How to import event automatically from isc file to customers calendar - email

We're sending email through SendGrid. We first create these emails with SMTP in our Apache server with PHP. When we send this email with the .ics file attached we need to import the event into the customers' calendar automatically.
Right now we managed to add it only in Gmail accounts. In all other like Hotmail, MSexchage etc. we had no luck! The email goes, but in order to add the event to the calendar, you have to click on it and click on the CTA add to calendar. Is this a server issue? Is something we forget?

Kostas,
What happens with an ics attachment depends very much on each users setup and what they have said should happen with ics files. Mine open in a text editor for testing for example, not in my google calendar. Also it depends what email address it is sent to. Even google invitations don't work if we use one email address, even though it is linked to the google email.
I very much doubt that events would be added totally automatically just by receipt of an email with ics file attached. Imagine the spam abuse that might happen if that were the case.

Related

How to make the unsubscribe link in Outlook work for newsletters?

We send out email newsletters and automated confirmation emails to users of our websites. Each email has an unsubscribe link in the email footer and each recipient opted in to receive emails.
Outlook webmail has the unsubscribe link above the body of the email in the following form:
Getting too much email from #SENDER#? You can unsubscribe
Clicking on the link opens a dialog window with following content:
Block this sender
[SENDER] hasn't given us any information to help you unsubscribe, so we'll block everything sent from the following sender: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]
[×] Also delete everything from [SENDER] in my Inbox folder
I search the internet and even contacted the Outlook support and asked them what info they need from us to help recepients unsubscribe from our emails. After several email exchanges the Outlook support concluded that they have no idea how to change Outlook's unsubscribe link, what information we should give them and how we should give them the information.
Can anyone please advise or point me to the right direction please? Thanks.
Is it "List-Unsubscribe" MIME header? http://www.list-unsubscribe.com/
You're confusing a couple of things here. First, while outlook.com is a Microsoft domain, Outlook itself is an entirely different thing, and people can be using Outlook as their mail program regardless of what domain they have. You won't know what client people are using for email, or what server they use to access it. Second, you say that email communication is vital for your websites. Banning people from your newsletters doesn't help that situation in the least. People using the various Microsoft services that you mention have no trouble receiving and participating in those email communications. What you don't touch on, is what software you're using for your newsletters. THAT is where your problem probably is. If you go to that domain.com/unsubscribe URL, what does that page do/look like? There are 2 usual links for a List-Unsubscribe header. One is a mailto: link such as unsub-list-12345#domain.com, where any email to that address performs an unsubscription. For the web link version, it needs to be a link to a page that automatically unsubscribes the user (so the link would need to be customized with variables such as the mailing list).

Google gmail quickbutton action

I'm reading about the new development of Google quick action buttons in the mail inbox.
I'm a little bit lost in this topic and not understand how I can include this function in my emails.
I have read about DKIM/SPF but I don't know if this functionality could need to do an google app.
I have my mail server with marketing segmentation and I want this button is visible when email come to client (destiny) gmail inbox (guess only works in gmail....). If i have included the markup code in html in my emails, why i can't see this button?
would it need create a specific mail application to implement this feature and send emails from this app? Someone tried this?
I know maybe this has been reply before but i think must start more down... so.. sorry.
Thanks and regards!
When you are ready to launch your marked up emails to your users, you will need to register with Google. Please follow this process:
1.Send a real-life email coming from your production servers (or a server with similar DKIM/SPF/From:/Return-Path: headers) including the markup / schema to schema.whitelisting+sample#gmail.com.
2.If you send a test/blank email, an email that does not contain schema or if you don't send an email for review your application will be silently discarded.
3.Make sure that the markup is correct prior to sending the email. For more details see Testing your Schema. Especially make sure the email passes the Email markup Tester and that there are no errors, also make sure to include as much data as possible.
4.Gmail removes all markup when forwarding an email. Do not forward the email but send it directly.
Fill out the registration form available here.
Here is the link for the documentation.
Hope this helps!!
Are you sending a promotional email (offers, etc.)?
If yes, then you are likely to be delivered to the Promotions tab, where quick actions do not work (according to Litmus - https://litmus.com/ebooks/gmail-ebook/gmail-ebook/).
Quick Actions work best in the Inbox for transactional emails.
("Here is your booking confirmation" [Check-in now] quick action)
These typically arrive directly in the Inbox.

Struggling with adding new Gmail EventReservation schema Tags to emails

I am trying to test the new EventReservation Schema that Gmail offers to transaction confirmation emails sent from my site. I have followed all the steps recommendend on the site (https://developers.google.com/gmail/schemas/reference/event-reservation).
I also used the Structured data markup helper (https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/?email=true) to generate the Tags. using the script.google.com site i wrote a test to send the same confirmation emails but NO DICE!! Would anyone be able to help me?
How is your test failing? Are you expecting an inbox action button and not seeing it? Or are you expecting Google Now to generate a reminder card?
The Event Registration schema does not give the recipient an action button in the inbox. It should however be used by Google Now to generate a reminder card which will remind the recipient of the date/time of the event.
Google Now will remind the user on the day of the event. The user will
receive a time to leave reminder (based on traffic etc).
- Basic Event Reminder
When using the RSVP Action schema it should cause an action button to be displayed in the inbox that shows a dialog for the recipient to respond with a yes/no/maybe in regard to if they will attend the event.
In either case there are currently (at the time of this writing) a few gotchas in regard to using these schemas.
The first thing you need to know is that you must register with Google in order to be whitelisted to use these inbox actions in Gmail. Without registering and being whitelisted all you can do is send emails to yourself (your own Gmail account) in order to test these schemas out. If your trying to send to someone else's Gmail account it will not work.
Many of these schemas are only in API Preview mode for now.
As of July 11, 2013 the RSVP Action is only enabled for emails sent by Google Calendar.
You can follow updates relating to the inbox actions on the Release Notes page.

ICS file to create an entry on the recipients original calndar and NOT on a new subscribed calendar

I send automatically generated emails from events on my website and wanted to create an 'Add to Calendar' link in the email. I have created an .ics file with the details and stored it on my server, and then created a link to it (using a href) in the html code of the email. When you click on the link in the email it asks the recipient to subscribe to the calendar. How do i create the ics file/code so that it gets added to the recipients own calendar and not a new subscribed one? Am I missing something obvious?
Is this something that I can't do?
here is the content of my .ics file.
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20130301T191700Z
DTSTART:20130412T190000Z
DTEND:20130412T230000Z
SUMMARY:Beer Festival
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
Can anyone help?
Thanks
This is highly dependent on the OS and calendar client on the recipient side. Not much that you can do at your end.
Is the link in the email prefixed with webcal:// or http:// ?
It is probably better idea to attach the .ics file to the email using iTIP/iMIP instead of hosting it on your server. That way you can specify the METHOD in the iCalendar object (PUBLISH or REQUEST) and the client will know that it's supposed to be imported into the recipients calendar.
To add an event to your user's calendar, you need to "invite" the user with a specially crafted email. You cannot do this with http. Your email will essentially contain the same Icalendar as the one you currently link to, but with an ATTENDEE element specifying the user whose calendar you're targetting. You will also need to specify METHOD:REQUEST, both in the VCALENDAR and in the header of the text/calendar email part.
Is this all worth it? You can only invite for one event at a time. If you do all this perfectly, your user will still need to accept the invitation, but the event may display as tentative in the calendar before it has been accepted. Modifications need to be pushed out via email for each changed event to each interested user. (A calendar subscription via http lets you publish a "feed" of events. You just keep your calendar file up-to-date, and everything propagates automatically).
If you're still interested, this question may help you construct the email.

tracing mouse clicks on website

I am new to website designing and wanted to know couple of things.
when some clicks on the link on my website say www.google.com, can i trace that how many people clicked on it.
When i send out emails with attachments, can i record how many people opened those attachements. btw this is not yahoo or gmail, its my personal email with an ISP.
if so, please put references so i can read them or explanation if possible
Create the links on your website so that they do a GET to your website first, and then redirect to the desired website.
Click here
The email attachment is a different problem. If you send an email that reads the attachment from your website, you can record the traffic.
For tracking outbound clicks, services like Google Analytics can wrap every link on your site with JavaScript and provide statistics and sexy graphs.
For tracking email attachments, it depends on the attachment. Static files like images can't make callbacks to the Internet, but something like a PDF with embedded JavaScript might be able to.
As for links within the emails, you can make each link in each email unique by associating a token with each email recipient, e.g. Some Link. Store the token in a database along with the recipient's email address and later you can cross-reference hits on your site with emails you sent out.
I know there are a handful services that do the latter, but I can't name any offhand. Search for "email newsletter service."