XF 1.1 Amazon SES With Xenforo

[TheBigK]

Yesterday, I stumbled upon Amazon SES which now has SMTP gateway. I'm planning to use it with Xenforo to handle all the emails; so that the delivery is always right. I, however have basic questions -

• To the best of my knowledge, I only need to enter the SMTP settings provided by Amazon in 'Email Options' in XF ACP. Is that enough?
• Can I use it to send notifications or monthly newsletter to all the members who have opted to receive emails from administrator? Would that be spamming? We've over 90k members who've opted to receive emails from admins; but my estimate is that 10-20k of them aren't active. We didn't have 'email' verification enabled in our earlier days.

Thank you for your time in advance

 

[PJK]

Ensure "Sender info in From header on contact emails" is unchecked, and you may also have to try different ports for it to work correctly. Mine uses TLS and port 25 for it to work. Wouldn't work with any other variation.

Great, thanks. Now I'm getting this error instead of the connection timeout error:
Email to domain@gmail.com failed: Message rejected: Email address is not verified.

What caused this? The default email address I'm sending from is verified in SES already. Under the status "verified", I see:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0sh7vmhkoy60n9i/Screenshot 2016-04-25 10.03.06.png?dl=0

How can I troubleshoot from here? Thanks.

 

[MattW]

Great, thanks. Now I'm getting this error instead of the connection timeout error:
Email to domain@gmail.com failed: Message rejected: Email address is not verified.

What caused this? The default email address I'm sending from is verified in SES already. Under the status "verified", I see:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0sh7vmhkoy60n9i/Screenshot 2016-04-25 10.03.06.png?dl=0

How can I troubleshoot from here? Thanks.

You need to make sure that any email addresses you have set up (sending from and bounce addresses) are validated

 

[PJK]

You need to make sure that any email addresses you have set up (sending from and bounce addresses) are validated

Both the bounced and the sending from are verified, but still getting the error:
Email to domain@gmail.com failed: Message rejected: Email address is not verified.
Verified:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p1vd4n107yg8dqs/Screenshot 2016-04-25 18.00.17.png?dl=0

What else can I do to troubleshoot?

Edit: Also, I have quite a few failed email alerts from members as I was testing this. How can I get those emails re-sent to people so they receive them? I've reverted back to the Default w/ -f parameter for now.

 

[Robust]

Both the bounced and the sending from are verified, but still getting the error:
Email to domain@gmail.com failed: Message rejected: Email address is not verified.
Verified:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p1vd4n107yg8dqs/Screenshot 2016-04-25 18.00.17.png?dl=0

What else can I do to troubleshoot?

Edit: Also, I have quite a few failed email alerts from members as I was testing this. How can I get those emails re-sent to people so they receive them? I've reverted back to the Default w/ -f parameter for now.

Also verify the domain if using a custom domain. That allows all emails on that domain to work. Your error is something to do with verification (something isn't verified). Make sure your API user has correct perms too.

 

[PJK]

Also verify the domain if using a custom domain. That allows all emails on that domain to work. Your error is something to do with verification (something isn't verified). Make sure your API user has correct perms too.

The domain is also verfied already. Regarding "Make sure your API user has correct perms too.", where do I check this and which permissions? I've never edited anything away from default.

Also, I have quite a few failed email alerts to members as I was testing this. How can I get those emails re-sent to people so they receive them? I've reverted back to the Default w/ -f parameter for now.

 

[MattW]

Is your account still in sandbox mode with AWS?

 

[PJK]

Is your account still in sandbox mode with AWS?

I haven't requested in Sending Increase per this page:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/request-production-access.html
So then I guess I am still in Sandbox mode? Do I need to request a sending increase limit before it will work with Xenforo?

Edit: Yes, on the sending limit page it shows me still in Sandbox. I've just requested to be moved out of Sandbox.

 

[MattW]

Correct, you need to request the sending increase before they will allow you to send emails to any address other than the approved ones.

 

[PJK]

Correct, you need to request the sending increase before they will allow you to send emails to any address other than the approved ones.

Ah, that's it. Thanks, I'll give it a go after I'm out of the sandbox.

Also, I have quite a few failed email alerts to members as I was testing this. How can I get those emails re-sent to people so they receive them?

 

[PJK]

Regarding the "Automated Bounced Email Handler": It asks for a username and password. Can I use SES for this? If so, do I create new credentials? My send from email is admin@domain.com and my bounced email is bounced@domain.com - both emails are verified in SES.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Regarding the "Automated Bounced Email Handler": It asks for a username and password. Can I use SES for this?

No, that is the username and password to your bounced email account. It has nothing to do with SES.

The sandbox issue above WILL be your problem. You may then have to flick around ports or such, but it will work once your SES sending limit is approved.

 

[PJK]

No, that is the username and password to your bounced email account. It has nothing to do with SES.

The sandbox issue above WILL be your problem. You may then have to flick around ports or such, but it will work once your SES sending limit is approved.

How do I test the connection to the bounced email setup? I'm about to do a big email shoot to 30,000 and want to make sure this setup is working.

Also, do I need to setup anything on the AWS side for bouncing or is it all handled on the Xenforo side? I imagine there will be quite a few bounces as the email shoot is going to emails from the last 10 years. Thanks.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Create an account with a nonsense email and send a single message to it so that it bounces. The bounce should be in the account. Ensure you have the bounce email account open, as once XF processes the account it deletes the email.

If the bounce email appears, go and manually run the cron to process and you will see the account automatically change status to an unconfirmed status due to email.

Bounces and such can be setup through SNS, especially if you're sending directly from xenforo you can send them direct to your bounce account for automatic processing. Saying that, there are soft and hard bounces, so this can cause issues for regular members of your community.

If you're sending via an email service or software, it should have instructions for bounce handling so that they're handled better than what XF does by default, which is a simple system of bounced, or not.

I use Sendy on my server to send everything via SES, with all handling done automatically back to Sendy via SNS. It simply syncs with XF accounts appropriately.

 

[PJK]

Create an account with a nonsense email and send a single message to it so that it bounces. The bounce should be in the account. Ensure you have the bounce email account open, as once XF processes the account it deletes the email.

If the bounce email appears, go and manually run the cron to process and you will see the account automatically change status to an unconfirmed status due to email.

Bounces and such can be setup through SNS, especially if you're sending directly from xenforo you can send them direct to your bounce account for automatic processing. Saying that, there are soft and hard bounces, so this can cause issues for regular members of your community.

If you're sending via an email service or software, it should have instructions for bounce handling so that they're handled better than what XF does by default, which is a simple system of bounced, or not.

I use Sendy on my server to send everything via SES, with all handling done automatically back to Sendy via SNS. It simply syncs with XF accounts appropriately.

Thanks for the info. I created a fake account with a nonsense email that should bounce, and have been refreshing the inbox of the bounced email for the last 2 minutes. I also don't see any error in the server logs in the AdminCP, at least not yet. How do I troubleshoot this from here? I could wait a few hours to see if errors come up, but ideally I'd like to solve this issue now.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Did you run the cron? Look at the user account and see if its status has already changed from being processed. Again, if you miss the email it gets hard deleted from your email account.

 

[PJK]

Did you run the cron? Look at the user account and see if its status has already changed from being processed. Again, if you miss the email it gets hard deleted from your email account.

I just ran the cron, and I searched for the user and it says the user state is "Awaiting email confirmation". I assume if it worked it should be "email invalid (bounced)", right?

This is the server error that just came up:
cannot connect to host; error = (errno = 0 )1 minute ago - library/Zend/Mail/Protocol/Pop3.php:109
-----
I'm unsure what is causing this. I'm using POP3, host as host.domain.com, and SSL. Where do I go from here?

Secondly, each time I want to test this, do I have to create a new user on the forum with a nonsense email, or is there a better fast way? Could I just send an email to the user I just created?

 

[Anthony Parsons]

You have an error still...

 

[Anthony Parsons]

From memory I had to use imap to get my bounce system working correctly.

 

[PJK]

From memory I had to use imap to get my bounce system working correctly.

I'll adjust to IMAP, my host recommended trying TLS instead of SSL too. Is there a better way to test this rather than creating a new account after each setting change? Can I just run the cron after each setting change?

 

[Anthony Parsons]

You need to get a bounced email in the account to know it works, then run the cron.

Which means you need to adjust settings, send a test email to that user, and until a bounce appears... your email is not working, as it should be near instant.

Once you have that, run cron to test the account is working correctly and adjusting the user status.