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Using SMTP Pro and Ebizmarts’ MailChimp extension in Magento

This is just a quick blog post that will hopefully help people facing the clash in Magento between my SMTPPro email extension and Ebizmarts’ MailChimp extension.

The clash occurs only in one class Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template which we both override to extend the default Magento email sending capability.

Because it only makes sense to use either SMTPPro or MailChimp as your ESP if you want to use SMTP Pro you can safely disable the MailChimp core class override and then SMTPPro will send the store emails using whichever method you have configured.

Update July 2013: I have since released a premium extension for sending email using Amazon SES called MageSend, if you’re having toruble sending email with Magento, please check it out, it was created to solve many common Magento email issues.

To remove the core override edit code/local/Ebizmarts/Mailchimp/etc/config.xml and remove the following XML:

<core>
    <rewrite>
        <email_template>Ebizmarts_Mailchimp_Model_Email_Template</email_template>
    </rewrite>
</core>

When/Why is this safe to do?

You can do this when you are not using the MailChimp STS capability and want to use SMTPPro to send your emails. If you don’t want to send via SMTPPro, just uninstall it to resolve the conflict.

You can see in the first lines of the override class Ebizmarts_Mailchimp_Model_Email_Template why this is safe:

if(!Mage::helper('mailchimp')->isStsActivated()){
    return parent::send($email, $name, $variables);
}

This means that if you are not using STS, then the whole override is basically a noop.

One caution I have for you though, once you modify an extension, you have to remember to apply the same patch each time you upgrade it, otherwise the clash will creep back in!

Update: I missed some emails notifying me of comments, I missed this fairly important one from Ebizmarts with basically this fix in it… On a related note, if I didn’t reply to your comment for the last few weeks, that’s why.

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Mailchimp + Magento: How to get autoresponders working with the API

Just a quick little how-to on Mailchimp and Magento using the existing extension by Ebizmarts. We want to be able to send customers who sign up for the newsletter through the Magento store a little thank you gift (discount code) X days after signing up using Mailchimp’s excellent autoresponders. This is supported by Mailchimp, but requires double opt-in or the following little 2 step work-around with the Mailchimp API.
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