Using SendGrid for emails

In this article we will discuss how to use SendGrid, a popular email platform, to send emails from your Tadabase app. 

There are many benefits to using your own SMTP settings with email platforms such as SendGrid, MailChimp, etc. Some of these benefits include:

1. Your email will not show association with Tadabase and will not show as sent by Tadabase.
2. You can track how many of your emails are opened.
3. You can track clicks within your emails.
4. You can see reporting about your sent emails.
5. Many email platforms, such as SendGrid, have free plans to help you get started.

Now that we've outlined some of the benefits to using your own SMTP settings, let's discuss how to go about using an email platform such as SendGrid to send emails from your Tadabase app.

Create a SendGrid account

For the purpose of this article we will demonstrate how to create a SendGrid account, however you may use any email platform of your choice. 

To get started, create a SendGrid account and verify your email address. You can then configure your SMTP settings on SendGrid and Tadabase.  

Create sender identity

For emails to be sent from Tadabase via SendGrid, you will need to create a sender identity. Simply put, your sender identify verifies to SendGrid that you are who you say you are. You can verify an entire domain or a single address. 

Verifying an entire domain will enable you to send an email from any email address at your domain (For instance,  account1@mydomain.com and account2@mydomain.com) while verifying a single account will only work from that specific account. 

For the purpose of this article's demonstration, we will verify the entire domain. 

Please note: You must have access to your DNS settings to authenticate the domain. 

On your SendGrid dashboard page, click on "Authenticate your Domain".

Next, choose your DNS hosting provider:

Enter the domain name you wish your emails to be sent from and click Next.

You will be given several CNAME records that must be added into your DNS. 

Add each as described: 

For instance: 

Keep in mind that the Host displayed is the full host. In most cases, when pasting these values in your DNS you will only need the first section without the part that contains your domain name. For instance, in GoDaddy you would only copy "em7496" into the host, without the "tadabase.io" section. 

Once you've added all your records, your CNAME records should appear as such:  

You are now done authenticating your domain. Next, you will need to create a set of credentials that you will insert into your Tadabase account to send emails.

Create an integration

You will now generate a set of credentials which will include an API Key/Password that you will enter into Tadabase to send emails from your Tadabase app.

To accomplish this, go to the integration page: https://app.sendgrid.com/guide/integrate and select "SMTP Relay" as the integration: 

You will then be prompted to create an API Key: 

Update SMTP Settings in Tadabase

Once your API Key is generated, you can then paste the values within your Tadabase app by selecting the Settings tab on your app's navigation bar > Email Settings > SMTP tab. 

Select the Setup custom SMTP server option, enter the SMTP server settings, and click Save.  

Please note that sending a test email will use the "From Name" and "From Email" values set in Email Settings / General tab.

Congrats, you can now send emails from your Tadabase app using SendGrid!

As a reminder, emails sent from your Tadabase app must be verified domains within your SendGrid account. Be sure to verify that the default from name and default from email in your Tadabase email settings match the domains verified with SendGrid. Go to the Settings tab on your app's navigation bar > Email Settings > General tab to verify these settings. 

Additionally, when setting a custom "from email" within a form component, be sure to verify that this information matches a verified domain within your SendGrid account as well.