Compare HTML Mail with Mime Mail

I don't understand why are there two VERY similar modules? I see that there has been a burst of activity here. A lot of bugs and features have been fixed and added to the module, but why do this in a separate project?

Mime Mail was created on November 16, 2005.
HTML Mail was created on June 5, 2007.

IMO this module should not have been created in the first place. :) We need a magnifying glass to look for the differences in the features. Even the bugs are the same. Although HTML Mail seems to be ahead of Mime Mail now, this seems to be a huge waste of resources for me.

I think you should take a look at HTML Mail and really decide if it needs to be a separate project for whatever reasons or it can be merged with Mime Mail. If it remains a separate project, then the differences between HTML Mail and Mime Mail need to be crystal clear and they need to justify the module's existence.

About the co-maintainership, since I don't have full access to the project, you should contact Allie, but I'm sure that she would happily give you access.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking against HTML Mail. I just think, that we could develop better software if we work for the same goal together instead of side-by-side. :)

This will bite everybody badly in the next months. This is my $0.02 prediction.

As an end user, it is very hard to evaluate which module to choose for html emails. Looking at the installed user base is not enough. I like the number of installs of mimemails (more eyes = more bug reports), but html emails seems to be a better solution (for now) on D7.

I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering what to do.

If you could find a way to merge those two modules, this would really help push Drupal 7 forward.

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I too am here because I wanted to know the differences as they are not well documented. As far as separate modules, I'm afraid, "We scratch our own itch," is exceptionally anti-Drupal. I'm sure I don't need to remind you as a member for over ten years but:

"The Drupal community holds a strong "collaboration rather than competition" ethos, which values joining forces on improving one awesome project rather than building several sub-standard ones that overwhelm end users with choices. While not outright forbidden, duplicate projects are generally discouraged without good reason (such as a fundamentally different architectural approach). Please remember to search existing modules and themes first before embarking on your quest, or taking over an abandoned project. You could save yourself some time, and earn community karma by helping others!"

It's now been a few months since this discussion started and no news on merging. If there is a pissing contest it should be solved in the name of the community and not to satisfy some personal need to be the owner.

"The Drupal community holds a strong "collaboration rather than competition" ethos, which values joining forces on improving one awesome project rather than building several sub-standard ones that overwhelm end users with choices. While not outright forbidden, duplicate projects are generally discouraged without good reason (such as a fundamentally different architectural approach)."

Oh, nice, this sounds very new to me. Who else has read this? Is it a new article? Would be perfect, if realised.

I'm very interested in this. There's simply too much to do and the topic is too complex to waste resources and maintain both at the same time.

We'll investigate both and provide some review. Output of the review should be
- Architectural differences
- Decision on recommended basis for future (Which base recommended)
- What's missing from the other module

Finally also a conversion guide should be written for users of the other (possibly soon-to-be-deprecated) project.

Subscribing.

What is the status of this? At a first glance htmlmail seems to be more flexible. What is your experience?

I tried HTML mail first. I had a very weird issue in the beginning: #1408578: 401 Authorization Required I got this one working but then this one came up: #1439658: HTML not being filtered correctly

I dumped HTML Mail and used MIME Mail which is quite straight forward, simpler and a cleaner solution as far as I can tell.

It would be nice to integrate a few features of HTML Mail into MIME Mail, for example the input filtering. And then get rid of HTML Mail...

Has anyone got a different opinion?

I think this issue needs more attention. We should discuss the future of Mime Mail and HTML Mail and choose the path of further development. As miro_dietiker wrote there is too much to do and we can't afford to waste resources...

For what it's worth, mimemail is the historical choice. Add to this that it has been, for me, a smoother experience, especialy on D7

Today I had an issue that shows how inflexible Mime Mail is: #1061096: Link to "click here if you cannot read message"

HTML Mail does that better and even has a example of a Simplenews template.

The Mime Mail owner's business model is to not move a finger unless she gets paid for it. We've been through this in #1119168: Premium has been forked. and related threads. She may allow sgabe to work for her (presumably for free, that also is part of her business model) because there's competition from HTML Mail, but I'm sure she'll lock down Mime Mail sooner or later, if HTML Mail were merged into it.

Those who cite the Drupal Code of Conduct to advocate giving up HTML Mail in favor of Mime Mail are way off, waaaaayyy off. Any effort spent on this would be a complete waste of time and a huge disservice to the community.

@sgabe: Sorry to say this, but you're in the wrong boat. If you're serious about not wasting resources (especially yours), then you should consider joining pillarsdotnet. He's not the easiest guy to get along with, but he wants to move forward.

HTML Mail seems to break its features down into contrib modules and libraries. It's the Drupal Commerce vs Ubercart approach. This seems to be different enough to me.

So you are saying we should deprecate Mime Mail?

In #13 I describe my last experiences with HTML Mail. It was just to buggy to use. And Mime Mail was really easy. Even though HTML Mail has a lot better approach.

What should be done here?

I'm still evaluating the 2 as well, I too am finding HTML Mail buggy/requiring patches. May go with Mime Mail for this particular project but hold higher hopes for HTML Mail.

One feature that I was searching for when I stumbled across this thread was a way to supply both HTML and Text for the email, the plaintext $param in mimemail_mail().

I just tried Swift Mailer as a replacement for htmlmail / mimemail. I was very impressed by the module's simplicity and completeness.
Any thoughts on this module ?

@ #23 Swift Mailer is OK, very very simple module tho, extremely difficult to add style sheets, it also uses an external library that is capable of a lot, however you can't really exploit much of that usage because the module is rather restricted.

Subscribe for merging.

What is the actual difference between in features or reasons?

Oh wow, how time passed... ;-)

We started pushing many D8 contribs and decided months ago that we will use for a reference setup for Simplenews Drupal 8 port maintenance the module Swiftmailer. The port is currently living at webflo's github account: https://github.com/webflo/drupal-swiftmailer
And yes, the external library is a problem for integration tests with setups like d.o Testbots.

I see that this module (HTML Mail) has some recent D8 activity. Awesome.
Sure we are fully open and happy if HTML Mail and Mime Mail will manage to complete a nice port. Ping us if things are ready and list again on our project page.

I'm a system builder, starting a new D7 project using mail and need html. Keeping an eye toward D8 upgrade. Would just like to point out how difficult it is to make a choice between htmlmail, mimemail and swiftmail. I'm not looking for anything in particular but very confused about how to make best/future-proof tech choice. This is not a RANT but hopefully maintainers will consider folks like me. tx.

As @miro_dietiker said there is a D8 version of swiftmailer: https://github.com/webflo/drupal-swiftmailer

swiftmailer D8 port issue: #2270921: Swift Mailer for D8
mimemail D8 port issue: #2138947: Drupal 8 version

The Drupal 8 Version of Swift Mailer is available on Drupal.org. The GitHub is deprecated.