php mailing list

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

I am thinking, I have a project, 500 bucks for a basic site, it's going to have a newsletter. Should I hunt down a 3rd party script, or program it myself. If I download a third party script, if I rely on that won't I never get to program.I am also wondering if I try to program a newsletter myself without a third party script. How long will it take. I need advice on this, where do I start building one, I am wanting one to where people can sign up for the newsletter, and where the owner of the site will have some way to put stuff into the email and send it to mass people, because he needs to be able to put pictures in it, like for his book, and things of that nature, any advice on how to start on this, or were to turn, it would be greatly appreciated.

[SFB]

It all depends on you php abilities. if you are a good programer like lets say justsomeguy for example, it would probably take you lessthan a week days spending 2-3 hours on it a day. if you were me it would take about a week and a half at 2-3 hours a night. it also depends on how good you are at debuging scripts. EDIT: I would start by looking at getting familiar with the php mail function or whatever you are going to use to send the newsletter. then i would make a form and have php process and send it . then you can work on making things fancy!

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

The thing I wanted to ask though, is you speak of the mail function, but I am unsure about the general set up of this program.For instance I know to create a form field, and have it keep track of emails, I can either do that by getting it to email to the person, or databasing it.But then as far as getting it to where that person can send mass emails using his mailing list how would this be done.For instance do I just tell the client to email them from his original email address, or do I create a page on his site, that isn't linked to the main site, but also is declined access to search engines. and let him just have 2 fields, one with his email address, and one with the message he is going to send, then he can just go to that link whenever he wants to send an email, and if it's a security issue I cna just password protect that one page.Or is there another way to get this set up this is the part that is severely confusing me.

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

I found what I was wondering, something called MAILING LIST MANAGERS is this somethign I can program myself or do I have to use something that's 3rd party.

[justsomeguy]

You don't have to do anything, you can do whatever you want. If you want to use a 3rd party app, use that, or else make it yourself. There's nothing you can't program, all 3rd party apps were programmed by someone. It's a matter of your skill level, if you want to take the time to learn PHP to the point that you can do something like this (expect to spend a few months doing it), then you can, or if you need it quicker just use something off the shelf.

[SFB]

The mail function that i was talking about is in php. it looks like

<?phpmail("me@site.com", "subject goes here", "body of email goes here");?>

you can read more about it here at php.netnow that i think of all the things that go into an automated newsletter it would take me about a month to finish it.

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

I knew about the mail program, and i know quite a lot about php, it's just bring together the elements needed for a mailing list, I guess what I am trying to ask, is what elements do I need for this.FOr instance, I need the form, that gathers the email address.Does it have to be databased, or can it be sent to an email.Actually here, let me rephrase the question the best way I can.How do I make it to where my client can send the mass emails, to the people on the mailing list, with sending pictures. That is the part I am confused about. I can program something to send emails, My only idea to allow him to, is to create a login page for him to handle sending emails from his site, I understand fully about how to get email data, but I don't understand how to allow my client to be able to send emails to all the people.

[justsomeguy]

The first step is obviously the mailing list itself. Either you need a text file full of emails you can run through, or have everything in a database. That's the easy part.If you want to send emails with formatting and images, then they will need to be HTML emails. Essentially you are emailing an entire web page (all HTML tags included - doctype, <html>, <head>, <body>, etc). Rather then sending all of the images and crap as attachments, you will want to put all of your images online and just link to them in the HTML email. So upload all of your images to www.mysite.com/images or something, and then every <img> tag should point there, not to local images.Once you have the HTML page created, the next step is sending the email. You can really do it two ways. You can either include every single address on one email, or you can loop through the mailing list and send one email to each address. It will obviously be a lot faster to send only 1 mail with every address, but depending on how many addresses there are, it might not be very practical.Look at the mail reference for more details, including how to send HTML email (example 4).

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

Perfect I greatly appreciate that, see I am good with php, atleast intermediate, but until I do more larger programs I still have a hard time figuring out how to put things together. So I think this is what I should do.where the sign up place will be for the mailing list, just connect that to a database, and have the database save all the email addresses.And can then create the page, the only other question I now have is how do I get it to where the client can send the email.FOr instance I am a php programmer, I could send it, but I need to figure out how to get him access to be able to send it, this is where my problem is coming in now.I can build everything you said and have it send an email, that makes sense.The only other idea is have a place on his website that's password protected, then he can send the email from a form on his own site, but I Have never seen any other sites do this, so how do I set it up where he can put in what he is sending, then it send it, to all the messages on the list, that is the confusing part, thanks for all the help.

[reportingsjr]

Well, do you know mysql? if so here is some script for doing it:Hold on.. im busy programming my own stuff lol :)Ill make it for you in a few..EDIT: wont make since person knows stuff..

Edited May 26, 2006 by reportingsjr

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

yes I know the sql language, I know how to operate a mysql database, I also know php, but getting the emails together shouldn't be a problem, I just create a form(small one) that accepts an email address, I validate it, connected it to a database, and have it add the email to a database everytime someone enters the information and submits it, bam they are signed up to the newsletter. Also I understand how to create a php page, and have the database cycle through the emails sending it to everyone on the list, or as he said sending it to all of them at onceBut what I don't get is how is my client going to send emails.I am working on a project, the client I am working for has to have a way to send emails to the people on the mailing list, in a newsletter format, one with a picture of his book, and occasionally advertisements, I guess new things he's working on excetera, but how would I get it to where he can send it, I was thinking of creating another page on the website, with a username and password only he knows. RIght, then he can log in, fill out a form, and it automatically emails everyone in the database, but with all the other sites I saw with newsletters none of them ever had a place where the site owner, could log in and send out the newsletter, but someone every couple of days whenever the owner of the site had something to say emails get sent out to everyone on the list, that is the part that is confusing me now.

[reportingsjr]

actually that is what they do.. but they dont show you the page.. *its a secret!* I have something just like this for my site.

[businessman332211@hotmail.com]

That will work I will keep these ideas in mind atleast I have the general idea now, I have one more major question.I had another question and don't want to crowd the forums, so I am going to ask it here.I have heard a lot about 2 things.cms, and gui interface.I know one of these has something to do with creating a control panel or something along those lines for a client to be able to easily update his site.What exactly is it, I picture a control panel like for a web hosting company where they can control all aspects of the site. But what confuses me is I have heard of templates, Where you have a master php script, that controls duplications of php scripts, so you can change them all at once ,I like the idea but don't have a need for that until I start doing major scripts where scripts appear in multiple places, if ever, but what is the difference between templating and gui(if gui is the process of creating the control panel). THis has been confusing me, I was wondering is the gui control panel the same as create a newsletter control panel, is it just a web page that has xhtml, css, and php that have a lot of forms that the owner of the site can control various aspects of the page, or is it an actual program not created in php that is used to mantain the site, like contribute, I wanted to know because for most clients, if they have contribute I can tell them they can update it through there, I use dreamweaver code view all the time, but I can tell the client if they have dreamweaver that is where they can take care of there site from in design view. And if they have frontpage they could change the text around probably with out destroying the coding, but the gui interface(if that's what the control panel is) is confusing me, and I have looked all over the place trying to find informationa bout it. And the main question I have is this something I can program myself, or do I HAVE to buy a 3rd party something to get it done. I like programming everything myself if it is possible, unless it's something major like a huge forum or something.