Enhancements

[topspin67]

I've been using Listmail for over a year now and have customized it for some of the following I found quite useful:

Allow sending of my html email to any email address I specify (not necessarily in a list) or by picking individuals from the lists' user databases.  

Allow sending of same email to different lists, pick list 1 and 3 for instance to send email, schedule email, etc.

Quick load should be available from the scheduled email and follow-up emails (I finally added this and it sure saved a lot of time, but if I could schedule emails or set followups to multiple lists that would negate some of the need for this enhancement)

When sending to multiple lists the same email don't send it twice for users on multiple lists.

For the developer, the list code is really hard to follow because the html is mixed with the logic.  I'd like to at least see some templates.  I customized it to provide wider fields and matching colors for the web site.  But that was not as easy as it could be.

Glad to see there will be some updates to ListMail, it's very good work.  Thanks Dean!

[DW]

Greetings,

While I don't recommend modifying the program due to updates overwriting your changes and am against it for copyright purposes, as long as you aren't reselling or distributing it I don't mind.

Allow sending of my html email to any email address I specify (not necessarily in a list) or by picking individuals from the lists' user databases.

I haven't yet planned an email-single-user feature, but it would definitely be useful.  I will see what I can do for the next release.

Allow sending of same email to different lists, pick list 1 and 3 for instance to send email, schedule email, etc.

This will be possible with the rule-based sending / sub-list feature coming in the next release.

Quick load should be available from the scheduled email and follow-up emails (I finally added this and it sure saved a lot of time, but if I could schedule emails or set followups to multiple lists that would negate some of the need for this enhancement)

This is already programmed into all message editing pages for the upcoming release along with an admin preview option.

When sending to multiple lists the same email don't send it twice for users on multiple lists.

This currently happens behind the scene when sending to all lists.  The upcoming rule-based sending feature features a "filter duplicates" option for your rulesets.  It is achieved with an addition to the MySQL query "group by email".  The only problem with the method is that the user ID / list used for sending is random.

Templates may come some time in the future which will allow you to change the look of the program to your liking.  I don't feel this feature is as important as others at this time as it is merely cosmetic and the program is still single-administrator, but it would be very cool nonetheless!

Thank you very much for your suggestions!

[topspin67]

Thanks Dean for the reply.  When will the next release be coming?  For the longest time, I didn't think you were still developing ListMail.  I would love to beta test that for you.

I have made the enhacements to customize the look for the control panel and had corresponded with you on an integration with a certain shopping cart.  But No, I would never take your work to give or sell.  

I have just purchased the ListMail plugin for osCommerce shopping cart.  Will the new list invalidate that plugin?

Also, I forgot two more minor, but important enhancements.  

Our lists are two wide to view in the default dropdown list.  Since many begin the same, one cannot tell which is which without first selecting.  I widened the whole page to make it more readable.  Also with the number of lists we have, the drop-down selection is a pain, it would be nice to have options here such as a listbox with tooltips.

Next, the save mail feature is important, but when I really needed it I found that it did not log the list that was emailed.  All I could tell was that it sent an email on a certain date with subject and message, but perhaps it went to any one of the lists.  Please add the list emailed to the log and expose the log in the control panel.  

Thanks again, cheers.

[DW]

The next release will be out as soon as I've finished and implemented a few more features.  I'll be working hard on it today and over the next couple weeks.

Regretfully, I am not sure if the ListMail plugin for osCommerce will have troubles with ListMail updates.  I doubt it will, because I have not made any major changes to the structure of the user database.

Unfortunately, I will not be widening the Current List dropdown for the very next release.  I will have to consider further how this might be done.  One thing to note is the List Title is simply for use within the ListMail program, so you could put some defining characters at the beginning of the title to allow you to identify the list.  ie:

1 My Members Lists - Updates
2 My Members Lists - Prospects

The Save Email feature will not be able to log which lists messagesa re sent to.  The next release will feature a "Sent Messages" page, where you can view past sent messages.  I also have an idea to create "groups" of loadable saved messages so I could, for instance, include "Sent Messages" as a group you can load from.

Thank you very much for your input!

[jesse920]

Hi DW,

Is there a listmail for oscommerce pluggin available for purchase?

If so, please tell me where to purchase, how it works (i.e. is it in the create_account process only) and if its' compatible with Listmailpro 1.85 / oscommerce (latest version).

Very interested in this indeed but could not find a "buy" link anywhere.

Also, I did find Laurie Smiths' contribution but I think its' an old one (prior ListMail Version) and I believe the latest oscommerce updates do not work with it (I could be wrong though).

If you want to see what she did let me know and I'll gladly either post or pm you.

Thanks!

Jesse