The following article breaks down the Registered Receipt email into its basic components, with an explanation of each in greater detail. The sections covered in this article are:
- Message Header
- Receipt Attachments
- Receipt Authentication Address
- Delivery Status Section
- Message Envelope
- Message Statistics
- Delivery Audit Trail
Message Header
It includes:
- Subject: Receipt: <Original email subject>
- From (friendly name): Receipt
- From email address: receipt@r1.rpost.net
- To: Sender's email address
Receipt Attachments
It includes:
- The DeliveryReceipt.xml file: This attachment contains the information inside the Registered Receipt email in XML format.
- The HtmlReceipt.htm file: This attachment allows the sender to view the Registered Receipt email in a web browser. This file also contains a copy of the receipt, all the transmission data and the message content in an authentication-ready cryptographically sealed data format. This attachment is required to verify the receipt.
Receipt Authentication Address
To authenticate a Registered Receipt email, the receipt must be forwarded by email, along with the HtmlReceipt.htm attachment, to verify@r1.rpost.net.
Delivery Status Section
- Address Column: This column lists all the addresses the RMail message was sent to, including the Bcc recipients.
- Status Column: RMail uses algorithms to translate the SMTP and additional transmission data for a clear indication of the status of the message. The delivery status is unique for each recipient with one of four statuses available:
. Delivered and Opened: This status means the email was opened between the time the email was delivered to the recipient and the time the Registered Receipt email was issued. If an email is opened after the receipt is issued and within 30-days the email was sent, the sender may receive an Open Receipt. This is the highest level of delivery.
. Delivered to Mailbox: This status means the email was received by the recipient’s mail system and placed in the partition of the mail server where the recipient collects email. This is the second highest level of delivery.
. Delivered/Relayed to Mail Server: This status means the message was delivered, and accepted, by the recipient’s authorized agent for collecting Internet email. This is the baseline for delivery of an email.
. Delivery Failure: This is the only non-delivery status. The email was unable to be delivered to the recipient. Possible reasons for this status include but not limited to the following:
The recipient mailbox is full
The email was sent to a bad address
The email was too large for the recipient’s set maximum size
The recipient’s email system is down at the time of receiving
- Details Column: This column lists the highlights from the recorded server information to give the sender additional information as to what status is shown in the Status column.
When the status is Delivered and Opened, the open detection methods will be one or both of the following:
. MUA: The recipient’s Mail User Agent (Outlook or other) was used to detect the email was opened.
. HTTP: The RMail web call-out (US Patents 9,432,313; 8,161,104, among others) was used to detect the email was opened
- Delivered (UTC) Column: This is the time the email was accepted as delivered by the recipient’s mail system in the UTC time zone. The UTC time is short for the Coordinated Universal Time described here http://www.rmail.com/resources/coordinated-universal-time/
- Delivered (local) Column: This is the time the email was accepted as delivered by the recipient’s mail system in the time zone of the sender’s mail system.
- Opened (local) Column: This is the time the email was detected as being opened in the sender’s local time zone. Note: Not all emails will be detected as opened, even if the recipient opens the email.
Click here to learn more about the difference between UTC and Local times
Message Envelope
It includes:
- From: This is the sender’s email address
- Subject: This is the sender’s email subject
- To: Recipients in the sender’s “To” field
- Cc: Recipients in the sender’s “Cc” field
- Bcc: Recipients in the sender’s “Bcc” field
- Network ID: This is the sender’s network server identification address
- Received by the RMail System: This is the time the email was received by the RPost Cloud and the same time as the Received by RMail time located in the Acknowledgement email.
Note: This time is typically seconds earlier than the Delivered (UTC) time located in the Delivery Status section of the receipt.
- Client Code: If a sender assigns a Client/Reference code to the email at the time of sending, the code will be located in this row.
Message Statistics
It includes:
- Tracking Number: This is a unique number assigned and used to identify this specific transaction. There are no two Message IDs that are the same.
- Message Size: This is the cumulative size of the email body and all attachments in bytes.
- Features Used: The RMail features used for a specific message and are displayed with icons. A full list of features used may be viewed here: https://www.rmail.com/support/featuresused/
Note: Icons will also be displayed in the Details column of the Delivery Status section of the receipt for all RMail messages sent except when sent as Track & Prove - Marked as a Registered Email message.
- File Size: This displays the size of each attachment.
- File Name: This displays a list of all attachments with file type extensions
Delivery Audit Trail
The Delivery Audit Trail is a statement of fact of the pathway of the message from the RMail system to the recipients’ servers. It records the SMTP and Extended SMTP dialog between the RMail registration servers and the recipient’s network. It is then translated so that the sender knows what happened in the Delivery Status section, with the details and the time stamps.