Auto Email - Possible Causes of Failure?

[Jerremy]

Hi all,

I have a site that allows users to place orders. When they submit the order, it fills in my database and then sends them (and myself) an email confirmation.

This has been working fine for the past 2 years - and nothing has changed in that time.

Suddenly, the emails have become hit and miss...

I know that if the user submits the order and quickly closes the browser window, the redirect page will not load - thus not sending the email... Since this core group of customers has been using the system for a long time - I don't know if it's coincidence that 5 of the last 10 orders did not result in an email or if something else may be going on.

Are there other potential issues that may pop up that result in the email not going through?

What happens when the redirect page is triggered as far as email generation?

Could a busy email server drop/ignore the email request?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

- Jerremy

[Anatoli]

RE: Could a busy email server drop/ignore the email request?

IMHO email server will not drop something, but I believe WebCompanion will. It is quite dumb engine.

Lasso will queue that request.

[Jerremy]

Hi Anatoli,

Thanks for the reply.

I wonder if the Web Companion is dropping the email request...

You think that if the WC cannot immediately contact the email server - it will drop the request.

Does anyone know if there is a time-out value on the WC - and if so, can it be increased?

I wonder how long it tries to send before giving up.

Anyone have any info on that?

Thanks again,

Jerremy

[Anatoli]

Sorry I do not know that, I am just guessing. Because WC doesn't have some tracking database with pending jobs my guess is, that WC can drop the job after xx seconds, after another request is made after :

[Vaughan]

Ideally you want to send the e-mail from the form that's used to update the database, and not rely on a redirect to send the mail.

[Jerremy]

Vaughn and Anatoli,

Thanks for your replies.

Vaughn, I saw a post you made made a while back that suggested not relying on the redirect. Not sure that would work for me because I'd like the email to give a recap of the order to the user... and I think I need the redirect to pull the info from the database to merge with the format file to send the email.

I'm wondering if the WC is dropping my emails if it tries to send to a busy server. I'll see if I can find some more info on that...

Thanks for your help - it's appreciated.

- Jerremy

[Anatoli]

Where is "Mechanicville"?

[Vaughan]

Jerremy -- the problem with redirects is that it's too easy for the user to hit the back button, and what with users being the way they are now I think ther are more likely to do so.

Every time I make a post here I hit the Back button just as the Forum's "post confirmation" message appears, then hit Back again to return me to the list of threads. I do this because it's fast and doesn't waste my time, not because I want to avoid a redirect that does something important.

So my advice is to plan the process to avoid using a redirect.

[Jerremy]

Thanks for your input A and V.

Mechanicville is about 20 minutes from Albany, NY.

- Jerremy

[Anatoli]

Thanks Jerremy It sounds like Jules Verne created that city Really nice!