Email and site letters

The site writes to people on its own: email confirmation, password reset, notifications, order emails. It is set up in three places: the sending method, the letter texts and the log.

Sending method

Settings → Email. Choose how letters go out:

• SMTP server — the reliable way: enter the server, port, encryption (STARTTLS 587, SSL 465 or none), user and password. The password is stored encrypted.
• the server’s mail() function — works if your hosting allows it.
• to a file — for development only: letters are put into the storage/mail folder and are sent to nobody.

Be sure to fill in the sender address. Until it is set the engine uses a fallback one and letters land in spam. On a live site keep TLS certificate checking on.

The “Delay sending” switch makes the letter go out after the page has already been shown to the visitor: they do not wait for the mail server to answer.

Notifications and failure alerts

The same section lets you turn on notifications by email (besides the bell on the site) and, separately, an email to the owner when the site breaks: at most once an hour, with counters, time, class and line of each error, but without the error text. This needs working email and the schedule (cron).

Letter texts

The “Email templates” button in the same settings opens the list of the site’s letters. For each one you can write your own subject and text in any language; an empty field means the standard text. Placeholders in curly braces work in the text ({site}, {name}, {username}, {email}, {url}, {hours}, {minutes}, {ip}): the real value replaces them on sending; the form shows which placeholders a given letter has. The text is plain: markup is not executed.

Letters carrying links and sign-in codes are protected specially: a changed text is a way to deceive your people, so saving needs your password and every owner gets an email about the change. Do not add outside addresses or links to such letters. “Restore standard” removes your texts of that letter in all languages.

Mail log

The “Mail log” button shows what went out and what did not, with the reason. Only the address, subject and result are kept: the letter text and its links are never saved. The retention period is in the email settings (30 days by default; 0 — keep no log).