Foundation forms and Gmail

RapidWeaver Classic Stacks
1

Am I right in thinking that the only way to get a Foundation form to send to a Gmail address is to manually set it to use SMTP?

Thanks

Rob

2

To? You shouldn’t need to set up a form to use smtp to send to a gmail address. In fact I don’t recommend using smtp for a contact form. Smtp via php is a very big security issue. It is a common exploit for spammers. This is why it’s disable and unavailable at a lot of hosts including Chillidog. A better way is to simply send to a domain from the hosting account. There should be no problems with mail deliverability to gmail. A huge caveat here is that a LOT of php forms spoof the FROM field. This will make some messages go to spam.

If it’s s form you’re hosting at Chillidog and are having issues, just let me know via the ticket system :slight_smile:

Greg

3

According to Joe, you have to use SMTP with Foundation forms if you want the form to go to a gmail address.

4

This is not something I am aware of or have experienced. My standard RW contact forms, for instance, send to gmail addresses. The major trouble I can see is when the FROM field is overwritten when sending mail. If the mail doesn’t originate from the server associated with the email address in the FROM field then it can be considered spam. For instance, if you set the From to your gmail, your shared host will never match as being associated with gmail.com.

Using smtp doesn’t ensure a message can or will be delivered to a gmail or any other address. It just means that you’re passing the burden of email deliverability onto the smtp server you’re connecting to. If the reputation of that smtp server is bad, you’re not getting a message delivered.

The easiest work around is to send a message to a local email address on your shared host then use gmail’s imap/pop fetch feature to import the message. Bottom line is email deliverability is harder than you’d think. I’ll follow up with you as soon as possible with your existing ticket.

Greg

5

As stated on WS… you simply need to set your gmail address in the Reply To setting inside form base.

6

Thanks @joeworkman and @barchard - I may finally have gotten my thick head around this. We’ll see.

7

Reply to is the recommended approach.