Purpose

This article walks through how Spoonfed works with the SparkPost email service.
 

Overview

Spoonfed uses SparkPost as the email delivery service for transactional emails.

Spoonfed is responsible for generating the email content, templates, and email requests, while SparkPost handles the underlying email delivery and delivery-related events.

Important: SparkPost is an underlying service and is not exposed to Spoonfed customers. Customers do not need access to or knowledge of SparkPost to manage their email configuration.
 

Roles and Responsibilities

Process

The typical email flow is: 

1. Spoonfed event occurs. (For example, an order is confirmed.)
    
2. Spoonfed determines the appropriate email/template.
    
3. Spoonfed populates the template with relevant data.
    
4. Spoonfed sends the email request to SparkPost.
    
5. SparkPost delivers the email to the recipient.
    
6. Delivery-related information can be returned to Spoonfed.
    
7. Spoonfed displays relevant email activity in the Messages tab.
    

Transactional Emails

Spoonfed uses SparkPost to deliver various transactional emails, including:

• Order confirmation
• Order submission
• Order approval/rejection
• Payment confirmation
• Invoice emails
• Password reset emails
• Welcome emails

Spoonfed generates the email request and sends it through SparkPost. SparkPost then handles delivery to the recipient.

SparkPost's Transmissions API supports sending emails to individual recipients as well as larger recipient sets.
 

Email Templates

Email templates are hosted and managed within Spoonfed, not within SparkPost.

The templates were originally configured as part of the Spoonfed email implementation and are then passed through SparkPost for delivery.
 

Dynamic Content

Spoonfed supports dynamic content within email templates, allowing information from the relevant order, customer, or other Spoonfed data to be inserted into the email.

For example:

Hi {{customer_name}},
Your order #{{order_number}} for {{event_date}} has been confirmed. 
 

Templates can also support conditional content where applicable. For example, the invoice module provides a customer-facing template that can be customized in: Setup → Organisation → Invoicing. Customers can edit the available invoice template without needing access to SparkPost.

Email Delivery and Tracking

SparkPost provides delivery-related events for emails sent through the service.

Depending on the email and configuration, these can include:

• Sent
• Delivered
• Opened
• Suppressed

Spoonfed surfaces email activity within the Messages tab of the relevant order in Back Office. For example, users can see the email communication associated with an order rather than accessing SparkPost directly.
 

Delivery Events vs. Spoonfed Messages

• SparkPost is responsible for the underlying email delivery.
   
• Spoonfed is responsible for presenting relevant email activity within the application.

Users should therefore use Spoonfed's Messages tab when they need to review email communication associated with an order.
 

Bounce, Suppression, and Spam Management

SparkPost maintains suppression information for email addresses that should not continue receiving emails through the service.

This can include addresses that have:

• Repeatedly bounced
• Unsubscribed
• Generated a spam complaint
• Otherwise been placed on the suppression list

Authorized users can manage suppression entries through SparkPost where appropriate. However, SparkPost administration is generally handled internally and is not intended to be part of the standard Spoonfed customer workflow. Customers and typical Spoonfed administrators do not need direct access to SparkPost.