Problems with sending a email

Report · Nov 13, 2008

Ok, basically I'm generating a .htm file with CF info and saving the file
with <cfsavecontent>

That file gets generated just fine, I can pull it up online in the folder
it was saved to, and it looks perfect.

I then send it out by:

<cfmail to="#arguments.mail#"
from="info@site.com"
username="user"
password="password"
subject="Tournament Confirmation"
mailerid="site.com"
charset="utf-8"
type="html">
<cfinclude template="../EventEmail/confirmEmail.htm">
</cfmail>

The email gets delivered just fine, in most cases. In Outlook it asks me
if I want to download the pictures, which it does, and all looks fine until
I try to print it. There isn't a background....what happened to the background
color??

Same thing in Hotmail/MSN/Yahoo.....the background color doesn't come across
at all, so the mail looks odd.

I have the <img> tags set like <IMG src=" http://www.site.com/images/logo1.gif">
and they appear fine, just not the background.

Am I missing something here? I know I've received emails from other companies
that have full color backgrounds......how is this done??

Report · Nov 13, 2008

steve grosz wrote:
> Ok, basically I'm generating a .htm file with CF info and saving the
> file with <cfsavecontent>
>
> That file gets generated just fine, I can pull it up online in the
> folder it was saved to, and it looks perfect.
>
> I then send it out by:
>
> <cfmail to="#arguments.mail#"
> from="info@site.com"
> username="user"
> password="password"
> subject="Tournament Confirmation"
> mailerid="site.com"
> charset="utf-8"
> type="html">
> <cfinclude template="../EventEmail/confirmEmail.htm">
> </cfmail>
>
> The email gets delivered just fine, in most cases. In Outlook it asks
> me if I want to download the pictures, which it does, and all looks fine
> until I try to print it. There isn't a background....what happened to
> the background color??
>
> Same thing in Hotmail/MSN/Yahoo.....the background color doesn't come
> across at all, so the mail looks odd.
>
> I have the <img> tags set like <IMG
> src=" http://www.site.com/images/logo1.gif"> and they appear fine, just
> not the background.
>
> Am I missing something here? I know I've received emails from other
> companies that have full color backgrounds......how is this done??

I don't know about Outlook, but I presume it can be the same as the
Internet Explorer browser I expect you are using and that Outlook
probably taps to render HTML content. When printing a web page, which
is all Hotmail, MSN and Yahoo are, the default print configuration is to
*NOT* print background colors or images. An ink saving default. You
have to change this in your print preferences in the browser to get the
results you want.

Report · Nov 13, 2008

Hello Ian,

What about the background not even showing up in Hotmail/Yahoo when previewing
the email????? The images appear just fine, but the background colors are
missing(the overall page background and the table colors).....

> steve grosz wrote:
>
>> Ok, basically I'm generating a .htm file with CF info and saving the
>> file with <cfsavecontent>
>>
>> That file gets generated just fine, I can pull it up online in the
>> folder it was saved to, and it looks perfect.
>>
>> I then send it out by:
>>
>> <cfmail to="#arguments.mail#"
>> from="info@site.com"
>> username="user"
>> password="password"
>> subject="Tournament Confirmation"
>> mailerid="site.com"
>> charset="utf-8"
>> type="html">
>> <cfinclude template="../EventEmail/confirmEmail.htm">
>> </cfmail>
>> The email gets delivered just fine, in most cases. In Outlook it
>> asks me if I want to download the pictures, which it does, and all
>> looks fine until I try to print it. There isn't a background....what
>> happened to the background color??
>>
>> Same thing in Hotmail/MSN/Yahoo.....the background color doesn't come
>> across at all, so the mail looks odd.
>>
>> I have the <img> tags set like <IMG
>> src=" http://www.site.com/images/logo1.gif"> and they appear fine,
>> just not the background.
>>
>> Am I missing something here? I know I've received emails from other
>> companies that have full color backgrounds......how is this done??
>>
> I don't know about Outlook, but I presume it can be the same as the
> Internet Explorer browser I expect you are using and that Outlook
> probably taps to render HTML content. When printing a web page, which
> is all Hotmail, MSN and Yahoo are, the default print configuration is
> to *NOT* print background colors or images. An ink saving default.
> You have to change this in your print preferences in the browser to
> get the results you want.
>

Report · Nov 13, 2008

steve grosz wrote:
> Hello Ian,
>

I don't know.

Have you looked at the source of the emails to confirm that you are
getting the HTML you expected.

Have you investigated if your HTML is clashing with the HTML of the
Hotmail/Yahoo interfaces. Your email is going to be inside that which
already is a HTML page and your HTML elements maybe invalid in that
context. Especially if it includes redundant <html> or <body> elements.

Sending HTML emails is tricky to get to work consistently across all
possible combinations of email and HTML clients that may be used to read
it And that doesn't even take into account email clients that don't
render HTML at all.

So I can only speak to a general understanding of how things work
together and how varied this can be. Personally I only generate text
emails for this very reason.

Report · Nov 13, 2008

i have found that in order to properly display your html emails in
hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc, you have to have all your styles in-line in
the elements.

you can't have a linked stylesheet or even a <style></style> inside your
document. you must have all styles in the style="" attribute of the
elements of your page.

also, with backgrounds, define them both ways in your elements: in a
bgColor="..." attribute AND in style="background-color:..." - some
web-based emails render one while other the other one...

to apply a background to your whole page, set it in the BODY tag, as in:
<body bgColor="#6699FF" style="background-color:#6699FF;">

hth

Azadi Saryev
Sabai-dee.com
http://www.sabai-dee.com/