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WordPress on Azure AppService - Email Integration

Microsoft

Aug 03, 2023

The email feature in WordPress is crucial for effective communication and user engagement. WordPress websites often require communication with users for various purposes, such as user registrations, password resets, campaigns, and contact form submissions etc. WordPress on App Service has been integrated with Azure Email Communication service to enable email feature.

The email Integration with WordPress on Azure App Service can be achieved in 2 ways:

Newly created sites: Email integration is enabled and configured out of the box.
Existing WordPress sites: It needs an explicit integration setup as per the steps outlined below.

1. Configuring Email with New WordPress Websites

Create WordPress site from WordPress on App Service | Azure portal
To enhance the user experience, we have enabled email support for all the SKUs (Basic/Standard/Premium) by default.
As a default option, we offer an Azure managed domain for sending emails from WordPress sites. This seamless integration allows you to easily send emails without the need for additional setup. If you wish to use custom domains with your ACS email addresses, please follow the instructions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/communication-services/quickstarts/email/add-custom-verified-domains
Below are the Communication Service resources created as part of this deployment: Azure Communication Service, Email Communication Service, Email Communication Domain

2. Configuring Email with Existing WordPress Websites

Prerequisites: As a user, you already have an active Azure subscription and an active WordPress site hosted on Azure App Service.

(Note: For all the create references below, execute the steps till create/ connect only and do not execute delete/ disconnect actions.)

Create the Azure Communication Resource following quick start guide
Create the Email communication Resource following the quick start guide
Add Azure managed domain to email communication service following the quick start guide.
Connect the azure managed domain with azure communication service resource following the quick start guide
Go to Azure communication service resource and navigate to keys blade and save the primary key and resource endpoint for later use.

Go to the Azure email managed domain resource, navigate to MailFrom Addresses blade. Click Add, add the MailFrom address and save it.

7. Enable managed identity authentication for Azure Communication Services Email

Part 1: Enable managed identity to access ACS Email resource

A. Go to Communication service resource > Access Control (IAM)

B. Click on ‘+Add’ and ‘Add role assignment’

C. Select Privileged administrator roles > Contributor

D. Assign access to ‘Managed identity’. Click on ‘+ Select members’. Select the managed identity created in Step 1. Click on ‘Select’.

E. Click on ‘Review + assign’

Part 2: Add Environment variables

Go to App Service resource > Settings > Environment variables.
Add this application setting:

ENABLE_EMAIL_MANAGED_IDENTITY

true

Note that ENTRA_CLIENT_ID is a crucial environment variable for setting up ACS Email with managed identity. The details are omitted here as they are already covered in the MySQL configuration section. If you are configuring managed identity solely for ACS Email or have skipped the MySQL configuration, ensure you do not overlook this step.

Download the App service email plugin from here: Click here.
Go to WordPress Admin Dashboard, navigate to plugins tab and then click on add new plugin.
Click on Upload Plugin and upload the App service Email plugin zip file (downloaded in above step).
Install and activate the plugin.

After installing and activating the App service email plugin, your email setup is fully configured and ready to be utilized for sending emails from your WordPress website.

Note: If you wish to use custom domains with your ACS email addresses, please follow the instructions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/communication-services/quickstarts/email/add-custom-verified-domains, and here: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/communication-services/quickstarts/email/add-azure-managed-domains

Support and Feedback

In case you need any support, you can open a support request at New support request - Microsoft Azure.

If you have any ideas about how we can make WordPress on Azure App Service better, please post your ideas at Post idea · Community (azure.com) You can report an issue in Github

or you could email us at wordpressonazure@microsoft.com to start a conversation.

Updated Feb 04, 2025

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Microsoft

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Trevor90
Copper Contributor
Jul 19, 2024
If anyone has issues with the error "Invalid format for email address:" when using a contact form, the fix is as follows: Do not enter an email address in the from field, the plugin will deal with the from field and take it from the ECS Domain mailfrom addresses setting.

You do need something in the "From Name" field.

I can confirm that it works with Elementor Pro and Wordpress 6.5
bmanjwani
Microsoft
Apr 18, 2024
folio1 We've made updated the plugin's functionality to accommodate attachments. However, as of now, it doesn't support the Contact Form 7 plugin for sending emails with attachments. But we've added it to our backlog for implementation. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we'll keep you updated on our progress.
folio1
Copper Contributor
Apr 11, 2024
Hi RadhikaB

Have you experienced any troubles or issues in sending attachments?
Currently, using the form builder plugin Contact Form 7.
The email is received successfully but without attachment, and the Azure email logs status success.

The current repo doesn't recommend a form builder plugin for WordPress unfortunately but the Contact Form 7 plugin is quite popular and very easy to use and configure.

wordpress-linux-appservice/WordPress/wordpress_email_integration.md at main · Azure/wordpress-linux-appservice (github.com)
Currently using the image appsvc/wordpress-alpine-php
bmanjwani
Microsoft
Jan 02, 2024
LukeEds Based on the error message, it appears that emails are not being sent due to an empty or missing recipient address ('to' field). If you are configuring email with new WordPress site, email setup will be fully configured and ready to consume.
You can connect with us on github(Azure/wordpress-linux-appservice (github.com) and provide more details so that we can understand your issue and help accordingly.
LukeEds
Copper Contributor
Jan 01, 2024
After verifying all configuration is as required, I am having a situation where most WordPress plugins do not send any messages out. The error message in the email logs is: Request body validation error. See property 'recipients.-1'

"az communication email send" Bash test commands work, "Try Email" test messages from the Azure portal work, Forms created in the Elementor editor work, but any other form using different plug ins (many tested) do not work, give the above mentioned error.

Is there a more in depth email debugger capability for the Azure WordPress "App Service Email" plugin?
Tony_Millar
Copper Contributor
Sep 14, 2023
Good afternoon RadhikaB , I just wanted to follow up on this, I have raised a git hub issue but have not had any response yet, so please let me know if you need anything else from me.

I have also enabled debugging which I have put in the github issue.

Do you have any update on a new plugin you mentioned a few weeks ago?

Thanks in advance

Tony
RadhikaB
Microsoft
Sep 08, 2023
damian367 - Have you changed the Application setting - Sender Name pointing to your custom domain as described here:

Go the App service resource-> Configuration-> Application Settings and add this new Application setting in the below format.
Name: WP_EMAIL_CONNECTION_STRING.

Value: “endpoint=<endpoint>;senderaddress=< sender-address>;accesskey=<access-key>”

Note: Replace <endpoint> and <access-key> with the Azure communication service endpoint and primary key mentioned in step 5 ; replace <sender-address > with MailFrom Address mentioned in step 6.
damian367
Copper Contributor
Sep 04, 2023
Hi all, sorry for the delay, I think I know what the issue was. I set up a new Comms and email resources and added a single custom domain. Tested this in cli and worked without issue. When testing the email service bundled with wordpress on app it was using the azure manged domain and not recognising the provisioned custom domain as added to the Comms service.
RadhikaB
Microsoft
Aug 31, 2023
damian367 Please refer to this for setting up a custom domain How to add custom verified domains to Email Communication Service - An Azure Communication Services quick start guide | Microsoft Learn or you can leverage Support and help options for Azure Communication Services | Microsoft Learn. You can connect with us on github(Azure/wordpress-linux-appservice (github.com) so that we can have a live session with you to understand your issue and help accordingly.
damian367
Copper Contributor
Aug 30, 2023
Hi all,

Many thanks for the article - very helpful - up to a point 🙂 Working fine with an Azure Managed Domain - no issues at all - this is a site that has been migrated over and using a custom domain - which is all working without issue - apart from Contact Form email.

I have an email account that is being posted to which is working fine - Configured the Custom Domain within the context of the Comms Service and all is registered but WP is not sending anything from the registered fromMailboxes (went initially with the default of donotreply).

Any tips - do I need to amend anything - updated the WP_Email_Connection_String to the custom domain from address as the comm endpoint is the same. no luck, reverted to the Azure Managed and works fine. Just wondering if there are any steps i need to perform within the App Configuration or the WP Instance - any help would be greatly appreciated. Have reverted as a work around to the azure managed domain but fear that the email address it is coming from will not be recognised by the visitors as its a guid and will be treated as spam.

Again - many thanks for the initial article - certainly helped me get to this point in the debugging and was very well written.

Kind regards,

Damian