Newsletter, mailinglist module

[Olaf]

In different postings on the forum people are wishing for a newsletter/ mailing list module. So am I...

It seems that SJG and Piratos are working on it. A working version or beta has not been produced yet or I have missed it. Therefore I would like to bring this request up again as I see it as a very useful extension of cmsms because it is a very necessary item for small companies and communities.
I hope we can centralize the efforts to make this module in a good and swift way. Thats the reason for this new posting.
Is there already some work we can use as a base to continue?


To build something we first need to know what it should do. My ideal module would look like this:

a person can subscribe to different mailinglists on the website or can be added through admin, also multiple persons can be added through admin with uploading csv-files.

a person can enter various pieces of information in a form on the website (or through admin). Not only text but also radiobuttons/ yes-no / selection lists.

These pieces of information can be used in the newsletter for personalization eg;
"Dear {name},
Thanks for subscribing to {subscriptionsubject}."

The newsletter can be send to people with a certain subscription or even by 'filled in piece of information'. Eg send the newsletter to all people who have said at for instance "animal lover; yes"

The newsletter can have different templates, html,css. If not readable for the receiver it changes to text-only.

You can preview a mailing before it leaves.

You can save mailings.

You can see statistics about opening, clicks on which item, bounces and ?. Therefor each email should have an unique id attached to each link and picture, which should be connected in the database to the receiver.

You can see a list of people who clicked on a certain link in the newsletter. Eg a list of everyone who clicked on an item for more info on a particular service or product.

If something (eg time-outs on the server) goes wrong with sending it resumes at the right place in the email-list. All subscribed people receive the mailing and they receive it only once.

In each mailinglist there is a link to a place on the website where a subscription can be cancelled by the receiver. Just clicking on "yes, I want to cancel my subscription", not by filling in the emailadress.

Multi-lingual.

More requirements?


Well, a lot of wishes.. As I'm not a coder I can only help with translation, design and testing.
Who can help to turn this into a good and useful module?

Grtz
Olaf

[calguy1000]

If you ask me (and nobody did, but I'm a busy body anyways).  This is beyond the scope of a CMS

I prefer the approach of picking a relatively good mailing list manager and then writing a plugin or a module to assist in migrating data between CMS and the chosen package.

i.e:  Migrating user names and mailing addresses, group information, etc.
      Migrating templates, etc so that we can use CMSMS to perform the actual layout of the message, etc, and then send this to the chosen package
      and Maybe, just Maybe migrating some information back.

Again, just my $0.02 (CDN) worth.

[Olaf]

Well, it should remain simple. And migrating adresses to another system, moving templates and learning how to use that other system is for most people not that simple...

What I hear from a lot of small companies and communities is that they want a webpresence which can be updated easily and that they can let everybody know that it has been updated. The most logical thing is a newsletter. And what better than to integrate in cmsms ?!

My wishes are probably also too much to keep this cms simple... A stripped down newsletter module would do fine. But I think it's better to develop with all wishes in mind so they can be implemented maybe later.

Is anyone interested in a newsletter module? Maybe in a totally different form?

Grtz,
Olaf

[jacebenson]

A mailing list would be awesome if it was integrated with cmsms.. as an additional module.. not with the basic download. 

If it could just get the who are you, whats youre-mail, what list(s) do you want to subscribe to, and an unsubscribe feature.  because CMSMS is so easy to use. 

[Alex_Leipzig]

I prefer the approach of picking a relatively good mailing list manager and then writing a plugin or a module to assist in migrating data between CMS and the chosen package.

Could you propose a few good ones? Thankx.

[TNTH]

I installed phplist on one of my servers. It really is a handy tool and has everything in it. I didn't yet figure out how it all works, but it seems complete, but hey, it's free!

The link is: http://tincan.co.uk/phplist

[Olaf]

Phplist is great, it has almost everything. But I think difficult to integrate as a module.
Maybe a simpler way is with Drupal;
http://drupal.org/project/simplenews

It is also based on Smarty, can we use it for CMSMS?