PHP Mail Read Receipts

fean0r

Hey,

Do you think it would be possible to automatically receive a read receipt and update the database so you know it's been read?

Any ideas would be great!

Thanks

Krik

That is an interesting idea.

I haven't tried it but maybe use an onload event in the email that runs some javascript the sends data via AJAX back to the database. Of course many email clients may block the javascript but you can try.

Either that or you can try a feedback link in the email that goes to a web page with a quick 3 or 4 questions.

I know I have gotten emails that have received conformations that pops up for me. I would guess there is a way to use that feature in PHP generated emails. But I think the confirmation would go to your email so you would have to use another tool to intercept it and store it in the database.

bradgrafelman

Krik wrote:
I would guess there is a way to use that feature in PHP generated emails.

Indeed; you'd simply need to insert the appropriate e-mail header. From Wikipedia (link):

The technical term for these is MDN - Message Disposition Notifications, and they are requested by inserting one or more of the following lines into the email headers: X-Confirm-Reading-To: Disposition-Notification-To: or Return-Receipt-To:

Krik wrote:
But I think the confirmation would go to your email so you would have to use another tool to intercept it and store it in the database.

It would go to whatever e-mail address you specify, so if I were doing this then I would send the receipt to an e-mail box that automatically pipes all incoming mail to a PHP script for processing.

dagon

this is not a reliable way to track opened mail, the image in server 'trick' is more reliable.

bradgrafelman

dagon;10958427 wrote:
this is not a reliable way to track opened mail, the image in server 'trick' is more reliable.

How is one "trick" more reliable than another? Both methods require the end user's approval and both require some data to be sent from their computer back to your server.

dagon

bradgrafelman;10958428 wrote:
How is one "trick" more reliable than another? Both methods require the end user's approval and both require some data to be sent from their computer back to your server.

professional experience :-) last 3 years spent working on newsletter sending software, metrics is a big part. Far more people load images than allow read receipts (human nature, allowing images actully benefits you, rr does not.). Tracking all links works well also.