ideas for 1.3

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 965

dude69th wrote:

please add fck editor to the next version Very Happy

dude69th

I am needing to get 1.3 out before integrating. As soon as Raven and kguske have nukeWYSIWYG integrated into RavenNuke76 you will see it integrated into HNL too.

Newbie Joined: Jan 19, 2006 Posts: 2

a newsletter module that automaticly sents an e-mail to the users that subscribled to the newsletter with the news, downloads, articles, etc etc etc of the current day

that woud be simply AMAZING!!!

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 965

rafamp wrote:

a newsletter module that automaticly sents an e-mail to the users that subscribled to the newsletter with the news, downloads, articles, etc etc etc of the current day

that woud be simply AMAZING!!!

It is on the roadmap for the tool, just not in 1.3 due out in the next week or so. It could take several releases out to get this as well as possibly some third-party scheduler tool.

The most difficult piece of this to implement is the "automatic" part. PHP does not have good built-in capabilities for timing the execution of scripts. It usually takes some external process to GET a page or a very active site where you can have every key-click check to see if it is time to send the newsletter.

May I ask you just how active is your site? Also, do you have to have it go out at specific times of the day?

Newbie Joined: Jan 19, 2006 Posts: 2

montego wrote:

May I ask you just how active is your site?

10 or more news per day

Quote:

Also, do you have to have it go out at specific times of the day?

sorry, i didn't understood Embarassed

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 965

rafamp wrote:

sorry, i didn't understood Embarassed

No need to be sorry. I can be cryptic at times. Very Happy

The methods currently being employed in the industry for executing PHP scripts in a "scheduled" fashion is usually based on user key clicks. Therefore, having a newsletter go out at midnight each night might be difficult (I will be investigating again to see if any new solutions have been implemented in the last six months since I researched it last) as you may not have users paging through your site during these times.

So, if you are "ok" with a newsletter going out in an automated fashion but the exact time it goes out is dependent on site usage, then there may be a reasonable solution very close at hand. If your newsletters have to go out even at times when you have NO hits to your site, you either have to figure out a way to "create a hit" or we have to see if the toolsets for this have improved...

hence why this is not a quick/easy do for the HTML Newsletter.

Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 311

My initial thoughts on automation for sending out newsletters would be to use CRON.
Perhaps some poll/survey might reveal the proportion of MS HNL users who have access to cronjobs via their cpanel or other hosting environment control panel.

Failing that, a virutal cron job such as firing the appropriate file after a date/time check would seem the most likely candidate for the job or as montego stated, by using the sites visitors to trip the event.

Exellent idea as this is something no other newsletter module offers at the moment.

Hmm, thinking out loud again....
Something else just popped into my head. You would only want to send out newsletters when you either had something specific to tell your users or when sufficient site content had changed (news posts forum posts, downloads, weblinks etc) to justify invading your subscribers mail box.

With that in mind, lets take a look at news posts........
Perhaps it is possible to some how take a snapshot of the current number of news posts from the DB and compare this number with subsequent 'events' so when a predetermined 'level of difference' has been achieved it could fire the sending of a newsletter.

Something like this may have certain advantages for example, logic could be applied so that even if you have 'the script' configured to send a newsletter every 24 hours, you could stop it from doing so unless some other pre-requisites have been met such as 5 news posts, 20 forums posts etc.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 965

Guardian,

There you go again, giving me all this work to do!! LOL I have been thinking about a major new release for 2.0 to handle many things such as this and for automating the sending to large number of users (many issues with PHP time-outs, host anti-spamming policies, etc.). Just too much there to tackle with one person! Any takers? Wink

Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 311

I wish I could help in that department but my coding skills are extremely limited. I good with idea's and solving logic problems but that about uses my entire repatoire Sad

Newbie Joined: Feb 15, 2006 Posts: 9

I haven't fully looked at the code, but my initial logic would wonder why you couldn't do an import of the email addresses in the mailing list records into HTML newsletter's adhoc list feature?

I'll give it a bit more thought but I thought it was worth kicking around.

cme4pt

Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 311

Let me get this right......
Your saying that as a feature, you would like to be able to select any existing email address (perhaps as a multiple select) from existing user email address'?
Hmm, nice idea.
I should think that in order for that to be useful, the query would have to pull both the username and associated email address into a multiple selectable list - as an admin, one might not know a users email address but would certainly know a user by their username and of course the facility to type in an adhoc email address would have to be retained.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 965

Actually, I like the idea and could possibly tie it in with the Ad-Hoc feature. Maybe there could be a pop-up window that can have the list (would have to provide for paging for those really large sites) and allow the admin to continue to pick from that list. The final list would come back to the ad-hoc.

Actually, I have so many changes in mind go forward, that I just can't get to... I really want to re-write the whole thing for 2.0 and really make this thing kick butt! Wink

I need a solid list manager, complete configurability, full automation, an exact list of users each newsletter went to, a way for admins to see if the newsletter was "picked-up" (unfortunately can only be if they click it from the web), etc., etc., etc....... oh, my head hurts now...

Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 311

Just to complicate an otherwise simple issue...........
Going back specifically to creating a selectable email list as part of the ad-hoc functionality..........
Do we need to consider 'good practise' and only create a list WHERE user is subscribed=TRUE?
That would certainly help prevent *some* spamiing.

However, then we have to look at other scenario's such as...
Someone signs up on your site but is not subscribed to your newsletter.
An article which appeared in your last newsletter as a 'feature article' (it was written in the newsletter and was not part of the data grab) and he wants a copy to be emailed to him/her.

Now we have a Newsletter block, we can simply refer him to that so he/she can see that specific article but what of the *bigger picture*?
I have thought about this a lot and as I see it, provided a 'warning system' perhaps as a function that creates a pop-up js mesage would cater for every scenario. After all, montego as the author of the script could then show 'diligence' in making the webmaster aware that proceeding may result in them getting added to a spamlist but at the same time, it would not deminish functionality for those that use such scripts responsibly.

Sorry to play devils advocate!

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 965

Guardian wrote:

Do we need to consider 'good practise' and only create a list WHERE user is subscribed=TRUE?
That would certainly help prevent *some* spamiing.

I come from the school of thought that the site owner / admins should have the ability to control both the content of their newsletters as well as the recipients. They should be in control of their own "destiny". If they desire to have their site blacklisted for spamming, that was their decision. So, no, I do not agree with restricting the list. However, you have brought to mind another necessity: beside each user and user email addy needs to be some info like "subscribed?", "Paid?", what groups they are in, etc.... might just help them make the "right" choices. Wink

Quote:

However, then we have to look at other scenario's such as...
Someone signs up on your site but is not subscribed to your newsletter.
An article which appeared in your last newsletter as a 'feature article' (it was written in the newsletter and was not part of the data grab) and he wants a copy to be emailed to him/her.

I suppose if he/she has the right "permissions" to see the newsletter, they should have the "right" to have it emailed back to them. The only concern that I have is that as this thing grows, there are going to be site owners that want to control level of content, by NSN groups for example, but once that newsletter gets out in the "wild", it can be sent to anyone!

Quote:

After all, montego as the author of the script could then show 'diligence' in making the webmaster aware that proceeding may result in them getting added to a spamlist but at the same time, it would not deminish functionality for those that use such scripts responsibly.

Yes, that could be done. I am very sensitive about protecting webmasters from security issues (i.e., demanding at least a minimum patch level and not supporting anything above 7.6), but I don't feel like going as far as protecting them from making very conscience bad decisions which lend them on some "blacklist". In my opinion, they know better, and deserve what they get.

HOWEVER, doing something like you suggest is not that big of a deal, except that it could apply to almost ALL of the send options and could be very annoying to the admins.

Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 311

Agreed. I was just trying to make a point that even seemingly simple things can have knock-on effects.
Quite right! - Any webmaster sending un wanted emails deserves everything they get.

I had not really considered the Groups angle for this specific scenario but yes, it does hark back to a conversation we had a while ago about permission based content being made available to the public which of course defeats the whole 'groups' based permission thing if one is not careful to control it.

Nice to see you here though! Wink