Accessability issue: How to get usable plain-text section in my custom code email?

[TinaI37]

Hello, I am working with a long-time Constant Contact customer. They are sending out an email using a custom code template. There are complaints from their recipents who need to read the plain-text version of the email, which is automatically generated by Constant Contact into the Content-Type: text/plain section. The plain text is one massive line with no line breaks. Unreadable and unusable for those who need to use plain text. Because the Custom Code only allows the HTML section to specify, I must either a) specify the plain text section separately or b) set up the html that will cause Constant Contact to generate the plain text section with line breaks. I haven't found any info on how to do either of these things. Can you please tell me how I would accomplish having a plain text section with at least line breaks? Thank you. PS is there a way, from the Constant Contact account site, to preview what the plain text will look like?

[William_A]

Hello @TinaI37 ,

Regarding the first point, this is something you'd need to figure out with your coding in general. Our system is meant to take the bare bones of what's added to generate that plain-text version. Any line breaks or other additional elements would need to be coded into the email during creation, but there's no further insight on this point we have available.

For the second bit about previewing the plain-text, this isn't an available aspect of the custom code editor at this time.

[TinaI37]

Hi William A,

Thank you for your quick reply!  

So I am looking for a workaround or whatever that will make the plain-text version have breaks.

Is there anything I can put in my html that will tell your email-generating code to put line breaks in the plain text? <P> or <br> does not seem to result in crlf in the plain-text.

Here is the most simple illustration of the problem:

Steps: Create an email. Use "custom code" template. 

<h2>Coming Events</h2>
		<div>
			<div><h2>Event 1: Identifying Ferns</h2></div>

      	<h4>May 14 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST</h4>			
        	<p>paragraph 1. <br> This linefollows a br.</p>
					<p>paragraph 2. This is a paragraph that contains information about the fern event.</p>
					<p>paragraph 3. More info about the fern event. </p>
			</div>
			<div>
			<div><h2>Event 2: How to Find Crystals</h2></div>
      	<h4>May 20, 2023 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST</h4>			
        	<p>paragraph 1.</p>
					<p>paragraph 2. This is a paragraph that describes the crystals event.</p>
					<p><br>This line inside p and br. More e info about the crystals event. </p>
			</div>

When I send the email, here is what constant contact generates for the plain text section:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Coming Events Event 1: Identifying Ferns May 14 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST paragraph 1. This linefollows a br. paragraph 2. This is a paragraph that contains information about the fern event. paragraph 3. More info about the fern event. Event 2: How to Find Crystals May 20, 2023 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST paragraph 1. paragraph 2. This is a paragraph that describes the crystals event. This line inside p and br. More e info about the crystals event. 

 This might be OK for a short email, but for a newsletter with a long list of events and longer descriptions, it's not usable.

[William_A]

Neither the custom code troubleshooting agents nor I have any further insight on how to set up the code. It's something you may need to experiment with, or consider using the regular email builder if having a different plain text setup is absolutely necessary.

[TinaI37]

Thank you.  To clarify our situation, we are generating this email and setting up the campaign with your API.  When you say "consider using the regular email builder" do you mean send a different email that is text-only?

[William_A]

Using the regular email builder available in the account, you can build an email that's just all text with no other elements (several "blank" template options exist). If the message is going to be particularly long (i.e. more than a couple paragraphs), then I'd advise breaking up that message into multiple text blocks for easier editing if needed.

However, any email built in the regular email builder won't be a true plain-text email, as there will be some formatting and other elements that are ultimately included with it. 

[TinaI37]

Hi William A,

I may have been less than clear in my question!  We are generating an email weekly from our website using the Constant Contact API.  

The endpoint is "POST /emails" . We send with format_type 5 (custom code, the only type that is allowed with V3 as far as I can tell).

I need to find a way to get  CRLFs  into the content: plain text section of the email that gets sent from constant contact, so it's not one long stream of unbroken text.    Is this a known bug, and if so, is there a status on a fix?

Thank you

[William_A · Accepted solution]

If you're using our API to build these directly within your own website, then I'd advise reaching out to the Developer's board here in the Community, or to their team via their email/website. They'd have better insight on the functionality, and what might be possible for you to achieve the text-only setup directly on your site.

[TinaI37]

Thank you! heading over there...