Anyone have an HTML newsletter tool in their MODX project? Is Easy Newsletter the only option?

I am looking to offer a client a MODX integrated HTML Newsletter Tool. I need subscription management and the ability for the admin to create a newsletter to send to the subscribers. It also needs to support unsubscribing. The only tool that I found was Easy Newsletter, which is no longer supported. I tested it out on my 2.2.6 installation and ran into little bugs in the tool's interface. Does anyone else know of a better way? Maybe a combination of other plugins that are supported and available?

Thanks!

I have found Bob Ray's Email Resource and Subscribe add-ons. It sounds like I could use them to set up an HTML Newsletter system. Anyone have any pros or cons for this setup?

Bob Ray's Subscribe is just what you need. I haven't actively used emailResource much but as long as your email template is set up for email (table-yuck), all should go nice and smooth.

I haven't use the groupELetters much either but when I did use it, I could send single emails with personal notes by using the test option. That was handy for multiple reasons. Never did get the group part working but I didn't try very hard either.

Martin Gartner is working (and from the sounds of it, nearing a beta) on GoodNews, which from what I've seen/heard is pretty full-featured. Maybe tweet him: https://twitter.com/gadgetto

Notify is also handy if you'd rather send a link to a resource than the resource itself -- less email bandwidth, more traffic for your site. You can create any kind of Tpl to make up the notification email containing the link and you can filter the recipients by user group and/or preferences. It's very easy to use, works with Subscribe so users can self-register and confirm, and it sends the unsubscribe link required by the CAN-SPAM act in each email.

EmailResource will also work with Subscribe and will send the entire resource with inline CSS and full URLs for any links or images, though its user interface is a little clunky.

Bob,

Have you sent much email with EmailResource? And do you modify the template of the resource for email clients, or do you use the site's templates? I ask because of the issue of ideal display in email clients limiting emails to tables and max width of ~600px.

Oh, something else to consider when doing an email system is your server's mailing limits. There's a nice helper available through Mandrill http://mandrill.com/. I think it's free for 12000 emails a month, which is plenty for most small to medium mailing lists. Use the setting information from Mandrill in the MODX email site settings, and bypass your server completely for all mail out of MODX.

I don't actually use EmailResource, but I know it's used by some commercial newsletter providers.

I use Notify to send just a link to the resource.

Someday, both EmailResource and Notify will be refactored to use Mandrill and/or MailChimp, but not any time soon.

Thanks for the information guys! That tip to Mandrill is very interesting and I will check it out. I may give Eletters a run, as it seems to offer everything that I need in one package.

I haven't used Eletters so I don't know about its features. Here are some features of EmailResource to look for:

• CSS converted to inline CSS
• Option to use any CSS file for that
• All links and image locations converted to full URLs
• Tweaks to various tags required for Outlook users
• Ability to send a test email anywhere (e.g., MailChimp's "Email Beaming" address)

Quote from: markh at Jun 18, 2013, 07:28 PM

Martin Gartner is working (and from the sounds of it, nearing a beta) on GoodNews, which from what I've seen/heard is pretty full-featured. Maybe tweet him: https://twitter.com/gadgetto

Thanks Mark for mentioning!

@sonicpunk:
We are indeed nearing the a beta phase for our upcoming newsletter system called GoodNews!

Unlike most other mailing systems for MODx Revo, GoodNews is fully integrated into the MODx resource, security and user system.

Some of the main features:

• Full featured Custom Manager Page
• Custom mailing resource type with nice mail creation form
• Multi context enabled (you can have as much mailing containers you like)
• Simple creation of mailing templates
• Subscriber groups and categories
• Custom settings for each mailing container (sender email, sender name, ...)
• Integrated subscription system using Formit extra
• Uses MODx user table for subscriber handling
• 1-click unsubscription
• Subscribers can edit mailing profiles without logging into MODx
• Send HTML mails or plain text mails
• Multi threaded (= fast email sending!)
• Ability to send mailings to internal MODx user groups (Administrators, Editors, ...)
• Easy setup - with pre-installed frontend resources (subscribe, unsubscribe, edit profile, ...)

Can't exactly say when it will be available, but you can expect a relays in next 2-3 month!