Hurricane MTA Server can track the number of times a recipient opens your outbound email message and clicks through your links. This tracking functionality is only available in HTML messages.
How Does Open Tracking Work?
When the global tracking system is enabled and the open tracking option is also enabled on an account, Hurricane MTA Server scans HTML body parts of injected outbound email from that account for a tag. When it encounters one, it rewrites the tag like this:
Original Tag:
<HsTracking/>
Rewritten Tag:
<img src="http://<hurricane mta server address>/<encoded information>.gif" border="0" alt="" width="0" height="0" />
<hurricane mta server address>
This value is specified in the global Click/Open Tracking configuration and should be the public internet address of your Hurricane MTA Server.
<encoded information>
This value is encoded and will contain the Account ID, system Message ID, custom Message ID, and Mailing ID for the message.
When the message is loaded by a recipient's HTML email reader that displays remote images, a request is sent to your Hurricane MTA Server for the image. Hurricane MTA Server decodes the encoded information, adds the details into its logs, updates its statistical database, and calls any plugins which handle the tracking events. Hurricane MTA Server then returns a 5x5 pixel transparent .gif file that is displayed in your message. The image display should not affect the appearance of your message since it is transparent and sized at 0x0 pixels in the tag created by Hurricane MTA Server. It is recommended that you put the tag just before the closing body tag, however, to decrease the small chance that it will affect the display of your message.
How Does Click Tracking Work?
When the global tracking system is enabled and the click tracking option is also enabled on an account, Hurricane MTA Server scans HTML body parts of injected outbound email from that account for anchor tags with a HsTracking attribute. When it encounters one, it rewrites the tag like this:
Original Tag:
<a href="http://mysite.com/linkdestination/" HsTracking="true">Click Here</a>
Rewritten Tag:
<a href="http://<hurricane mta server address>/?r=<encoded information>">Click Here</a>
<hurricane mta server address>
This value is specified in the global Click/Open Tracking configuration and should be the public internet address of your Hurricane Server.
<encoded information>
This value is encoded and will contain the original href as well as the Account ID, system Message ID, custom Message ID, and Mailing ID for the outbound message.
When a recipient clicks the link in their HTML email reader, it directs them to your Hurricane MTA Server which decodes the encoded information, adds the details into its logs, updates its statistical database, and calls any plugins which handle the tracking events. Hurricane MTA Server then redirects them to the destination specified in the href attribute of the original anchor tag.