Smart Mail Router

Multiple providers and flexible routing

• Configure several SMTP connections with independent settings and sending limits.
• Select a primary provider and ordered backups by name.
• Start with a default route for all remaining email, then add account/security or notification/digest routes.
• Match an individual email type, an exact recipient domain or only its subdomains.
• Combine conditions and change rule precedence with move controls; the first matching enabled rule wins.
• Check a route using a friendly email selector and recipient address, without sending mail.

Sending limits, failover and a persistent queue

• Set optional limits over rolling 60-minute and 24-hour windows.
• Count recipient submission attempts, including retries, against the selected provider’s limit.
• Defer emails when capacity is unavailable and process them later through XenForo jobs.
• Try backups after eligible temporary failures; use cooldowns for repeatedly failing providers.
• Retain queued mail across interrupted workers and supported XenForo 2.2 to 2.3 transitions.
• Process account/security mail with higher scheduling priority while continuing to give waiting bulk/other mail a turn.
• Stop expired security messages from being submitted after their recorded deadline.

Friendly setup and email categories

• Four-step provider selection, connection check, route selection and review.
• Import an existing password-based XenForo SMTP configuration or enter a new connection.
• Use standard verified STARTTLS or implicit TLS choices; keep custom connection settings available when needed.
• Choose a default provider and optionally a separate provider for notifications and digests.
• Search email types and choose Automatic, Account & security, Notifications & digests or Other.
• Reset one category or confirm a reset of all custom categories.
• Keep existing custom rules and show their precedence during setup review.

Monitoring and maintenance

• Queue counts, oldest waiting mail, provider health and worker status on the overview.
• Per-provider accepted, failed and uncertain SMTP attempt totals for the last 24 hours.
• Queue filters, plain-language waiting reasons and an attempt history for individual recipients.
• Explicit connection tests and guided next actions for connection problems.
• Pause/resume delivery and a mode that finishes existing queued mail while new mail uses normal XenForo sending.
• Retry only eligible unexpired failures with retained content; acknowledge possible duplicates where required.
• Confirmation before removing providers/rules, cancelling mail or resetting all categories.

Message integrity and data protection

• Preserve message content, attachments, stable Message-ID, sender/reply-to details, unsubscribe headers and DKIM processing.
• Track each envelope recipient separately so accepted recipients are not resent when another recipient needs a retry.
• Exclude Bcc from transmitted message headers.
• Encrypt saved credentials, queued content and recipient envelope data using authenticated encryption.
• Mask recipient addresses in ACP lists and keep message bodies, passwords and SMTP transcripts out of attempt logs.
• Protect management actions with administrator permissions, CSRF checks and sanitized audit logging.

1. Install and grant administrator access

Install the supplied add-on archive through Add-ons → Install/upgrade from archive. For a manual installation, upload the archive’s upload contents into the XenForo root and install DC/SmartMailRouter from the Add-ons page.

Grant Manage Smart Mail Router to administrators who will configure providers and manage mail. Open Setup → Smart mail router. Routing starts disabled.

2. Choose an email provider

Open Guided setup. Select an existing provider, import your forum’s SMTP configuration or add a new provider. For a new connection, enter the mail server and account details supplied by your email provider.

Choose verified STARTTLS on port 587 or implicit TLS on port 465 when your provider supports that configuration. Custom ports and encryption settings remain available. Set sending limits below your provider’s allowance if other applications use the same account.

3. Check the connection

Send a test email to an address you control. A successful test confirms SMTP acceptance and makes the provider available for setup. Select Use this provider if it is still disabled, then continue. Tests consume quota; setup does not send them automatically.

4. Choose and review your routes

Select a default provider and optional backups. If desired, choose a separate provider and backups for notifications and digests. Explicitly select an existing default or bulk rule when reusing one.

Review the provider order and any existing rules before enabling routing. Earlier matching rules continue to take precedence. The guide saves its final routing choices and activation together.

5. Keep automatic categories or customize them

Open Router settings → Email categories. Automatic is appropriate for normal use. Search for an email type and select a different category only when you want it to follow another route. Use automatic restores the default for one type.

Welcome and administrator-prepared emails share an underlying template. A custom category for that shared type applies to both; Automatic uses the sending context.

6. Run mail jobs reliably

Ask your host to run XenForo jobs every minute from the forum directory. A typical command is:

php cmd.php xf:run-jobs --max-execution-time=55

Check the Overview for waiting mail and worker warnings. A queue cannot progress reliably if scheduled jobs are not running. Quotas cover only this installation’s router attempts, not other applications using the same account.

7. Check routing and monitor the queue

Use Check an email route to select an email type and enter an example recipient address. The result explains the matched rule and provider availability without submitting mail. For the shared welcome/administrator email type, choose the sending context.

Use Mail queue to inspect waiting or failed messages. Correct connection problems before retrying. Expired messages and failures whose content has been removed cannot be retried. A possible-duplicate warning means an earlier SMTP submission may already have succeeded.

Updates and removal

Upgrade through XenForo’s Add-ons page using a verified release archive. Stored router messages use a portable format intended to remain readable across supported XenForo 2.2 to 2.3 upgrades. Existing native XenForo queues remain subject to XenForo’s own upgrade behavior.

Before uninstalling, finish or cancel waiting/in-flight deliveries. Normal uninstall is blocked while these deliveries exist. Disabling the add-on preserves pending router records; re-enabling resumes them subject to the router mode and pause setting.