[archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

skoggy · 2006-01-14 20:28:59

> benbruce wrote:
> Skoggy, I think I fixed the character issue — haven’t had time to test. Let me know if that did the trick.

~~Yes, it did~~ :) But it looks like the registerform died after upgrade. But it may be my own fault and something I messed while editing…. ~~But the character issue is hereby solved.~~

Edit: Correction. It almost work. The characters are correctly shown in mail but when saved to my archive section they are replaced by ? (in article). Perhaps you forgot that?

Last edited by skoggy (2006-01-14 20:49:06)

Adam · 2006-01-16 01:48:07

Ben,

Everything is working like a charm except for the unsubscribe part of the script. I have placed the unsubscribe tag in a page and put the URI to that page in the appropriate field, but when I test the ability to unsubscribe through the email, I am sent to a 404.

The page and section are named ‘unsubscribe’. The link that shows at the bottom of an email goes something like this: http://www.example.com/unsubscribe&email=default@default.com

Anybody know what’s wrong?

squaredeye · 2006-01-16 04:18:44

Ben,
Feature request: (this may be way out there), though I know many folks in the community are interested in this sort of thing.

Is there any way for this plugin to interact with the database to know when a new article has been posted, and then to email the subscribers some portion of the article information (ie: author, title, excerpt, time, etc.)

Essentially this is handled by other sites like feedblitz.com by notifying subscribers when a certain RSS or Atom feed has been updated.

I thought it was worth a shot. This plugin looks like one of the greats, and its your first post, well done.
Also, my compliments on some really well written help files in the plugin. That can be a second thought for some plugin devs. but you really gave it the gusto this plugin deserves :)

Matthew

colak · 2006-01-16 07:34:44

<blockquote> ma_smith wrote:

> Ben,
Feature request: (this may be way out there), though I know many folks in the community are interested in this sort of thing.

Is there any way for this plugin to interact with the database to know when a new article has been posted, and then to email the subscribers some portion of the article information (ie: author, title, excerpt, time, etc.)

Essentially this is handled by other sites like feedblitz.com by notifying subscribers when a certain RSS or Atom feed has been updated.

I thought it was worth a shot. This plugin looks like one of the greats, and its your first post, well done.
Also, my compliments on some really well written help files in the plugin. That can be a second thought for some plugin devs. but you really gave it the gusto this plugin deserves :)</blockquote>

Matthew,
It’s a good request except maybe it should have an option to send the email on admin determined intervals as well as section specific rss. some people might not like a daily mail in their post. Maybe the way to do it is for the plugin to send mail once every 10 posts or whatever the feed limit is on a per site basis.

Jeremie · 2006-01-16 07:58:18

A note: mailing list softwares handle this (it’s called digest). Maybe one can use a ML software to handle massive email sending (I’m not sure how apache/php/smtp-postfixLike/MX friendly the plugin is), and handle digest (one mail every day/week/month containing all the new articles) too.

squaredeye · 2006-01-16 13:06:16

Perhaps it could be an option, because for some, who follow blogs for instance, you want to check in regularly – especially if the blogger isn’t super prolific (ie: a family blog or something along that order)

If I can help look into this, I’d like to.

Jeremie, Thanks for the info:

M

alexandra · 2006-01-16 13:16:59

Anybody having the plugin working on his/her site and likes to publish the link?

Jeremie · 2006-01-16 14:59:38

Not without sorting my “privs” issue. I soon as I (or someone else) find an answer, yep I will live test it on prod.

benbruce · 2006-01-16 17:13:14

Hey all,

I’m working on an update that will allow HTML and Text emails (gracefully degrading) or just text, with the option to archive either; fixing the character issue; setting up the Tables better; adding more preferences including some “language control”; and more. Once those updates are finished, we can look into some more features.

As to the “mail when an article is posted,” as far as I can figure it this would have to be a mod, and not a plugin. I don’t know of any way for the plugin to “know” when an article is posted — but you could certainly insert some of the “bab_mail” code into your txp_article function [actually changing your txp code] so that when an article is posted, a mail goes out to subscribers.

Adam, about you’re unsubscribe issue: I think the url you have entered into the field is not correct. You say … The page and section are named ‘unsubscribe’. The link that shows at the bottom of an email goes something like this: http://www.example.com/unsubscribe&email=default@default.com

The first part of the unsubscribe address should be the url directly to the individual article you’ve placed the tag in. So on my test, it’s like this:

Unsubscribe: http://www.benbruce.com/index.php?id=77&email=tester@benbruce.com

Try surfing to the individual article that you placed the unsubscribe form onto and copying the url and pasting it into the field in the Preferences. That SHOULD work.

Jeremie, sorry for the late response to your “privs” issue. If anyone else sorts it out, please post here, otherwise I’ll get to it after the current round of updates are done.

– Ben

squaredeye · 2006-01-16 19:02:50

>As to the “mail when an article is posted,” as far as I can figure it this would have to be a mod, and not a plugin. I don’t know of any way for the plugin to “know” when an article is posted — but you could certainly insert some of the “bab_mail” code into your txp_article function [actually changing your txp code] so that when an article is posted, a mail goes out to subscribers.

Ben,
When you are finished with some of those other requests, I’d be interested to know if you would be willing to look at what a mod like that might look like. I’m not strong in php, but I think a lot of folks would be interested in seeing how this could come together. Perhaps I could help you do some research? Let me know what to find out, and I’ll go looking for it.

Matthew

steventer · 2006-01-16 19:52:10

Nice start to a plugin which I think will be used by many people.

But:

1. ZIP has to go
2. How do I add my 1000+ existing subscribers?
3. I’ve entered my “preferences” and sent a test email, worked no problems, but when clicking on preferences tab again, the fields are all empty, although the preferences are still saved, because a second test email was successfully sent… (OK: now I see that values are visible on dashboard tab…)

Nice work; I’ll definitely start using it when these probs/bugs are sorted.

Steve

Last edited by steventer (2006-01-16 19:53:32)

benbruce · 2006-01-17 06:15:49

Just a quick update: I’m finishing up a new and improved version of the Newsletter Manager, that I think resolves most of the issues brought up in this thread, including the character issue, the “zip” issue, text and HTML emails that gracefully degrade to text, the “privs” issue, language control and more.

I have a meeting all day 1/17 so I probably won’t be able to get it finished until sometime in the evening 1/18, but you never know.

– Ben

PS. As for 1000 + subscribers — take a look at Sencer’s comment in the initial post. Without some heavy duty work on the “mail function” of this script, 1000 is too many. You’ll need something more robust.

PPS. As for the “mail on posting new article” question, the mod I could envision — and again, I haven’t really thought this all the way through — but you would basically find the place in txp_article where the article is posted, and insert the bones of the bab_mail function in there, so at the time you posted a new article, the text [or some portion of it] would be mailed to your subscribers.

If someone else wants to give it a go, have at it, otherwise sometime down the line I’ll take a crack at it [though of course, I think generally the emphasis is on plugins and not mods].

Last edited by benbruce (2006-01-18 23:57:44)

Zanza · 2006-01-17 09:47:16

Great work so far. :)

Never thought about having different newsletter? One can have a newsletter for the editor group of site, and one for users. That is: two or more different lists of addresses, and the choice to select which one we send the NL.

Another benefit would be the capability of add email address via admin interface, and/or by uploading a txt file with one address per row (to import lists from different NL programs).

Very good work, anyway! I’m looking forward the language control, it would be great! :)

Z-

squaredeye · 2006-01-17 13:11:14

Ben,
As you suggested, we are emphasizing use of plugins. If you don’t believe this can be done with a plugin, then I would probably stray from the idea. If however you do, I am up for paying a little ransom for something like this, and would be willing to try to drum up a little commotion to see if I could get others on board.)

Thanks for considering.

Matthew

vinterstille · 2006-01-18 10:17:11

Great plugin – it would be nice if I could set properties in the admin like: Invite text, submit button text etc. instead of having to edit the plugin to get localization.
I would also be willing to pay a little ransom if it would help speed up development :)

update: The subscribe form works fine, the name and adress is registered in the database, but when i create a newsletter and send it, the admin panel tells me that the newsletter is sent, but none of the subscribers recieve the email. When I do a test newsletter, I recieve the newsletter, so I guess its not a server problem… Any ideas?

Last edited by vinterstille (2006-01-18 10:31:58)

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#16 2006-01-14 20:28:59

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#17 2006-01-16 01:48:07

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#18 2006-01-16 04:18:44

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#19 2006-01-16 07:34:44

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#20 2006-01-16 07:58:18

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#21 2006-01-16 13:06:16

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#22 2006-01-16 13:16:59

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#23 2006-01-16 14:59:38

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#24 2006-01-16 17:13:14

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#25 2006-01-16 19:02:50

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#26 2006-01-16 19:52:10

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#27 2006-01-17 06:15:49

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#28 2006-01-17 09:47:16

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#29 2006-01-17 13:11:14

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

#30 2006-01-18 10:17:11

Re: [archived] bab_newsletter: Newsletter Manager for Textpattern

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