Resolving Display Problems with FreeMarker Email Templates

Resolving HTML Display Problems in FreeMarker-Sent Emails

Configuring Java and the Spring Framework

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.freemarker.FreeMarkerConfigurer;
import freemarker.template.Template;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;
@Service
public class EmailService {
    @Autowired
    private JavaMailSender mailSender;
    @Autowired
    private FreeMarkerConfigurer freemarkerConfigurer;
    public void sendEmail(Map<String, Object> model) throws Exception {
        Template template = freemarkerConfigurer.getConfiguration().getTemplate("emailTemplate.ftl");
        String html = FreeMarkerTemplateUtils.processTemplateIntoString(template, model);
        MimeMessage message = mailSender.createMimeMessage();
        MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, MimeMessageHelper.MULTIPART_MODE_MIXED_RELATED, StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
        helper.setTo("example@example.com");
        helper.setText(html, true);
        helper.setSubject("Testing from Spring Boot");
        mailSender.send(message);
    }
}

CSS Inlining for HTML Email Content Implementation

Java with CSS inlining and Spring Email

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
import org.springframework.util.StreamUtils;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
import org.jsoup.Jsoup;
import org.jsoup.nodes.Document;
@Service
public class InlineCssEmailService {
    @Autowired
    private JavaMailSender mailSender;
    public void sendStyledEmail(Map<String, Object> model, String templatePath) throws Exception {
        String htmlContent = new String(StreamUtils.copyToByteArray(new ClassPathResource(templatePath).getInputStream()), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
        Document document = Jsoup.parse(htmlContent);
        document.select("style").forEach(style -> {
            String css = style.data();
            document.select(style.attr("for")).attr("style", css);
        });
        MimeMessage message = mailSender.createMimeMessage();
        MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, true);
        helper.setTo("test@example.com");
        helper.setSubject("Styled Email Test");
        helper.setText(document.outerHtml(), true);
        mailSender.send(message);
    }
}

Email Template Integration FAQs

1. Why is there HTML code in my email?
2. This commonly happens when your email sending configuration does not support HTML, or when the email client does not identify the HTML as content because of wrong MIME type settings.
3. How can I make sure Outlook applies my styles?
4. Use CSS inlining to make sure Outlook doesn't remove styles—it can ignore header or external styles.
5. What is FreeMarker?
6. A template engine called FreeMarker is used to produce text output based on templates; dynamic HTML emails are one such application for this engine.
7. How should my HTML emails be tested?
8. Before sending out emails, test them with Litmus or Email on Acid to see how they seem in a variety of email clients.
9. Why do my emails not display images?
10. This can be because of problems with how images are referenced in the HTML code, or it could be because the email client is restricting images by default.

Concluding Our Talk About Template Rendering

It's important to have a thorough understanding of both the email client's functionality and the template engine in order to successfully navigate the difficulties of email rendering using FreeMarker templates. Through the implementation of techniques like CSS inlining and thorough testing on various client platforms, developers can greatly enhance the appearance of emails. Delivering emails that satisfy design standards may also be facilitated by knowing and utilizing the appropriate Spring setup and Java classes, which will ultimately guarantee a polished and interesting user experience.