There aren't enough hours in the day or functioning neurons left in my brain to pull this one off, so I'm asking for a lot of help in creating the most useful, most practical, most functional list management software ever for handling multiple email lists.
I have looked at other solutions. They all seem to work with one subscription list per email list. When you run 30-some lists, there's no simple or practical way to figure out which list(s) [EMAIL PROTECTED] is at when she asks to be unsubscribed, switched to digest mode, or have her address changed. Our software will do that, among other things. I anticipate writing everything in PHP, which is a monumentally powerful language with suboptimal documentation, but if someone can suggest a better solution, I'm open to it. Here's the process as I see it unfolding. 1. Write a program that can read the first email in a mailbox. That's about as far as I've been able to get, and half the time it doesn't work. 1a. Parse header information. Later make sure sender is subscribed to list. 1b. Massage body of email -- convert styled/HTML to plain text, remove quoted footers, etc. 1c. Add message info to list database (Message ID #, Sender ID #, etc.), copy body of message to online archive, send message to subscribers. 2. Write a program to handle subscriptions. - database 1: initial requests - database 2: confirmed subscribers - database 3: failed subscribers (requests not confirmed in XX hours) 2a. Read message to initiate subscribe address, add to database 1 along with password, send out confirmation message. 2b. Check confirmation email address and password, make sure address is in database 1, purge from 1, add to 2. Assign sequential ID for this subscriber. This ID will be used to track the subscriber through email address changes, etc. 2c. Collect user name, request secondary email address for emergencies, such as primary address being unavailable. Allow 1-3 additional posting addresses (e.g., mail.iserv.net and iserv.net). 2d. Create Web interface and email system so subscribers can set default subscription mode (single messages, digest, vacation) and choose which lists they wish to join. System should use password and have allowance for confirmed subscriber to change password. Should also allow subscribing to some lists in digest mode, others in message mode. 3. Append ads to sent messages. 4. Create digests. Each entry in the list database should include both the message ID and the number of the digest it will go into. Digests should be configured so they can be sent out: - at a certain size in KB - with a certain number of messages - at a specified time of day or XX hours after last digest System should allow for one, two, or all three conditions to be met. 5. Administrative mode for listmom and nannies to directly access and modify subscriber database. Overall, we want a very modular system that will be easy to customize. For instance, I think we'll want to keep a database of "strip these footers" that include not only regular list footers but also the messages MSN, Yahoo, and others append to email they handle. This is a very rough outline that has been taking shape in my head for months. None of it sounds too difficult, but all of it will take a lot of effort to get things working just right -- and along the way, we're bound to come up with other ideas to further improve things. My goal is to create an open source program that will benefit others in the same situation I'm in with lots of mailing lists to manage. Once we have something that works, we can become our own guinea pigs and create a list to discuss the list using the software we devise. -- Dan Knight, president, Cobweb Publishing, Inc. <http://cobwebpublishing.com> <http://lowendmac.com> <http://digital-views.com> <http://digigraphica.com> <http://lowendpc.com> <http://reformed.net> Atheism is a non-prophet organization. -- Mac Webmasters is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics has Lasso, Filemaker, and FileMaker Server on Sale! High Technology for low prices. http://www.smalldog.com Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac Webmasters info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/macweb.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:mac.webmasters@;mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:mac.webmasters-off@;mail.maclaunch.com> For digest mode, email: <mailto:mac.webmasters-digest@;mail.maclaunch.com> Subscription questions: <mailto:listmom@;lowendmac.com> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac.webmasters%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
