How do you deal with email uncertainty?

Question

I am working on several processes that could potentially run into problems that should be addressed by people. He currently logs these errors and sends an email to the appropriate individuals.

But email seems like a weak link here. The problems that I am facing are: the email server is not working, the email gets into the spam filter, the email never arrived.

Do I need to create some kind of internal mail and require users to check another mailbox, or are there any things that I can do to feel more comfortable with my email notifications? Can I ask for open receipts or something like that, and if it doesn’t open, send the letter again? Other ideas?

Answer 1

These days, email is generally much more reliable than the people who work with it. Something you have to consider is that in many cases people just come up with excuses for not receiving the letter.

With the exception of installing Skynet , where the host computer can send killer robots to your targets, you are essentially connected to shipping over the Internet. You have identified many potential flaws; for most, there are workarounds that I will try to list.

• Firstly, your application. I guess this is redundant enough that it will never be too much to report it. At least you have redundant, reliable watchdog services.

• One mail server may go down. Alright, so get a second!

• Your network may go down. Confusing, this happens in a large company in which I work. It is so important that the material works on two independent internal networks.

• If you have only one Internet line for the outside world, there is a chance that your connection will disappear when you need it most. A smart plan requires redundant internet connections. For emergency purposes, your backup connection may be wireless - UMTS or GSM or whatever they may call in your country.

• You have the choice to run your own mail server, distribute directly on the Internet or use a commercial mail service. If there is nothing confidential in your letters, I would consider Google Mail for one of the outgoing paths. It has a fairly stable time and is well maintained. Your other outgoing mail server might be in your company.

• The weakest link is your recipients. You must be sure to receive mail. To attack the justification of the “spam filter” and others, ask your server to send all respondents once a week and give them an answer, including a random object. This will confirm to you that at least last week your recipient received the mail. If not, explore.

• Email for the recipient mailbox is not the only alternative. As soon as you go online, there are alternatives such as SMS and paging services. They will take you to the recipient's phone. After contact, they can call or check their company’s email.

If you use NORAD , you may need even more reliable protection for your messages. Otherwise, attention to the above points will make your work bulletproof, as it may be.

Answer 2

You must enter the code for "server is down." If emails cannot be sent, you need to send them to the queue as soon as possible.

You must explicitly tell users about them so that they put your messages on the non-spam list. You do not have to worry about the spam filter.

E-mail "never arrived" is not very common at all in practice, if you wrote the code when the server is down.

Finally, you can put the confirmation link in the email and send it by email hourly until the notification is sent back.

Answer 3

I also use email notifications, but I also have all of these messages in the database table with a flag if it is related to data import, wrong password, etc.

Users, when notified or not, can see this log (or timeline) in the same way that Trac (bug tracking software) or Facebook displays news. This is a feed that you can filter by various criteria.

Some people may be interested in messages or errors related to data import, as well as authentication problems, etc.

Another thing is you can send these notifications by e-mail or do more "broadcasters" such as Jabber / XMPP messages, twitter messages that your users like.

Answer 4

The user can click on the link included in the email to confirm receipt of the email. Emails that are not confirmed after a certain period of time can be sent again or escalated.

Answer 5

I would probably create some kind of status page where all (or some of them) depend on your users to see all the outstanding errors. Thus, if the email never arrives, there is still a record of the task that the user must complete. (in terms of ease of use, it’s easier for me to check a web page than another email account).

I could also create some kind of task that will go through all of your outstanding errors and possibly email again in X days. (provided, this solution requires some way to mark errors as resolved, perhaps configure a mailbox to which the user can respond when he has confirmed / fixed the problem, and have something to control and update the log table)

Answer 6

I know that most email clients support the ability to notify the sender when an email is read that sounds exactly like what you are looking for. Unfortunately, most clients also provide the user with the option not to notify the sender.

Answer 7

To avoid getting your mail in the spam folder, you can read this excellent resource.

Answer 8

You can use the RSS feed rather than email.