It’s been a while since I have written any updates on my Gmail and Google Apps email extension for Magento. I have just released version 0.5 and thought now would be a good opportunity to write a quick update on the changes and what I have planned for SMTP email support in Magento.
Version 0.5 of Google Apps Email/Gmail Magento Extension
Firstly the changes in the latest release of the Google Apps/Gmail Magento extension. Both have been inspired by user feedback so two ‘thank you’s to follow. Firstly thanks to Blue Acorn for pointing out the lack of multi-store capability on the self test. It’s actually a little clunky getting the store parameters in the admin of Magento, my custom button needed to add the parameter like so:
$buttonBlock = $this->getElement()->getForm()->getParent()->getLayout()->createBlock('adminhtml/widget_button'); $params = array( 'website' => $buttonBlock->getRequest()->getParam('website') ); $url = Mage::helper('adminhtml')->getUrl("googleappsmailtest", $params); |
And then the controller needed to actually pick up which Magento store to get the config for:
$websiteModel = Mage::app()->getWebsite($this->getRequest()->getParam('website')); $to = Mage::getStoreConfig('contacts/email/recipient_email', $websiteModel->getId()); |
The other change was a bit of a curve ball. I had a Magento + Gmail user named Matt contacted me with what seemed to be an unrelated issue. I have been poking around in the installation code trying to figure out what has been happening. It wasn’t until I did a full fresh install on Magento 1.3.2.3 that I noticed what was going on. My extension has a dependency on Mage_Core (obviously, right?) and the wiki guide on how to package Magento extensions says to include this dependency. However if you do then the downloader will download the Core files and a whole bunch of other required files. This is no problem if you have been a good boy or girl and made your changes to the themes outside of the default files, but if you have changed the default templates then there is a risk of your changes being lost!
So, the change is to remove this dependency, even though the guide says it should be there. It’s kind of obvious that you need Magento in order to run my extension anyway!
Magento SMTP support
The other update I wanted to post was that I am working on porting my Magento Gmail / Google Apps extension to also support full SMTP capability. I will be releasing the changes as a new extension, as it is important to me that the original goal of this extension (extreme simplicity and ease of use) is not lost under the weight of full SMTP configuration.
I know that there is already an older SMTP extension for Magento. I think I can improve upon it in several ways, I have developed Magento SMTP self test capability, and I have support for Magento newsletter sending. The current SMTP extension hasn’t been updated for nearly a year, and I have an opportunity to create a more modern, user friendly extension.
I’ll be working on it over the next few days and would invite feedback from anyone with ideas on ways to improve the Magento SMTP functionality.
Hello Ashley,
Thanks for this great Magento extension. Unfortunately, I have been experiencing some problems with the shipping & tracking information emails to clients: they’re not receiving them.
The self-test works flawlessly, and I don’t have set any other email account in the Sales Email section than the one I’m currently using with this extension. I have also checked the log and everything seems fine: every time I hit send shipping information to client a new log line “DEBUG (7): GoogleAppsEmail is enabled, sending email in Aschroder_GoogleAppsEmail_Model_Email_Template” is created. I’m also checking the “Sent” folder in my Google Apps account and the message doesn’t appear either. The specific store options have the same config but set to default.
Sorry for asking you for help, but I think I’ve tried everything and haven’t been able to make this work.
Thanks in advance,
Rodrigo.
Hi, Thanks for trying the extension and thanks for the in-depth problem report, it certainly looks like you’ve made a good go of figuring this out for yourself – I appeciate that. So my extension thinks that it’s sending (based on the logging) but the email is not being sent. Is the to: email = the mailer address by any chance? In any case I’d b happy to help you out here, I’ll email you.
Perfect timing for the update Ashley, we were just about to launch our new multi-store Magento site and this was the last remaining piece we had to get resolved. Appreciate your hard work on this extension.
Hi Ashley,
I’m trying to install your extension into magento and have done it a few times now with no luck. Using Magento Connect. Set to beta. Prompt says extension is installed and all is OK. When I go to where the extension is supoosed to be though, its no there? Thoughts? Thnaks in advance for any help.
Hi, Please ensure you have logged out and back in again and cleared your cache. If you still have no joy, please check that the files are actually being installed by looking in the directory $magento_base/app/code/community/ASchroder/*. Let me know how you go.
Fantastic – got it working in minutes. You need a “donate” button!
Hi Ashley,
Thank you this great extension.
One question: received e-mails don’t show the name of the account, just the e-mail: no-reply@domain.com … What I need to do to make the Google APPS account name being show on clients inbox?
Thanks,
Alberto Ferreira
Possibly check you have configured the store email address sender names, as these are the names that get used. If you have, then it’s quite odd they are not visible on the outbound emails. Can you send one to me and I’ll take a look at the headers.
Hello Ashley,
I currently have the same problem as Rodrigo. The test mail works, but actual mailing of transactional e-mails refuses to function. I guess it’s because of the combination with Fooman’s E-mail Attachments: http://www.magentocommerce.com/extension/1251/fooman-email-attachments
But I can not check this at the moment… I will try to ‘hack’ the original Mage version..
I’ll flick an email to Fooman and find out, will update my extension if there is a way for us to co-exist. Cheers, Ashley
Hello, I’d like to know whether google-apps-email-gmail support magento ver 1.3.2.3 now. If yes, does it is stable. Or it’s only a beta ver?
Hi, it’s production ready on 1.3X – I have a new beta version currently in development, but it’s taking longer than expected, on account of me having an actual job.