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Finding the right tools is so critical when you're trying to build big things by yourself. It can make a complete difference and enable you to focus on the core business vs chores.
Thanks for sharing Cerberus, looks like a great tool!
I understand the need of a simpler tool to quickly sketch out email HTML ready blocks/layouts.
However, there is key reasons about why we decided not to stick to strict HTML with MJML.
First, the abstraction layer we provide helps to reduce the maintenance effort by removing the pain to stay up-to-date with the last email clients updates.
Second, it is simpler to write (thanks to the lighter/more semantic syntax).
Last, but not least, our component based approach powered by ReactJS makes the language highly extensible and helps to reuse the same layout across different email communications.
Hope it makes more sense to you now and you'll have the opportunity to use it for your developments!
You can nest columns in sections (which correspond to rows in the design). Do you have an example of the layout you're trying to build? We would love to help you here!
Thanks! It's powered by Slate from TripIt https://github.com/tripit/slate. It Markdown to static HTML, multi tab. It's now our go-to solution for documentation. We'll open source the MJML one in the coming weeks. You can also check the Mailjet API doc at https://dev.mailjet.com/guides, also powered by Slate.
Nothing I'm aware of here, no but would be great. In a way, that what we're aiming for with MJML by packing all we know about email HTML tips and hacks in a lightweight syntax.
About plain-text, I don't believe it's the MJML role. Most Email Service Provider provide ways to send HTML and Text part separately so shouldn't be an issue to deal with both.
You're right that XSLT could be suited for what MJML is aiming to but we decided to go with React mostly to benefit from its component-first approach, which is a core notion of MJML too, providing high extensibility to the end user!
No worries, you're right to bring it here. Ink by Zurb has been the first solution I used years ago as a developer myself to solve that tedious problem as you name it. While developing MJML it has been a great inspiration for us and can't wait what the coming V2 will bring!
Wish it could be that way but actually the HTML for email is a more complex, obsolete and not homogeneous one. Each major email clients (and smaller ones too) come with their own rendering engine, making things super hard for developers to learn and keep up-to-date, which is the reason we decided to create and open source MJML, providing a lightweight and semantic syntax along with a component based approach making it highly extensible.
Finding the right tools is so critical when you're trying to build big things by yourself. It can make a complete difference and enable you to focus on the core business vs chores.