Eliminating duplicate email address within and between lists

[weathers]

Is there a way with ListMail or  some other tool to searh across lists by email address to eliminate duplicate records?

ListMail appears to eliminate duplicates on import. Is that true? If not is there a tool to do this?

When one uses named custom fields in a mailing does one just insert the field name in the html or must one put an ! in front of it like the global codes? Or, is there another procuedure I have not found?

Is is possible to do:  if custom field = yes, then do .... (insert paragraph, don't include in mailing, do include in mailing etc.?

[DW]

Greetings,

The only way to eliminate duplicates manually would be with a custom script.  ListMail automatically prevents duplicate email addresses from appearing on your lists upon signup, import, or manual addition.  Unless you are inserting users with a custom script you should have no need for manual duplicate checking.

To output a subscriber's custom field data in your email set up a global or list-specific Message Code set to display the custom code you would like.  Once your code is created you will need to use the !codename as displayed on the message codes page.

At this time it is not possible to do conditional statements inside your messages - though, this is a very good idea!  Rule-based sending is coming very soon so that you will be able to include or exclude users in a mailing based on user data.

[weathers]

I am impressed by how responsive you are. Thanks

In terms of rule based sending, I wouild like to use ListMail to send out eBirthday cards to patients. This means having a rule element that is able to evaluate dates.  ie, is today's day and month equal to day and month in birthday date field, if yes, send. If you can do this, I would bet dentists would make good use of ListMail since the do all types of date driven stuff.

One bit more on clarification of duplicate screening on import. Does ListMail filter out duplicates relative to the list being inported into, or the whole data base. If it is screening with regart to the specific list, what happens when you move a record from one list to another and this produces a duplicate for that list. What would be nice to happen is that you would have an option to merge the two records to that any empty fields in one would be filled in by the other record, setting one list as the priority list.


Thanks

[DW]

Setting up birthday messages wouldn't be easy - at this time I would recommend creating a small custom script that runs after/with dailymail to deal with it - but it is on the feature list for consideration.

ListMail filters duplicates on a per-list basis.  I just tested it and, though I swore I had this fixed, when you change a user from one list to another the duplicate IS allowed.  :shock:  I will need to implement some checking for this.

If you want to merge your lists on a priority basis there is a current workaround:

1. Export the list you want to have priority
2. Export the other list you want to merge with the first list
3. Import the list you want to have priority into a new, or temporary, list
4. Import the other list into the same new list, duplicates will be ignored
5. (optional) Export and import the temporary list over top of one of your previously existing list (ie: the first list), choosing "DELETE ALL USERS before import" on the import options page.
6. (optional) Delete the "other" and temporary lists entirely.