6 ms·

Mailgen – Generates clean, responsive HTML for transactional email

102 points by eladnava 10y ago

e12e 10y ago
From the linked templates, it would appear text-part is supported, but from the examples, it would appear it is not. Email without a text body isn't really valid email, and it certainly isn't "responsive". Does this library generate a proper text part automatically? Does it allow disabling the html-part?
- eladnava 10y ago
  Good point -- this has just been added, thanks for your feedback! https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen#plaintext-e-mails https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen#plaintext-e-mails
  - brightball 10y ago
    That is very "responsive" of you. :-)
    - eladnava 10y ago
      Ha ha =)
veeti 10y ago
Looks very nice. However, I'm not entirely sure why this has to be a language-specific library instead of just an HTML template to copy?
- fimdomeio 10y ago
  yes. Looks like the author is suffering from a severe attack of packagities. :)
  - nathancahill 10y ago
    RIP in packages.
- alessioalex 10y ago
  If you need the HTML templates to copy you can do so from here: https://github.com/wildbit/postmark-templates https://github.com/wildbit/postmark-templates This project seems to be more specific, targeting Node users.
  - danvoell 10y ago
    And here is another one - https://github.com/mailgun/transactional-email-templates https://github.com/mailgun/transactional-email-templates
jbb555 10y ago
Well you can generate HTML "email" if you don't want anyone to read it. email is not html, it's text.
- matthewmacleod 10y ago
  My email inbox, which currently contains almost entirely email in HTML format, would beg to disagree with you. I understand the frustration to some extent – many organisations could get by with using plain text emails rather than HTML ones. But AFAIK HTML emails mean better customer engagement, and can offer useful features to users. A stick-in-the-mud "that isn't real email" attitude unfortunately doesn't get us that far.
  - gkya 10y ago
    > But AFAIK HTML emails mean better customer engagement Or the illusion thereof. HTML mail is more likely to go into the Junk mailbox. Guess the most usefull thing with HTML email is the "pixel gif" that you use to track it, and it's useful only to the sender, not the receiver. On the other hand, IDK what "useful features" of HTML you talk about, other than being (relatively, possibly, and never certainly) pretty.
    - matthewmacleod 10y ago
      Or the illusion thereof. I'm not sure about that. I'm afraid I don't have access to the numbers any more, but I've seen firsthand how HTML emails can result in more engagement with customers – more likely to follow links, in particular. HTML mail is more likely to go into the Junk mailbox. Is that really true? If anything, I've seen that regular customers—assuming you are not a tech-focused business—are less likely to read emails in plain-text formats! On the other hand, IDK what "useful features" of HTML you talk about, other than being (relatively, possibly, and never certainly) pretty. I don't think that 'pretty' is really fair – more like 'can have visual design'. If it were the case, surely magazines and newspapers would be nothing but plain text too, as would all mail we receive. In contrast, I would be a bit freaked out to receive something like a utility bill in the mail that was in plain text, without a company logo, or formatting, or other elements that make it more usable and identifiable. I do completely understand that you prefer plain-text email, and so do I. But I'm pretty sure we are in the minority there, and that most people treat email in the same way as they'd treat physical mail – and that probably means that the relatively invisible downsides (tracking, size, poor formatting etc.) are outweighed by being formatted more effectively.
codegeek 10y ago
In case someone is interested, mailgun offered some free transactional email templates on their blog back in 2014: http://blog.mailgun.com/transactional-html-email-templates/ http://blog.mailgun.com/transactional-html-email-templates/
cyberferret 10y ago
Nice tip about the X-Entity-Ref-ID usage to prevent GMail from chunking repeated emails together! I will have to note that for my existing web apps. Any plans to extend this to use GMail's enhancements allowing a confirmation button in the subject line, thus letting the user perform a simple action without opening the actual email? I see more and more confirmation emails now with the confirm button in the subject line - I believe it requires a few more header specific to GMail to allow this.
- quaz3l 10y ago
  I did not know this existed so I looked it up! Here are some docs about it: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/reference/one-click-action https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/reference/one-cli...
  - cyberferret 10y ago
    That's them. I had a look at these when it first was 'released' by Google, but back then it was more of an 'opt in' system I believe, with Google having to approve senders who were going to embed these schemas into their emails. Have to revisit this now to see if they have relaxed the requirements a little. It will be good if these became a normal extension to all emails and other clients such as Outlook, Yahoo Mail etc. all pick it up as a standard.
- eladnava 10y ago
  Excellent idea! Create a GitHub issue and we'll discuss it! =) https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen/issues/new https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen/issues/new

102 points by eladnava 10y ago

e12e 10y ago

From the linked templates, it would appear text-part is supported, but from the examples, it would appear it is not. Email without a text body isn't really valid email, and it certainly isn't "responsive". Does this library generate a proper text part automatically? Does it allow disabling the html-part?

eladnava 10y ago
Good point -- this has just been added, thanks for your feedback! https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen#plaintext-e-mails https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen#plaintext-e-mails
- brightball 10y ago
  That is very "responsive" of you. :-)
  - eladnava 10y ago
    Ha ha =)

veeti 10y ago

Looks very nice. However, I'm not entirely sure why this has to be a language-specific library instead of just an HTML template to copy?

fimdomeio 10y ago
yes. Looks like the author is suffering from a severe attack of packagities. :)
- nathancahill 10y ago
  RIP in packages.
alessioalex 10y ago
If you need the HTML templates to copy you can do so from here: https://github.com/wildbit/postmark-templates https://github.com/wildbit/postmark-templates This project seems to be more specific, targeting Node users.
- danvoell 10y ago
  And here is another one - https://github.com/mailgun/transactional-email-templates https://github.com/mailgun/transactional-email-templates

jbb555 10y ago

Well you can generate HTML "email" if you don't want anyone to read it. email is not html, it's text.

matthewmacleod 10y ago
My email inbox, which currently contains almost entirely email in HTML format, would beg to disagree with you. I understand the frustration to some extent – many organisations could get by with using plain text emails rather than HTML ones. But AFAIK HTML emails mean better customer engagement, and can offer useful features to users. A stick-in-the-mud "that isn't real email" attitude unfortunately doesn't get us that far.
- gkya 10y ago
  > But AFAIK HTML emails mean better customer engagement Or the illusion thereof. HTML mail is more likely to go into the Junk mailbox. Guess the most usefull thing with HTML email is the "pixel gif" that you use to track it, and it's useful only to the sender, not the receiver. On the other hand, IDK what "useful features" of HTML you talk about, other than being (relatively, possibly, and never certainly) pretty.
  - matthewmacleod 10y ago
    Or the illusion thereof. I'm not sure about that. I'm afraid I don't have access to the numbers any more, but I've seen firsthand how HTML emails can result in more engagement with customers – more likely to follow links, in particular. HTML mail is more likely to go into the Junk mailbox. Is that really true? If anything, I've seen that regular customers—assuming you are not a tech-focused business—are less likely to read emails in plain-text formats! On the other hand, IDK what "useful features" of HTML you talk about, other than being (relatively, possibly, and never certainly) pretty. I don't think that 'pretty' is really fair – more like 'can have visual design'. If it were the case, surely magazines and newspapers would be nothing but plain text too, as would all mail we receive. In contrast, I would be a bit freaked out to receive something like a utility bill in the mail that was in plain text, without a company logo, or formatting, or other elements that make it more usable and identifiable. I do completely understand that you prefer plain-text email, and so do I. But I'm pretty sure we are in the minority there, and that most people treat email in the same way as they'd treat physical mail – and that probably means that the relatively invisible downsides (tracking, size, poor formatting etc.) are outweighed by being formatted more effectively.

codegeek 10y ago

In case someone is interested, mailgun offered some free transactional email templates on their blog back in 2014: http://blog.mailgun.com/transactional-html-email-templates/ http://blog.mailgun.com/transactional-html-email-templates/

cyberferret 10y ago

Nice tip about the X-Entity-Ref-ID usage to prevent GMail from chunking repeated emails together! I will have to note that for my existing web apps. Any plans to extend this to use GMail's enhancements allowing a confirmation button in the subject line, thus letting the user perform a simple action without opening the actual email? I see more and more confirmation emails now with the confirm button in the subject line - I believe it requires a few more header specific to GMail to allow this.

quaz3l 10y ago
I did not know this existed so I looked it up! Here are some docs about it: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/reference/one-click-action https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/reference/one-cli...
- cyberferret 10y ago
  That's them. I had a look at these when it first was 'released' by Google, but back then it was more of an 'opt in' system I believe, with Google having to approve senders who were going to embed these schemas into their emails. Have to revisit this now to see if they have relaxed the requirements a little. It will be good if these became a normal extension to all emails and other clients such as Outlook, Yahoo Mail etc. all pick it up as a standard.
eladnava 10y ago
Excellent idea! Create a GitHub issue and we'll discuss it! =) https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen/issues/new https://github.com/eladnava/mailgen/issues/new