Template for HTML Emails?

[cbourke3]

I, and perhaps many others, would be interested in a version of the UNL Web templates for html formatted emails (multipart mime encoded). Most email clients have robust support for HTML, but as I see it there are several considerations/challenges in doing so:

1. No javascript; most email clients do not support or are not enabled by default to support javascript

2. Images should be kept to a minimum and use absolute URLs (possibly hosted on unl.edu?); the layout should look nice even if the client does not load images by default.

3. All css should be inline. Some major email clients do not support style elements in the header or external style files (or even css classes).

Is this something that the WDN team can do quickly/easily? I could try and develop my own and contribute but others may be able to do it quicker/better. Moreover, I've continually tried to commit changes to the gforge SVN but I've never been able to and the problems have never been resolved.

[cbourke3]

I intended to include this report: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/ on css support for major email clients (see the PDF report for a full list).

[smeranda]

Chris:

Ahh, HTML email... it's like web development from 1997. Tables are the only way to get accurate layout (yikes), inline CSS is required (ugh) and no matter how much blood, sweat and tears you pour into it, it will still render worse in the latest version of Outlook than it would in Outlook 2000 (MS decided the Word HTML rendering engine is better than IE - the blind leading the blind).

I spent many hours building and tweaking HTML code for emails at Admissions and Graduate Studies, so I quickly put together an HTML email (very basic, as it was built for elementary modification) for the 2009 templates. You can find it in the latest SVN: http://go.unl.edu/efq

Please contribute to the development!

I've continually tried to commit changes to the gforge SVN but I've never been able to and the problems have never been resolved.

What sort of problems? I see you listed as having complete access to the repository.

[cbourke3]

Chris:

I spent many hours building and tweaking HTML code for emails at Admissions and Graduate Studies, so I quickly put together an HTML email (very basic, as it was built for elementary modification) for the 2009 templates. You can find it in the latest SVN: http://go.unl.edu/efq

Please contribute to the development!

Thanks! I'll adapt that for my purposes.

I've continually tried to commit changes to the gforge SVN but I've never been able to and the problems have never been resolved.

What sort of problems? I see you listed as having complete access to the repository.

I was getting 404 errors; I just rechecked it out from the SVN using a new Eclipse install and everything has been resolved now. I was able to make a minor commit, so its all good.