Dev setup not sending html emails

[wpmattuk]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've had a problem I couldn't resolve; but I am back!

In my production system client emails are all sent in html, which is all fine & dandy. However, in my dev system they are not.

I have gone through all settings that I can readily see, to make sure that dev matches production ✅
I'm lost as to what could be causing this disparity.

Any ideas please?
Thanks in advance 🙂

[brian!]

3 minutes ago, thisismatt said:

I have gone through all settings that I can readily see, to make sure that dev matches production ✅

I assume that you've gone through general settings -> mail and ensured that the settings (including css, header & footer contents) are the same in both ??

[wpmattuk]

1 minute ago, brian! said:

I assume that you've gone through general settings -> mail and ensured that the settings (including css, header & footer contents) are the same in both ??

I have indeed Brian, yes; that's the last thing I did after flicking between all the various tabs to compare checkboxes, etc.

[brian!]

if it were a duplicated database, then there shouldn't really be any difference; if you created the dev with a blank database, then that becomes more troublesome as it might just be one simple setting that's different (needle meet haystack).

if you view the email source in WHMCS, or your mail program, is there literally no html and only text, or is there some html ??

[wpmattuk]

2 minutes ago, brian! said:

if it were a duplicated database, then there shouldn't really be any difference; if you created the dev with a blank database, then that becomes more troublesome as it might just be one simple setting that's different (needle meet haystack).

if you view the email source in WHMCS, or your mail program, is there literally no html and only text, or is there some html ??

Right, OK, so I didn’t (confession time) copy the DB; I created a new one. Would that be the better approach then, to duplicate production instead?

I’ll check that there is no html when I’m back with my laptop in a bit, but I am *pretty* confident that there isn’t (I had a fleeting glance a while ago).

If I were to now duplicate the production DB, what are the things to watch out for? Obviously need to remove real email addresses from clients, update image defences, etc. Anything else?

[ShaunR]

Is there happening with all emails sent from the system? Are you sure you don't have the "Plain-Text" box ticked for the email template that is being used/sent?

[wpmattuk]

4 hours ago, brian! said:

if it were a duplicated database, then there shouldn't really be any difference; if you created the dev with a blank database, then that becomes more troublesome as it might just be one simple setting that's different (needle meet haystack).

if you view the email source in WHMCS, or your mail program, is there literally no html and only text, or is there some html ??

So, I have checked - there is *no* html in the received email message at all.

 

34 minutes ago, ShaunR said:

Is there happening with all emails sent from the system? Are you sure you don't have the "Plain-Text" box ticked for the email template that is being used/sent?

I haven't checked all, admittedly only one. I'll check that now. But I have checked the 'plain text' option and it is unticked (i.e. to send html).

[wpmattuk]

1 minute ago, thisismatt said:

So, I have checked - there is *no* html in the received email message at all.

 

I haven't checked all, admittedly only one. I'll check that now. But I have checked the 'plain text' option and it is unticked (i.e. to send html).

How very strange! It was only the "Invoice Created" template that was being silly, all others worked fine.

Whilst the checkbox for sending plain text wasn't checked (the rich-text editor was showing), I ticked it, saved and then sent an email - it was received as plaint text. I then unchecked the box and re-sent an email; BINGO...html received.

All very odd. Thank you once again @brian! and also @ShaunR for your contributions and helping me solve this one 🙂

[ShaunR]

No problem, glad I could help.

[brian!]

17 hours ago, thisismatt said:

Right, OK, so I didn’t (confession time) copy the DB; I created a new one. Would that be the better approach then, to duplicate production instead?

generally speaking for a major release, I duplicate the database from the last dev and use that.... occasionally, i'll do it twice so that I have a working database and a "blank" database, just so I can double check any issue isn't caused by my existing data.

so when I created the v7.9.1 dev, I duped the v7.8.3 database (outside of WHMCS) and used that during the setup.... the installer updated the duplicated v7.8.3 database to v7.9.1 and was then good to go with existing products/clients/settings etc already there.

the point being that you then have existing data to work with, so when you test a feature and you're expecting it to do X, but it's doing Y, you can assume (initially at least) that the data isn't the issue, there is a change elsewhere.... whereas, working with new data, you end up questioning everything.

19 hours ago, thisismatt said:

If I were to now duplicate the production DB, what are the things to watch out for? Obviously need to remove real email addresses from clients, update image defences, etc. Anything else?

certainly remember to switch any domain registrars etc you use to test mode (if available), remember to change your system URLs and don't let the cron run (if you intend to enable it) before you've made any of these changes.