Sending an Email Asynchronously Through a Web API

Programmers come into terms with asynchronous code while working on technologies like Ajax requests and JavaScript. To speak the truth async has been in the contention since the early days of programming. Gradually async has made giant strides to assume the stature of a well-established standard in web development.

If you are desirous of using a web API for sending email asynchronously or if you prefer to know more about async then this post is going to help for sure.

Before beginning the discussion on the usage of web API for sending email asynchronously, it is worthwhile to have an elementary idea of programming asynchronously.  

A close look at asynchronous programming

It is a form of parallel programming where the process has the provision of running separately without depending on the main application thread and the calling thread is notified of its status either progress, success, or failure.

The methodology of asynchronous programming can be briefly explained under the following points:

• Issue a statement
• Complete other tasks as you wait for the statement to complete
• Thereafter run a callback function when completed(Callback is a way of letting the program know  the codes that have to be executed once the request is complete)

The opposite counterpart of asynchronous programming is the synchronous one. It implies handling tasks synchronously or waiting unless preceding tasks are completed.  You can think of it as

• Issue the statement
• Await the response
• Go to the next statement

A common application of asynchronous programming

If you wish to reduce the waiting time for your users then asynchronous task handling can be advantageous. For instance, asynchronous programming can be used when a user registers or sign up for your service.

When the user completes the signing up formalities you will prefer to grant access to the right tools. To sum up there are several things that need to happen asynchronously behind the hood:

• Making the HTTP requests
• Storing the data in the database
• Synching user data with your application that sends a welcome email

When you handle these tasks asynchronously, the user does not have to wait for getting access to your service.

Using a Web API to Send Email Asynchronously

Contemporary web applications are extensively used for sending transactional emails like links for resetting passwords, welcome emails, invoices, and in-app notifications. In due course of time, the application is likely to scale up. Under the given circumstances, sending voluminous transaction emails at once may cause a bottleneck in the application, which will be detrimental to the user experience. For example, the application can hang up for a few seconds or even undergo connection timeouts.

The scenarios discussed above are just some of the situations when sending emails asynchronously from your application can be useful. You accomplish this task with email sending APIs and pre-built libraries.

These days you can find plenty of libraries on the internet for programming languages like C#, PHP, and Java. These libraries may feature asynchronous methods that will be calling injection API on a background thread.