Re: Power By FreeMarker

Friday, June 29, 2012, 6:31:18 AM, Michael Robinson wrote:

> Hey Guys, 
>
> MessageGears is an email service that uses FreeMarker to empower
> uses to create dynamic email templates and we would love to be added
> to the "powered by" section of the site. Below please find our description of our integration.
>
> If you have any questions or need any additional information then please just let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Michael Robinson
>
>
>
> http://www.messagegears.com/
>
> MessageGears provides Email APIs and SMTP services in the cloud.
> MessageGears dynamic email templating system is powered by users
> submitting extensible XML documents which then become the object
> model to their FreeMarker email templates. Each email message is
> then merged, delivered, and tracked to optimize inbox placement. 

OK. But the description should be less than 250 characters.

I think http://www.messagegears.com/docs/dynamic-email-content/ should
be improved (after a very quick look anyway):

- You have this awkward situation where dates and numbers come as
  strings (because the source is XML) so the user has to use
  ?date("yyyy-MM-dd") and ?number all over, and I belive it should be
  explained what's going on there. Like, you show ${Recipient.Number}
  vs ${Recipient.Number?number}, with the same output, and the user
  may wonder what's the difference then. (BTW, this could be improved
  by a customized XML wrapper, which knows which XML elements are
  numbers and which are dates, but I admit that needs development
  efforts and some FreeMarker knowledge.)

- You have <#setting locale="${Recipient.Locale}"> there. Should be
  <#setting locale=Recipient.Locale>... or was there any type-related
  problem with that? I'm asking because writing <#foo bar="${baz}"> is
  a probably the most frequent FreeMarker mistake (JSP-ism), so you
  better don't give users the bad idea.

- Where you generate HTML emails, users should know about ?html, also
  combined with #escape.

- The "official" FreeMarker page is freemarker.org, not the sf.net page.
  (You are using the last in the links.)

-- 
Best regards,
 Daniel Dekany


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Live Security Virtual Conference
Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and 
threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions 
will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware 
threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/