• by Ray Schultz , October 26, 2017

SparkPost has introduced an open-source email development tool called HEML.

The offering, which allows users to code responsive emails, is one of several "standalone, platform-agnostic developer tools available for free in the email space," the company says.  

"Modern emails are achieving levels of interactively and kinetics that were impossible in the inbox only a few years ago," says Josh Aberant, CMO of SparkPost. "This new state of responsive design is difficult to code and is made particularly complex by the different capabilities of inbox providers. HEML provides an easy and familiar to code HTML-like language that outputs inbox specific CSS based code for all the major inbox providers."

SparkPost decided that the tool was needed based on its own experience.

"As developers ourselves, we've seen firsthand the challenges faced by developers as they begin working with email and we knew we could help,” states said Avi Goldman, developer advocate at SparkPost. 

He adds that “anyone can use the code in whatever way they want.” 

According to SparkPost, HEML uses CSS for styling and looks like HTML. It solves the “tangential pain point” of writing responsive HTML emails, and leads to email-ready HTML, the firm continues. 

The tool also allows developers to pursue progressive enhancements.

HEML will be available on the SparkPost Email Tools page. It also can be downloaded via the Github site, where it is published under an MIT license. And it will be available for installation via the node package manager. NPM. Finally, there is an online editor available at http://heml.io/editor. 

SparkPost, an infrastructure provider, offers a cloud-based email delivery service.