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Plugin Description
WordPress uses PHPMailer to send mail from with your local mail server, but it can happen that your mail were not accepted by mail providers…
This can happen for several reasons, sometimes because the mail server is not configured or sometimes because the records DKIM, DMARC and SPF of the domain have to be configured and so on… Anyway you can avoid any problems by using an external SMTP server and sending mail with it!
There is a module for testing the sending of ‘live’ e-mails (with the API rest without reloading the page) and the entire output of the php mailer will be captured, which will be useful in case of configuration errors (by even indicating which parameter is wrong in some cases).
And last but not least there is the possibility of using a customised template to send your e-mails in a less textual and slightly prettier format! The template can be customised for each form and internationalized.
This plugin is ads free and I don’t want to try to sell you any pro version! If you want to contribute, there are many ways to do so, from simple suggestions and bug reports to translating and contributing code. See below how to do it!
SMTP
SMTP stands for ‘Simple Mail Transfer Protocol’. It is a connection-oriented, text-based network protocol of the Internet protocol family and as such is on the seventh layer of the ISO/OSI model, the application layer.
Like any other network protocol, it contains the rules for proper communication between networked computers. SMTP is specifically responsible for sending and forwarding e-mails from a sender to a recipient.
Since its release in 1982 as the successor to the ‘Mail Box Protocol’ in Arpanet, SMTP has become the standard protocol for sending e-mails. However, the SMTP procedure remains largely invisible to the normal consumer, as it is executed in the background by the e-mail programme used.
Only if the software, the webmail application on the browser or the mobile e-mail application does not automatically determine the SMTP protocol when creating an account, does it have to be set manually to ensure smooth e-mail traffic.
SMTP presets
- Aruba
- Gmail (tls and ssl)
- Yahoo (tls and ssl)
- Outlook (tls and ssl)
Would you like to find more presets that you think are useful to other users? Open a request in the support form and provide the necessary connection data (auth, server address and port). In the following version of the plugin you will find them among the presets.
Security
it’s warmly advised to store at least the password into config.php as a constant. And in addition, it’s also very easy! It needs only to add
define( ‘CF7_SMTP_USER_PASS’, ‘mySecr3tp4ssWord’ );
into your config.php just before /* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */
that passwords will be stored encrypted, but still it is not good practice to put it into database!
Available constant are CF7_SMTP_HOST, CF7_SMTP_PORT, CF7_SMTP_AUTH, CF7_SMTP_USER_NAME, CF7_SMTP_USER_PASS, CF7_SMTP_FROM_MAIL, CF7_SMTP_FROM_NAME
But, To quickly configure multiple websites there is one constant that wraps all the others, so in case you manage many websites this will be very convenient!
to add it to your website follow the same instructions as for a “single” value constant.
`
define(
‘CF7_SMTP_SETTINGS’,
array(
‘host’ => string,
‘port’ => number,
‘auth’ => (”|’tls’|’ssl’),
‘user_name’ => string,
‘user_pass’ => string,
‘replyTo’ => true|false,
‘insecure’ => true|false,
‘from_mail’ => email,
‘from_name’ => string,
)
);
`
Template
Wouldn’t it be better to have a small container to make our mail a little prettier? Well we have it!
Furthermore, if you prefer to use your own template for mail, simply create it by following these steps:
1. Create a folder named “cf7-smtp/” in your template folder.
2. Copy what you find here into it
3. Name it default.html (or default-{{CONTACT-FORM-ID}}-{{LANGUAGE}}.html depends on your needs)
4. (Optional) You can, customize logo, website link and other template parts. checkout the filter documentation on GitHub/wiki
How this plugin works
I use a filter bundled with WordPress to configure the smtp server, modifying the normal behaviour of wp_mail.
During this process I can take the body of the e-mail in simple html and wrap it inside a html template (customizable)
Screenshots
No screenshots provided
