Gmail strips out inline CSS styles (when it doesn’t like what it sees)

As a bit of a follow-up to our earlier post on Gmail turning your black-colored links blue, its come to our attention that in some instances where Gmail doesn't like a CSS property, it strips it out, as well as all inline styles surrounding it. We first came across this when a customer used box-shadow to jazz up their design... Only to find that margins, padding and more were disappearing as well. In fact, the entire style="..." attribute and contents had been removed altogether.

To work around this, we tried a little trick which has previously prevented Gmail from stripping CSS from designs, namely appending properties with !important;. For example, in the box-shadow example, we suggested using:

-webkit-box-shadow: 7px 7px 5px #000000 !important; 
-moz-box-shadow: 7px 7px 5px #000000 !important; 
box-shadow: 7px 7px 5px #000000 !important; 

The result is that while box-shadow (and vendor-specific variants) are stripped in Gmail only, the surrounding CSS styles are preserved. As you can imagine, this means the difference between the layout displaying without a nice shadow effect and the same layout falling to pieces, devoid of all CSS. Using this technique, you can also try using other gracefully-degrading CSS3 properties without fear, too.

Thanks to Lev from Russia for pointing this out to us. We've observed a couple of subtle changes to how Gmail renders HTML email as of late - including rather unexpectedly supporting background-image after never doing so previously. Gmail, as opaque in its workings as it is, reminds me of one of Heraclitus' more famous teachings - nothing endures but change. Just when we thought we knew how to safely code for email, Gmail just goes ahead and overrides our CSS, or strips it out altogether.

Has Gmail noticeably changed how it displays your HTML email campaigns? Let us know about it below.

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Today’s downtime explanation

Today at 10am London time (2am in San Francisco and 9pm in Sydney) the Campaign Monitor network was unavailable to all customers for approximately 50 minutes. Everything is back up and running smoothly now, but we wanted to give everyone an honest explanation of exactly what happened and what we're doing about it.

First of all, any downtime is inexcusable. We're incredibly sorry for delaying that important campaign of yours or temporarily breaking a link in an email you recently sent.

We have multiple load balancers sitting in front of infrastructure at both our data centres that acts like a cop, directing traffic to the right places internally. We renewed our license key with the vendor that supplies this special hardware recently, and it turns out they made a mistake and gave us a key that expired much earlier than they should have. Because the same key is used at both data centres, this effectively crippled our platform the moment they stopped working.

This means that your account itself was unavailable, along with our tracking system and API for that time period. Which is inexcusable.

The moment the app went down our operations team were on to it and instantly contacted the vendor. While we would have liked things to move faster at their end, it took some 20 minutes to generate and provide the new keys. The moment we had them in our hands our records were updated and the app was instantly available again.

It's extremely frustrating that this problem was ultimately due to a trivial error by a vendor we rely on, but we're not going to pass the buck. This one is on us. Our next steps will be to audit all our licensing across all devices that pose this kind of risk in both data centres to ensure this can never happen again.

I also wanted to say a huge thanks for everyone's understanding during the 50 mins or so we were unavailable. While the team was working feverishly to get everything back to normal, I can tell you that it's a big help when you have people letting you know they understand and passing on best wishes. We owe it to you guys to never let a simple thing like this have such an impact again.

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Finally, we pick a winner for the 2011 holiday email competition!

Yes, it's taken us 1½ months to pick a winning design and two runner-ups for our latest holiday email design contest. Shameful, I know. To our defense, we've had a lot going on, including an exciting, yet not-so-secret big release in the works. But that's beside the point.

This year's contest was especially challenging from a judge's perspective - not only did we have literally tens of thousands of visually impressive campaigns to choose from, but we made it our imperative to choose entries that were practical, unbreakable and re-usable. It took more than impressive header graphics to get on to our shortlist - we were looking for designs that could be potentially tweaked and sent with confidence, time and time again. Without any further deliberation, here are 2011's top holiday picks:

Designer: Krrb.com, by AREA 17

The Krrb.com newsletter, produced by AREA 17, was sure to be a slightly controversial Christmas choice. It isn't a one-off design - in fact, the Krrb team use a well-crafted template and the email editor to create each newsletter. It's so uncomplicated, that it's not the kind of message you would see in your inbox and go, 'wow, they must have spent ages on this!'. But from our perspective, that's a big part of what makes this holiday-themed newsletter so perfect.

That, plus a combination of visual, technical and conversational flair. The message simply projects Krrb-ness, with images and a tone that's consistent with their site and branding. This isn't just a sales pitch for an artsy site - it's got helpful gift suggestions, editorial and just a little dash of hipster cred. It's timely, features curious details (like the dog and owner glyph in the footer) and it's shareable. What's not to love?

Congratulations again to George, Audrey, Antoine and Andrew on the Area 17 team - they've been rewarded with a Kindle Fire, FitBit and 50,000 email credits. Be nice and share, yo. ;)

Designer: Matchbox Creative

This design has a special place in our heart for not only supporting a good cause, but because it's one of the first template builder creations to be featured in this blog. This meant that our friends at Matchbox Creative came to the party with the fun, animated header image, copy and color scheme, then left the rest to us. The result: More time enjoying the festive season and less on testing their design in a squillion email clients. It also looks pretty snazzy, don't you think?

Well done to the Matchbox Creative team and thank you for making the most out of our template builder - for their effort, they've won 10,000 email credits.

Designer: Yuppiechef

Our final runner-up prize went to our South African friends at Yuppiechef, who impressed us with their holiday-themed Christmas catalogue. Like Krrb.com's design, it features personal touches like a staff wish list, a friendly tone, easy social sharing and great-quality images. That said, it's a commercial email through and through, but unlike a lot of similar designs, comes with personal, detail-oriented touches. Well done to the toffs on the Yuppiechef team - they've also won a respectable 10,000 email credits.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who sent email campaigns with Campaign Monitor during 2011. It was yet another record-breaking year for us, so we have a lot to be grateful for. Regardless of whether you send 6 or 60,000 emails a year, we're committed to providing you with top-notch tools and service, so you too can create and send designs like the ones above with minimal effort.

Congratulations again to our winners and best of luck to everyone else - hopefully you'll be selected when we relaunch the competition in December!

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A new approach to email authentication

In a little under two weeks, we'll be making a subtle change to the way we handle email authentication in Campaign Monitor. For those of you new to the concept, email authentication tells your subscribers it's OK for our servers to send email on your behalf. It can help you avoid spam filters, and also proves your email isn't a forgery. All good things.

Right now, email authentication is an opt-in kind of thing. It's not on by default, but we've tried to make it as painless as possible to set up. The problem is, it's still pretty painful. For starters, you need to have access to the DNS records for your domain. In many cases that can rule this process out, or at the very least start your eyes glazing over.

The trouble is, this stuff is important. So, we're taking a different approach. Starting Monday, March 26 we'll be turning on email authentication for everyone.

If you've already set up your own authentication, we're not changing a thing. For those of you that haven't, there's one small change that we want you to be aware of. Because we'll be authenticating on your behalf, we add a couple of new details to the header of any emails you send. To the vast majority of your subscribers, this won't change a thing. But, there is a subte change your Outlook subscribers may notice. Here's what they'll see:

It's the extra from address and on behalf of that I highlighted in yellow that's new here. Because we're authenticating for you, we need to include our own domain in your mal headers/ Outlook lets their users know this at the top of the email. It's also worth pointing out we'll only ever use our white label domains when sending on your behalf - there's never any mention of Campaign Monitor. It's also worth adding that this small snippet is something any Outlook user would already have seen at the top of countless emails in the past. We think it's a small price to pay to help avoid spam filters and ensure your email never appears to be a forgery.

If you're not crazy about the "on behalf of" snippet, we've made it nice and easy to opt-out of us authenticating for you. Remember, we won't start this until March 19, so you have some grace time. To change this setting, just head into "Client Settings" and click on the new "Authentication Settings" in the sidebar. Here's what you'll see (click for full-size):

By default, "Authenticate all emails for me" will be checked. If you'd like to opt-out, you have two options...

Authentication is a great thing. If you don't want us to do it for you, we recommend you do it yourself. This is the same approach we've always supported, and it will mean your domains are authenticated and no "on behalf of" text will appear in Outlook or "via" snippet will be shown in Gmail. The only drawback is that you'll need to have access to the domain's DNS settings to complete the process.

If you don't have access to your DNS settings and you really don't like the "on behalf of" text in Outlook, you can disable authentication entirely. It's not something we recommend, but it's the easiest way to avoid any Outlook subscribers noticing a change. This is the default for how we've been sending email for you to date, so you won't see any negative impacts, you just won't experience the positive impacts of letting us sign for you.

After further testing, we've confirmed that the "via" text in Gmail isn't impacted by letting us authenticate your email for you. Even if you turn authentication off, the "via" text will still appear for all your Gmail subscribers. This is exactly what they would have see before this update, so nothing is actually changing here for your Gmail subscribers.

The only way to avoid this "via" snippet altogether is to set up your own authentication by following our step-by-step guide to updating your DNS.

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X-Payments v1.0 released, a PA-DSS-Compliant Solution for On-line Merchants

E-commerce shopping cart solutions provider Qualiteam Software announced official release of its new X-Payments software once it passed successfully Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) assessment by the company's Qualified Security Assessor, Moscow-based ZAO NIP Informzaschita.

X-Payments is a web-based payment application, designed for on-line merchants, who accept credit card payments and require compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v1.2 standard.

PCI DSS is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. PCI DSS requirements apply to ALL organizations or merchants, regardless of size or number of transactions, that accepts, transmits or stores any cardholder data. See more at http://help.qtmsoft.com/index.php?title=PCI_FAQs

While processing credit card payments, X-Payments works as an intermediary between a store on the one side and payment gateways and 3D-Secure systems on the other side.

X-Payments allows merchants to:

allow their customers to pay for the orders with credit cards, using online payment gateways;make their online stores compliant with the PCI-DSS standard version 1.2, which strictly recommends using only PA-DSS verified payment applications for accepting and handling credit card payments;integrate with payment gateways, not supported by X-Payments 1.0 out of the box;change design and URL of the payment information entering form to go with the design and URL of the online store.

X-Payments integrates with X-Cart v4.3 and newer versions and can be integrated with any e-commerce software via its application programming interface.

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Jul 13, 2010

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X-Cart partners with Doba for drop ship product sourcing

OREM, Utah - Doba, a leader in drop ship product sourcing for online retailers has programmed a Custom Data Export for X-Cart merchants, making it easier to import Doba product data pre-formatted in to their X-Cart shopping cart. Doba provides instant access to an inventory of 1.75 million drop ship products from 100s of qualified suppliers. X-Cart merchants who are looking to stock their online store with additional products without carrying on the risk of additional inventory can sign up for a free 14-Day trial by visiting http://www.doba.com/partners/xcart.

"We are excited that we have made it significantly easier for X-Cart customers to quickly import any of Doba's almost two million products using Doba's Custom Data Export for X-Cart," said Jared Sidwell, Doba Vice President of Business Development. "X-Cart merchants will also benefit from Doba's ability to leverage our 50,000+ members when negotiating pricing with our suppliers. We are able to guarantee X-Cart merchants that they will be able to source products at the lowest drop ship price from each supplier."

You often hear the terms 'supplier', 'wholesaler', 'distributor', and 'manufacturer' when talking about who is drop shipping. Simply stated, a drop shipper is a supplier who is willing to allow online stores to sell their inventory without purchasing any products upfront. A drop shipper is the one who actually stores, packages and ships the physical products to the end consumer. By this definition Doba is not a drop shipper. In fact, Doba is not a supplier, wholesaler or distributor either. Doba is a company that has online software, which aggregates and standardizes the product data from 100s of suppliers so that online retailers (people looking for products to sell) can instantly connect with Doba's suppliers (the companies that drop ship their inventory) and resell their inventory.

Doba's service also provides detailed reporting and analytics on the performance of suppliers within their marketplace using a Supplier Scorecard. Online retailers who source products with Doba can quickly see a supplier's average ship time, fulfillment rates, RMA percentages, inventory update frequency, average quantity in stock, shipping method (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.), and details of their Return Policy.

Online Retailers who use X-Cart's shopping cart platform to manage their ecommerce webstore store now have a simple way of exporting product data from Doba's online catalog and importing that data into their X-Cart-powered webstore.

Doba is an industry leader in helping retail entrepreneurs and small businesses gain access to a consistent supply of wholesale, drop ship products to sell online. Doba simplifies product sourcing by providing access to millions of products, through a network of wholesale suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers. Products are consolidated into a single online catalog with images and descriptions, and then sold products are drop shipped directly to the customers. Doba's service fills the gap between wholesale suppliers and manufacturers on one end and retailers on the other end by providing them with a common platform through which to conduct business. For more information visit the company website, http://www.doba.com/partners/xcart.

Established in 1998, Qualiteam Software is now one of the world?s leading providers of e-Commerce software solutions. Software created by Qualiteam powers tens of thousands of online stores and e-Commerce websites in 111 countries all over the world. Qualiteam is focused on delivering products that create a solid infrastructure for e-business and have both B2C and B2B value. Ongoing support, integration services and consultations are provided to make sure customers derive maximum benefit when using Qualiteam products. Qualiteam Software is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, with partner company offices in Ulyanovsk, Russia. For more information, visit http://www.qtmsoft.com

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Jan 23, 2011

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xtreme Gear - CSS template for x-cart

xtreme Gear, brings together all the design elements you have grown to expect from The xCart Store. With xtreme Gear, once again we are pioneering a whole new standard in x-cart template design... believe us when we say no page has been left untouched, a surprise awaits you on every mouse click.

Full product details can be seen here ?

Take a minute to view our xtreme Gear Video ?

See xtreme Gear in action yourself here: xtreme Gear demo ?

Control & customise many features of the xtreme Gear template via our dedicated template settings page. Quickly change the content and layout of your website in seconds using our template settings.

Easy Logo Management - upload your own company logosSimple HTML & Banner Manager facilitySeamless integration with Predictive Search & xBanners (xReviews & xMenus)Homepage Featured Category Listing (mod exclusive to xtreme Gear)Integrate 'AddThis' Social Media links to product pagesConfigurable Quick & Customer Service linksjQuery slider for featured, bestsellers, recently viewed & recommended productsSearch Engine Friendly 'All Categories' pageDisplay Manufactures & All Categories in top menuConfigurable Social Media, copyright & icon and links setupPlay Template Settings video tutorial ?

Don't worry about editing your smarty templates anymore when you just want to change the template logo. We've done all we can to make managing xtreme gear as easy as possible, now you can quickly upload your company logo to the header and footer of your store with 3 clicks of your mouse.

Using the xtreme Gear template settings page, you can choose to upload 3 simple static images and 2 HTML text banners to appear on various parts of your website. No need to edit smarty template files, just create your banner or embed some HTML and save it to the acquired position on your website.

What better way to direct your users to those 'hard to reach' sub-categories then to set up a direct link from your homepage. This is exactly what we have done with xtreme Gear, now you can select any of your sub-categories to appear on the homepage of your website.

Adding social media abilities to your products has never been this easy - simply create your 'AddThis' account and paste your account/media icons code into the xtreme Gear template page and that's it - you're entire product catalogue is now ready to reach the ever expanding world of social media sharing.

xtreme Gear comes with its own 'All Categories' page - this provides two benefits, the first is from an SEO perspective. Now you can have all of your categories and sub-categories listed on one single page - perfect for search engines to crawl and secondly great for your customers to get a full overview of your websites catalogue structure and layout.

Product tabs are a great way to keep your customers focused on the page content that appears in front of them, without presenting too many distracting options. All the usual product pages are presented, including:

RecommendedRelated productsCustomer feedbackSend to friend

All of which are neatly presented to the user, allowing for easy access when they require.

We have focused our design on emphasising important keywords and HTML elements. By moving important page elements higher up in the source code such as the page content and h1 tag and ensuring that header and footer content (common page elements) lower down in the source - all of these techniques add priority and weight to your templates page ranking.

As always, when creating xtreme Gear our goal is to create a "complete package" - with extreme Gear we have focused our design efforts to seamlessly accommodate our xBanners & Predictive Search modules. As an added bonus, xtreme Gear will also be 100% compatible our next 2 commercial modules xReviews & xMenus (due for release in August 2011). These modules can be purchased separately or as part of the template bundle.

Full product details can be seen here ?

See more of our x-cart templates, x-cart skins.

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