Although I will probably getting tarred and feathered for this,
I send out at least a million (multiple emails for lists around the 200
thousand customer mark) emails a week, mostly html.
When I wrote the software interface (in PHP) to do so, I mentioned to my
bosses that many people would not be able to read these HTML emails (ie.
AOL, Eudora, Lotus 5.0, and my beloved pine). This deterred them naught,
cuz they wanted to send banners in the email. Since email with banners
generated more revenue than without (however little money that may be), I
was overruled.
Hence, I read up on multi-part email. This can be done, and I used Richard
Heyes' html-mime email class to do it. The class was based on the SMTP
class that can be found on Manuel Lemos' PHPClasses site
(http://phpclasses.upperdesign.com), along with the SMTP class.
I now have the ability to send straight HTML, straight TEXT, or combo emails
that are interpreted correctly by all email clients (including AOL clients).
And, since I don't use the mail() function, it typically runs about 150%
faster (mail() puts the messages in the mail queue, but the SMTP class
writes directly to port 25 of the mail server). All this and it runs on a
linux system that grabs the email addresses out of a M$ SQL 7 database. The
database allows the customers the ability to opt-out of certain emails.
So don't refrain from doing it because some people say it shouldn't be done
for one reason or another. Simply fix those reasons so they don't know any
different.
-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Cary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2001 8:46 AM
To: Richard Scott Crawford
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [PHP] Sending "pretty" email
Richard -
For me you are pointing out one of the dilemmas I face on a daily basis
that I call the "fin dilemma". I coined this expression from the era
when Detroit put fins on the cars. These did not make the car perfrom
better; they only appealed to need to get a car with fins because the
neighbor had one.
Yet I earn my living by writing software for clients and when I suggest
that they use the KISS principle, they tell me that I am not up with the
times. There is a very interesting book that I came across at a
friend's home addressing effective Web design. Though I cannot remember
the authors name, he has done many of the "big name" magazine covers as
well as some big name Web sites and he believes in simplicity. Quite a
deilemma!!!
Todd
--
Todd Cary
Ariste Software
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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