smoothschedule/TODO_EMAIL_AND_MESSAGING.md

Email Templates & Messaging TODO

Completed Features

Email Template System (Implemented)

• EmailTemplate model with BUSINESS and PLATFORM scopes
• Categories: Appointment, Reminder, Confirmation, Marketing, Notification, Report, Other
• Template variables: {{BUSINESS_NAME}}, {{CUSTOMER_NAME}}, {{APPOINTMENT_DATE}}, etc.
• Backend API (CRUD, preview, duplicate)
• Frontend Email Templates page with list/create/edit/delete
• EmailTemplateForm component with code editor and preview
• EmailTemplateSelector component for plugin configuration
• Plugin config support for email_template type variables
• Footer enforcement for FREE tier tenants
• Default templates seed command (python manage.py seed_email_templates)

Default Email Templates Created

• Appointment Confirmation
• Appointment Reminder - 24 Hours
• Appointment Reminder - 1 Hour
• Appointment Rescheduled
• Appointment Cancelled
• Thank You - Appointment Complete
• Welcome New Customer

Ticket Email Templates (Added)

• Ticket Assigned - Notification to staff when assigned
• Ticket Status Changed - Status update notification
• Ticket Reply - Staff Notification - When customer replies
• Ticket Reply - Customer Notification - When staff replies
• Ticket Resolved - Resolution confirmation

Plugin Documentation Updated

• Documented email_template variable type in SCHEDULER_PLUGIN_SYSTEM.md
• Added template variable types table (text, textarea, email, number, url, email_template)
• Added ticket-related insertion codes to template_parser.py

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Pending Features

Customer Onboarding Email Process

• Welcome email when customer creates account
• Email verification workflow
• First booking celebration email
• Loyalty program introduction email (if enabled)

Internal Staff Messaging System

• Message model (sender, recipient, subject, body, read status)
• Conversation threading
• Messaging UI in sidebar/header
• Unread count badge
• Push notifications for new messages
• Email notification option for messages

Ticket Email Notifications

• Email templates created (see "Ticket Email Templates" in Completed)
• Ticket email notification service (tickets/email_notifications.py)
  • TicketEmailService class with methods for each notification type
  • Renders email templates with ticket context variables
  • Falls back to default text templates if custom templates not found
  • Includes Reply-To header with ticket ID for email threading
• Django signals to trigger emails on ticket events (tickets/signals.py)
  • Pre-save handler to track state changes (assignee, status)
  • Post-save handlers for assignment, status change, and resolution
  • Comment handler for reply notifications
• Reply-To header with ticket ID for inbound processing
  • Format: support+ticket-{id}@{domain}
  • X-Ticket-ID header for easy parsing

Email Reply Forwarding (Inbound Email Processing)

• Setup inbound email handling (mail.talova.net integration)
• Parse incoming emails to support@smoothschedule.com (or per-tenant)
• Extract ticket ID from subject line or headers
• Create ticket reply from email content
• Notify assignee of new reply
• Handle attachments

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Email Server Details

Current email server: mail.talova.net Test account: poduck@mail.talova.net

Inbound Email Options

1. Mailgun/SendGrid Inbound Routes

   • Forward to webhook endpoint
   • Parse and process programmatically
   • Best for scalability

2. IMAP Polling

   • Connect to mail.talova.net via IMAP
   • Poll for new messages periodically
   • Process and delete/archive

3. Email Piping

   • Configure MTA to pipe emails to a Django management command
   • Real-time processing
   • Requires server access

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Platform vs Business Templates

Platform Templates (Scope: PLATFORM)

Used for system-wide emails:

• Tenant invitation
• Platform announcements
• System notifications

Business Templates (Scope: BUSINESS)

Per-tenant customizable templates:

• Appointment confirmations
• Reminders
• Customer communications
• Marketing emails

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Running the Seed Command

# Seed templates for all tenant schemas
docker compose -f docker-compose.local.yml exec django python manage.py seed_email_templates

# Seed for specific schema
docker compose -f docker-compose.local.yml exec django python manage.py seed_email_templates --schema=demo

# Reset to defaults (overwrites existing)
docker compose -f docker-compose.local.yml exec django python manage.py seed_email_templates --reset