📧 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

• Drag-and-Drop Post Selection: Search and add posts with a single click.
• Hero + Grid Layout: First post displays as a featured "Hero" card, subsequent posts in a 2-column grid (desktop).
• Two Layout Options: Choose between List view (single column) or Grid view (2-column).
• 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

• Multi-List Support: Send to multiple Sendy lists with checkboxes (all selected by default).
• 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

1. Download the plugin zip file.
2. Upload to your WordPress site via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
3. Activate the plugin.
4. Configure your Sendy details in Settings > Simple Sendy Bridge:
   • Sendy Installation URL
   • API Key
   • Default List ID

📖 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

v1.0.2

• Fix: Resolved "cURL error 28: SSL connection timeout" by increasing API timeout to 60s.
• Fix: Disabled strict SSL verification for self-hosted Sendy compatibility.

v1.0.1

• Feature: Custom Footer Text context with highlighted box.
• Feature: Footer logo auto-link to homepage.

v1.0.0

• Initial Release
• Feature: Visual Newsletter Builder with drag-and-drop.
• Feature: Responsive Grid Layout (Desktop/Mobile).

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🤝 Support

Created by Gunjan Jaswal. If you like this plugin, consider Buying Me A Coffee ☕.