Email Countdown Timer with Next.js API Routes & Cloudinary
In this article, we will explore how to create an email countdown timer using Next.js API routes and Cloudinary. Email countdown timers are a great way to create a sense of urgency and drive conversions in email marketing campaigns. By using Next.js API routes and Cloudinary, we can create a dynamic and visually appealing countdown timer that can be embedded directly into our email templates.
Setting Up Next.js API Routes
First, we need to set up a Next.js project and create an API route to generate the countdown timer image. We can use the `getServerSideProps` method in Next.js to create a server-side rendered API route that will generate the countdown timer image dynamically.
“`html
// pages/api/countdown.js
import { createCanvas } from 'canvas';
export default async function handler(req, res) {
const canvas = createCanvas(200, 100);
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
// Generate the countdown timer image using canvas API
// ...
// Convert the canvas to a data URL
const dataURL = canvas.toDataURL();
res.writeHead(200, {
'Content-Type': 'image/png'
});
res.end(dataURL);
}
“`
Using Cloudinary for Image Hosting
Next, we can use Cloudinary to host and serve the generated countdown timer image. Cloudinary is a cloud-based image management solution that provides a simple way to upload, store, and deliver images via API. We can upload the countdown timer image to Cloudinary and use the provided URL to embed it into our email templates.
“`html
// Upload the countdown timer image to Cloudinary
cloudinary.v2.uploader.upload('path/to/countdown.png', function(error, result) {
if (error) {
console.error(error);
} else {
const imageURL = result.url;
// Use the imageURL to embed the countdown timer into email templates
// ...
}
});
“`
Embedding the Countdown Timer into Email Templates
Finally, we can use the generated URL from Cloudinary to embed the countdown timer into our email templates. We can use standard HTML and CSS to style the countdown timer and customize its appearance to fit our brand’s design.
“`html
“`
By following these steps, we can create a dynamic and visually appealing email countdown timer using Next.js API routes and Cloudinary. This approach allows us to generate the countdown timer image dynamically and host it on a reliable cloud-based image management platform, providing a seamless experience for both email marketers and recipients.
With the email countdown timer in place, we can effectively create a sense of urgency and drive conversions in our email marketing campaigns, ultimately leading to increased engagement and sales.
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really good tutorial I learn a lot off you thks mate
Great video! Definitely some techniques here that will help me build a similar email send function but I want to grab new posts from a blog CMS and send a newsletter. I had been struggling with how to grab that data and pass it to the react-email template since there are awaits and async actions happening that react-email can't handle but I think your approach of using an API route might work the better!
Learnt a couple tips from here. Didn't know that was how Gmail caching works
This is so cool