Email and SMS

Solvo sends every email and SMS through one pipeline: pick a template → fill it with the platform's or the school's details → save it to the outbox → hand it to the engine you connected. Every message is logged, failures retry on their own, and you can see exactly what was sent.

1. Connect an email engine

Super Admin → Email & SMS engines. Choose an engine, paste the details it asks for, save, then use Send test email. Keys are encrypted before they are stored.

Set the From name, From email and Reply-to on the same page. The From address must be on a domain you have verified with the engine.

Deliverability checklist: add the SPF and DKIM records your engine gives you to your domain's DNS, add a DMARC record (v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:you@yourdomain), and send from an address on that domain. Most "emails go to spam" problems are a missing DKIM record.

2. Connect an SMS gateway

Same page, lower card. Every gateway asks for a default country code (Kenya: 254), used to turn local numbers like 0712 345 678 into +254712345678.

Then use Send test SMS. SMS templates avoid characters that force Unicode encoding, so a 160-character message costs one credit; the editor shows the character and segment count as you type.

3. Templates

Email & SMS templates lists every template by category, with its audience, channels and whether it has been customised. There are 44 email and 37 SMS templates:

• Account: welcome, password reset, password changed, one-time code
• Billing (platform → schools): signup complete, school welcome, trial ending, subscription invoice, payment received, overdue, suspended
• Fees: invoice, reminder, payment receipt, instalment plan created, instalment due, instalment paid
• Academics: absence alert, report card published, exam results, assignment posted, live class
• Admissions: application received, status update, offer, new application (to the school)
• Communication: announcement, new message, event invitation
• School life: library overdue, payslip ready, transport assignment, election open, alumni donation receipt
• Enquiries: contact form received (to the team), auto-reply (to the sender)
• Live chat: new conversation, reply while away, transcript
• Affiliates: application received, approved, commission paid
• System: general notice, test message

Editing

Open a template to edit the subject, preheader (the grey preview line in the inbox) and body, with a live preview on the right. Click a variable in the list to insert it. Send test sends the current draft to you with sample data. Reset to default removes your changes.

• Super Admin edits the platform-wide versions. Changes apply to every school that hasn't customised that template.
• School Admin sees the school templates (fees, attendance, admissions …) and can customise any of them for their own school only. Turning a template off stops that message for the school.

Template language

Always available: platform_name, brand_name (the school's name on school emails, otherwise the platform's), brand_email, brand_phone, brand_address, brand_website, brand_whatsapp, login_url, year and recipient_name. Each template lists its own extra variables in the editor.

How branding is chosen

• Platform emails (billing, affiliates, enquiries to the platform) use the platform's name, logo, colours and contacts from Branding & payments.
• School emails use the school's name, logo, brand colours, address, phone, email, website and social links — falling back to the platform's for anything the school hasn't filled in.
• The header uses the dark logo on a dark header and the light logo on a light header, so the logo is always readable. Upload both variants for best results.
• The footer carries the address, contacts, social links and, for schools, an optional footer note.

4. Per-school sender settings

School Admin → Sender settings: sender name, reply-to address and an email footer note. A school can also connect its own email engine and SMS gateway (handy if it already pays for a bulk SMS sender ID); otherwise it uses the platform's — recommended, nothing to set up.

5. The outbox and message log

Every message lands in the outbox first (comm_outbox). Interactive messages (password resets, receipts) are sent straight away; bulk sends (reminders, invoices) are queued.

scripts/process_outbox.php — run it every 5 minutes from cron — sends queued messages and retries failures after 5 minutes, 30 minutes and 2 hours. Message log shows recipient, template, engine, status and the exact email or SMS as received, with a Retry button for failures.

Statuses: queued, sent, failed (after the last retry), suppressed (the demo edition, which never sends real messages).

6. For developers

// Send a template (school branding when school_id is set, platform branding otherwise)
Comms::email('fee_payment_receipt', $guardian['email'], [
    'recipient_name' => $guardian['full_name'],
    'student_name'   => 'Brian Muthoni',
    'amount'         => 'KES 4,800.00',
], ['school_id' => $schoolId, 'related_type' => 'payment', 'related_id' => $paymentId]);

Comms::sms('fee_payment_receipt', $guardian['phone'], $vars, ['school_id' => $schoolId]);

// Queue instead of sending now (picked up by process_outbox.php)
Comms::email('fee_reminder', $to, $vars, ['school_id' => $schoolId, 'queue' => true]);

New templates go in core/Comms/TemplateLibrary.php (key, name, category, audience, sample variables, email subject/preheader/body and SMS text). New engines implement one method in core/Comms/MailDrivers.php or core/Comms/SmsDrivers.php plus an entry in that file's catalog().