For Maximum Visibility, Push Events To Your Own Server

If you haven't made use of this cool JangoSMTP feature, you should give it a long, hard think.

Our transactional email event API is a system that can call a web service or web page on your server when triggered by any of these transactions within and around your emails. (And we're sure you're watching these pretty closely):

• EMAIL SENT
• OPENS
• URL CLICKS (interior content)
• UNSUBSCRIBES
• BOUNCES
• COMPLAINTS (via Feedback Loop)

This key event data in the life cycle of your email is pushed - in real time - directly to your server. So, you're always in the know about the overall success of your transactional email. Plus, you can make adjustments and improvements on the fly to strengthen ROI.

How to set up your event-based push

1. Go to Settings > Advanced > Transactional Event API
2. Click on the tab for every event you want a call to your web service or page
3. Enter the details for your web service or page

Try this while you're there
Custom coding can be used to create unique notifications, logging or custom integration into your own back end. We're always up for developing new ways to help you make JangoSMTP your own - so ask us to jump in and help any time.

For the record
Transactional email event API is a relatively new feature for JangoSMTP. We've had a Standard email API, which you can learn more about in this PDF tutorial.

Here's the key difference between the two: The Event API pushes event data (opens, clicks, etc.) to your system as the event occurs. The Standard API needs to be pulled by your system to retrieve open or click data. Before you consider the new API a "lazy man's lobster" version of the old, remember that technology evolves. And as it does, we're on the lookout to bring it to you fast. But everyone has a preference, so it's up to you to choose what works best for your company.

If you have any questions about Event API or any other JangoSMTP features, hit us up. We'd love to hear from you.

Until then, have a great rest of the week!

Sending Transactional Messages from a Ruby Application

Do you need to send transactional emails from a Ruby application? Do you need open tracking, DKIM signing and easy to read reports? If so, then JangoSMTP is your solution.

This example demonstrates how to send messages using JangoSMTP from within a Ruby application. You will need the Mail gem, which can be installed with the command gem install mail.

After the mail gem is installed, download the source code for this example and insert your own JangoSMTP username/password/etc. It's as easy as that!

require 'mail'

Mail.defaults do
  delivery_method :smtp, { :address   => "relay.jangosmtp.net",
                           :port      => 25,
                           :domain    => "YourDomain.com",
                           :user_name => "Your Username",
                           :password  => "Your Password",
                           :authentication => 'plain',
                           :enable_starttls_auto => true }
end

# Set up your email
# The from address must be stored in your list of from addresses
# see Settings > Advanced > From Addresses
mail = Mail.deliver do
  to 'To@EmailAddress.com'
  from 'From Name <FromAddress@YourDomain.com>'
  subject 'This is the subject!'
  text_part do
    body 'This plain text email was sent by Ruby!'
  end
  html_part do
    content_type 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
    body '<b>This HTML email was sent by Ruby!</b>'
  end
end

How Does JangoSMTP Compare to Amazon SES?

By now many of you have probably heard about Amazon's new Simple Email Service (SES). If you haven't heard, Amazon recently launced SES, a low-cost, very basic API-driven transactional email service. There are many people interested in learning more about how this compares to JangoSMTP, so we wanted to help you understand how both email services work.

How does JangoSMTP compare to Amazon SES and which is the right service for me?

If you are looking for a minimalist email service for the lowest price, then the Amazon SES may make sense for you.

JangoSMTP is more robust, in that it has both API and SMTP relay options, along with bounce and unsubscribe management, open and click tracking and advanced reporting (Google Analytics, logging, etc.).

Do you need more than a simple sending service? This is not a one size fits all industry, so consider the following in making your choice so that you get the right fit for your needs:

- Delivery assistance. How do you confirm your messages are getting through, and how do you get help if they are not?

- Development skills. Do you have the development resources available to build to an API? Do you need to build an automated solution to handle complaints and bounces as you receive them? (Amazon sends these back to the From Address used in the campaign, and you have to handle them locally.)

- Reporting. What do you want to see about how your mailings are doing? Do you only need a log of messages sent, or do you want to see if they’ve been opened, links clicked, etc.?

There is a lot of room in the high volume email industry, and you want to find the right fit so that your integration doesn’t leave you frustrated with your results.

Here's a quick comparison chart for reference:

Feature	JangoSMTP	Amazon SES
Open Tracking	Yes	No
Click Tracking	Yes	No
Automatic DKIM Signing	Yes	No
Google Analytics Integration	Yes	No
Log reporting	Yes	No
Real-Time Reporting	Yes	No
Automated Complaint/Bounce Handling	Yes	No
Customer/Delivery Support	Yes	No
API	Yes	Yes
SMTP Relay Server	Yes	No
Price Per 1,000	$0.97- $7.00	$0.10
Free Service	200 emails/month	2,000 emails/day