Go to main content

Textpattern CMS support forum

You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help

#1 2006-11-02 00:55:53

benbruce
Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-01-13
Posts: 328
Website

[archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Notice: There’s a new thread for Postmaster 0.4. Please use that thread from now on.

**********************************************************

Postmaster v0.3: A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager for Textpattern

It offers:

  • easy setup;
  • email-on-post right from the “write” tab;
  • bulk email capability (needs more testing — currently tested on a list of over 1200 emails — please report successes here);
  • unlimited lists;
  • robust subscription / unsubscription forms (using Zem_Contact_Reborn);
  • option for HTML emails that degrade gracefully to text versions;
  • extensive help;
  • and much more!

It has been tested successfully on Textpattern v4.0.3 and v4.0.4.

Get the plugin here [updated to v.0.3 1/14/2007]: http://www.benbruce.com/postmaster

Thanks,

  • Ben

________
UPDATES:

v0.3 — 1/14/2007

  • added “display=” for all parts of the article
  • added an optional “strip_html” attribute to the bab_pm_data custom tag which will allow a user to write an article once and get a textiled and a text version
  • fixed zem_contact / postmaster issues; added some capabilities
  • split the plugin into two parts: Postmaster and Postmaster_library
  • added an “end” type for the bab_pm_mime custom tag
  • fixed line break issue [sicher]
  • dropped the “4.0.4” designation from the version number — it’s too long and complicated [replaced it with a note in the documentation]
  • updated and moved the documentation to an external site

v0.2 — 11/10/2006

  • added HTML emails option [added a new custom tag to enter mime boundaries]
  • added a new custom tag to display the unsubscribe link [users can build their own unsubscribe line into their forms], with an option to display a text or an HTML version
  • added a small script to help NM or EOP users move their subscriber lists over to PM

There’s a new thread for Postmaster 0.4. Please use that thread from now on.

Last edited by benbruce (2008-01-15 00:10:22)

Offline

#2 2006-11-02 01:32:55

jamiew
Archived Plugin Author
From: NYC
Registered: 2005-01-08
Posts: 74
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Awesome release Ben!

Offline

#3 2006-11-02 13:52:29

rtxpn
Member
Registered: 2006-06-19
Posts: 11
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

I’ve just installed this and have not had a chance to test it but I wanted to immediately stop to thank you for such a well-organized help section for this plugin. I can’t wait to play with this when I have some time.

Offline

#4 2006-11-02 18:41:46

RussLipton
Member
From: Spokane, WA
Registered: 2005-02-17
Posts: 36

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Haven’t installed it yet but will in next couple of days. Meanwhile, just a word to say this is one of those plug-ins that is a show-stopper (in this case, show-enabler) for me with TxP across several sites. Knowing you’re a musician, I’m hoping to persuade my Austin musician son to adopt TxP, using your plugin to stay in touch with fans; will also be building a site for a musician here in Washington.

In fact, I wonder whether you couldn’t share ongoing development with one or two others? Easy to say, since I’m not up to it. There are a number of subtleties as well as sweet enhancements that might benefit, plus it would relieve you of some load and keep the plugin very current.

Not sure it wouldn’t be more trouble for you than it’s worth, of course. Then, there is always the ‘who’.

So, back to the thanks. Awesome!

Offline

#5 2006-11-03 18:05:14

brian.zollinhofer
Member
From: Virginia
Registered: 2006-07-10
Posts: 24
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

How could I apply this to add a checkbox to subscribe to a particular article next to the comment form? Then whenever someone adds a comment, the original commenter will be emailed. Is that a possibility with this?

Last edited by brian.zollinhofer (2006-11-03 18:05:56)


Zollinhofer.com

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
- Mark Twain

Offline

#6 2006-11-06 18:39:24

benbruce
Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-01-13
Posts: 328
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Russ,

I’m happy to “share” — Anyone who wants to make updates or changes may do so now (one can make changes to the code directly in a TXP installation). We can aggregate any changes folks share here in this thread and publish the “definitive” version. What kind of “sweet enhancements” are you wishing for?

I definitely think in terms of a musician keeping up with his fans — one trick in Postmaster is “cascading lists” which would make it easy to hit very targeted lists (playing a show in S. Austin? Lubbock?). Please share any successes you have with this (or problems).

Thanks.

Brian,

Postmaster cannot do what you want.

However, what you want seems doable. Broken into three parts, I see:

1) use Zem_Contact_Reborn for the checkbox on the comment form. Postmaster uses ZCR in this way and it’s surprisingly simple (and effective).

2) Recording the subscription. This would be something along the lines of recording the article id in a table somewhere, and then whenever the comments for that article id are updated, sending a mail to anyone who has that number recorded. Doable, but not through Postmaster.

3) Mailing to the list. For comment subscriptions, you’re probably not looking at too many subscribers at one time, so you might be able to get away with less complicated mailing.

In short, what you want can be done, but not by Postmaster. I offer the breakdown above to help you get what you need. In addition, much of Postmaster code could help with this, at least for ideas.

– Ben

Offline

#7 2006-11-06 19:01:30

mrdale
Member
From: Walla Walla
Registered: 2004-11-19
Posts: 2,215
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

This looks GREAT!

Thanks. You’ve really thought out the usability side of a Newsletter manager and I like the way that you have integrated it so tightly with TXP, not creating redundant admin pages for the user to learn. Great Job.

Any more thoughts on HTML? I have a need for HTML newsletter in the near future.

Offline

#8 2006-11-06 19:02:58

RussLipton
Member
From: Spokane, WA
Registered: 2005-02-17
Posts: 36

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Cascading lists is exactly what my musician friend here in Spokane has been looking for. Every successful musician (e.g., just-past-broke and playing shows in too many far-flung places) needs it.

Offline

#9 2006-11-07 07:13:23

benbruce
Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-01-13
Posts: 328
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Brian,

Does this help with what you want [ from the new Textpattern Resources Help ]:

There’s a handy “Subscribe to comments feed” link offerred for every article. Subscribe to this the same way you would subscribe to any RSS or Atom feed.

If you would like to receive updates via email instead, then visit RssFwd (or a similar service) and copy the comments feed URL into their subscription box.

Here is the plugin

Last edited by benbruce (2006-11-07 07:15:52)

Offline

#10 2006-11-08 05:09:49

benbruce
Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-01-13
Posts: 328
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

mrdale,

After reading your comment above and some of the comments in the NM thread, I couldn’t help thinking about the HTML bit sitting on the bus on the way home. I think I sketched out a pretty simple update, actually, that would allow HTML emails as an option.

So I’ll tinker with that a bit and see where that goes.

– Ben

Offline

#11 2006-11-08 07:52:09

mrdale
Member
From: Walla Walla
Registered: 2004-11-19
Posts: 2,215
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

Awesome news. Thanks bb

Offline

#12 2006-11-09 01:09:48

benbruce
Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-01-13
Posts: 328
Website

Re: [archived] Postmaster -- A simple email-on-post / newsletter manager

It worked. It was actually pretty simple. :)

I need some time to polish it up and update the help file, then I’ll get a new version posted.

– Ben

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB