Join in the fun.
Lets explore v8.1 and see if we can get it working with Mailgun & Mandrill.
MAILGUN
Here's their page on the API: https://documentation.mailgun.com/en/latest/api-intro.html
FREE to get a Proof of Concept license - 10k emails/month
MANDRILL
https://mandrillapp.com/api/docs/
MAILCHIMP
http://developer.mailchimp.com/documentation/mailchimp/
FREE account to start playing around
Reply here if you want to be active in this topic and lets see how the new REST abilities of 8.1 stack up.
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LATEST STATUS
MailChimp
I can create a new MC List, and add Custom MERGE fields (FNAME, LNAME, COMPANY, etc.) for that List.
I can upload members to that List.
I can retrieve all Lists for an account.
Then download the members.
Next steps would be to Create a Campaign, have it use my List, and Launch the Campaign. (We decided to make Tenants do these steps manually, since they already do this in MC anyway. This way Aware wouldn't be involved in any mess-ups/premature sending, etc.)
Mandrill
Aug 26: Currently working on Sending a Transactional Email to a list of Recipients, via REST. Tom Ford has done Email Sending using SMTP (non REST).
Aug 28: I was able to get this working. I can select records in a grid (or select all, like All Employees) and I write these to a temp file. I want to send 1 email to all the selected ppl. A SQL Server Stored Procedure (SP) builds my JSON array (Recipient list) and stuffs into a field. Aware builds the JSON string from a template and adds the Recipient list. REST call is done and in 1-2 seconds total time, the emails are queued by mandrill. THE MAJOR PROBLEM THAT HAS FORCED US TO ABANDON THIS is the look of the email when it is opened by the recipient. It might have my name as the From, but the address will show up as OUR domain, not the Tenants company or Domain -- UNLESS you take time to have them alter their DNS records and add stuff so they are verified. Yes, all this is to limit Spam, but we don't want it looking like the email came from "a mailer" or a "system process". The tenant is Acme Inc, and the send from should be someone@acmeinc.com. Yes, the Reply-To can be set, thats not the issue.
Someone like Tom Ford could use this because all his emails come from their company. They don't have a multi-tenant system. Thats the issue.
We have a competitor who is using MailGun and their outgoing emails look "proper", so we're going that way.
PS _ From using the docs, I still had some issues that needed clarification for us long term. Sent 3 tickets into support - still no word from them 2 days on.
We HAVE a paid account.
Mailgun
Aug 29 - I don't like their docs. Very circular - keep coming back to same place. Was able to figure out Mandrill VERY easily. And I finally realized that they DO NOT take JSON strings, its all HTTP parameterized (I think) unless using NodeJS, Ruby, Java, etc.
