By B.ter.voert on

I've installed simplenews and mimemail to create a html newsletter. I did find documentation about which files to alter to create your own style. But after extensive surching it is still unclear to me what to put into these files (simplenews-newsletter-body.tpl.php / simplenews-newsletter.footer.tpl.php).

I created a content-type for the newsletter. My goal is to create a newsletter with two columns. The left column will show articles (teaser with read more link) and the right column will show several calendar items.

I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction or knows where to find more documentation on the subject (I came across a page on drupal but didn't bookmark it and can't seem to find it anymore).

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

Patroclas’s picture

Patroclas commented

Extensive searching? Try searching on 'tpl.php files for simplenews' which is in your title.

The columns need css. It may cause problems in an e-mail though. I think I would probably get the layout working in a plain html file and then adapt that for your template with the appropriate selectors and id's. The css will probably need to be inline.

B.ter.voert’s picture

B.ter.voert commented

Yes, extensive searching. I know I have to use tables for the layout with inline css. I read numerous articles about creating email newsletters (in general, not just drupal). I created a template in plain html, so the newsletter looks as intended.

My problem is how to get the content in, and what snippets of code I have to put in the respective tpl.php files to get a similar result as the plain html template. On this part the documentation is very minimal, let us say. You can find numerous entries about having to use the simplenews-newsletter-body.tpl.php and simplenews-newsletter-footer.tpl.php files, but what to put in them isn't realy discussed.

So that is what I'm looking for...

Patroclas’s picture

Patroclas commented

I guess it depends on where the content is coming from. Did you look at http://drupal.org/project/simplenews_content_selection? - I have not used it so don't know if it will help, but it may be worth a look.

There is also http://drupal.org/project/simplenews_template and an article at http://drupalsteve.com/node/30 which may help.

With Views you should be able to rewrite the content to include the correct classes etc.

I have never found how to include an internal css stylesheet (which I guess is what you are looking for) but mimemail says it can do that. and is mentioned in this article http://drupal.org/node/268404

Apologies for the tone of my earlier comment. I would be interested to know if you get this solved as I know from experience that formatting e-mails can be a headache.