Is anyone here using Sparkle to design and send email campaigns?
CoffeeCup email designer is something I’d like to use for this purpose, but I’m still having issues with it. It seems very nearly like the website designer they sell; two different programs for sure. But much is very similar between the two.
Why can’t Sparkle be used to construct email?
Thanks.
If you’re talking about HTML emails that are formatted and include images etc. It is possible to do in Sparkle, but the email must be hosted on a server for it to work.
Essentially, it works the same way as sending a webpage by email. In Safari you have the option of emailing a web page (as opposed to emailing a link in other browsers). This means you can create an email page containing images links and anything else then upload it to a folder on your server as a complete web page, along with its folders and files. You then visit the URL of your email page in Safari and use the share option in Safari’s file menu. This will open the web page in Apple pages so that you can email it to one or more recipients.
Of course, you have to be quite strict in what you include. Firstly, it’s best to keep your page width within normal tolerances for emails. Secondly, only use images and text. Avoid javascript and any other code. When the page is complete, simply upload it to a folder on your server and take it from there. Try emailing it to yourself to check that it’s working well.
Here is an example of a web page as seen inside Apple Mail. You’ll notice that it automatically includes a link to the actual web page just in case a recipient cannot see the formatted page.
I intend to upload to one of the email services; Constant Contact, MailChimp and the like. They would be hosting the images.
Straight, simple emails. At the very most, I might employ a frame for a YouTube video.
Ray.
Mail chimp hasn’t worked for me. A large percent went into recipient’s junk folders. That was a couple of years ago they may have fixed it by now. But the damage was done.
We don’t recommend it, HTML email is very much stuck in the past, we don’t support it.
What do you mean with:
It is often used and I don’t know a better way to make a good-looking mail (more than lines of text and an image at the end).
I know the future is instand messaging and Push-Notifications, but until now many Business have a Website and a Email-Newsletter (with html). And customer don’t want anything else.
And a html-Email is better than a Link to a great Sparkle made Website or a PDF-Document in the Email.
Or did I miss an important thing, maybe from the programming side?
Sorry what I mean the coding of HTML email is like coding websites in 2010. Modern websites are very different, and so the code Sparkle generates is generally not easily adapted for email. We don’t target that use case.
@duncan. Plis!!! 
Yo tambien quiero esta opción!!!
IMPORTANTE, me parece muy importante, poder diseñar mis newletters promocionales, y poder enviarlas por correo, de forma atractiva.
Y me gustaría hacerlo con sparkle, me da igual si es html o lmth.
No podrían inventar una opción para esto? Que yo pueda diseñar una página, guardarla y enviarla desde mi gestor de correo? Ya se que el mundo de las notificaciones y las redes sociales es lo más moderno, pero no soy de redes sociales ni de notificaciones.
Gracias, será un regalo de navidad muy apreciado!!! Un fuerte abrazo y cuídense. 
@AdeGarci. I don’t think Duncan was saying you couldn’t use Sparkle for HTML newsletters/mailings - he was simply not recommending it and he was pointing out that there is no specific features in Sparkle to create these things in a predictable and reliable manner. However, as I pointed out in my response above, you can try it, but you have to keep things fairly simple. Don’t use any javascript or embed code. Keep it as text, images and graphics and design it in the iPad breakpoint. Upload it to your server and then open the page in Safari. You can then use Safari’s share/email this page option to send your email through Apple Mail. Always send to yourself first to check the results.
@francbrowne. Gracias por la respuesta.
Esto es lo que estoy haciendo. Diseño el boletín en indesing, lo guardo como html, lo abro con text edit, copy-paste, en correo nuevo. Listo!!
Funciona bastante bien, cosas simples. Lo comento por si alguien le interesa.
Si @duncan, implementa en sparkle, algo mas sencillo, se lo compro!!! 
We’re not stopping anybody from trying what say @francbrowne suggests, but it’s not something Sparkle is designed for, the requirements for HTML email are very different, so if something doesn’t work we can’t really help – not because we don’t want to but because it’s an entirely different coding strategy, which our engine wasn’t built for.
@duncan y @francbrowne… 
Okis, yo lo entiendo, pero yo lo he intentado… 
!!!
Todo es pensar una nueva aplicación, para este menester y que la experiencia de usuario nos satisfaga como lo hace sparkle con las páginas web!!!
Los deseos a veces se convierten en realidad. Si nació sparkle, por qué no puede nacer un generador de newsletters, sencilla, intuitiva, ágil y práctica? 
Un abrazo!!!
Thank you Duncan.
I understand your position.
I will attempt a test, understanding the limitations.
Thanks to all who replied.
Ray.
Adding my voice of support - this is a really big need and growing. Two current Mac alternatives right now charging $15/month for dedicated hmtl emailing. Duncan, this seems like a great new profit center - an addon to the already-great Sparkle UI - we all optionally pay $99 for the addon - addon allows the creation of a new project type - html email - creates compliant email body with dark mode support (@media), desktop and mobile clients. My checkbook is wide open for this.
From my point of view if Duncan was an 8 man team then they could possibly think about Email Design?
Email Newsletter Design is its own beast and doesn’t comply with the W3C html5 web standards and is nothing compared code-wise to what Sparkle pumps out for the web. On top of that you have a real lot of email clients that don’t see the email newsletter design in the same way. I’m not sure if Outlook has updated its email engine because it uses the Word engine to display email newsletters! 
In my opinion I think it is best to use a dedicated email newsletter platforms who are in the know and keep up with all the idiosyncrasies the the email newsletter world throws at them.
Well… there are services that already do all of this email stuff masterfully… I don’t think it’s a good focus for Sparkle team at the moment.
If you keep the page simple enough, you can definitely send it away… but, again, if you’re using an outsourcing service to send email, then you probably already have the HTML builder in it.
