As some of you are probably aware there are numerous services out there that provide some level of e-mail delivery confirmation. Some of these names include www.readnotify.com and www.pointofmail.com. On the simplest level these services send the email out using HTML and inserts an IMG tag that references to a script and pulls up a 1x1 image. At the same time the tracking code is logged by the script which records the delivery confirmation. Other services include the message being digitally turned into an image, where that image needs to be called up for the tracking code to be activated. Doing this allows you to specify an expiration date for the image/message to be deleted or even for it to be deleted immediately so that the user cannot go back to the message. There are also a few other options involving logging into a secure website to view the message, logging a e-signature to confirm receipt, etc, etc. ANYWAY...I'm curious if there are any self-hosted scripts out there that will do some version of email confirmation tracking without having to pay a recurring fee. Even something doing the most simple tracking would be useful. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks
You can easily do this in PHP...just create a signature in your email that loads and image hosted on your web site, whether a logo or 1x1 pixel. Then use .htaccess to rewrite the url to a php script that includes or redirects to the image. the php script can do whatever you need it to.
That part is the easy part...the harder part (for me) is a way to record that the image was viewed and when, by whom, etc.
For yourself or as an open source share idea? The former only you can answer, the latter is down to your feelings on spending the time and effort on creating a script to then give away.