HTML Emails

Formatting HTML emails

When using a web url as source we insert a “base href” after the <head> tag so all links to css and images are working properly. But viewing it on a website of Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail … is a problem because the links to css are skipped (everything outside the <body> tags is ignored).

See here for relevant information.
This old link has useful but slightly out of date information

Gmail:

  • Keeps only the HTML between the <body> and </body> tags. Discards the rest.
  • Removes any <style> element and its content, even if it’s within the <body> element.
  • Removes any <link> element.
  • The font size is bigger in <table> elements, so you’ll probably have to force it with: <table style=“font-size:/*your size*/;”><!— table content —></table>

Hotmail

  • Keeps only the HTML between the <body> and </body> tags. Discards the rest.
  • The <style> element and its content is preserved if it’s inside the <body> element.
  • Removes any <link> element.

Yahoo! Mail

  • Keeps almost intact the complete original HTML sent and puts it directly in a <div>. So if you had any of these in the HTML, they will be found in the middle of the Yahoo! Mail HTML: DTD declaration, comments, <html>, <head>, <title>, <style> and <body> elements, etc. But, the DTD declaration won’t be taken in consideration by the browser since it’s in the middle of the page, same thing for the <title> element;
  • Will rename the <body>, <meta> and <link> tags <xbody>, <xmeta> and <xlink>, so they will be “disabled”. This means that no external stylesheet can be linked to the document through the <link> element.

If a sent email is bounced this is now processed. Bounce processing requires correct settings in the general preferences tab to be set before it will function correctly.

For that particular contact:

  1. The message is marked as failed: change “status” in table “MessagePerson” from 2 (sent) to 3 (failed)
  2. The number of bounces for an contact email address are saved. This is done by incrementing the value in column “deliveryStatusEmail” in table “Contact”
  3. The message of the bounce mail is forwarded to the person who originally sent the mail. In front of that message the following text is included: “This message was unable to be delivered to the recipient. onCourse has already noted it as undeliverable against this recipient. Please check to see if any action is required on your part.”
  4. In the send dialog the field “reply to” is changed to “From email address” to avoid confusion for the user between from/replyTo. By default this field displays the value specified in “From address” in the General Preferences dialog.

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