looking for PHP mass mailer

[Christian025]

Does anyone here use this PHPmailer: http://phpmailer.sourceforge.net/ ? Before I try to ask for the decoder ring on the very brief paragraph of directions, I need to make sure it can be used with POWWEB or if there is better.

WHAT I NEED TO DO:
I need to take subscription requests from my website and also send out a daily email to that list. That list can be on MYSQL or a text file residing outside my browsable directories. I'd like to be able to send a confirmation email to the the subscriber and allow people to unsubscribe. I'm doing this to try to avoid problems with ISPs mentioned here. Everyone I send to has subscribed, but I understand the problems this is causing POWWEB for me to continue sending through Outlook.

Thanks for any direction!

Christian Grantham
Outlet Radio Network
www.outletradio.com

proudly hosted on POWWEB! :)

[HalfaBee]

To start with be aware you can only send 1000 emails per day per account.

The script you refered to is only the mail formating and sending class, you will still have to write the frontend to subscribe/unsubscribe etc.

I assume you have been blacklisted for spamming?

[Christian025]

HalfaBee, No, I haven't been blacklisted at all! :) I have gotten a warning a long time ago on bounced AOL addresses, but I simply deleted all the AOL addresses rather than dealing with it. I'm cool with POWWEB.

At anyrate, I know this is a far better solution. I don't send anything to anyone who doesn't directly email me and manually ask me to recieve. I send to way under 1000 people a day (sent once a day). I send the news clips you see on the left on this page: www.outletradio.com

I do have the front end subscription thing writen I can modify. I can modify the PHPmailist thing mentioned or use the form I currently use and manually add them into the I'm very proficient with HTML. I can pretty much modify PHP, but cannot write it. What I need is some direction.

Do you use the PHPmailer listed above? Anyone who uses a PHP mass mailer, let me know which you use or whether PHPmailer is able to be used on POWWEB. Thanks :)

[Dabrowski]

Mass mailer? Bulk mailer? It seems the difference is in the terminology. When you say either of those two, it sounds bad. If you're just talking about a Mail List Manager, well, nothing against that.

As far as I know, PowWeb doesn't list any forbidden pre-written PHP scripts (maybe partially because they are so widespread), although I'm sure they would forbid the use of offending ones on a case-by-case basis.

[Christian025]

Guys, Is the context really leaving you the impression I'm a spammer asking for unacceptable tools here? Maybe it's my fault for not knowing how to speak the native tech language here, so let me explain with better detail.

I have been with POWWEB for two or three years. I have 5 or 6 domains here and have refered several websites to this place. I love POWWEB :) and I'm in excellent standing with POWWEB.

MAILING NEEDS:
I put together a very comprehensive human filter of news items I send once a day M-F at 9 a.m. I've been doing this for two or more years here. I don't send to borrowed or bought lists. It is content I create and is subscribed to by not even half my maximum allowed. I worked with POWWEB to make certain my previous process did not cause problems, but I'm a forward thinking person.

What I need to do is NOT manage this list through Microsoft OUTLOOK, which is frought with reason enough to need another solution. I need that email list to either reside in a MYSQL database or a protected TXT file I can use PHP to send to. I called it "mass mailer" because that's what the author of the program I described called it. I suspose that's stupid, considering the SPAM hysteria, but I completely understand your trouble with my choice of words. Please forgive me. I rarely get Christmas cards, but I'll count your willingness to help as a kind of Christmas in May ;)

Mail List Managers it is. Any ideas? Are there PHP based ones? Now that I know your prefered terminology, I'll do a search here and post back to thread this together if you don't beat me to it. Thanks!

Christian

[HalfaBee]

Check out www.hotscripts.com

[Dabrowski]

Clever. I'd bet that PHPMailer on SourceForge is okay. Merry Christmas.

[Christian025]

Thanks you two... do either of you use a mail list manager?

If anyone uses what I've described or something similar, drop a link here and/or tips with any problems you encountered. I appreciate it. When I find a solution, I'll drop the one I use here for future ref.

[Dabrowski]

I used one that I'm sure I found on hotscripts.com. I don't remember the name, but the email in the readme file was webmaster@php.inc.ru.

It's very simple, probably too simple. What I liked about it was that there was no markup, really. Very plain and easy to modify.

All it does is add, edit, or delete a file, and it's only the email address. Again, you could add to it so it will record the name and some options maybe. One thing that it doesn't have that I think most mail lists should have, is a confirmation email that sends a link to a subscriber to verify and add their name to the list, and also a link in the email to unsubscribe.

For me, I just needed to set up something quick, so it worked great. If you want it, but can't find it, let me know.

[Christian025]

Dabrowski, thanks! I actually followed the hotscipts link from Halfabee and found this one: http://txtbox.co.za/p_txtlist.php It is as simple as you describe and also has the confirmation email with a link to confirm. It also places all the subscribed emails in a TXT file.

My only concern is they ask to CHMOD this file 777. Please believe me when I don't know what that really means, but doesn't that mean anyone can view that file and copy it? The reasoning provided in the channel log was so that the program can write to it. If I CHMOD it to something else, what can I CHMOD it to to allow this but protect it from being viewed or copied?

I got this up and running following the instructions pretty quickly. I think it looks nice and retains a lot more info from those subscribed, but i think I prefer the PHPmaillist here http://php.warpedweb.net/maillist/ It is basically the exact same thing, but it makes you place the list in your root directory outside the browsable directories. The only prob with both of these is they don't seem to get the line breaks right :( That's what's bugging me right now.

Enjoy!

[Dabrowski]

Getting the line breaks right (or more in tune to what you expect) is a matter of either emailing the author of the script and asking for help or modifying it yourself. Most script authors allow that in their copyright.

I'm not the definitive source on CHMOD, but I'm sure someone will clarify (or debunk) me if necessary.

First, I think PowWeb disallows any 777. It may need to be 755 or something else. But I gather that the permissions are mostly important with those who have access to the server. Actually, this touches on a question I've been wondering about, too.

When they refer to Owner, Group, Other in permissions, if you want to have a form on the Web that will update the file, then it needs to be accessable to Others, correct? I know you can add password protection with .htaccess, thus defining exactly who on the Web will be able to modify it.

For instance, I have no way that I know of to access other people's OPS records. But the PowWeb staff does. Does Owner Group Other come into play in that case? Am I the Owner, while members of the staff are classified as Group? And the Web (or anyone) is Other?

[Darrell]

Saw your message on the Maillist. Very interested in try to add this but not quite sure of the directions. Could you share any help here?
Thanks
Darrell