Send with SMTP API
The SMTPeter service can be accessed using a traditional SMTP API. SMTP is the language or protocol that email programs use to transfer mail from one computer to the other. Because SMTPeter comes with a SMTP API, you can easily integrate SMTPeter in your existing mail infrastructure, and you can even set up traditional email clients like Outlook, Thunderbird or your mobile devices to send all messages through SMTPeter.
To use the SMTP API you need to authenticate yourself to our servers, so you should configure your application to authenticate with AUTH PLAIN or AUTH LOGIN. You can create different SMTP logins via the SMTPeter dashboard. So you can for example make different logins for different users, and/or enable or disable specific features such as click tracking, for different logins.
If you do not want to bother with different accounts, you can instead use the email/password combination of your SMTPeter account or Copernica account to login. Note however that most additional features, including the tracking of clicks and opens, are disabled for this option.
In general the REST API is recommended, as it is easier to use and handles parameters much better.
Examples
To demonstrate how easy it is to connect with SMTPeter, we have three examples of how to set up SMTPeter for different email clients.
Before you set up your client, you first have to open SMTPeter's dashboard and create a SMTP login. Remember the password or copy it immediately to your application, because this is the only time that you are going to see it. Internally, all passwords are encrypted by SMTPeter, so if you lose it, you will have to create a new password.
Configure your application
The SMTP configuration is application dependent. We have examples for a couple of well known email programs:
After setting up your email program to use SMTPeter, all your emails will pass through SMTPeter as your default SMTP gateway. The first time you send an email you are prompted to enter your password (if you use Thunderbird) and after that you're all set!
Passing parameters for SMTPeter's options
The SMTP protocol was never meant to pass parameters with each message. If you want to enable or disable specific SMTPeter features for specific messages, you will have to either use SMTP credentials or use different MIME header fields.
In the SMTPeter dashboard you can create multiple SMTP logins. You can for example create a login for which the "inlinecss" feature is enabled, and one for which it is disabled. When you connect to the SMTP API, you simply pick a login/password combination that has the features you need.
The alternative method to enable or disable features is by adding special MIME-headers to your email or send through the REST API.
