New Feature: No need to specify From Addresses when using SMTP server

If you're using JangoMail to send transactional email, and specifically you're using the SMTP service to send transactional messages, then this post applies to you!

When using the SMTP service, you no longer need to specify your From Addresses in your JangoSMTP Settings when using SMTP Authentication (SMTP AUTH) to authenticate into relay.jangosmtp.net.

This is a substantial enhancement to the JangoMail SMTP service. By simply setting your email client to use SMTP AUTH and passing in your JangoMail username and password, the system will be able to assign your emails to your account. This is especially beneficial to organizations that send emails from many different From Addresses through one single JangoMail account.

As a result, we will soon be taking away the screen within Settings where you would normally specify a list of From Addresses when using SMTP username/password authentication.

[This screen will soon be removed.]

Note that this only applies to users using username/password to authenticate into the SMTP server. If you're using IP authentication, then there is no change, as users using IP authentication have always been able to send without specifying From Addresses.

New method to specify Transactional Group using the SMTP service

We've introduced a new method to assign a transactional email to a Transactional Group. Along with specifying the Transactional Group in the Subject line, you can now also specify it in a custom X-Header.

If you're using the JangoMail SMTP server to send transactional email, you're likely familiar with the concept of Transactional Groups -- categories to which you can assign various types of transactional emails. For example you may have the following Transactional Groups set up in your account:

1. Order Confirmations
2. Renewal Reminders
3. Thank Yous

Previously you could assign an email to a particular Transactional Group by specifying the Transactional Group's name in the Subject Line surrounded by curly brackets. For example, if I sent an email with the Subject:

Subject: Thanks for your purchase {Thank Yous}

...then this email would get assigned to the Transactional Group called "Thank Yous", and the email would be sent with the curly brackets and the part in between stripped out.

Now, there's an alternate way to assign an email to a particular Transactional Group...you can specify an X-header with the Transactional Group's ID. If you're sending emails through relay.jangosmtp.net programatically, such as through .Net or PHP code, and if you have the ability to add an X-header to the email message, you can use this method. The format is as follows:

X-TransGroupID: TransactionalGroupID

For example, if the Transactional Group "Thank Yous" had an ID number of 78929, then you would add the header:

X-TransGroupID: 78929

Specifying an X-TransGroupID header overrides any Transactional Group designation in the Subject Line.

You can retrieve the ID number of a Transactional Group by going to the Transactional Reporting section of your account, where the various Transactional Groups are listed, along with their delivery statistics and their ID numbers.