/*************************************************************************** File Name : Install.txt Domain : http://www.triangle-solutions.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author : Ian Warner Copyright : (C) 2001 Triangle Solutions Ltd Email : hide@address.com URL : http://www.triangle-solutions.com/ Description : Describes the install procedure. Date Created : Thursday 17 April 2003 14:50:41 ****************************************************************************/ Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A) To install PHP Multiple Newsletters B) Create a Newsletter C) To create the HTML email use the following instructions D) To create the Plain email use the following instructions E) To upload emails into a newsletter F) Sending a newsletter G) Using the archive system H) Enabling and Using Tracking A) To install PHP Multiple Newsletters ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Copy all files to a sub directory within your web site. 2. Create a database on your MySQL installation, default for this app is newsletter this can be changed in the config.php file, to anything you like. 3. Import the newsletters.sql file to add the appropriate tables to your MySQL database. This will also add the example. 4. Configure the config.php file, adding the Host, User and Password of your MySQL installation, and all other variables that are required. 5. Default method of sending is via sockets. The mail Loop has been deleted. 6. Go to the Admin page, this will be located at the directory you placed the installation in i.e. /newsletter/admin/ 7. Make sure you add the appropriate security to the config.php and admin files. 8. Please send me an email - hide@address.com if you use this app with the domain it is used on. 9. If you like it and use it then support me and DONATE - do this through the ADMIN PayPal byutton. B) Create a Newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Simply go to the admin page. 2. The test newsletter should already be in place, play around with this, edit it view the HTML and Plain mail templates etc. 3. Click Add Newsletter 4. Add a title and description - this can be anything; the customers will see this and may sign up depending on what your write. Be concise. 5. As the user can choose mail preference you need to set up two templates for the newsletter - this is HTML and PLAIN versions. The instruuctions for both are below. 6. Construct your welcome and Unsubscribe messages here also - use the example and the KEYWORDS given to create the templates for your users. These are very similar to creating PLAIN emails - I would always send these out as plain email types so dont use HTML in them. 7 Tracking is only available with the HTML email template please read below for information on this - but within the redirect field you must specify the complete URL of the website which you want to land your user on after they click on the tracking URL in the newsletter you sent out. C) To create the HTML email use the following instructions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. On the Add Newsletter page there is a part to add an HTML email - this needs to be the HTML template of the email you wish to send. Simply create a page design in your favourite page production program and copy and paste the source code into this box, taking in mind the following variables. Also be wary of graphics etc - they need to be absolute paths to where the images will be on the internet. 2. To include the persons name in the HTML use the word - MEMBERNAMEHERE 3. To enter the inputted body of the message into a certain place use NEWSLETTERBODY - i.e this is what you send each time. 4. Please look at the default example to see how it works. 5. Once the newsletter had been created please go to Edit and then click on View HTML to see what it looks like. D) To create the Plain email use the following instructions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. On the Add Newsletter page there is a part to add a Plain email - this just needs to be the simple text, no html tags will be allowed for this. 2. To include the persons name in the text use the word - MEMBERNAMEHERE 3. To enter the inputted body of the message into a certain place use NEWSLETTERBODY 4. Please look at the defaut example to see how it works. 5. Once the newsletter had been created please go to Edit and then click on View HTML to see what it looks like. E) To upload emails into a newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Once you have added a newsletter you will see several options next to it. 2. Click Upload next to the desired newsletter. As it will only upload emails into that newsletter. 3. On the upload page - click the Mail preference you wish this will be assigned for each email you import. 4. Enter your name/emails making sure that each name/email is on its own line within the textarea, each name email pair should be seperated by a comma. A Spaces are ok between this as the program will trim out whitespace before and at the end; e.g. Fred Bloogs, hide@address.com Mr. Smith,hide@address.com 6. Click submit - all names/emails will be added to the database. 7. To check import go back to the newletter home page and firstly check member number - then click list members. F) Sending a newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. There has been some confusion about what the HTML and PLAIN templates actually mean and do. So here is a guide to sending a newsletter and what each element does. 2. If you have followed the steps above - or are using the example templates you will have a newsletter with a HTML and a PLAIN template in place. These templates have two things in common they use the keywords MEMBERNAMEHERE and NEWSLETTERBODY to draw in the user name and Newsletter message respectively So on the send newsletter screen you will see the following entry boxes: Subject, HTML Newsletter Body and PLAIN Newletter Body - the subject names the incoming email for the user, the HTML Newsletter Body allows you to enter in HTML tags for the message you want to send - this will only get sent to users who signed up for the HTML version. PLAIN Newsletter Body is sent to the PLAIN subscribers only, no HTML tags can be placed in this as they will show up - both these will be placed in both templates where the word NEWSLETTERBODY exists. 3. Once you have filled in this page hit send and the newsletter will be sent to the various members of your list - if you choose to send by sockets it can send many thousands at a time, but sending emails takes time so please be patient. 4. You may delete members from this page - that may have duplicate emails or bad addresses - simply click on there name and hit delete - hit back button to do this again. 5. The script automatically reads in the user preference - so if one user has HTML and another wants PLAIN then the script will send the correct template and substitute the words for that user. G) Using the archive system ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Well basically this is all automated - a link nows appears on the front of the newsletter main page. When a user clicks this they will be given all the newsletters that have been sent and stored. However only the information entered into the newsletter send box will be stored as I thought this would be the only information that is changing the template should be static. The HTML version of each send is the one that is stored. H) Enabling and Using Tracking ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Ok you have just sent out an email campaign, and you want to know how many users read the newsletter and clicked on the main link. This is now possible with PHPMN. 2. In the config make sure you have set the Trackingurl up correctly. 3. For each Newsletter set up the Landing page for the users that click on the main link within the newsletter you send out. 4. In the HTML template add in the link - check the example for this - you may add this link to as many places as you want within the template - i.e. on images etc. 5. To view stats look within the admin archive system for click throughs and validated emails. I hope the above is all clear if you have any problems understanding anything then please email me at hide@address.com