/gulp-email-workflow

A Gulp workflow for building HTML emails

Primary LanguageHTMLMIT LicenseMIT

A Gulp Workflow for Building HTML Emails

Sample Email Template

This is a workflow for building HTML emails using Gulp. It comes with a default MailChimp-supported template.

What it does -

  1. Builds HTML email from templates and partials
  2. Compiles SCSS to CSS
  3. Inlines the inline.css file and embeds the embedded.css file
  4. Generates a preview of emails
  5. Creates a zip of the build directory for upload (optional)

Getting Started

1. Install dependencies

This workflow requires the following dependencies -

  • Node.js with npm (Install)
  • Gulp.js (Install with npm install gulp)

2. Clone this repository

git clone https://github.com/ireade/gulp-email-workflow.git
cd gulp-email-workflow

Or download as a ZIP.

3. Install packages

npm install

4. Start build

npm start

The compiled and inlined output email will be in the build/ directory. Can be previewed in browser at http://localhost:8000

How to use

Creating templates

Nunjucks is used for compiling template files to HTML.

Templates are stored in src/templates/ and partials in src/templates/partials. To create a template, create a file in the templates directory with the .nunjucks file extension.

To include a partial in your template, use the following syntax -

{% include "partials/PARTIAL_FILE_NAME.nunjucks" %}

To define a block of dynamic content to be replaced by the email file, use the following syntax -

{% block CUSTOM_BLOCK_NAME %}{% endblock %}

Creating emails from templates

To create an email based off a template file, create a new file in the src/emails/ directory (also with the .nunjucks file extension).

Specify which template to use using the following syntax -

{% extends "TEMPLATE_NAME.nunjucks" %}

To define the contents of a dynamic content block, use the following syntax -

{% block CUSTOM_BLOCK_NAME %} 
Content goes here
{% endblock %}

Working with global data

Global data is stored in the src/data directory as JSON files. Include new data files in the config section at the top of the gulpfile.js -

var globalData = {
    DATA_NAME_1: require('./src/data/FILE_NAME_1.json'),
    DATA_NAME_2: require('./src/data/FILE_NAME_2.json')
};

For example -

var globalData = {
    mailchimp: require('./src/data/mailchimp.json')
};

CSS

SASS files are stored in the src/sass/ directory. There are two main SASS files -

  • inline.scss for styles you w Liant to be inlined to their elements
  • embedded.scss for styles that shouldn't be inlined. These will be inlcluded within a <style> element in the <head>

You can create subdirectories within the SASS folder to hold any partials. Make sure to precede the name of a partial with an underscore, e.g. _reset.scss.

Generating the zip file

You can also generate a zip file of the build directory for export. You can do this by running -

npm run zip

Alternatively, you can add it to the default and watch gulp tasks to have it generated automatically.

Footnotes