Formbuilder - 0.5.5 - Email "From Address" Field

[cb2004]

The reply address is actually the email address the user entered. Test this out by using an email address you own and reply through your email client.

[liquid]

This is a bug - I just duplicated the same problem and came here hoping for a fix. Anyone out there with any ideas?

And to clarify - the "from email" that isn't replaced properly is set in the CMS Mailer, not in Form Builder. It looks like Form Builder is trying to put in the correct address but CMS Mailer is overwriting it with its settings.

[arl]

we have the same issue exactly.  Is it a problem with spam policies that don't allow the mail process to send mail in which the "from address" is not a valid address in mailer's host domain?  I know this is a common policy across most mail servers these days...  is there a workaround for legitimate applications?

[ethical]

I Have the same issue however how do i get it to at least have the persons name in the From Name? I can't figure that out. hope this could get fixed soon.

thanks
john

[seliger]

Guys,

I too thought this was a bug and spent a bit of time digging through code because I was not happy seeing the form default email address showing up in my email client. (i.e. It is showing me "Bob Hope " rather than  "Bob Hope ", etc.).

I had a bug almost filled out for the DEV Team on this because I thought it was broken and found where you can work around the issue and "force" the email address to be correct. However, I did more digging and actually cracked open the headers:

To: some-list@foobar.com
From: Bob Hope
Reply-to: Bob Hope
Subject: Foo Test

It is setting the "reply-to" header. When you click Reply in your email client, the correct email address is shown in the TO field. So as far as "technical" functionality, the Form Builder is doing exactly as it should be.

NOW, the question is -- how does this really affect the email clients? I know evil clients like Outlook, etc. will harvest email addresses from incoming emails. So now in this example, will Outlook harvest "Bob Hope " and try to make me use that rather than "Bob Hope "?

If so, then this should be reported as a minor bug, but then a battle will ensue regarding the proper handling of "relayed" emails...

I see where SjG was going with this method, but not sure what the best solution is.


Thanks!
Corey



PS: If you are interested in overriding the default functionality, crack open:

/modules/FormBuilder/classes/DispositionEmailBase.class.php and jump to line 93 and change it to look like so:

Code: Select all

      $mail->SetFrom($this->GetOption('email_from_address'));
      // $mail->AddReplyTo($this->GetOption('email_from_address'),$this->SetFromName()?$this->GetOption('email_from_name'):'');

[liquid]

It is setting the "reply-to" header. When you click Reply in your email client, the correct email address is shown in the TO field. So as far as "technical" functionality, the Form Builder is doing exactly as it should be.

Maybe, but this seems like semantics. Clearly, if you're setting the "Address From", you would actually expect to see that value in the From Email, not the Reply-To Email. I think it's still a bug.

[seliger]

I can file a bug report -- I just wanted to get a general consensus on whether or not it's a bug or not.


Any other discussion?



Corey

[kendo451]

NOW, the question is -- how does this really affect the email clients? I know evil clients like Outlook, etc. will harvest email addresses from incoming emails. So now in this example, will Outlook harvest "Bob Hope " and try to make me use that rather than "Bob Hope "?

If so, then this should be reported as a minor bug, but then a battle will ensue regarding the proper handling of "relayed" emails...

I would say this is a bug in Outlook, not a bug in FormBuilder or CMSMailer.

To avoid getting spam trapped, the sent mail needs to come from the same domain as the return path.  The reply to address makes it so the recipient can reply to the sender just by clicking reply.  It works as it should.

[spike]

Many thanks for the override Corey - saved my bacon -
it may be a bug in Outlook but if it's not what the customer wants it's a pain.
regards - tony m

[calguy1000]

This is not a bug (well not in formbuilder)...... if the reply to address field is set properly in the sending email.

The reason that formbuilder doesn't set the 'from' address field is because most mail hosts won't allow it. 
If formbuilder used the from address field.... then 99% of webservers would consider that 'relaying' and would discard the message.  that's why we use the 'reply to' field, infact... that's one of the reasons that field exists in the specification.

i.e:  if your web site is  www.mysite.com, then the mail server that that web server is running will only allow you send emails that originate from (the from address ends with) mysite.com    I can't go in (even if I have a shell on that server) and enter in an email that is from hacker@somestupiddomain.com    if your websites mail server allows this, then it's probably on every black list in the world, or soon will be, and won't be able to send messages to anybody.

When looking at the full header that is received by RT it does list the "reply-to" email address correctly and RT is intelligent enough to know which email address to reply back to,

Therefore if your mail clients don't display the reply to field properly, or don't handle it properly.... that's probably a bug, or a configuration option you haven't found yet in the mail client, not in formbuilder.