Getting EZ Newsletter setup...

[Sonnie]

This is really looking very promising. I like having templates to edit.

Got it all installed and have tinkered with it a bit thus far by sending it out to just me.

Couple of things I have done and a few more I need to figure out.

In the eznl_htmlbody template I changed the width from 800px to 1024px so that my header will be able to fit.

That brings me to one thing we need... a way to add in our header. At present I am only seeing an option to add in the forum header image. With commbull I could pull in the entire header, which gets my sponsor banners included. I tried adding $header to the eznl_htmlbody template, but it did not pull it in. I also wanted to add in our $footer, but that did not pull in.


Unfortunately the XML code did not work for the commbull subscribers. It wants to send out to 19,700+ users, which is nearly all of ours... we only have a little over 20,000 active members. I guess I'll just have to send it out and get blessed out by a few hundred members. :eek:

I believe we have between 4-5,000 who are suppose to be opted out.

I am spent for tonight though... it's nighty night time. http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/images/smilies/sleep.gif

[Greg]

Ok, width option so no template edit necessary can get done.

Replace header image URL input with full header input can get done.

Queries for imports can be written and tested before committing the changes if you help me a little. The way commbull selected members was not as accurate and the database would imply. I had the same issue with the import. One file with a couple of test queries will sort it out easily.

[Sonnie]

Are you snoring... or are you bright eyed awake still. http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/images/smilies/dumbcrazy.gif

Those modification options will be nice... thanks!

Just tell me what we need to do on the queries. I suppose I can run SQL queries from AdminCP >>> Execute SQL Query.

[Greg]

Are you snoring... or are you bright eyed awake still. http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/images/smilies/dumbcrazy.gif

Those modification options will be nice... thanks!

Just tell me what we need to do on the queries. I suppose I can run SQL queries from AdminCP >>> Execute SQL Query.

Good day.

Yep, I did the coffee and shower and I'm about ready to go. Let me ramp up here. What do you need first? Let's prioritize.

We need to talk about send rates. Cpanel seems to have a limit of 2000 emails per hour. If you exceed it, the emails seem to go to memory heaven. I would have expected notices. I found out while monitoring logs in testing.

So, in testing you should get a feel for how many emails will go out per mailing based on your user selections. You should set the number of pages and the time between the pages so that you don't exceed your server limit and lose emails. You need to have a buffer so that other services sending mail can continue as well. I try for about 1200 per hour.

It's also not good to blast out 10 emails a second anyway. We want to send mail, we want the mail to get through most of all. We have to apply good emailing practices so we don't look like spammers.

I think I'll need to split this part off into an article. This is important. I will guarantee this happens to folks using other emailers and they don't even know it. Getting the mail through will increase forum traffic.

[Sonnie]

You know we have never had any issues using the current mail system in AdminCP and sending out around 15-16,000 emails in about 3-4 minutes time. I have userid's scattered about from userid1 to one up in the mid twenty thousands and always get all of the emails and/or commbull newsletters within a few minutes of sending out those emails. I've been doing this since we started.

[Greg]

That can become an option. I didn't intend it, but we can add vbmail/php mail.

The header code is converted from url to your header html code input.

The width of the page now has a setting.

I'm going to code a utility to analyze any commbull users you have and a query to import them rather then just do it in the install.

[Sonnie]

Thanks... all sounding well.

You do remember what I mentioned about deleting the options blocks from the usercp templates... is that going to be an issue? Not sure if that is what commbull looked at to determine who to send to or not... or if it is something maintained in the database somewhere.

At the time I was removing it, I did not see any reason to leave two opt out options for two different newsletters.

[Greg]

Thanks... all sounding well.

You do remember what I mentioned about deleting the options blocks from the usercp templates... is that going to be an issue? Not sure if that is what commbull looked at to determine who to send to or not... or if it is something maintained in the database somewhere.

At the time I was removing it, I did not see any reason to leave two opt out options for two different newsletters.

Remove the commbull opt in option blocks. EZ NewsLetter automatically puts one in the use CP. It's at the bottom of that same block. The template hooks leave a bit to be desired in some places.

We add a field to the database and that is the opt in field. It's the same exact thing as receivebulletin in commbull.

[Sonnie]

Yeah... that is what I did. I just wanted to make sure that was not how commbull determined who to opt out and who to send newsletters to... since I deleted it.

I just do not need to delete commbull all together yet... until we get the opt out or opt in done.

[Greg]

Yeah... that is what I did. I just wanted to make sure that was not how commbull determined who to opt out and who to send newsletters to... since I deleted it.

I just do not need to delete commbull all together yet... until we get the opt out or opt in done.

I just posted the utility you need. :)

Commbull Importer and Member Status for EZ NewsLetter (http://www.cpurigs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5171)

[Sonnie]

For those other options do I need to redownload the program, upload new files and reimport with overwrite... or is there just one file to upload that will do it?

Thanks!

[Greg]

Yes, 3 php files changed and 3 templates changed. You need the product import to get the template changes and the database updates. You need the php files to get the code that can handle the new options.

Should be like a 2 minute update for you. Maybe another 30 seconds to revert that template you edited for the header code.

[Sonnie]

Sounds easy enough.

I still gotta get those email settings right.

[Greg]

Sounds easy enough.

I still gotta get those email settings right.

So are you saying you want to run commbull and see if the selection criteria matches EZ NewsLetter's import results?

I would have to guess that the query and selection criteria in the lite version and the paid version of community bulletin are the same and that the query is not encrypted in at least one of them.

Rip the query out, change it to a count select instead of a select data and compare the count.

[Greg]

I couldn't have been more wrong I figure. Commbull Lite sends out email if you have a userid by primary group. Won't help sort out your issue.

And another thing, we using fields receivebulletin_type and receivebulletin for our import. Is the paid version of combull you use using those field names? I know the one from .org did that I maintained for a while. That's what's in my database.

[Sonnie]

I really don't know what field names it was using... I did have the paid version though.

So are you saying you want to run commbull and see if the selection criteria matches EZ NewsLetter's import results?
Yeah... that was my plans until I now cannot get Zend installed until they figure out the bug in Easy Apache/cPanel.


Rip the query out, change it to a count select instead of a select data and compare the count.
Not sure how to do that... I would need explicit instructions.

[Sonnie]

Just thought I would let you know that I checked and on our server there is no limit. It is a setting in WHM that I set for each domain. It is set to unlimited for our domain, so we are good to go on that part.

[Sonnie]

Okay... things are looking much better... still have a couple of minor things I'd like to edit.

Where can I edit the following text:

To stop receiving these news letters, log in to the forum, go to user control panel edit options and under Messaging & Notification -> Receive News Letter, uncheck the check box. Then click save changes at the bottom of that page.


There was something else and now I cannot remember what it was... maybe it will come to me later. I am too sleepy to remember right now. Gotta go nighty night.

[Greg]

They are phrases eznl_html_opt_out and eznl_text_opt_out. You can edit the templates for opt out as well and not have issues with upgrades.

[kenfuzed]

Hi Greg,

I installed EZNL but I'm encountering an error when testing.

When I click on "Proceed to send" I get the following error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: htmlspecialchars_decode() in
eznl.php on line 787

I have 2 userid's set in test mode along with the variable set for debug mode. Perhaps I'm missing something?

Thanks