Emails from UCSF Library website via SendGrid - ucsf-ckm/ucsf-library-ux-and-web-documentation GitHub Wiki

To improve the speed and reliability of email delivery from the UCSF Library website, we have implemented a solution using SendGrid and WP Mail SMTP.

Implementation steps

  1. Create SendGrid account
  2. Set up domain authentication
  3. Upgrade SendGrid account to paid tier
  4. Install WP Mail SMTP plugin in WordPress
  5. Add SendGrid email API key to WP Mail SMTP
  6. Test in dev environment
  7. Push to live environment

Configuration notes

SendGrid

SendGrid is the cloud-based SMTP email delivery service that handles emails for the UCSF Library website.

  • Domain authentication allows emails to be sent from a UCSF email address via SendGrid. See How to Set Up Domain Authentication for configuration instructions. The records added to UCSF's DNS can be found in the SendGrid account under Settings > Sender Authentication > Domain Authentication.
  • The free tier for SendGrid is limited to 100 emails per day, so we upgraded to the Essentials 50K tier.
  • To create a SendGrid API Key for WP Mail SMTP, go to Settings > API Key.
  • Disable the Open Tracking and Click Tracking features under Settings > Tracking.

WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP is the WordPress plugin that connects the UCSF Library website with SendGrid's email API.

  • Install the plugin by the usual process in Pantheon. Purchasing a license for the plugin gives access to additional features, but we have determined that we don't need these features at this time.
  • Set the default 'From Email' to [email protected] and the default 'From Name' to UCSF Library.
  • Turn on the 'Force From Email' setting. In order to use SendGrid with our authenticated domain, emails must come from a UCSF email address. If forms used a non-UCSF email address as the 'From Email', the emails would not be delivered.
  • Choose SendGrid as the mailer.
  • Add the API Key created in the SendGrid account.
  • Add the Sending Domain that has been authenticated in the SendGrid account.

WP Forms

WP Forms is the WordPress plugin used to create web forms for the UCSF Library website.

  • When creating/modifying a web form notification, make sure the Reply-To field is populated with the name and email address of the person who submitted the form (in the format "{name_field_id} <{email_field_id}>") so tickets are created properly in Zendesk with the person who submitted the form becoming the ticket requester.