[Web4lib] Generating html-only e-mail for e-newsletter purposes ?

[Thomas Rutter]

> Not to get into the whole html email debate... but if I was using an
> email client that did allow an html email to be viewed as html, even
> though I changed the settings otherwise, I would be VERY annoyed and
> would stop using that email client. 

It wouldn't necessarily be a fault of your email client - some HTML
emails don't contain the plain text within the email.

One method of sending an HTML newsletter is just to send it as HTML. 
The user will see it as HTML, regardless of the preference in their
email client.

Another method is to send the email as a multipart/alternative mail,
which includes both an HTML version and a text version as inline
attachments.  The user will see whichever version they choose to
according to their settings.  Most users never change this setting, and
by default will see the HTML version.

While most email clients will generate multipart/alternative emails
containing HTML and plain text, people who send HTML newsletters
sometimes send as normal HTML to reduce bandwidth, assuming that few
people would benefit from including the plain text version.

Tom
-- 

 
Thomas Rutter
Library Web Coordinator, Information Resources
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne VIC Australia
Email: trutter at swin.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 9214 4885


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