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Would this work as a newsletter?

Thread began 2/10/2010 12:43 am by vanroojdotcom | Last modified 10/01/2010 7:02 am by rob294118 | 1595 views | 7 replies |

vanroojdotcom

Would this work as a newsletter?

Hi there. I've got a client who wants an "Online Newsletter" And I wondered if this Extension is the solution. I've got PHP Code experience and have used Webassist.

The basic premise is:

Each quarter a newsletter is printed which I design (in Indesign) normally I would convert it to basic HTML and send it via Thunderbird to her clients - the basic HTML is also hosted online. This is OK but all the info is in one long email now she's thinking of an online newsletter that reflects the information in the quarterly newsletters with links to different sections. Also to consider is the need to separate THIS MONTHS INFO from LAST MONTH'S INFO (sort of an archive link that you get in wordpress).

The quarterly newsletter is 12 pages so you need to have 12 links somewhere each linking to that page's story. But once a new newsletter is needed, the old one needs to be moved off the home page in it's entirety and shifted to an archive link "SUMMER 2010 EDITION" something like that and a brand new home page created.

Is this Extension viable? If you need more info on my requirements please ask - and I will give more details - this needs to be answered (not live and running - just a solution to price up for her) by next week.

Hope this all makes sense!! This is a goer so please ask if you don't understand - or if this is completely the wrong Extension and there's a good "Newsletter Software" app out there.

Many thanks
Vanrooj

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vanroojdotcom

Sorry I forgot to add - obviously I can do this myself in Dreamweaver - but I want to give her a price that gives her the option of logging in and controlling it herself.

Many thanks
Vanrooj

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gruant2000381341

I actually just built a whole newsletter system, just finished it a few days ago.
It is set-up much like powercms.
wysiwyg editor,
allows for images and sets the whole path to images dynamically so you don't have to,
set subject lines for the email,
change background color of the newsletter,
control amount of blasts to stay in good graces with your web host,
subscription page
newsletter has opt out link built in,
subscriber database control center...so you can easily add/remove emails manually
all the help files are already...ready to go

I was actually considering contacting WA to see if they were interested in this.
vanroojdotcom, email me at gruant2000 (at) yahoo (dot) com if you want a copy of it.

WA, you can email me also if you are interested in this product
(I have a working demo up and can give you the log in info to test it out)

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vanroojdotcom

gruant2000381341 -

Thanks for the reply. However, I'm not sure I made myself clear in my opening thread or that my UK printing terms are different!

By Newsletter I mean a mini website that changes each quarter. I don't want to email this out to a mailing list - this is to reside ONLY ON A SERVER - the PowerCMS code really appeals to me because my client can log-in to an admin section and create new pages to reflect the number of articles in each newsletter.

The difference, or extra tweak needed is that it will be based upon a printed newsletter and that means each new edition will need to be reflected on the site and each OLD EDITION accessible as an archive.

So let's say in the Summer she wants a yellow background and orange text - she creates 12 new pages with links (based on the 12 articles in the newsletter) and that is basically the finished website - THE SUMMER WEBSITE.

Then in Autumn she wants to replace the whole site with the AUTUMN printed newsletter - deep oranges and browns etc that resides on the root index.php - but somehow the summer one needs be saved in an archive section (newsletter.co.uk/summer2010/index.php) and a link is visible on the home page - you see a Summer 2010 link, click on it and it opens the summer newsletter in a new window.

After using a mixture of DataAssist - eCart - iRite - SecurityAssist and DigitalFile Pro I have created websites where the user can log-in and change their galleries and news sections - but this extension has the ability to add your own pages - this would definitely work for creating the NEWSLETTER ONE edition it's just the archiving and and the creating of NEWSLETTER TWO that I can't work out.

To add also - once a website has been created in PowerCMS are the pages accessible by FTP? That means, can you open Fetch - and see the the physical pages... because if that's possible I can manually archive each edition - create a folder called NEWSLETTER ONE and duplicate the files into there. She will then be free to start working again on the new Newsletter Edition.

Like I said please let me know your suggestions - anyone from WA - or workarounds or if there's a specific product out there - don't be shy about telling me!

This product seems perfect for other up-and-coming sites I have planned, but I need to let this woman know by next week if I can do this for her...


Many thanks
Vanrooj

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vanroojdotcom

So let me think about this... It's difficult for me to guess without first seeing the code, but let's imagine it is possible to create a directory and then subsequent directories from then on... this would allow the client to archive each newsletter, yes?

Let's say we have a generic home page at root_index.php on that page would be a little design and some wording stating "Click HERE to see latest Newsletter" This would then take you to a subdirectory

root_index.php/summer2010/index.php and all the sub_linked pages would reside in this directory - root_index.php/summer2010/article_01.php

Now - when this news letter has expired the "Click HERE to see latest Newsletter" links to a different directory root_index.php/autumn2010/index.php

and all it needs on the home page is a further div adding:

• Click HERE to see latest Newsletter
• Click here to see Summer2010 edition

This extra link would be created after the second edition is live and thereafter my client only has to add other archived links on the home page.


This solution would work if it was possible to create whole sub_directories in PowerCMS


Let me know about this
Vanrooj

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Eric Mittman

With Power CMS each page you create will be stored in the db. You can view the contents by putting in the code in the developer area on any end page the user will visit. So the archiving functionality is already a part of PowerCMS. The part that would not be done by Power CMS is to automatically update the page with the new content.

You could edit the current mini site, say Winter 09, and copy the content, then insert this into a new page that will serve as the archive page and update what was the Winter 09 page to be the Spring 10 page.

Or you could just add the new pages to the PowerCMS whenever you need to then update the code reference on the page to use this new page. You could then add the old page reference to the list of archive pages.

Neither option is fully automatic but it can simplify the process.

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vanroojdotcom

Eirc - thanks for the reply I think that's close enough for me. I'm glad you understood my subdirectory theory as a way to archive a complete issue!

I am now confident that I can at least utilise in some way PowerCMS and as I have a few extensions and trust Webassist it's a way to go for me.


Many thanks
Vanrooj

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rob294118

Please post the demo link.

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