Newsletter Scheduling

**mechaflash** · 02/10/2011, 22:27

Anyone know if it is possible to schedule the date and time of sending a newsletter? We would like to create the newsletter the prior night, and send it out first thing in the morning without having to do it manually (no one wants to wake up at 4:30am to click a send button :| ).

Thanks!

**Vera** · 02/10/2011, 23:31

I'm not sure it can be done easily. You'd probably need a cron task to do it. And I mean the actual thing, not the extension

The reason for that is that a real cron can run at a pre-set time, where the website only runs when accessed and with that the cron extension would run late.

You will probably need to write a custom script to send the newsletter. The Crontab runs that. Great fun :D

**ramjet** · 02/11/2011, 00:42

Yip, Vera's reply is what you need.
The script (in your Templates directory) could get called by a 4.30 am daily cron, and check for unsent newsletters, send them, and mark them as sent.

**mechaflash** · 02/11/2011, 16:52

=( don't know the first thing on writing scripts. Got any good references I can use to get started?

**ramjet** · 02/12/2011, 00:14

This extension may interest you, and possibly do it????
You'd still need to learn to set up a Cron, are you hosted on a Unix server?
http://www.contao-community.de/showt...wslettersystem
Google translate needed if you don't speak German.

**Vera** · 02/12/2011, 11:55

As far as I can see Avisota can send an email on a preset time. So a real cron job to activate at that time + Avisota means you could be done with the minimum amount of scripting required.

**mechaflash** · 02/14/2011, 16:31

Originally Posted by ramjet

This extension may interest you, and possibly do it????
You'd still need to learn to set up a Cron, are you hosted on a Unix server?
http://www.contao-community.de/showt...wslettersystem
Google translate needed if you don't speak German.

I noticed Avisota before... but since it was in German (and the output is in German) I didn't bother with looking further into it. --->American<--- lol. I'll look into it some though and see if I can utilize it.

**mechaflash** · 02/14/2011, 16:53

It would definitely be great to see this function added as a standard option to the integrated Newsletter module :D

**mechaflash** · 02/14/2011, 17:24

Okay... figured out how I would get it accomplished... via Avisota... it holds the job "In Lingo" awaiting confirmation to send the newsletter. The object of course is a php script (which can be targeted by a cron job, including the CRON Scheduler module in the extension repository).

Only problem is... if the end-user wants to change the time/day they have to learn to use the CRON scheduler (not as simple as just settings a time and date like every other module made in other CMSs), and if they want to create multiple schedules at a later time, they'll have to contact me to do it because they won't know what a "php script" is or how to target it in a CRON job.

**mechaflash** · 02/14/2011, 17:55

On another note... I don't see much of any difference between using the integrated Newsletter module and Avisota... other than choosing which newsletters to send to whom are chosen by Member Groups instead of different Newsletter channels (which for my use using Member Groups instead of Newsletter channels is an extra step for the end-user), and the 'easier' use of CRON to schedule it...

I'm just wondering why it didn't come with an integrated scheduling option in the first place?

**ramjet** · 02/14/2011, 19:46

It would definitely be great to see this function added as a standard option to the integrated Newsletter module

yeah, not so easy for end-users.
Your best bet would be to request this in a ticket (as wishing it here won't do it

) although as Vera points out the Contao cron doesn't run on exact times but is triggered by web-visits.

**mechaflash** · 02/14/2011, 21:26

how do I go about getting a ticket going for it?

**ramjet** · 02/14/2011, 22:35

http://dev.contao.org/
You'll need to register, then add your well-worded heart-wrenching inarguable appeal to here
http://dev.contao.org/issues/1397
as it has already been asked for.

**mechaflash** · 02/14/2011, 23:57

:cry: Tried registering... me thinks the database is moving slow. It hasn't recognized my login credentials yet... requested a password and it hasn't sent it to my email... maybe they took precautions to block me from posting in dev's site? :lol: