Beginner's Questions

[mdm]

So far, so good on my List Mail installation.  Congrats to
Dean for making it easy to install a PHP package on various
web hosting company platforms.  I have gotten a basic
intallation done, and read the last 2 months of questions
and answers in this forum as well as all the documentation I
could find.

I do have a few beginner type questions before I can take
the next baby step, so any help will be appreciated.


1) I'm still working on getting the bounce cgi working.  I
had originally planned on sending out my LM Followups under
my own email address. However I seem to need to have a
special email address for sending out, so that I can handle
any bounces that come back.

So each list will have it's own unique email address that is
just used to send messages out under ?

What if somebody replies to a followup ?  Will that trigger
a bounce removal ?

How many bounces do a person get before being deleted ?  Can
I tweak that number ?


2) I'm also having trouble wrapping my head around custom
user fields.  I want to ask them what their biggest problem
is.  So I can get that in the signup form ok.  Now where
does it go when they type an answer in.

I'm guessing it does not go into the user database, and the
only way I can see it is by having an email forwarded to me
?



3) I've seen some references to Javascript being needed to
enforce required fields, and I've also seen some references
to a new version of LM being able to do that.  Has that
capabillity arrived in V 1.8, and if so, how do I desgniate
a field as required ?

I do see that the email address is required and handled by
LM.  Do I have access to the error message so I can
customize it ?


4) I want to use the confirmation process.

Can I have them reply to the email to confirm or is clicking
on the URL the only method ?

If they don't respond, is there a feature to send out a
repeat email a few days later, in case they missed the first
one ?

5) I set up the email server configuration to use one of my
email servers, since I figure my ip addresses are not
blocked as much as a web hosting company where I share a box
with other people.

I had this working via password authentication on the
testing the other day, but when I look at my list
confirmations and followups, the emails are going thru their
server.

Are they intercepting my Port 25 calls, or do I need to set
up something else in the configuration ?


6) Can I get Apache ENV variables like
"REMOTE_HOST,HTTP_USER_AGENT" into the signup email or some
place that I could reference it if a problem arose and
somebody was spoofing an email address ?


Enough questions for today.  I will look forward to any
answers tomorrow :-)

Thanks in advance.

mark

[DW]

Hi there Mark,

I am excited that you have been working so hard to learn the ins and outs of ListMail!  Thank you for your kind comments!  If you haven't already, post a testimonial along with a link to your site to get some free exposure.

1) I'm still working on getting the bounce cgi working. I
had originally planned on sending out my LM Followups under
my own email address. However I seem to need to have a
special email address for sending out, so that I can handle
any bounces that come back.

This special address only appears in the headers of the message and is not normally seen by the subscriber.  By default, it will be bounce@yourdomain.com.  This address can be set up either as a mailbox, for use with the mailbox method of bounce processing, or as a forwarder to bounce.cgi for on-the-fly processing.

So each list will have it's own unique email address that is
just used to send messages out under ?

The "Send From Email" for each list can usually be anything you want, even an address not on your server.  This address shows up in your subscriber's email client and is used, along with the "Send From Name", for replies.

What if somebody replies to a followup ? Will that trigger
a bounce removal ?

No, only messages to the bounce address will be classified as bounces - replies go to the "Send From Email" for your list.

How many bounces do a person get before being deleted ? Can
I tweak that number ?

Yes, you can.  On the ListMail config page, Bounce section, set the option "Remove users if they bounce X times in X days".

2) I'm also having trouble wrapping my head around custom
user fields. I want to ask them what their biggest problem
is. So I can get that in the signup form ok. Now where
does it go when they type an answer in.

I'm guessing it does not go into the user database, and the
only way I can see it is by having an email forwarded to me
?

To "enable" a custom field, give it a short description in List Settings -> Custom Fields.  Once enabled, you can view the user's data on the "Edit" page for your users on that list.

On your form, the variable user1 corresponds to Custom Field #1 for your list.

3) I've seen some references to Javascript being needed to
enforce required fields, and I've also seen some references
to a new version of LM being able to do that. Has that
capabillity arrived in V 1.8, and if so, how do I desgniate
a field as required ?

Currently you cannot designate Custom Fields as required and edit their error messages - this must still be done with JavaScript.  This is definitely coming in the next release.

I do see that the email address is required and handled by
LM. Do I have access to the error message so I can
customize it ?

Yes.  You can customize the error messages under List Settings -> Errors.

4) I want to use the confirmation process.

Can I have them reply to the email to confirm or is clicking
on the URL the only method ?

Clicking the URL is currently the only method of confirmation.  Allowing the user to also reply is a good suggestion.

If they don't respond, is there a feature to send out a
repeat email a few days later, in case they missed the first
one ?

No, unfortunately this is not yet a feature - it has been suggested and is on the list, though.

I had this working via password authentication on the
testing the other day, but when I look at my list
confirmations and followups, the emails are going thru their
server.

Are they intercepting my Port 25 calls, or do I need to set
up something else in the configuration ?

Welcome, confirmation, and notifications all use internal PHP mail() for sending.  This prevents too many connections to SMTP in the event of a ton of signups at once.  Followups should be sent with SMTP, if enabled.  It is highly recommended that, unless ListMail is actually installed on your home computer (not easy and probably against your ISP's policies), you use your commercial web host for sending your  email.

6) Can I get Apache ENV variables like
"REMOTE_HOST,HTTP_USER_AGENT" into the signup email or some
place that I could reference it if a problem arose and
somebody was spoofing an email address ?

The REMOTE_HOST value is stored as the user's IP address in ListMail.  The user agent is not currently tracked, but could be, possibly by utilizing ListMail's included signup-xtra.php (see Customizations forum)

I am pleased to answer your questions!  Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Regards

[mdm]

This special address only appears in the headers of the message and is not normally seen by the subscriber.  By default, it will be bounce@yourdomain.com.  This address can be set up either as a mailbox, for use with the mailbox method of bounce processing, or as a forwarder to bounce.cgi for on-the-fly processing.


Dean

Thanks for the prompt reply and kind feedback.  Flattery will get you everywhere :-)

I had been looking at the Return Path aka envelope sender on the confirmation message and welcome message, and they do not have the bounce address.  I notice later on that you handle those differently than sending out a scheduled follow up.

I've gone ahead and completed the setup of bounce handling via cgi, and I will test it later on today.

2) I'm also having trouble wrapping my head around custom
user fields. I want to ask them what their biggest problem
is. So I can get that in the signup form ok. Now where
does it go when they type an answer in.

I'm guessing it does not go into the user database, and the
only way I can see it is by having an email forwarded to me
?

To "enable" a custom field, give it a short description in List Settings -> Custom Fields.  Once enabled, you can view the user's data on the "Edit" page for your users on that list.

On your form, the variable user1 corresponds to Custom Field #1 for your list.

Ok, I've got it now.  I'm glad to see that custom field data being stored in your database.

I do see that the email address is required and handled by
LM. Do I have access to the error message so I can
customize it ?

Yes.  You can customize the error messages under List Settings -> Errors.


Thank you.

I set up a New Errors array, and tweaked a couple of them.  That works.

However the error page still says

There were errors with your for your copy of the Special Report.

The error messages are as follows:
You didn't enter your first name. Please go back and try again.

Please press the back button on your browser and re-enter your information.


I'm not sure if I edited the first and last lines someplace else, or if that is boilerplate.

For example, the phrase         with your      in the first line looks like it's trying to drop in a variable, but not succeeding.

So if I can edit that thru your interface, please clarify.  Otherwise, it's good enough for my purposes.

I had this working via password authentication on the
testing the other day, but when I look at my list
confirmations and followups, the emails are going thru their
server.

Are they intercepting my Port 25 calls, or do I need to set
up something else in the configuration ?

Welcome, confirmation, and notifications all use internal PHP mail() for sending.  This prevents too many connections to SMTP in the event of a ton of signups at once.  Followups should be sent with SMTP, if enabled.  It is highly recommended that, unless ListMail is actually installed on your home computer (not easy and probably against your ISP's policies), you use your commercial web host for sending your  email.


Ok, I understand now.  I'm in the unique position of having some mail servers that are not on any RBL's, and I'm my own ISP, and I was wanting to send all email thru my servers.  I'm sure the hosting companies do the best job they can, but when you have lots of people sharing the same IP address, it's going to be blacklisted some of the time.

So if you are collecting distant future wishes, I'd like to see the SMTP server option be applied to all emails.

6) Can I get Apache ENV variables like
"REMOTE_HOST,HTTP_USER_AGENT" into the signup email or some
place that I could reference it if a problem arose and
somebody was spoofing an email address ?

The REMOTE_HOST value is stored as the user's IP address in ListMail.  The user agent is not currently tracked, but could be, possibly by utilizing ListMail's included signup-xtra.php (see Customizations forum)



Yes, I see that now in the headers of your email, and also the User Details, which I had not paid much attention to.


>I am pleased to answer your questions!  Please let me know if I can be >of further assistance.


Thanks again, ane more questions will be on the way :-)

mark

[DW]

I had been looking at the Return Path aka envelope sender on the confirmation message and welcome message, and they do not have the bounce address. I notice later on that you handle those differently than sending out a scheduled follow up.

If the return-path is not being set correctly in PHP mail() messages (welcome/confirm/notification) there is one thing you can try.  It's noted in this post.

I set up a New Errors array, and tweaked a couple of them. That works.

However the error page still says

There were errors with your for your copy of the Special Report.

The error messages are as follows:
You didn't enter your first name. Please go back and try again.

1) Are you sure your list is set to use your new error messages?  This must be set on the List Settings page.
2) Perhaps the unexpected output is found on the List Settings -> Custom HTML -> Signup Error page

So if you are collecting distant future wishes, I'd like to see the SMTP server option be applied to all emails.

This has been suggested and also requested by others.  I may very will implement such a feature soon.

Regards!