built with Apify SDK for Python

Validation Levels

Level 1: Format Validation

• Checks if the email follows proper syntax rules
• Validates domain structure and local part
• Uses industry-standard email validation libraries

Level 2: DNS Validation

• Verifies the domain has valid MX (Mail Exchange) records
• Ensures the domain can receive emails
• Performs DNS lookups to confirm domain validity

Level 3: Mailbox Existence Check

• Connects to the mail server via SMTP
• Attempts to verify if the mailbox exists
• Provides definitive confirmation of email deliverability

Input

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

{
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "level": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

• email (required): The email address to validate
• level (optional): Validation level (1, 2, or 3). Default: 3
• proxyConfiguration (optional): Proxy settings for SMTP connections. Default: {"useApifyProxy": true}

Output

The actor outputs structured validation results to a dataset:

{
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "level1_valid": true,
  "level1_message": "Valid email format",
  "level2_valid": true,
  "level2_message": "Found 5 MX records",
  "level3_valid": true,
  "level3_message": "Mailbox appears to exist",
  "overall_valid": true
}

Usage Examples

Basic Validation

{
  "email": "test@gmail.com",
  "level": 3
}

Format Only Check

{
  "email": "user@domain.com",
  "level": 1
}

With Proxy Configuration

{
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "level": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Getting Started

Local Development

1. Install dependencies:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Run the actor locally:

$apify run

Input Configuration

Edit storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json to set your input parameters:

{
  "email": "your-email@example.com",
  "level": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Deploy to Apify

Connect Git Repository to Apify

1. Go to Actor creation page
2. Click on Link Git Repository button

Push Project to Apify

1. Log in to Apify:

$apify login

2. Deploy your Actor:

$apify push

Dependencies

• apify - Apify SDK for Python
• email-validator - Email format validation
• dnspython - DNS lookups for MX records

Proxy Support

The actor supports Apify proxy configuration for consistency with the Apify platform. However, note that:

• Apify proxy is primarily designed for HTTP/HTTPS requests
• SMTP connections (Level 3 validation) do not use HTTP proxies
• Proxy configuration is included for future extensibility and platform consistency

Error Handling

The actor gracefully handles various error conditions:

• Invalid email formats
• Non-existent domains
• DNS resolution failures
• SMTP connection issues
• Mailbox verification failures

All errors are logged and reported in the output with descriptive messages.

Resources

• Apify SDK for Python documentation
• Apify Platform documentation
• Email validation best practices
• SMTP verification details

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.