Still having issues with sending emails through Postmark

[eric10]

I’m using API Connector with Postmark, and I have things that sometimes work, and sometimes don’t. Some will work on the Dev side, but won’t work on the Live side. Because of the fact it feels like it’s a guess to see what will work I have different workflows set up differently trying to get them all to work.

I was hoping you could help me understand this so I can get everything set up consistently and hopefully all working.

@exception-rambler helped me get my newsletter working(thank you) using “:formatted as JSON-safe”, but I’m trying to use that on these other issues and it’s not working.

I keep getting this error:
Workflow error - The service Postmark - notifications - Event Notification just returned an error (HTTP 422). Please consult their documentation to ensure your call is setup properly. Raw error: {"ErrorCode":402,"Message":"Received invalid JSON input."}

On Bubble’s documentation is says
“Consider instead using Find & Replace ( \ → \) to escape line breaks if you wish to pass the value of a pre-formatted multi-line input as the key value in an API call.”

@johnny seems to help out with a lot of these issues, and sometimes he mentions a find and replace where you find " and replace with nothing, and other times he suggests closing them out with find " and replace with \".

I just need this all to work consistently, and I’ve yet to find 1 way to use for all the different emails my app has to get it working consistently for all things.

If you could help me make sense of all that I’m reading on my research I would greatly appreciate it. I’m over all the issues with email/Postmark, and can’t figure out why they can’t make this more user friendly. Bubble sells themselves on this no-code platform, but then you come in only to find out you can’t do anything with email unless you have a masters in coding and html.

Thank you.

[johnny]

Hi @eric10,

What exactly is causing your trouble right now?

[lindsay_knowcode]

I originally used the API connector with Postmark … but found the dynamic parameter management too fragile (like you are). Too easy to make a spelling mistake in the standard parameters, too easy to forget an essential parameter required in the templates. So I made this plugin
https://postmark-template.bubbleapps.io/version-test

It’s only for people using Postmark templates - and its point in life is just to overcome all the fiddliness of sending email template parameters via the API connector. Personally, I like Postmarks (and Sengrids) templating capability - for me, that’s the point of their existence. Handcrafting HTML, converting BBcode … just more complexity to manage in your app where you should have more important problems to solve

As you are a friend of @exception-rambler and @johnny you can have it for free so they can get back to their day jobs

[eric10]

Hello Johnny, thank you for your help.

In simplest terms, the email is not sending. I’ve included images of one example that’s not sending. I’ve tried several different suggested fixes without success. Wanting to know what’s the proper way to have this setup.

The more complex issue is I’ve been trying different solutions based on different people’s advice and while it seems to be workin in some cases there does not seem to be a universal way to get these emails to work. I feel like I’m constantly chasing down issues individually instead of knowing the one right way to set this up so it consistently works.

[eric10]

Thought I posted this, but I guess not. Thank you for the plug-in. Right now I’ve got like 10+ different emails to be sent. Some of them with very complex setups. I would love to just find a way to get these setup. I’m hesitant to go through and reset up all of them on a different plugin. If I’m unable to find a solution I’ll look into your plugin.

[eric10]

Any thoughts on this? People are missing our events because I can’t get notifications to email out to people. I’m at a loss for why this is not working.

[johnny]

It’s hard to say, what does each of your setups look like? It sounds like you’re doing every setup for different types of emails that need to be sent differently.

[eric10]

I would like to think using Format for JSON or \"or whatever the proper way to do it would be the same? So maybe if I can figure out the proper way to do it for one I can then set them all up the correct way.

My biggest concern right now is the event email notifications, and I’ve included al the setups in the images above in this thread. Please let me know if there is anything else you need to see.

On a seperate issue the emails for my Newsletter which I thought was working I just found out a lot of people who are not getting it. As you can see the last time they sent there was a dip in the emails sent. The numbers when I send them each week should not change much, if anything it should increase as we gain more members.

I like a lot of things with Bubble, but the email system is driving me crazy. I want it to just work as expected, but instead it seems so all over the place. I really wish this all made more sense. Are there limitations to Bubble? I noticed some warnerings in the log that the workflow timed out because it was to busy. I’m only sending to 300 people. I thought Bubble had the ability to work with 10,000 users.

[ed727]

@eric10 your knowledge is way beyond mine on APIs. So perhaps the below is more relevant to no-coders who come across thread and are looking to avoid rabbit holes and get things to work fast…

• I saw Postmark as being best for “transactional” emails – signup, password reset, billing, etc. where it 100% has to get through. In fact, originally Postmark only did transactional, but it more recently allowed “broadcast” emails, intended for broader communications to existing users (like updates to a privacy policy). I used a plugin; setup was easy and it’s always worked.

• For blast emails to larger groups, specifically marketing or promotional emails, Postmark refers users to Mailchimp (and at the time I was doing this, I recall Postmark prohibiting marketing emails via its platform.) Mailchimp has a Bubble plugin integration, but I ended up using Constant Contact. I saw those platforms as being purpose-built to manage and send out big blasts. They have all the analytics and bells and whistles specific to that usage.

[eric10]

Thank you Ed. I feel like there might be some platform issues, but I more strongly feel I’m just not setting it up properly, and it seems like no one really knows how this should actually be setup. Postmark has not been helpful at all, since they just keep saying they don’t help setup templates or integrations with Bubble. I wish there was someone I could go to and say “hey, this is not working, can you help” and have someone help me with it. Again I understand coding is often about figuring things out on your own, but Bubble sold me on this idea of no-code, and a system which can handle 10,000+ users. I’ve put hours of time into building this app, and transition my organization over to it, so it’s frustrating that everything works beautifully expect email.

My Newsletter is on the Postmark Broadcast, but the event emails are on the Transactional system. It appears I’m having issues with both. Again, I feel like the transactional emails it’s more to do with my setup, and not know the proper way to have it setup.

Is there a known person in this forum community who’s considered The expert on this?

[ed727]

@eric10

Is there a known person in this forum community who’s considered The expert on this?

If @lindsay_knowcode did a plugin, then I’m sure he’s very knowledgeable on this.

Also @vini_brito has been very active in Postmark topics/plugins…

Richer Postmark emails plugin [Update of 16 march 2021] - Showcase - Bubble Forum

[johnny]

@eric10

I noticed some warnerings in the log that the workflow timed out because it was to busy. I’m only sending to 300 people. I thought Bubble had the ability to work with 10,000 users.

Emails should be sent recursively in this case.

[eric10]

What does that mean?

[johnny]

@eric10

I would like to think using Format for JSON or \"or whatever the proper way to do it would be the same? So maybe if I can figure out the proper way to do it for one I can then set them all up the correct way.

What is the exact error shown in Bubble’s logs about the issue?

[eric10]

@johnny

What is the exact error shown in Bubble’s logs about the issue?

Workflow error - The service Postmark - notifications - Event Notification just returned an error (HTTP 422). Please consult their documentation to ensure your call is setup properly. Raw error: {“ErrorCode”:402,“Message”:“Received invalid JSON input.”}

[johnny]

This post by @petter might be helpful with decisive workflows.

How To Set Up Recursive Workflows In Bubble - Amlie Solutions

[johnny]

Ah ok, that’s helpful. That means it’s a JSON formatting issue. What’s the text you’re passing through? Does it include quotes? Can you try to narrow down the exact issue?

Does it return this error when quotes are used or when a specific symbol is used?

[eric10]

If you look at the first post in this thread I think most of that is there. I honestly keep changing it to test different things, since as I mentioned I keep getting different advice, so at this point I’m not sure what to do. All I know is it’s not working.

I will say I can often get it working in test mode, but then it won’t work in Live mode which is extremely frustrating and very hard to test, since I don’t want to send everyone an email for test purposes.

[dannyliu]

Can you take a look in your Postmark account, and see the % bounce rate?

Postmark automatically blocks accounts with a high bounce rate. You may have been using too many fake emails to test the feature.

You should also always be using a recursive workflow on large lists.

Also, can you send a screenshot of your JSON formatting?

[eric10]

Thank you @dannyliu for the reply and help. All my test emails on the test account are actual emails(the all send to me through *@domain).

In the last 30 days I sent 963 emails, and 0.6% bounced. 0 spam, and 3 soft Bounces. I’m not sure on the math there since I would have thought it would be 0.3%, but that is what Postmark is saying 0.6%. Basically it’s one person I need to get an updated email for.

Yes, @johnny mentioned the recursive workflow. First I’ve heard of it, so I’ll have to look over it and wrap my brain around it. I’m excited there is a way to prevent the timing out.

In the Event Notification I’m having issue with you can see all the formatting in the first post in this thread. This is the one I’m getting the below error.

Workflow error - The service Postmark - notifications - Event Notification just returned an error (HTTP 422). Please consult their documentation to ensure your call is setup properly. Raw error: {“ErrorCode”:402,“Message”:“Received invalid JSON input.”}

Here is an image of a more complext JSON formatting, but it seems to be sending, and now I’m thining it’s issue of not sending to everyone is because of timing out. I’m hoping the Recursive will fix that. If it does, I’m just having an issue with my Event emails, which might be helped with Recursive, but I need a fix for the JSON code issues.