+ +To setup these categories, you use the admin interface of the +categories package to add category trees - let's say 'regions'. +Then you can add top-level nodes to this tree - like 'north america', +'europe'. After that, you can add child nodes to these categories +- like 'germany' and 'france' in europe and 'united states' in +north america. Since the category package is multilingual, +you can select a different language from the select box and +start translating the categories by editing them. Later, a user +will see then see the categories in the default language that he set +in his settings. + +
+ +After you setup some category trees, you can use the context bar to +go to 'Main Site' and then to the mailing list package. At the top +of the admin interface, you can now use the link 'Administer +Categories' to come back to the categories package to now mount +some of your created category trees to the mailing list package +so that they can be used to categorize lists. You can choose to use +whole trees or only subtrees (you then have to select where the +subtree should start), but you normally would use a whole tree. + +
+ +After you mapped your trees to mailing lists, use the context bar +to come back to the mailing list package. By using the link +'Change Visible Categories' you can select, which category trees +should be seen by users when browsing to look for other interesting +lists (for example, you may want to decide that the users can +only look through the list of existing mailing lists by region +and by campaign, not by target). + +
+ +The categorization system is also used to store the information +which user is coming from which country. To tell the system +which category tree to use for this user categorization +(the regions tree), you have to use the link 'Change Country +Category'. + +
+ +Since the mass subscribtion will be done by providing a list +if emails and country codes, the system will have to know which +country is meant by what country code. This mapping can be done +by using the link 'Administer Country Codes'. + +
+ +The mailing list manager can not only be used to spam mailing lists +for which users have signed up, but also to spam a list of users +selected by a custom sql query. These sql queries can be managed +by the users selections package. In this package, an admin can +write sql queries containing bind variables for which he provides +default values. These queries can be administered and their +results tested for different bind variable data by using the link +'Administer Users Selections'. + + +
+ +To include a link to confirm the subscribtion, you can use @link@ +in the confirmation- and reminder-emails. To tell a newly added +user his password in the confirmation- or welcome-email (we can't +figure out the password when sending reminder emails since they +are stored encrypted) you should use code like + +
<if @user_password@ not nil> Your new password is: @user_password@ </if>+ +Further data for mailing lists are the date when the mailinglist +will expire (just set it to some date in the far future if no +expiration date needed) and the number of days after a user +received the first mail to confirm the subscribtion to a new +mailing-list that a reminder email will be sent out. For example, +if you set the 1st reminder to 7, then the user will be reminded +after a week to confirm the subscribtion. If you want to remind +only once, just enter 0 as 2nd reminder. After all that, you can +enter some comment to that new mailing list to maybe explain +some other admin what this is all about. + +
+ +After the creation of a mailing list, you will see it at the index +page together with the information how many users are subscribed +to it or still need to confirm the subscribtion and you will see +links to delete that mailing list and manage the permissions to it. +You can edit the mailing list data by clicking on the lists name. +When managing permissions, you can make a list public to all +mailing list admins (so they can use and edit it), or you can grant +some other specific other admins the rights to use and/or edit it. +The list of other admins will contain only those admins that are +not general mailing-list package-admins, because they can always +see and edit all mailing lists or mail classes. + +
+ +If you want to mass subscribe some users, you have to select to +which list you want them to be subscribed and provide a comma +seperated list (csv) of emails and contry codes (see administring +country codes) and check if you want them to be asked for +confirmation or if you just want them to be immediately subscribed. +The users will then either receive a confirmation email or a +welcome email. If an email is not known yet, a new user will be +created. + + +
+ +After creating a mail class, you can edit, delete or copy this +class or manage the permissions for it - just as for mailing lists. + + +
+ +If you use this feature, the system will look for links beginning +with http:// in the plaintext part of the mail and for links like +href="http:// in the html part. In the end, you can set the execution +date (default: mail will be send in the next 20 minutes) and +set the mail job's status as active or suspended. Please note that +when uploading attachments, the status will be automatically set +to suspended and you therefore need to set it to active again when +finally submitting the mail job. Before the mail job gets created, +you will see a confirmation page showing you the final email. + +
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+You can see pending mail jobs by using the link 'Pending Mail Jobs'.
+Here you can edit the mail jobs, delete, suspend and activate them.
+Processed mail jobs can be found by using the 'Mail Job History'.
+By using the 'Mail Links' link for mail jobs found, you can then
+see how many users clicked which link in the mail.
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