Jeff, Thanks for your feedback. I'm thinking you are probably right that GAE isn't the best solution, especially since you are confirming my concerns about VERP. It's too bad this isn't possible, because it seems like GAE would provide a fairly effective way to implement this solution in an extremely scalable manner.
I may be mistaken, but it seems like an advantage to doing this on GAE via the Mail API is that mail is sent using a mail server that Google manages. This means that it is unlikely to get blacklisted by other ISPs. I've had troubles with my mail servers being blacklisted because of certain customers abusing it. This shouldn't be a problem for my webapp, since the mail server will only send mail to registered users. Bottom line is that mail servers in general are something I really don't care to hassle with. Also, I don't think that EC2 would be the best platform. Without reverse DNS control and truly static IPs, hosting a mail server might be problematic. As far as I know, they don't provide a Mail API, so it would be back to simply managing my own mail server and the headaches that go with it. Rackspace Cloud might work since they provide a static IP and their Fanatical Support person told me they can change reverse DNS for me. But I'm still managing my own mail server. They do not provide an SMTP server for cloud users. I just came across a service called JangoSMTP that seems to do much of what I need. Unfortunately, if I want to send a single email to all my 1000 users each day, I'm looking at spending $180/mo or so. But it includes an API, supports DKIM, handles bounces, and even supports feedback loops. http://www.jangosmtp.com/How-It-Works.asp It looks like I may just have to manage my own server using a traditional dedicated or VPS server. Tauren On Feb 24, 12:46 am, Jeff Schnitzer <[email protected]> wrote: > One thing to watch out for is that GAE's mailer won't send > multipart/related emails, so you cannot embed images in your mail. > You can link to external images but that's nearly useless these days. > > Considering your VERP requirement, you're probably better off running > the email-sending portion of your app in EC2 or Rackspace Cloud (or > whatever). > > Jeff > > > > On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:19 PM, Tauren Mills <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have a webapp that needs to send out customized mail to its users. I > > have thousands of users and need to send messages to them such as > > account activation notices, changed password notices, daily status > > reports (activity summary, action items they need to do, etc.), and > > alerts/reminders at specific times. Each message that is sent out is > > customized for a particular user. Once every few weeks there might be > > mass-emailing of the same message to everyone that announces new > > features or changes to the webapp. > > > Currently, the webapp is not on GAE, but may be in the future. At the > > moment I'm considering using GAE as a platform for the mailer service. > > This is so that I can scale up the mailer service as needed without > > having to maintain the infrastructure inhouse. > > > The basic idea is that I would build an application on GAE that has a > > RESTful interface. My app could then add messages to the send queue > > via that interface. The GAE mailer app would then use GAE's Mail > > api's to send out the messages. My webapp would also have a RESTful > > interface that the mailer service would use to communicate bak > > information about errors, bounces, and so forth. > > > 1. Is this a reasonable sounding solution? Any suggestions for > > improvements? What are the drawbacks? > > > 2. I'm assuming there isn't anything that would prevent me from having > > DKIM and other technologies to help reduce my mailings as being > > flagged as spam. Is this a valid assumption? > > > 3. I need to have bounce detection support and was planning to use > > VERP to do so. Since it appears GAE may limit the sending email > > addresses, I'm concerned this may not be possible. Is there any way > > to use GAE mail apis and support VERP? > > > 4. Are there any existing services that already do this? Any open > > source projects that would help get me part way? > > > Thanks! > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Google App Engine" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en.
