Dada Mail

I’m embedding Dada Mail into a module. This is an awsome mailer script. Yes, it’s perl, but the config file is heavily commented and there is good documentation on it. It runs beautifully in the "main" frame of the Manager. Just make a link to your dada installation:

All I need to do is tweak the manager template, which is surprisingly like working with MODx templates (plain HTML with tags). You can either modify the existing default view templates, or specify your own template files.

One thing I really like about it is that you can specify a URL to use a webpage for the newsletter. So just create a document in MODx, and put in the URL to it to use it for your newsletter (yes, it works with friendly URLs). A custom template would be indicated, though, since email clients don’t have all the features of browsers.

It would be a piece of cake to create a plugin to add newly registered MODx users to the mailing list, either if you’ve chosen a database or the default flat-file list. The site I’m setting it up for will be manually adding new subscribers, so I’m not worrying about that right now.

Did you tried Pommo?
how do they compare?

I think poMMo and Dada are two of the better ones out there. I believe that Dada is a bit more mature, but it’s also written in Perl (not that that’s a bad thing ... perl’s particularly adept and handling certain types of things far better than PHP).

One thing Dada has that poMMo does not is a bounced message handler and a basic click-through tracker. In my book, those are very important (especially automated bounce handling):
http://mojo.skazat.com/support/documentation-dada-2_10_16/dada_bounce_handler.pl.html
http://mojo.skazat.com/support/documentation-dada-2_10_16/clickthrough_tracking.cgi.html

I decided to give Dada a try because my hosting provider recommends them. The batch sending mode eases the pressure on the server of sending large numbers of mailings, and there are several ways of locking down access to protect it from being hijacked by spammers.

Like most perl programs, the configuration is so extensive that it would take a really unusual installation to need to meddle with the source code. And most of the options are configurable on a list-by-list basis from the user interface.

If I wanted to, I could use one installation and make it available to every domain I’m hosting on my server; it’s quite possible to provide initial login screens specifically for each list.

You can see my embedding module on my site if you log in to the Manager with the guest login.

Yes, bounce management is important and pommo has been working on a module/plugin for a while... The cllickthrough is nice too even though you can get the same from some analytics packages, but I guess is better to do it directly on the mailing list.

Pommo has an email throttle too, this is essential for sending semi-bulk emails through a shared or vps hosting.

I’ll give Dada a try, sounds very nice, specially what Susan mentions about configuring it to "serve" many accounts...
does it works like an "agency" type of installation or so that each account holder can use it on their own...

I have never used a perl program but I assume it comes in LAMP and is like using a PHP script???

I’ll go check your site and Dada’s, thanks for the tips... hopefully it handles HTML emails....

You can either create your own HTML mail, or specify a URL to an existing web page. I’ve been testing it by specifying a MODx page (http://www.sottwell.com/whatever.html) and it works just fine. It also has instructions for setting up FCKEditor if that floats your boat.

Hey Susan, this sounds really interesting; how is the module coming along? Did I miss something?

The module’s working just great, Dada lets you configure itself very much like the MODx manager can be configured with ManagerManager to show just what you want the users to see, and they don’t seem to have any trouble with it.

I still need to write up exactly how I did the embedding into a module, though.

It’s a pretty wicked configuration file that Dada uses, that’s the hardest part to figure out. I had to read through the whole thing (it’s heavily commented) and the documentation on their site several times to get it all just right.

Sounds good - I have a client who’d probably go for an upgrade to her MODx site with this.

I’m embedding Dada Mail into a module. This is an awsome mailer script. Yes, it’s perl, but the config file is heavily commented and there is good documentation on it. It runs beautifully in the "main" frame of the Manager. Just make a link to your dada installation:

How far are you into creating this module? Is it available anywhere, and what do I need to do to install the Dada Mail and integrate it? A step-by-step list would be great!