@meanie/mail-composer
A utility to help you compose emails using the Handlebars templating engine, compatible with the @sendgrid/mail library.
Installation
You can install this package using yarn or npm.
#yarn
yarn add @meanie/mail-composer
#npm
npm install @meanie/mail-composer --saveDependencies
This package has a peer dependency of handlebars, which is assumed to be configured (e.g. custom plugins) by your application.
Basic usage
Prepare main template (e.g. template.hbs):
Prepare a partial (e.g. hello.hbs):
Configure the composer:
//Load dependencies
const composer = require('@meanie/mail-composer');
//Set paths to main templates
composer.config({
templateHtml: '/path/to/template.hbs',
templateText: '/path/to/template.txt',
});Then use it to compose an email message and send it with a compatible mailer, for example @sendgrid/mail:
//Load mailer
const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');
//Prepare mail data
const mail = {
to: user.email,
from: 'Someone <no-reply@example.org>',
subject: 'Hello {{user.firstName}}',
html: '/path/to/hello.hbs',
text: '/path/to/hello.txt',
};
//Prepare template data
const data = {app, user};
//Compose and send the email
composer
.compose(mail, data)
.then(email => sgMail.send(email));Advanced usage
For more advanced cases where you need to manage locals for your templates, it is recommended to write a wrapper service around the composer, e.g.:
'use strict';
/**
* Dependencies
*/
const moment = require('moment');
const composer = require('@meanie/mail-composer');
const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');
/**
* Configure sendgrid mailer and composer
*/
sgMail.setApiKey('YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY');
composer.config({
templateHtml: '/path/to/template.hbs',
templateText: '/path/to/template.txt',
});
/**
* Create locals for email templates
*/
function createLocals(context) {
const {title, version} = context.app.locals;
return {
now: moment(),
user: context.user,
app: {title, version},
};
}
/**
* Export mailer interface
*/
module.exports = {
/**
* Create an email
*/
create(type, context, ...args) {
//Load mail generator and create locals from data
const generator = require('/path/to/emails/' + type);
const locals = createLocals(context);
//Create mail data and append locals
const mail = generator(...args);
const data = Object.assign(mail.data || {}, locals);
//Use composer to generate email instance
return composer.compose(mail, data);
},
/**
* Send one or more emails
*/
send(emails) {
return sgMail
.sendMultiple(emails);
},
};Next, create a mail generator file (hello.js):
/**
* Dependencies
*/
const path = require('path');
/**
* Hello email generator
*/
module.exports = function(user) {
//Template paths
const html = path.join(__dirname, 'hello.hbs');
const text = path.join(__dirname, 'hello.txt');
//Prepare data
const to = user.email;
const subject = 'Hi {{user.firstName}}!';
const data = {user};
//Return mail object for composer
return {to, subject, data, html, text};
};And use the mailer service to easily send out specific emails in a given context:
User
.findOne({...})
.then(user => mailer.create('hello', req, user))
.then(email => email.send());For working examples, see the Meanie Express Seed project.
Randomization of HTML content
A helper is included to append a random string to HTML email contents to prevent GMail
from breaking up your emails by quoting and hiding parts of repeating content. This works
by including a hidden span with random characters for each email before the ending of certain tags, e.g. </p>.
Manual usage:
let html = '<p>Copyright 2017 My Company</p>';
html = composer.randomize(html, '</p>');
console.log(html);
//<p>Copyright 2017 My Company<span style="display: none !important;">ab4f2</span></p>Automatic usage via config:
composer.config({
templateHtml: '/path/to/template.hbs',
templateText: '/path/to/template.txt',
autoRandomize: true,
randomizeTags: 'p',
});Issues & feature requests
Please report any bugs, issues, suggestions and feature requests in the @meanie/mail-composer issue tracker.
Contributing
Pull requests are welcome! If you would like to contribute to Meanie, please check out the Meanie contributing guidelines.
Sponsor
This package has been kindly sponsored by Hello Club, an all in one club and membership management solution complete with booking system, automated membership renewals, online payments and integrated access and light control. Check us out if you happen to belong to any kind of club or if you know someone who helps run a club!
License
(MIT License)
Copyright 2016-2020, Adam Reis