Bounce Handling

[roblaus]

I gave up on it long time ago but I thought I'd give it a shot again while testing 551. Since the email functionality improved a lot I thought maybe the campaign management was touched also. But I was wrong.

Here's what I do not understand at all: I am setting up a bounce handling account (bounce@example.com) and I create my campaign using this very account. Unfortunately this account is for INBOUND mail only which means that any campaign is using the system outbound mail server (company@example.com) rather than the specifically configured one(s).

Now the emails bounce and of course they return to the account they were sent from (company@example.com). It might well be that the bounce handling routine is checking bounce@example.com and might even do something with it but nothing ever ends up in this mailbox.

By studying the headers of the sent emails a bit closer it turns out that there is indeed a return path set to "bounce@example.com" but this is apparently not used by any mail system.

If there were an outbound server for bounces (which in turn could serve as the sender address) life would be so much easier. Firstly I'd be able to send different campaigns from different addresses and secondly there would be at least a chance for the bounce handler to investigate whatever comes back (interpreting the results is a different story as we all know).

Following the logic in 551 we have 3 potential senders of emails:

1. The person who can configure his/her outbound account or use the system account
2. The system which uses the system account and nothing else
3. The campaign which can use any (currently non existing) campaign outbound account

Any thoughts or corrections are welcome.

[nhansen]

I am new to Sugar and I have been testing it to see what happens with bounces and I am experiencing similar failures. However, I do not see the bounce address in the headers anywhere and the bounced emails simply wind up in our inbox for the account from which it is sent.

What I am wondering is what you mean by the below comment:

Here's what I do not understand at all: I am setting up a bounce handling account (bounce@example.com) and I create my campaign using this very account.

When you say you are using the bounce account to create your campaign, where are you using it?

[roblaus]

When you create your campaign message you need to choose an account (an email address). The same place where you set up your email template, define send date, contact list etc.

This account has to be created as group (bounce handling) account in the admin section under inbound email. The problem is that no matter which account you set up there it is always the system account (smtp) the campaign is sent out with. Subsequently everything returns (bounces) to this system address rather than to the defined bounce handling account. As I said in my post: there is a returm path in the email header which points to the bounce account but the mail servers I am dealing with never ever recognized this return path.

The effect is exactly as you describe: emails wind up in your info@ or office@ account the bounce handling rountine never ever having a chance to examine the return mail.

[nhansen]

I don't even see the bounce account in the headers though even though I created a separate one.