📧 Simple SES Bridge for Sendy

Connect WordPress to Sendy with style. Create beautiful, responsive newsletters directly from your WordPress posts and send them via your Sendy installation (Amazon SES).

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✨ Features

🎨 Visual Newsletter Builder

• Two Newsletter Formats — pick one per campaign:
  • 🗞️ The Roundup — visual hero + 2-column story grid for your subscribers. Uses the "Custom Footer Text" highlighted box.
  • ✉️ The Insider Brief — personal greeting, lead paragraph, centered hero story with featured image, "What Else We're Seeing" stories rendered in the same 2-column grid as The Roundup, "Why this matters" callout, and collaboration CTA. The highlighted box above the footer shows a centered About Us heading + body, replacing the Custom Footer Text used by The Roundup. Built for media pitches & partner updates.
  • Pick a format per-campaign on the Create Newsletter page (Design Settings → Newsletter Format).
  • All Insider Brief copy is editable from Settings → The Insider Brief — Template Texts. Header and dark footer (logo, social, copyright, unsubscribe) are shared across both formats.
• Infinite-Scroll Post Search: The "Add Posts" panel loads posts in batches of 10 and keeps loading more as you scroll. Search resets the list.
• Smart Hero Image: The Roundup hero uses your uploaded banner if present, otherwise falls back to the hero post's featured image automatically.
• Article Excerpts: Optional setting to show short article text before the "Read More" button.
• Live Preview: See exactly what your email will look like as you build it.
• Banner Upload: Add custom hero banners via WordPress Media Library.

📱 Mobile-First Responsive Design

• Smart Stacking: Grid items automatically switch to single-column layout on mobile (< 600px).
• Auto-Height: Cards adjust dynamically to fit content, removing awkward whitespace.
• Readable Typography: Optimized font sizes and spacing for mobile reading.

🖼️ Professional Media Handling

• Integrated Banners: Banner images fully integrated into Hero card with rounded corners.
• No-Crop Scaling: Banners use height: auto to ensure 100% visibility.
• High-Res Thumbnails: Uses 'Large' image size for retina displays.

📧 Advanced Campaign Management

• Auto-Fetched Lists with Subscriber Counts: Lists & segments are pulled automatically from Sendy (via get-lists.php) and shown as checkboxes with active subscriber counts next to each list. Cached for 10 minutes with a one-click refresh link.
• Smart List Memory: Lists default to unchecked, but the plugin remembers which lists you sent your last campaign to and pre-checks them next time.
• Multi-List Support: Send to multiple Sendy lists/segments at once.
• Three Send Options:
  • Save as Draft - Create draft in Sendy for later editing
  • Send Immediately - Send campaign right away
  • Schedule - Set date/time for automatic sending (defaults to current time + 1 hour)
• Auto-Trigger Cron: Optional setting to automatically trigger Sendy's processing script after sending (great for shared hosting).
• Test Email: Preview campaigns in your inbox before sending to subscribers.
• Status Tracking: View Draft, Sent, or Scheduled status in campaign list.
• Error Handling: Failed campaigns show detailed error messages in dedicated column.
• One-Click Retry: Instantly retry failed campaigns with a single button.
• Automatic Recovery: Overdue scheduled campaigns are automatically detected and sent.

🎨 Customizable Footer

• Custom Text Area: Add rich text (HTML/Links) in a highlighted box above the footer. Great for call-to-actions.
• Logo Upload: Add your brand logo (automatically links to your website homepage).
• Copyright Text: Customize copyright notice.
• Social Media Links: Add Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube links.
• Read More Link: Direct subscribers to your website or blog.

🏷️ Keywords

Sendy Amazon SES Newsletter Builder Email Marketing WordPress Newsletter Drag and Drop Post to Email Responsive Email Template Email Automation Campaign Scheduler

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🚀 Installation

💻 Via WordPress Dashboard

1. Download the latest plugin .zip file from the Releases page or the Code > Download ZIP button on GitHub.
2. Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress admin panel.
3. Click Upload Plugin at the top.
4. Choose the downloaded .zip file and click Install Now.
5. Click Activate Plugin.

🔧 Via Git (For Developers)

1. Open your terminal and navigate to your WordPress plugins directory:

   cd wp-content/plugins/

2. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/gunjanjaswal/Simple-SES-Bridge-for-Sendy.git simple-ses-bridge-for-sendy

3. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.

⚙️ Final Setup (Both Methods)

4. Configure your Sendy details in Settings > Simple Sendy Bridge:

   • Sendy Installation URL
   • API Key
   • Brand ID (required for auto-fetching lists)

   Lists are fetched automatically from Sendy and appear as checkboxes on the Create Newsletter page — you no longer need to enter List IDs manually.

📖 Usage

1. Navigate to Simple Sendy Bridge > Create Newsletter.
2. Select a Banner: Choose an image from your Media Library.
3. Add Posts: Search for your articles and click "Add".
   • 1st Post = Hero
   • 2nd+ Posts = Grid
4. Preview: Check the preview column.
5. Send or Schedule: Choose to Send Now, Save as Draft (in Sendy), or Schedule for later.

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🔧 Troubleshooting

Scheduled Campaigns Not Sending on Time?

Why: WordPress uses WP-Cron, which only triggers when someone visits your site. Low-traffic sites may experience delays.

Automatic Recovery:

• The plugin automatically detects and sends overdue campaigns when you visit the Campaigns page
• You'll see a green success notice: "Overdue Campaign Sent: [Campaign Name] was automatically sent."
• If auto-send fails, you'll see the error message with a "Retry Send" button

Permanent Solution (Recommended for Production):

1. Disable WP-Cron by adding this to wp-config.php:

   define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

2. Set up a real cron job (via cPanel, Plesk, or server SSH):

   * * * * * wget -q -O - https://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1

   Or using curl:

   * * * * * curl https://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1

Campaign Failed to Send?

Failed campaigns will display:

• ❌ Red error notice at the top of the Campaigns page
• 📋 Exact error message in the "Error" column
• 🔄 "Retry Send" button for instant retry

Common Errors:

• "Reply to email not passed" - Fixed automatically in v1.0.0+
• "Invalid API key" - Check your Sendy settings
• "List ID is required" - Verify your default list ID in settings

Campaign Stuck at "Preparing to send..." in Sendy?

Why: Sendy requires its own cron job to process and send campaigns. Without it, campaigns get queued but never send.

Quick Fix (Manual Trigger):

https://your-sendy-domain.com/scheduled.php?i=1

Replace your-sendy-domain.com with your actual Sendy URL. This manually triggers campaign processing.

Permanent Fix (Set Up Sendy Cron):

Add this cron job to your server:

Via cPanel:

1. Go to cPanel > Cron Jobs
2. Set to run every 5 minutes: */5 * * * *
3. Command:

   php /home/yourusername/public_html/sendy/scheduled.php > /dev/null 2>&1

Via SSH:

crontab -e

Add this line:

*/5 * * * * php /path/to/sendy/scheduled.php > /dev/null 2>&1

This automatically processes queued campaigns every 5 minutes.

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📋 Changelog

v1.5.2

• Fix: Infinite scroll in the "Add Posts" panel now actually triggers. The scroll handler was using event delegation (which doesn't work for scroll events); it's now bound directly to the results container.

v1.5.1

• Improvement: "About Us" body in The Insider Brief footer block is now centered (heading was already centered).
• Cleanup: Removed all "Buy Me A Coffee" links and the Support card from the settings page, newsletter builder, plugin row meta, and readme files.

v1.5.0

• Feature: "Add Posts" panel now supports infinite scroll — older posts load automatically as you scroll the results list (10 at a time).
• Internal: sssb_search_posts AJAX endpoint now accepts a page parameter and returns { posts, page, has_more }.

v1.4.1

• Improvement: "What Else We're Seeing" stories in The Insider Brief now use the same 2-column responsive grid as The Roundup.
• Improvement: "About Us" heading in The Insider Brief footer block is now centered.

v1.4.0

• Fix: Bumped plugin version so the updated script.js is force-reloaded by browsers (cache bust). All 1.3.1 layout improvements now take effect.
• Improvement: "The Roundup" hero now also pulls in the post's featured image when no banner is uploaded.

v1.3.1

• Improvement: "The Insider Brief" hero story is centered, pulls in the post's featured image, and uses a centered "Read More" button.
• Improvement: "What Else We're Seeing" stories now render as individual centered cards with featured images, centered titles & excerpts, and a centered "Read More" button (instead of a bulleted list).
• Change: In "The Insider Brief", the highlighted box above the dark footer now shows the About Us heading + body (replacing the Custom Footer Text used by The Roundup). Same box styling, but the heading is left-aligned.
• UI: Design Settings card moved to the top of the Create Newsletter page, with Newsletter Format as the first field above Banner Image.

v1.3.0

• Feature: New "The Insider Brief" newsletter template — personal greeting + intro + hero story + "Why this matters" callout + collaboration CTA + About Us. Built for media pitches and partner updates.
• Feature: Original layout renamed to "The Roundup" (hero + grid). Pick a format per-campaign on the Create Newsletter page.
• Feature: All Insider Brief text blocks are editable from Settings → The Insider Brief — Template Texts.
• Note: Header, footer and Custom Footer Text continue to render across both formats.

v1.2.0

• Feature: Active subscriber count shown next to each list on the Create Newsletter page.
• Feature: Lists are unchecked by default; the plugin remembers your last selection and pre-checks those lists next time.
• Change: Selected list IDs are persisted on every successful campaign (draft / send / schedule).

v1.1.0

• Feature: Auto-fetch lists & segments directly from Sendy via api/lists/get-lists.php (requires Brand ID).
• Feature: "Choose your lists & segments" checkboxes populate automatically on the Create Newsletter page.
• Feature: Fetched lists cached for 10 minutes; "Refresh lists from Sendy" link forces a refresh.
• Change: Removed the manual "Saved Lists (Optional)" setting.
• Change: Replaced the manual List ID text input with the auto-populated list selector.

v1.0.0

• Initial Release
• Feature: Visual Newsletter Builder with drag-and-drop.
• Feature: Responsive Grid Layout (Desktop/Mobile).
• Feature: Optional "Article Excerpts" feature in the drag-and-drop builder.
• Feature: Custom Footer Text context with highlighted box.
• Feature: Footer logo auto-link to homepage.
• Fix: Resolved "cURL error 28: SSL connection timeout".
• Fix: Disabled strict SSL verification for self-hosted Sendy compatibility.
• Docs: Updated GitHub installation documentation.

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🤝 Support

Created by Gunjan Jaswal.