How to Send Transactional Emails with Mandrill in Next.js with Code Examples?

In modern web applications, programmatically sending emails plays a crucial role in enhancing user experience, facilitating communication, and driving business growth. As a CTO or technical decision-maker, understanding the importance of email functionality is essential for building robust and user-centric applications.

This technical guide aims to provide CTOs and technical decision-makers like you with a comprehensive understanding of implementing email sending in Next.js applications. It covers the necessary steps, best practices, and optimizations required to ensure seamless and reliable email functionality.

Setting Up Next.js

Before we delve into implementing email sending in Next.js, let's briefly discuss the setup process and familiarize ourselves with the Next.js project structure and foundational concepts. Next.js is a powerful React framework that simplifies the development of server-rendered React applications. To set up a Next.js project, follow these steps:

1. Install Node.js: Ensure that Node.js is installed on your system. You can download and install the latest LTS version from the official Node.js website.

2. Create a New Next.js Project: Open your terminal or command prompt and run the following command to create a new Next.js project. This command initializes a new Next.js project with the default project structure and installs the necessary dependencies.

npx create-next-app my-next-project

3. Explore the Project Structure: Once the project is created, navigate into the project directory using the following command:

cd my-next-project

Inside the project directory, you will find the following important files and folders:

• `pages`: This folder contains the pages of your application. Each JavaScript file inside this folder represents a unique page.
• `public`: Place static files (e.g., images, fonts) in this folder, which can be accessed directly from the client-side.
• `styles`: This folder is used for storing global styles or CSS modules.

4. Start the Development Server: To start the Next.js development server, run the following command:

npm run dev

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Selecting an Email Service Provider (ESP)

In this tutorial, we will use Mandrill, a powerful transactional email service provided by Mailchimp. Mandrill offers reliable email sending capabilities, advanced delivery options, and a robust API for integration with Next.js applications.

Installing Required Packages

To enable email-sending functionality in your Next.js application using Mandrill as the Email Service Provider (ESP), follow these steps:

1. Open your terminal or command prompt and navigate to your Next.js project directory.

2. Run the following command to install the required packages. The mandrill-api package provides a convenient API client for interacting with Mandrill from your Next.js application.

npm install mandrill-api

Configuring Email Provider Credentials

To send emails using Mandrill, you need to acquire the necessary API credentials and configure them securely in your Next.js application. Follow these steps:

1. Sign up for a Mandrill account if you haven't already. Go to the Mandrill website and create an account.
2. Once you have an account, navigate to the Mandrill API section and generate an API Key. Make sure to securely store this API Key as it will be used to authenticate your Next.js application with Mandrill.
3. In your Next.js project, create a .env file in the root directory. Add the following line to the file:

    
MANDRILL_API_KEY=your_mandrill_api_key
		
    

Note: Make sure to add `.env` to your `.gitignore` file to prevent the credentials from being committed to version control.

4. Install the `dotenv` package to load the environment variables from the `.env` file. Run the following command:

    
npm install dotenv
		
    

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require('dotenv').config();
		
    

With the Mandrill API Key properly configured, your Next.js application is now ready to send emails using Mandrill. In the upcoming sections, we will dive into developing a helper function for email sending and integrating it into your Next.js application. Stay tuned to learn the technical details and code examples required for implementing email sending in Next.js using Mandrill.

Developing a Helper Function for Email Sending

This helper function will abstract away the email-sending logic, making it easier to send emails from different parts of your application. Let's explore how to implement this functionality using Mandrill as the Email Service Provider (ESP).

Configuration Setup in Next.js for Mandrill

To configure Mandrill in your Next.js application, follow these steps:

1. In the file where you plan to use the email-sending functionality (e.g., `utils/email.js`), import the Mandrill API client and set your API Key:

    
import mandrill from 'mandrill-api/mandrill';
const mandrillClient = new mandrill.Mandrill(process.env.MANDRILL_API_KEY);

		
    

2. With the Mandrill configuration, you can now create the helper function for sending emails.

Creating a Helper Function for Sending Emails using Mandrill

In the same file (`utils/email.js`), add the following code to create a helper function for sending emails using Mandrill:

    
export async function sendEmail({ to, from, subject, message }) {
  const emailData = {
    from_email: from,
    to: [{ email: to }],
    subject: subject,
    html: message,
  };

  try {
    const result = await mandrillClient.messages.send({ message: emailData });
    console.log('Email sent successfully!');
    return result;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error sending email:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

		
    

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import { sendEmail } from '../utils/email.js';

// Example usage
try {
  await sendEmail({
    to: 'recipient@example.com',
    from: 'sender@example.com',
    subject: 'Hello from Next.js',
    message: 'This is a test email sent from Next.js using Mandrill.',
  });
  console.log('Email sent successfully!');
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Error sending email:', error);
  // Handle error
}

		
    

By creating this helper function, you can easily integrate email-sending functionality into various parts of your Next.js application. Mandrill handles the actual email delivery, ensuring reliable and scalable email-sending capabilities.

Integrating the Helper Function into Next.js

Once you have developed the helper function for sending emails, the next step is to integrate it into your Next.js application. In this section, we will explore how to identify the areas in your application that require email functionality and integrate the helper function accordingly. Let's dive in!

Identifying Areas Requiring Email Functionality

Before integrating the helper function, identify the areas in your Next.js application where email functionality is required. These areas may include:

• User registration: Sending a welcome email to new users upon successful registration.
• Password reset: Sending an email with a password reset link to users who have forgotten their passwords.
• Contact forms: Sending email notifications when users submit contact or inquiry forms.
• Order confirmation: Sending order confirmation emails to customers after successful purchase.
• Transactional emails: Sending email notifications for various events or actions within your application.

Integration of the Helper Function

To integrate the helper function into your Next.js application, follow these steps:

1. Determine the component, page, or API route where you want to trigger the email sending functionality.

2. Import the `sendEmail` function from `utils/email.js` into the relevant file.

3. Within the component, page, or API route, call the `sendEmail` function with the appropriate email details. For example:

    
import { sendEmail } from '../utils/email.js';

// Example integration in a Next.js page
export default function ContactFormPage() {
  const handleSubmit = async (event) => {
    event.preventDefault();

    // Process form data and prepare email details
    const emailDetails = {
      to: 'recipient@example.com',
      from: 'sender@example.com',
      subject: 'New contact form submission',
      message: '...',
    };

    try {
      await sendEmail(emailDetails);
      console.log('Email sent successfully!');
      // Perform any additional actions after successful email sending
    } catch (error) {
      console.error('Error sending email:', error);
      // Handle error case
    }
  };

  return (
    

      {/* Form fields */}
      Submit
    
  );
}

		
    

Adjust the email details and the triggering mechanism based on your specific requirements.

Enabling Triggered Email Sending

To enable triggered email sending based on business logic, follow these steps:

1. Identify the events or conditions in your application where email notifications should be sent. For example:

• After successful order placement, you want to send an order confirmation email to the customer.
•  When a user requests a password reset, you want to send a password reset link to the user's registered email address.

2. Locate the relevant event handlers, listeners, or functions in your Next.js application where these conditions occur.

3. Within the identified event handlers or functions, call the `sendEmail` function with the necessary email details. For example:

    
    
// After a successful order placement
async function handleSuccessfulOrderPlacement(order) {
  // Code to handle the order placement logic

  // Trigger the email sending functionality
  const recipient = order.customerEmail;
  const subject = 'Order Confirmation';
  const content = 'Thank you for your order!';
  await sendEmail(recipient, subject, content);
}

// When a user requests a password reset
async function handlePasswordResetRequest(user) {
  // Code to handle the password reset logic

  // Trigger the email sending functionality
  const recipient = user.email;
  const subject = 'Password Reset';
  const content = 'Click the following link to reset your password: ';
  await sendEmail(recipient, subject, content);
}

		
    

4. Remember to handle any errors that may occur during the email sending process and provide appropriate feedback or fallback options to your users.

Deployment Considerations

When deploying your Next.js application with email-sending functionality, consider the following deployment considerations for smooth operations and reliable email delivery:

• Understand the limitations and guidelines provided by Mandrill, including email sending limits, restrictions on recipient addresses, attachment sizes, and content types.
• Monitor and manage your email sending limits by regularly tracking your sending volume, setting up notifications or alarms, and utilizing monitoring tools provided by Mandrill.
• Implement rate limiting in Next.js to ensure compliance with Mandrill's sending limits, using techniques such as token bucket algorithms or throttling and leveraging libraries or custom logic.

Error Handling and Logging:

Effective error handling and logging mechanisms are vital for identifying and resolving issues related to email sending. Consider the following practices:

• Identify common errors and exceptions related to email sending, such as network issues or invalid addresses, and handle them gracefully with meaningful feedback to users.
• Integrate logging mechanisms to capture relevant information about email-sending activities, including content, recipients, timestamps, and encountered errors or exceptions.
• Utilize logging frameworks or services to centralize and analyze logged data for debugging purposes.

Testing and Quality Assurance:

• Perform unit tests to validate components and functions responsible for email sending, covering various scenarios and error handling.
• Use Mandrill's test mode or a test environment to simulate email sending and ensure proper integration with your Next.js application.
• Implement email delivery monitoring and reporting, leveraging Mandrill's features and analytics tools for actionable insights and optimization.

Pros and Cons

Pros of Sending Emails using Mandrill and Next.js:

1. Reliable and scalable email sending capabilities.
2. Advanced delivery options and tracking features.
3. Seamless integration with Next.js applications.
4. Robust API and developer-friendly documentation.
5. Integration with Mailchimp's powerful marketing tools.

Cons of Sending Emails using Mandrill and Next.js:

1. Cost implications for high email volumes or advanced features.
2. Initial setup and configuration may require additional time and effort.
3. Ongoing monitoring and maintenance required to ensure reliable email delivery.

Replacing Mandrill Complexities with SuprSend

You can install the SuprSend Node SDK and implement the workflow on our dashboard. Installing the SuprSend Node SDK and utilizing our intuitive dashboard allows you to streamline your workflow. With SuprSend, you can access many features, such as sending emails, managing templates, handling user profiles, and triggering workflows through API calls. Our SDK provides seamless integration, allowing you to effortlessly initialize and authenticate your SuprSend account. By leveraging SuprSend's capabilities, you can focus on delivering personalized and targeted content to your users without the hassle of managing manual code complexities.