Contact Us Email: from Plain to HTML?

Hi,

After upgrading from 1.2.5 to 1.3.8, email sent via the "Contact Us" form are sent in plain text format instead of HTML format, despite the fact that under admin > Configuration > Email Options I've set:

Use MIME HTML When Sending Emails = true

What else should I check?

Thanks,
Alon

ADMIN>>>CONFIGURATION>>>CUSTOMER DETAILS...Customer Default Email Preference

Set to "1"

Still Plain Text :(

What I'm afraid of is that during the upgrade (or prior to it), some values were hard-coded. Which files should I check for hard coded values?

OUTGOING email is capable of being sent either TEXT or HTML.

INCOMING email (such as that sent via the "contact us" facility) is only coming to the store owner - so no need for HTML. Text will do just fine. So there is no feature to have INCOMING messages formatted for HTML.

If you copy yourself on the OUTGOING messages (create account, order confirmation, etc.) then you will get the mail in HTML format.

But for incoming stuff - no need for HTML, getting the message as text is probably more efficient and reliable.

Ooops, you're right. Didn't think about it :blush:.
Thank you

All my emails used to come to me in text format despite all email references being set to HTML, I came across another thread suggesting to create an account for myself with my admin address and choose HTML for the email format, and all my emails come in html now, including the contact us page emails....so if you still want them in HTML try this :)

Thanks Lissa
You re right - you have to add a customer with your store email and set as HTML in order for contact us messages etc to come through in HTML.

Just tried this after hours of time wasting with permisions ec and it works

That has to be a bug surely.... :P :D

Question ... what's the purpose of having a contact-us email in HTML format?
All the customer is doing is sending you a short message. Wrapping it all up in extra fluff is just a waste of resources IMO.
Why do you need all that decoration? Why do you need to waste all that storage space?

Well whilst you are asking so many why why why's

WHY: is there a file called email_template_contact_us.html in my email folder?

Surely its presecene indicates that Zen Cart should be using this file when HTML = Yes in the admin settings.

Therefore the fact that it ignores this file says to me there is a bug somewhere.

Storage space... are you kidding? the email template sits on the server consuming a MASSIVE 2kb.....? I see what you mean... that does only leave me 15GB for other files...... not sure how I will cope...

And on the subject of why do you need all that fluff..... well if thats your attitutide why bother with images and css on the site all all...?

What if these contact us emails are coming in to a call centre of a large organisation.... it would be nice that they at least look like they hadn't been triggered by a shopping cart someone knocked up in their lunch break.

Zen Cart is great......
This forum rocks....
and you sir are a gentlemen who offers some great advice often times....a
nd I am a very polite person but your last reply is a load of TOSH...!!!!!

Please give constructive and well thought out answers rather than negative "why bother " style rants

wrongjon:

Zen Cart is great......
This forum rocks....
and you sir are a gentlemen who offers some great advice often times....a
nd I am a very polite person but your last reply is a load of TOSH...!!!!!

Please give constructive and well thought out answers rather than negative "why bother " style rants

This reply is offensive. Dr Byte does not rant - ever. The questions he asks are legitimate and logical.

I think you ought to apologise.

Regardless of what kind of guy DrByte is, or isn't, his question is a good one.

Most of the websites I buy from regularly send Contact Us and other emails in text format, and I appreciate their consideration for the size of my storage space.

Those emails exist to convey information, and text works just fine.

Those sites which insist on sending me HTML emails seem to me to be mostly about themselves.

All our sites send all emails in text-only, and we've never had a complaint.

Good morning guys

All I am saying is:

1. 2KB is not a waste of storage space.

2. The store admin area has an option for sending admin emails in html format and an html template exists so why isn't the store using it?

I now understand that you must create yourself as a customer first and enable HTML for that customer in order to receive html emails but seems cumbersome :)

3. I agree some people will be happy with plain text version.... im not disputing that but also we should be able to easily make use of the HTML version provided.

4. DR Byte - no offence intended you do a great job :clap:

Apologies for my pointed questions ... call it a mini-rant or something.
Your point about the call center concept is understandable.

And, as the discussion notes, setting up the customer profile to enable the HTML email format is the recommended workaround for obtaining the desired result.

No problem at all... thanks for supporting us with such a great product :D

I vote for: plain text for internal company (even if corporate) messaging. I deal with sending emails to many companies, and the only way you have the greatest possibility that the recipient will receive it is with plain text - too many times, even within the same company on a managed intranet with all systems run by in-house IT, you will have some people receive a HTML message, and some others never do due to their own personal settings, some errant spam filter or whatever. Store emails are extremely important (the most on any site I have built) and you never want to miss one of those, so while DrByte has been polite and nice, I still concur 100% with the sentiment behind his original reply.