Newsletter Made Simple 0.75alpha4 Release

[lemkepf]

Module Name: Newsletter Made Simple
Version: 0.75alpha4
Download here: http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/newsletter/

What does it do?
Enables you to have a e-mail newsletter system inside CMS Made Simple.

How do I use it?
1. Install module.
2. Allow the correct people permissions to access NMS
3. Configure NMS using the "configuration" panel in the NMS Module.
4. Create a list.
5. Put into a template or content page using syntax below.
6. Once users sign up, go ahead and write some messages which will be saved into the message "queue".
7. Process the queue to send the messages out.

Syntax
{cms_module module='NMS'}

Parameters
    * (optional) unsubscribe="true" - Show unsubscribe box instead of the subscribe one.
    * (optional) lang="en_US" - Parameter is used to specify what language to use for display on the frontend. Not all modules support or need this.

Support
This module does not include commercial support. However, there are a number of resources available to help you with it:

    * For the latest version of this module, FAQs, or to file a Bug Report please visit http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/newsletter/.
    * Additional discussion of this module may also be found in the CMS Made Simple Forums.
    * The author, Paul Lemke, can often be found in the CMS IRC Channel (username: pyrox).
    * Lastly, you may have some success emailing the author directly.

As per the GPL, this software is provided as-is. Please read the text of the license for the full disclaimer.

Copyright and License
Copyright © 2005, Paul Lemke . All Rights Are Reserved.

This module has been released under the GNU Public License. You must agree to this license before using the module.

[lemkepf]

Released alpha2.

Fixed a bug when creating/editing messages.

[lemkepf]

Released alpha3.

I fixed a few bugs with confirmation links, image urls, windows php issues, and more!

[ZYV]

lemkepf, thanks a lot!!! That's awesome!!

Could you please tell me how would I upgrade to the next versions? Actually I am thinking about to install this module right now on the production site and then, upgrade it when new versions gets released. Could I just overwrite the distro, or I would need to delete and reinstall the module thus loosing all my userbase?

Thanks once again. I was looking forward to write my own module or propose you to itnegrate my system, but it looks like you've done it without any help. Great!

[lemkepf]

lemkepf, thanks a lot!!! That's awesome!!

Could you please tell me how would I upgrade to the next versions? Actually I am thinking about to install this module right now on the production site and then, upgrade it when new versions gets released. Could I just overwrite the distro, or I would need to delete and reinstall the module thus loosing all my userbase?

Thanks once again. I was looking forward to write my own module or propose you to itnegrate my system, but it looks like you've done it without any help. Great!

We'll... upgrading is as easy as overwriting the module files with the new version. (don't use the "uninstall" thing in the module admin page otherwise all the users will be deleted). Once the files are overwritten, immediatly go to the module admin and it should say "upgrade" next to NMS. Hit that and your good to go. The database will be just fine so any users who have signed up will be there already.

If you have any issues, let me know.

[lemkepf]

Alpha 4 has been released. Not as big of an upgrade as the others. Fixed a few issues with encoding, changed default priority to "normal", fixed footer tags, and added the ability to specify header tags.

[Adrian]

Problems (cmsmadesimple v11.1):

1. no SMTP mailing, but I modified source code and subscribing/unsubscibing is working. why don't you use CMSMailer module?
2. cannot compose message. I can see "save as draft" button only, but it's not working too.
3. sending messages gives me "50 messages sent"... what messages? nothing is sent.
4. information page that are linked in mails (user preferences, unsubscribe results) should be preprocessed just like other cms pages (not just blank pages with ugly plain text).

Keep the good work, I'm about to use it on production site.

[lemkepf]

Problems (cmsmadesimple v11.1):

1. no SMTP mailing, but I modified source code and subscribing/unsubscibing is working. why don't you use CMSMailer module?

We'll... i don't use CMSMailer because of performance, and i don't really want the user to require 2 modules. Easier to use right off the bat. Now... about SMTP... i'm using the default php Mail command in phpmailer which is faster than the SMTP sending. Maybe someday i'll setup a nice admin for that, but it's not on my list right now.

2. cannot compose message. I can see "save as draft" button only, but it's not working too.

So you don't see the "message" boxes? or the top navigation stuff? It could be the CMSMS 11.1... i've been doing it on beta6. I'll check this out today sometime. If not... would you mind if you gave me the login information to your CMSMS so i can check out what it's doing? I'll let you know...

3. sending messages gives me "50 messages sent"... what messages? nothing is sent.

Yea, i know about this... i think i have it fixed for the next release.

4. information page that are linked in mails (user preferences, unsubscribe results) should be preprocessed just like other cms pages (not just blank pages with ugly plain text).

There is a problem here... and a reason i did it this way. In CMSMS to actually display the output of this module i need to send it a "content_id". The problem is... the module doesn't know which is a good content_id to send in the links. If you have more than one "content" placement on a certain page... CMSMS will arbitrarily pick one to put the output of the module in. It's fine... if the layout works good with it. The layout sucks for some of my pages hence the reason i made it not use a template.... now... a work around... (and maybe an admin option later) go into my module code... go the function "replaceLinks", change the part where it says "template" => false, to template => true. (if you want to see what it would look like before modifying the code... just change the url and open it in a browser.)

Keep the good work, I'm about to use it on production site.

Thanks! Comments go a long way to helping make this module as good as it can be!

[Adrian]

1. I think is better to have another module that is required by other modules too, but configure mail server and so on in one place only. Using real SMTP server is required if you a) smtp server is other machine web server, b) you are sending emails to other smtp servers with relaying checking and so on. c) don't have access to php configuration. I would like to use real SMTP account simply.
2. nms menu is visible, I can compose message but cannot save it. I don't have "send" button, only "save as a draft" and it's doing nothing. Please please please test your module with stable versions of CMSMS!
3. ok.
4. Thanks, I will check it later.
5. In addition I don't see subscribed users in "users" page (two users currently subscibed).

[lemkepf]

1. I think is better to have another module that is required by other modules too, but configure mail server and so on in one place only. Using real SMTP server is required if you a) smtp server is other machine web server, b) you are sending emails to other smtp servers with relaying checking and so on. c) don't have access to php configuration. I would like to use real SMTP account simply.
2. nms menu is visible, I can compose message but cannot save it. I don't have "send" button, only "save as a draft" and it's doing nothing. Please please please test your module with stable versions of CMSMS!
3. ok.
4. Thanks, I will check it later.
5. In addition I don't see subscribed users in "users" page (two users currently subscibed).

1. Yes, i agree... but... 90% of people don't have any other module that requires CMSMailer. Also... if i did use CMSMailer there is a performance hit. When calling a reference to it, it recreates alot of objects in memory that isn't required. It's wasteful in my opinion. I'll probably add an admin part sooner or later for this stuff.
2. Saving as draft does just that. Save's it as a draft. Then when you want to send it go back to the main menu and click "process queue" to actually send the messages. I'll test with 11.1 today.
5. I believe they have to be confirmed users before they will show up...

[ZYV]

Really lack of time, sorry, after testing a bit more I found out a potential problem. Please please change

var $table_prefix = "module_NMS_";

to

var $table_prefix = "module_nms_";

I ran into problems on one of my mySQL server; it's configured to strangely distinguish caps and small letters and I do not have access to the configuration console. So I was in the same position then Adrian: users subscribed and confirmed, but were never shown up in the admin.

I think it might be an issue of buggy mySQL 3.2, but I think that better is to change it to lowercase and avoid possible problems.

P.S. The Russian translation is ready for aplha 3. I will finish it up tomorrow and attach to the post.

[lemkepf]

Interesting... i'll change this for the next release i guess.

[Adrian]

2, 5: so the main problem is that I don't see any users (even confirmed) and saved messages. maybe that mysql configuration is the problem. I'm ready to test next release.

[Adrian]

I've changed this prefix and it didn't help unfortunately.

[ZYV]

I've changed this prefix and it didn't help unfortunately.

I also had to delete the module completely (erasing all the NMS's data tables) and reinstall it. Not sure that's your case though. I only had this kind of problems on mysql 3.2.