Modular Merchant Knowledge Base

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Email Header Line Ending ("\r\n" or "\n")
This determines the characters used to separate the lines of the "headers" in the email. (Think of the line breaks in the return address on a standard envelope.) The email headers include vital delivery information, such as who the message is from. Most email delivery systems use "\r\n". However, some servers choke on this, and require "\n" to be used instead.

The "\r\n" option is recommended. However, if emails generated by your store are not being received, try using the "\n" version instead. Some poor quality Unix mail transfer agents replace "\n" by "\r\n" automatically (which results in "\r\r\n" being used, which will ruin email delivery). This should be a last resort, as it does not comply with RFC 2822.

Use "From" email header?
The name and email address of the sender of the email. The inclusion if this header can cause delivery problems on some systems, such as a blank "From" name or the "From" header being moved from the headers into the body of the email. If either of these are occurring, try deselecting this option to allow the server to try generating this header itself using its default values.

Use "Mime Version" email header?
This must always be present in any MIME message, and the only recognized value for it is 1.0. It indicates the version of the MIME standard that is in use, of which only one exists so far. Since the present MIME standard permits a great degree of extensibility through the definition of new content types, subtypes, encodings, and the like, it's unlikely that any other MIME version will ever need to be defined, and doing so would necessarily break compatibility with all existing mail programs. For those of you obsessed with acronyms, MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.

Use "Reply-To" email header?
When the "Reply-To" header is present, it indicates the address to which the author of the message suggests that replies be sent. In the absence of the "Reply-To" header, replies should by default be sent to the address specified in the "From" header.

Use "Return-Path" email header?
The optional "Return-Path" header contains a pair of angle brackets that enclose an optional address-specification. Example:

Use "X-Mailer" email header?
X-Mailer is an "X-header". X-header is the generic term for headers starting with a capital X followed by a hyphen. These headers are not part of the official standard and are provided for information only. There are several X-headers that are in common use, including X-Mailer. Mail servers are supposed to ignore any X-headers that they don't recognize. If used, this header is translated into: X-Mailer: PHP in the emails generated by the store.

Use "Message-ID" email header?
Every mail message is assigned a unique Message-ID which helps your email client, as well as mail server, to keep track of the status of a message. It may look like an email address, but it really isn't. Message-IDs are also logged in special mail logs which can be called on by your system administrators (in this case "postmasters") when trying to troubleshoot technical issues like mail loops or forged mail messages. Generally this information is of no use to you and only matters to the mail server.

The Message-ID header should automatically be added to the email by the server when it is generated. However, on store pages that simultaneously generate multiple emails (such as the store receipt page), the server-generated Message-ID may be the same for all the emails. Some web developers have suggested that Outlook and other email clients collate messages with the same Message-ID; which may causes only one email in the group to pass to the inbox. If you're experiencing missing emails when a batch of emails are generated, try selecting this option.

Use the "-f" additional sendmail parameter?
It is recommended that you use this optional setting. This is not actually an email "header", but an additional parameter that is used when the server generates the email. The "-f" parameter tells the server's email program to include an additional note that includes the email address of the sender of the email. This is used for additional authentication of the email by some systems, but it can also be forged by spammers.

Various systems will treat this additional parameter different ways, so try selecting this option if your store emails are not being received by your customers. Conversely, try deselecting it if it's enabled and your store emails are not being received by your customers.