Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Re: [northernpenguin] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:31:41 -0700

Hi Ragi,

We've release a minor update to Newsletter Builder (2.02) that fixes the yahoo issue. What we're doing now is automatically adding a style tag to the HTML body so Yahoo knows to display it correctly. If you revert any previous wysiwyg changes and install the latest version of the plugin it should work fine with yahoo.

You can download the latest version here:
http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/my_purchases.php

Let me know if you have any other issues. Thanks!

Re: [northernpenguin] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:46:04 -0700

Hi Ragi,

Ok, we've got "multiple lists" on the development plan for an upcoming release, and a fix in the works that specifies the CSS for

tags in the message body so yahoo displays them as they should.

For multiple lists the first release will likely have a list of newsletters that the subscribers can check to join. I'll know more once we do some development and research some options.

And, of course, once I have a beta of multiple lists, I'll be able to use it to create a beta list for newsletter builder. :)

Thanks!

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 22:08:51 -0700

Dave: my clients would be vey happy to be able to send a newsletter to a subgroup of subscribers.

However, depending upon how you implement multiple newsletters, this may solve itself, as each newsletter should have a separate subscriber list.

Can you add me to the Beta test list?

Thanx......... Ragi

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:45:36 -0700

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know we are continuing to look into this problem and hope to find a solution soon. We'll update you when we have a proper workaround.

Thanks!

Greg

Re: [Djulia] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:15:32 -0700

Hi Djulia,

Just wanted to give you an update on adding the "name" field. You could probably hack it in for now but for me to do it properly it's going to take longer and I may want to build it in as a feature or option. I'm going to research the possibility of supporting both fullname and additional fields for the next major update. The next major update is also going to support multiple newsletters and will require a rewrite of the subscribe/manage form so that might be a good time for it.

Regarding translations, the next release of CMSB is going to easily support having plugin specific translation files and a "developer mode" that automatically creates those files, so perhaps you can help us beta test that. It should make multi-lingual plugins a lot easier.

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:20:10 -0700

Dave: I made the changes as directed.

is definitely being inserted instead of
and

, however there is no change in Rogers Yahoo.

Ragi

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:33:51 -0700

Dave: sounds like a plan! I will give a try once I get home (I'm in Quebec City tonight) tomorrow night.

Ragi

Re: [northernpenguin] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:25:03 -0700

Hi Ragi,

We'll have to do some experimenting to see what works well with both Rogers Yahoo and everything else.

You can change how the WYSIWYG works by editing the code like this:

- Open /lib/wysiwyg.php
- Search for this bit of text (with a typo): Uncommon these lines
- Find this block:

    // Force 
 insteaad of

... // Uncommon these lines to enable this for new records //forced_root_block : false, //force_br_newlines : true, //force_p_newlines : false,

To use
instead of

uncomment the bottom three lines:
// Force insteaad of

... // Uncommon these lines to enable this for new records forced_root_block : false, force_br_newlines : true, force_p_newlines : false,

To use

instead of

try this:
// Force insteaad of

... forced_root_block : 'div',

Note: You can make sure the
or

tags are showing up by clicking the "HTML" button in the wysiwyg. If they don't show up right away make sure to replace all the

tags in the HTML of the "email header" and "email footer" under newsletter settings. TinyMCE sometimes copies whatever formatting it sees in the content already.

If

works well we'll probably release a patch to automatically switch everyone to that for the next version - or make it an option.

Let me know how it goes.

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:53:26 -0700

Dave: that's it exactly! Is there a way we can generate

instead ?

Re: [northernpenguin] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:39:39 -0700

Hi Ragi,

Let me know if there's any way I can help you track down that Rogers Yahoo problem. I wonder if I signup for a yahoo webmail account if it will be the same? The first thing we need to determine is if it's to do with the way the message is sent by Newsletter Builder, or just the HTML in the message. A lot of email readers and web mail providers are picky about how they interpret HTML (from any mailer).

I found this description of an issue with yahoo paragraph tags while googling, does this sound like the same issue here:
http://blog.unica.com/yahoo-html-email-design/

>As for the ability to Import/export an address list sung SQL, that's great
>for those of us technically inclined, but the average user/client would
>probably find it easier to deal with a CSV.

Good point, I agree that for most users the copy and paste "import emails" box linked off the plugins menu is way to go, that one doesn't even need CSV! And if/when we do add any advanced features such as the SQL one I mentioned we'll do our best to keep it tucked out of the way so it doesn't confuse anybody.

Thanks!

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 07:11:50 -0700

Hi Dave: I think you can include Rogers Yahoo among your problem children. It seems to have an issue with inserting a blank line between paragraphs. Source looks clean, but display doesn't.

As for the ability to Import/export an address list sung SQL, that's great for those of us technically inclined, but the average user/client would probably find it easier to deal with a CSV.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

Ragi

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:37:28 -0700

Hi Dave,

The idea is to be able to use the plugin with lists of subscribers who already exist and where the name is present.
Some customers also wish to personalize the contact in the newsletter of this manner.

>Another idea we're thinking about for the future is the ability to specify a SQL query
The idea of the request seems interesting.

>Lastly, I wanted to let you know I've been thinking about how to implement language translation
I can send my file with my translation to you if you wish it?

Thanks!

Djulia

Re: [Maurice] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:41:05 -0700

Hey Maurice,

>did not work in our outlook we just saw code.

Yea, even though we had tested many email clients beforehand a number of people reported problems viewing the first newsletter. Turns out coding for all the email clients and servers around the world is even trickier than coding a site that works in all the top browsers.

In the software industry they have a saying/practice called "Eating your own dogfood". It means trying your own products on yourself first as means of quality assurance. With of the help of some itools customers from around the globe we had the random display issues sorted within a day or two. We actually found a cool service during that process called litmus.com that automatically generates previews of your newsletter on 35+ email clients in seconds.

If you have any more problems getting the emails feel free to email me. We're still working on tips and tricks for getting past some of the more backward spam filters... There's some really bad ones out there that even block messages from known valid sources like gmail if they see a word they don't like (example, test, etc).

>B) looked awful compared to the old one (and i think many people will agree on that.)

That, my friend, is because we're programmers, not designers. But we'll keep trying, and rest assured, our default newsletter HTML doesn't come with the software so we're not imposing it on the rest of the interwebs... ;)

Cheers!

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:44:20 -0700

Hi Dave.

Agree whats in a name but your last email newsletter.

A) did not work in our outlook we just saw code.
B) looked awful compared to the old one (and i think many people will agree on that.)

but like always and as a true IT follower we will stay optimistic in the hope one day it will all change ahahahahahahahahahaha

keep up the great work

Maurice

Re: [Djulia] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:49:37 -0700

Hi Djulia,

I could probably post some code-edits to do that to the latest version (2.0) if it would be helpful. Basically we'd just add a field to the subscribe form for name and the subscriber table and then add it to the outgoing emails as well.

There are pros and cons of both approaches, we didn't include it because the less you ask of the user the more likely they are to subscribe, and we didn't want to over-complicate the form or want to support it being user definable (eg: do we add full name, or first and last fields, or first, last, and company, etc).

But I'd be happy to see if I can come up with a (unsupported) code patch for you (let me know if you want that).

Another idea we're thinking about for the future is the ability to specify a SQL query to get the subscriber list. So if you had another table with all the emails you could pull the name and email from that with a custom SQL query. If you used that option you wouldn't use the signup form.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know I've been thinking about how to implement language translation files on a per plugin basis to handle plugin specific language. Perhaps with a preset /lang/ folder that can come with the plugin.

Let me know any feedback, thanks!

Re: [Maurice] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:42:53 -0700

Hi Maurice,

hah, I honestly didn't think too much about the name. It just went well with the existing naming scheme. You can certainly call it Newsletter Sender if you like. :)

Our first goal with this was to replace our own outdated perl/cgi newsletter software, as well as have it support the requirements for a consulting project we were working on. So we hit those targets, and have already added some new features for 2.0 which I'll push out of beta soon.

Templates and a whole host of other features on on the wishlist for future releases. No timeline yet but I'm sure it will continue to evolve. This is just the start for this plugin. We've just finished adding our 116 back-issues to our newsletter archive: http://www.interactivetools.com/news/ (and we're still cleaning up the old HTML). We use to have to do all that twice, send a newsletter, add a page to the CMS. Nice to have it all automated finally. So it's already saving us a ton of time.

Thanks for the feedback, cheers!

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:46:00 -0700

Hi dave,

we have been testing the Nieuwsletter Builder but its not realy a builder just a sender the name should be "newsletter sender".

before building maybe ask the users what there wishes would be.

cause i'm missing some simple features that would be much better.

some thing simple as being able to use templates.
just going with a different aproach (thinking more out of the box) would be worth the price a user would have to pay.

now pricing is getting hire for options that could easly be solved in a different way.

but still for some of our customers "newsletter sender" would be cool.

keep up the great work,

Maurice

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:32:15 -0700

Hi Dave,

Yes, do you think that it is possible?

Thanks!

Djulia

Re: [Djulia] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:18:29 -0700

Hi Djulia,

Do you mean to the subscribe form and to the "to" address of the email that is sent?

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:07:51 -0700

Hi dave,

Would it be possible to add fullname with the email?

Thanks!

Djulia

Re: [ispro] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:38:02 -0700

Hi ispro,

Thanks for the suggestion.

We actually had multiple lists in the original version 1 requirements but cut it when the user-interface was a bit too clunky. We want to keep it as simple as possible for admins to send out newsletter and users to signup and manage their subscriptions.

It's on the feature request list for a future version. We ourselves could use that feature as we have a newsletter list and a secondary email list for CMSB beta tests.

Thanks!

Note to readers: If you buy the unlimited license you can install it on as many CMSB sites as you have, but this request is about the ability to have multiple lists on a single site.

Re: [Dave] Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:35:13 -0700

I have installed Newsletter Builder, but as I understand it, there is only one mailing list. In a system such as Constant Contact, a user can belong to one or more lists. I would think that multiple lists is a major functional requirement.

Newsletter Builder v2.00 Beta 1

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:44:11 -0700

Hello All,

We've been hard an work this last week and have finished a major upgrade to Newsletter Builder. In fact, there are so many new features we've bumped up the version number and we're calling this release 2.0.

Note: 2.0 is currently in beta, but as soon as it's released (probably a few days) we're going to raising the price. So if you want the best deal order a copy now (you get free upgrades). Even if you're not totally sure our 90 day money back guarantee means you can try it out and make up your mind later.

If you're not using Newsletter Builder yet you can read more about it and purchase a copy here:
http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/detail.php?Newsletter-Builder-1066

And if you've already purchased you can download the beta here - we're running this version ourselves.
http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/my_purchases.php

Here's a list of the major new features:
- Open Tracking: Message Menu now displays the number of users who opened or viewed a message
- Click Tracking: Message Menu now displays the times message links were clicked and total users who clicked
- Advanced Logging: Entries are tracked for: Subscribes, Confirms, Unsubscribes, Sent Messages, Opens, and Views
- Subscriber History: Subscriber menu shows history of user actions from Log Menu
- Archive Only: New option allows you to add old newsletters or content to online archive without sending mailout
- Faster Mailing: Mailer routines have been optimized to process emails faster and minimize required disk space

Let me know any questions or feedback, thanks!