November 2017 Summaries

Monitoring email delivery and reputation is crucial for businesses, as it can be affected by various factors such as IP reputation, domain reputation, and configuration mistakes. While email service providers (ESPs) can monitor delivery to some extent, they may not be able to diagnose all issues. Fortunately, there are several tools and techniques available to help track and measure delivery rates, diagnose potential problems, and ensure timely delivery. These include monitoring DNS records, IP address blacklists, and IP/domain reputation, as well as tracking real delivery times with MailHandler, a tool that can send emails and retrieve details on delivery speed. By regularly reviewing and monitoring these factors, businesses can identify and fix issues before they impact customer inboxes.

The main goal of the email authentication update was to encourage more people to set up email authentication, such as custom Return-Paths and DKIM, by making the process easier. As part of this update, the requirement for adding an SPF record for customer domains was removed, contradicting a common pattern used by Email Service Providers (ESPs). This change is not because SPF is dead, but rather because the way ESPs ask customers to implement SPF is technically incorrect. The issue lies in the fact that ESPs use a different DNS record lookup for SPF than what's recommended by the standard. Instead of adding an SPF record to their own domain, customers are now encouraged to add a custom Return-Path using their own domain, which provides full SPF support at the Return-Path domain. This change simplifies the setup process and removes an obsolete practice. However, some mailbox providers, such as G Suite, still require an SPF record for customer domains.

MailBrush` is a Node.js package that allows developers to add syntax highlighting to code snippets in HTML emails, making them easier to read and understand. It supports a variety of programming languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, PHP, HTTP, and Bash, and can be customized with different colors and styles. The package works with all major email clients, including desktop and mobile versions, as well as web-based mail services like AOL, Gmail, Outlook.com, and Yahoo. Installation is straightforward, requiring only the installation of Node.js, and can be automated through email workflows to reduce manual overhead. Once installed, users can run a simple script to generate HTML markup for their code snippets, which can then be used in email templates.