Tag: email

Posted on

New Magento SMTP features: Email logging and email sending events

I had a longer than usual train ride on Friday, thanks to missing my usual one by about 20 seconds! The good news is, during the extended train ride I have added some new functionality to my SMTP Pro magento extension – it now optionally logs all emails to a database table and you can view the detail of them from within the Magento admin interface. I still can’t upload it to Magento connect however, so please download the release from here and let me know how it goes. Update: Fixed bug pointed out by Luis below – new release is 1.1.1.

I have also added a nice little event firing mechanism – I’m inviting fellow developers to suggest events they want fired, to make manipulating outbound emails easier for other extension developers. Currently the only one is smtppro_email_after_send but there is scope for adding many more – contact me!

I’ll add some notes about the new functionality below, but just to recap using my free smtp extension for Magento you can now:

  • Configure Magento for sending email with any SMTP server
  • Easily configure Magento to send email with GMail or Google Apps Email
  • Diagnose connection problems using the email self test
  • Send using a number of different gmail/google addresses if your email volumes are very high
  • Enable a development mode and an email suppression mode
  • View a log of all email sent from within Magento, the date they were sent and search and filter the list of emails
  • Hook into a growing number of email related events to extend the email capability of Magento

All for free too, I think it compares favorably with the commercial extensions that offer the same functionality. I’d appreciate any opinions on that, as I’m aiming to have the best email extension for Magento. Anyway here’s some info about the new features, in case you care.
Continue reading New Magento SMTP features: Email logging and email sending events

Posted on

Gmail and Google Apps 500 emails per day sending limit and Magento

I’ve had a couple of fellow Magento users contact me over the last couple of weeks about the 500 emails per day Google Apps and Gmail limit. I’m sure it’s in the class of good problems to have when you have more than 500 order related emails, or new customer sign-ups everyday! In this post I’ll detail my simple solution to the 500 email limit that Google imposed on their Gmail and Google Apps accounts when you are using an account as your transactional email sending account for Magento.

First, the problem is that you can only send 500 emails per day through Gmail or Google Apps – that’s fair enough, the accounts are supposed to be suitable for humans, not Magento stores. Also, you can pay for premier and get 2000 emails, so that’s not too bad either for $50/user!

Never fear though, I have modified my extension to help out. Basically here is how the change works, and how it is implemented. You can get the new version over on Magento Connect

Update: you can’t at the moment, so download directly from me for the time being.

Update: Thanks to Paulius there is a specially packaged version of the extension that will make it easy to install manually until I can get the Magento Connect version updated (which is still failing). Get that version here!

Continue reading Gmail and Google Apps 500 emails per day sending limit and Magento

Posted on

Pre-release: SMTP Pro / Magento Gmail & Google Apps Email Beta testing (win a prize)

In a bid to help solve a weird 404 error that Kevin has been experiencing with the self test I offered him a pre-release copy of my upcoming ‘unified’ Magento email extension. It will support both SMTP and Google Apps/Gmail along with a few new features.

Anyway, if anyone is keen to try the extension please contact me or flick me an email or post a comment and let me know, I’ll send through the files, I’d rather not post it for public availability here yet, because it’s not as stable as I’d like. But expect it very soon!
Continue reading Pre-release: SMTP Pro / Magento Gmail & Google Apps Email Beta testing (win a prize)

Posted on

New feature for Magento Gmail or Google Apps Email Extension

Just a quick note to say I have added some new functionality to the Gmail or Google Apps email sending extension I wrote for Magento.

Basically several people asked for reply-to functionality, that would use the Magento store addresses that were being used on the outbound email. The change was very minor, I guess I just didn’t see it as being important at the time. Anyway, it’s a configurable option now, so feel free to either use it or not. You can get the extension from Magento Connect.

The change for those interested was very small, just a simple reply-to header as shown below:

// If we are using store emails as reply-to's set the header
if (Mage::helper('googleappsemail')->isReplyToStoreEmail()) {
      $mail->addHeader('Reply-To', $this->getSenderEmail());
}

Also here are some screenshots showing the new configuration option and also how emails sent using the option or not using it.

The Gmail and Google Apps email configuration for Magento is very easy.
The Gmail and Google Apps email configuration for Magento is very easy.

You’ll notice no real changes here, just one new Yes/No option that if enabled will use the reply-to functionality shown below. Basically the reply-to email will be the one Magento is configured to use from the below Store email addresses screen.

This shows an example of some store email addresses configured in Magento
This shows an example of some store email addresses configured in Magento

These are the email addresses you will see in the reply-to field as shown in the examples below.

The default behavior is to send with no reply-to, as it seems the trend is toward automated emails that do not receive responses.
The default behavior is to send with no reply-to, as it seems the trend is toward automated emails that do not receive responses.

This image shows the default non-reply behavior, the from email is used as the to email for any replies.

This shows the new feature, a reply-to field that email clients will use to populate the reply to field.
This shows the new feature, a reply-to field that email clients will use to populate the reply to field.

This screenshot shows the use of the reply-to where Gmail will send the reply to the given email rather than back to the original sender address.

If you have any questions, feedback etc I’m always keen to hear it so please comment or contact me directly.