Smart Mailer

Documentation

Installation

Go to Extensions -> Manage -> Install page, upload distribution package you've previously downloaded and click Install. Before you enable extension you must setup it first.

For plugins: Go to Extensions -> Plugins, find the desired plugin and open its settings. Setup accordingly and only then enable.

For modules: Go to Extensions -> Modules, find the desired module and open its settings. Setup accordingly and only then enable.

For components: Hover your mouse over Components menu item, find the desired component and go to Options page. Setup everything accordingly and don't forget to check Permissions tab.

License ID: Enter anything in License ID field, if it is present in extension options.

Subscribe Users

If you have your own database of recipients from any other extension (e.g: VirtueMart, OpenCart etc), simply install and enable the corresponding plugin. You will see the newly added source in the list of sources on campaign editing page (for digests it's always your subscribers database).

To create new mailing list, you have to install Smart Mailer Subscriptions module or add Subscriptions page to menu and create at least one category. After that your visitors will be able to subscribe to desired category.

You can also subscribe users to selected categories automatically upon register. Just set Autosubscribe to Yes for desired categories, then install and enable Autosubscribe plugin.

Don't forget to tun on subscribing functionality in extension settings.

Unsubscribe Users

If you wish to let users unsubscribe from your mailing lists, turn this functionality on in settings and then add a tag in your message body like this:

{unsubscribe}some text{/unsubscribe}

It will be replaced with a link to Unsubscribe page, when email is added to queue. To remove a certain recipient from list of unsubscribed users, just find him and delete on Unsubscribed page on the back-end.

Using Tags

Besides {unsibscribe} tag, there're other tags you may want to add to your email body. Here's a full list of currently available tags:

• name - Recipient's name
• email - Recipient's email
• subscribe - Link to subscribe page.
• unsubscribe - Link to unsubscribe page.

To add any tag, just wrap it in curly brackets - {tag} - and it'll be replaced with actual data. Replacement happens only when email is processed and added to queue, so any related data is always up to date.

If you want to have a certain tag in your emails, just send us a request to support@thekrotek.com and we will add it for you.

Sending Emails

First of all you have to create a campaign or a digest. Hit New button on Campaigns or Digests page and fill all the fields. In the Source dropdown list choose the desired members or content database and then select one or several items. For example, if you want to use Joomla database, you can either choose Joomla Groups or Joomla Users for campaign or Joomla Articles for digest.

When you're done with your new campaign or digest setup, hit Save button and... that's it! Emails matching given criteria will be automatically mailed according to rules set (e.g.: 50 emails per 2 hours). You don't need to do anything else.

There're 3 ways of processing mailing lists:

Cron job

This is the best and less resource hungry way. Cron job always runs and the background and doesn't bother you or your visitors.

To enable it, create a cron job on your server using "lynx" or "wget" command and Cron Link, provided on Options page, Admin tab. If you don't know, how to properly setup cron job, the best ways is to ask your hosting provider.

System plugin

If you don't have access to cron, you can use system plugin called Smart Mailer Cron. Open its settings, set Run Period in minutes (don't make it too low, 120 minutes is recommended) and enable.

NOTE: Cron plugin runs on EVERY page load, both front-end and back-end, when someone visits your site. It runs on foreground and slows down the page load, when sending emails. Please, note that, when using cron plugin.

Manual processing

You can also process emails manually: just click Cron Link from extension settings and wait until task is done. This way is recommended only for one time runs or in testing purposes.

What else?

Note, that sometimes you can get "Cannot instantiate mail function" error. This can be a random or server related issue, but not a bug in extension. Never!

Do NOT set Emails per Cycle parameter too high and run time for cron job or plugin too low. You may hit server limit or experience spam related issues.

Be responsible and use this extension in a smart way. Don't sent emails too often and don't include too much attachments.