Mailings are used to send a similar message such as a newsletter or an announce to a large number of recipients. The message's text is a template in plain text or HTML format, that may contain variables for per-recipient data merging into the body of the messages. The mailing is prepared and controlled in the user interface, but the actual sending is done server-side in a batch.
{{variable_name}}. A mailing may have one template only, in plain text or html format, or two templates, one of each format. They can be submitted:
Brackets, ampersand and angle brackets are not allowed in variable names in templates.
If the format chosen for the message is HTML with alternate plain text while only an HTML template is supplied, the text version will be generated by the program. In this case, it is advised to carefully check this generated text version in the mail preview (accessible at the end of the mailing setup). In particular, hyperlinks with a text and target URL come out with only the text. To avoid that, the only way currently is to supply a custom plain text template in a separate file.
The subject for the mailing may also contain variables, enclosed between two brackets like in the template.
The merge process will not replace variables whose names are not found in the data file.
The mailmerge data is submitted in a file in CSV format, encoded in the current locale. The normal separator between fields is the comma, but tabs and semicolons are also accepted.
If there are no variables in the template, the data file should contain only one column for the recipient address, with one line per recipient. A header line is not expected to be present.
On the other hand, if there are variables in the template, there must be a CSV header line at the very beginning of the file, with the column names matching the names of variables for the merge process. Also, the first column is assigned by convention to the recipient address. In the examples below, the name "email" is given to this column.
Here is an example of a simple data file containing two records, with the variables title, firstname and name in addition to the mandatory email field.
email;title;firstname;name john.doe@mail.tld;Mr;John;Doe jane.doe@mail2.tld;Ms;Jane;Doe
Fields may contain newlines, when they're enclosed in double quotes. Here is another valid data file, with two records and a postal address field spanning multiples lines:
"email","name","postal address","country" "s.sosa@domain.tld","Daniela Sosa","Casilla de Correo 432 Correo Central C1000WAM Capital Federal","ARGENTINA" "w.heisenberg@domain.tld","Mr W Heisenberg","U 235 201-203 BROADWAY AVE WEST BEACH SA 5024","AUSTRALIA"
Double quotes in the data itself must be represented as two successive double quotes.
Once the mailing is stored in the database, the data files and template files if any can be discarded, since theirs contents are stored into the database as part of the mailing data. They will be later removed from the database if and when the mailing gets deleted.
When the mailing is put in the "running" state, the manitou-mdx process is notified of the change (assuming it is running), and starts the actual sending in background . The user interface may then be quit without the mailing being stopped. If necessary, it can still be paused or cancelled by the user interface. Operating on a mailing is done by running the command which displays the list of mailings and offers some actions.
When a mailing is selected, the possible actions are:
Additionally, the action causes an immediate refresh of the list (otherwise it's automatically done every 5s).
Mailings cannot have attachments.
Individual messages from mailings are not stored in the database, so when the mailing is finished and purged, there is no way to view the outgoing messages it generated.
There is no limit to the number of recipients, but there is a unique sender for a particular mailing, and it has to be declared as a sender identity in .
Aside from the subject line, there is currently no way to provide additional header lines.