Integrating JangoSMTP with Java

Since Oracle provides the JavaMail package for sending emails in Java, it's easy to integrate JangoSMTP into your current Java software.

First, you need to obtain the JavaMail library. If you're using the enterprise edition of Java, then you probably already have JavaMail installed. Otherwise, you will need to unzip the contents and add them to your buildpath in Eclipse, or your classpath in Windows. To add the package to your buildpath, click Project > Properties > Libraries > Add External JARs.

Then you can use JavaMail to connect to the JangoSMTP server and send a message. You should connect to relay.jangosmtp.net using your JangoSMTP credentials. We've already built a simple example that will connect to JangoSMTP to send a message.

Properties props = new Properties();
props.put("mail.transport.protocol", "smtp");
props.put("mail.smtp.host", "relay.jangosmtp.net");
props.put("mail.smtp.port", 25);
props.put("mail.smtp.auth", "true");
 
// set up a new authenticator
Authenticator Authorization = new SMTPAuthenticator();
Session JangoSMTPSession = 
             Session.getDefaultInstance(props, Authorization);
Transport transport = JangoSMTPSession.getTransport();
 
// this object will hold the details of the email
MimeMessage EmailMessage = new MimeMessage(JangoSMTPSession);
 
// store the plain text and HTML portions of our email
Multipart MultipartContent = new MimeMultipart("alternative");
 
// first set the plain text message
BodyPart part1 = new MimeBodyPart();
part1.setText(PlainTextMessage);
MultipartContent.addBodyPart(part1);
 
// then set the HTML message
BodyPart part2 = new MimeBodyPart();
part2.setContent(HTMLMessage, "text/html");
MultipartContent.addBodyPart(part2); 
 
EmailMessage.setContent(MultipartContent);
        
// Set the From Address.
// Must be a sender that is saved in your from-addresses.
EmailMessage.setFrom(new InternetAddress(FromAddress));
        
// Set the subject
EmailMessage.setSubject(Subject);
        
// set the to-address
EmailMessage.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO,
                                new InternetAddress(ToAddress));
 
// Connect, Send the Message, and Close the Connection
transport.connect();
transport.sendMessage(EmailMessage, 
          EmailMessage.getRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO));
transport.close();

With the authentication code that is in the example file, this code will allow you to construct and send a transactional email using JangoSMTP. This email will contain all the tracking and other features set up in the settings section of the JangoSMTP site.

Feature Enhancement: Secure and More Professional Click Tracking

JangoSMTP has two new click tracking options for transactional emails. The new settings, base-64 encoding and MD-5 hashing, make the links operate more securely and look more professional.

When click tracking is turned on for a transactional email, the URLs are converted into trackable URLs that typically look like this:

http://x.browniekitchen.com/y.z?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.browniekitchen.com&e=1&j=269829603

This URL is less secure because it shows the destination URL, which could be changed by a malicious phisher.  JangoSMTP has added these two new settings to increase the URL's security. Base-64 encoding encodes the URL so that it doesn't reveal the destination URL. The MD-5 hash feature causes the redirect to the URL to fail if the hash does not match the URL.

Here is an example of a click-tracked URL that is both base-64 encoded and includes the MD-5 hash.  Notice the addition of the h= parameter and that the l= parameter is now a base-64 string:

http://x.browniekitchen.com/z.z?l=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5icm93bmlla2l0Y2hlbi5jb20%3D&e=1&j=269829534&h=6f5c4e957783bf712c74f80f1fb083fa

A URL with click tracking that is NOT base-64 encoded but includes the MD-5 hash looks like this:

http://x.browniekitchen.com/z.z?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.browniekitchen.com&e=1&j=269829571&h=6f5c4e957783bf712c74f80f1fb083fa

URLs with base-64 encoding look more professional and recipients are more confident when clicking them.  URLs without this encoding clearly show one URL that has another URL as a parameter, which can make a recipient more hesitant to click. The MD-5 hash prevents tampering with the destination URL.  If someone were to change the l= parameter in a URL that contains the hash, then the user would NOT be redirected to the destination URL.

To set click-track settings, go to Settings --> Tracking --> Click Tracking

 

Please note that in the URL examples above, we used a branded tracking-domain, x.browniekitchen.com.  We recommend that all users setup a branded tracking-domain based on their organization's domain.  To read why, see this blog post: The importance of setting up a custom tracking domain.

All new JangoSMTP accounts will have both of these settings on by default.  If you are a current client, we recommend that you turn on both of these settings now.  Please note that JangoSMTP will enable these two settings for all existing accounts automatically over the next few weeks.

How To Use JangoSMTP With Wordpress

Wordpress is one of the most popular blogging platforms on the web. If you're serious about blogging, it's important that your Wordpress-generated emails are tracked and delivered, and JangoSMTP can help with that. Setting up Wordpress to send via JangoSMTP is a snap!

Start by downloading and installing the WP Mail SMTP plugin. To install it, just unzip it and upload it to your plugins folder, which can be found within the wp-content folder.

Then log in to your Wordpress blog, go to the plugins page and enable the WP-Mail-SMTP plugin. Go to the settings page for this plugin and enter this information:

Mailer: Send all Wordpress emails via SMTP.
SMTP Host: relay.jangosmtp.com
SMTP Port: 25 (or whatever you normally use)
Encryption: No encryption (or whatever you normally use)
Authentication: Yes: Use SMTP authentication.
Username: Your JangoSMTP Username
Password: Your JangoSMTP Password

Your settings page should look something like this:

Then all of your Wordpress emails will be sent through JangoSMTP. You can enable tracking and other features through the JangoSMTP settings.

JangoMail is Hiring a Sales/Support Rep

Are you a highly motivated email marketing expert looking to work from home and delight your customers? We are hiring! We need a rockstar Sales/Support Rep. Please read our job posting for instructions on how to apply.

Your transactional email data will now last longer

I've spent the last few days analyzing and re-tooling our algorithms which purge data from your account after its reached a certain age.  In the past, we've had some hard rules where data was deleted after it reached a certain age.  While this kept the size of our database manageable, it was frustrating to lower volume users who needed the data longer than we made it available.

We've now changed our data retention scheme such that the less data there is in your account, the longer it will last.  Specifically, the following rules for data retention will apply:

1. Transactional Email Data: For users with more than 100,000 total transactional emails, this data will be available for 120 days.  For users with fewer than 100,000 transactional emails, this data will be retained indefinitely.  This includes the recipient address, from address, from name, subject, size, and other properties of transactional email but does NOT include the body of each transactional email.  We never store the content of individual transactional emails.  This also includes detailed open and click tracking data associated with transactional email.
2. Transactional Email Opens: This data will remain as long as the corresponding transactional email record remains, per item #1 above.
3. Transactional Email Clicks: This data will remain as long as the corresponding transactional email record remains, per item #1 above.
4. Transactional Group Definitions: Transactional groups will remain for the life of your account.
5. Unsubscribes, Bounces, and Complaints: This data remains indefinitely while your account is active.

We know that having access to historical data is important, as it allows our users to analyze data based on historical data.

We're always working on ways to improve our data storage and efficiency, and if you have any particular storage needs related to your account data, let us know, and we'll do our best to accommodate you individually.

Our new commercial! Your email's superhero.

Who wouldn't want their own personal superhero? Now your email has one!

With JangoSMTP, your transactional email has backup: a host of deliverability optimization tools and support that, quite literally, kicks ass. If email gets off track, it's JangoSMTP to the rescue.



JangoSMTP: Your email's superhero.

How to track transactional emails all the way through using the SMTP relay

There may be cases where, using the SMTP relay, you want to programatically track the status of every transactional email sent.  At first thought, this seems difficult, since when sending via the SMTP relay, you can't retrieve an ID for each email like you can by calling the API method SendTransactionalEmail, which does return a unique ID for each email sent.

To get around this, you can insert a custom unique ID header into your SMTP relay messages, and use that custom unique ID to track your transactional emails all the way through.

For example, let's say you insert the header X-MyCustomID into every email you send via the SMTP server.  And for each email, you use a different value for X-MyCustomID.  Your first ten transactional emails would have these headers:

X-MyCustomID: 1

X-MyCustomID: 2

X-MyCustomID: 3

...and so on.

Step 1:

Tell JangoSMTP what the header is that is storing your custom ID.  Do this under Settings --> Tracking --> General:

Step 2:

Send your emails via the relay inserting the header into every email you send, and in your own system, keep track of all custom IDs used.

Step 3:

Call this API method with each custom ID.  This method will allow you to retrieve the JangoSMTP assigned ID based on your own custom ID.

GetTransactionalIDsFromCustomID
Retrieves the system transactional ID given a user-specified custom ID for a transactional email. Returns an XML Document.

Once you have the JangoSMTP assigned ID, you can call any number of methods to get the status of your transactional email, such as:

Reports_Transactional_GetSingleEmailStats_Dataset
Retrieves statistics for a transactional email. Returns a .NET DataSet.

Reports_Transactional_GetSingleEmailStats_String
Retrieves statistics for a transactional email. Returns a string.

Reports_Transactional_GetSingleEmailStats_XML
Retrieves statistics for a transactional email. Returns an XML document.