Hi John,

I’ve tried to use the Communicate module with HTML format, the test email has been sent to my gmail address and it’s look like as plain text format.

Could you pls help me?

Thanks in advance!
Richard

Hi Richard.  Welcome to the ExpressionEngine forums.  We all look forward to see what you will be creating with EE so keep us posted.

I split your post off from the other thread.  We find the easiest way to keep track of each issue is to have a new post for each problem.  If your problem appears to be an exact match of another issue, please post a new thread and then link to that other issue.

I have sent you a PM with my own Gmail address.  Can you send an HTML email to me as well?

I received your test email and it did show up as HTML.  You might send that same email to yourself again.

John Fuller - 28 March 2007 09:16 AM

I received your test email and it did show up as HTML.  You might send that same email to yourself again.

Hi John,

here is the screenshot of HTML file that I sent you and me:
http://www.aktivmedia.hu/!transfer/ee_source_HTML_file.png

The HTML file is attached too. I opened it and copied the sourcecode and pasted it into message field on Communicate page.

and here is the screenshot of the received email:
http://www.aktivmedia.hu/!transfer/ee_received_mail.png

So there is a problem, I hope you see too. Your mail was OK? That was same as HTML file?

I got the tables and the list which shows that HTML is working.  I did not not the background color or rounded corners.  I am thinking you did not send that stuff though because no images came through at all.  Did you get the tables and the list showing up OK?

Also, which build and version are you running?  When in your control panel look at the bottom of the window.  You should get a number that looks like a date.  The current build is 20070302.  If you are not on the newest build you should upgrade as there have been enhancements made to email handling recently.

One thing to be aware of is that different email clients handle html email very differently.  The screenshot of your recieved mail shows bullets, bolding, and text changes.  Those are not possible in text email, so this confirms that the mail is in fact being sent as html.

The next step is to try to build a letter that can be handled well by all email clients.  To this end, you may want to go with a pre-designed email template.  Mailchip has some free templates, and also, Campaignmonitor.com has some nice resources, particularly how to test HTML emails and A guide to CSS support in email.

John: my EE version is 1.5.0 build 20060913.

Derek: thanks for URL of mailhcimp site and tips.

I downloaded the free HTML email template pack. I selected the two-column newsletter HTML file to testing (and attached for u). Opened > select all source code > copy > paste into EE Comm. Message field > sent it to john and me.

pls see the received mail.

It looks like the images, background colours, text formatting and links are removed from mail. This is the same problem as my previous case, right?

Gmail strips out most of that stuff.  Do you have another email (non-webmail) that you could test?  If you follow the campaign monitor link to “guide to css support” you’ll see that gmail is very, very limiting in what can get though.

I know this sucks, but it isn’t a limitation of EE, but rather a statement on the sad state of email today.

Upgrade for sure.  I think the enhancements were made after the version you were running.

John is right, the HTML email enhancements were added in January, so regardless of what you do with the content of the email, you won’t see much improvement until you upgrade.

Hi Guys,

the EE is reinstalled, I use v 1.5.2. The mailchimp HTML letter sent to John c me. It’s looks like better then previous test mails but the CSS formatting and some pictures are lost.

what’s the problem now?

r.

Probably Outlook, or just in general the lack of CSS support in mail clients.

Weird, I received some images but not others.  As Derek mentioned, Gmail has its own quirks.  I don’t get any images unless I select the option to view them.  I suppose you have a number of things to thank for this.  Malicious files masquerading as images and spam being hidden as images as well.  Another thing that Derek pointed out is that getting HTML email to work in different email clients seems to be requiring a lot of research these days as the clients constantly change.