Re: html newsletter generation module

Folks,

I have included a description of our newsletter module below along
with the things that need to done before it can be released.

if someone or some group in the community wants to step up and
generalize the module let me know.

if anyone has a better idea than what is described below, please speak up.

if I hear nothing, at some point, when time allows, we will generalize
and release the module.

peace,

-Shane


===================
Tasks
===================
# the data and presentation layers in the code are all mixed together
which makes it impossible to use templates at the moment. so those
layers need to be abstracted from one another

# I would like to include a few templates that are known to be "safe"
in major email providers like google, yahoo and AOL.  The big
providers will strip and mess with the css and other html elements and
it can be a real pain to get things working well.  so providing some
basic vanilla templates that work well with the the big email
providers might be nice.


======================
Module Overview
======================

The module allows for certain node types to be included in a mailing.
in our system currently, this is facilitated through two categories
(vocabularies), a "newsletter" node type and custom module code
called, you guessed it, "newsletter":

newsletter issue (category)
newsletter section (category)
newsletter (node type)
newsletter (drupal module)

to make a node available in a mailing, the node type must be added to
the categories.

the process for creating a newsletter goes as follows:

   1. Add a new term to the newsletter issue category (vocabulary)
that correlates to the mailing that will be sent (we have 12
predefined that are the monthly newsletters)

   2. The user creates node content of the various types that have
been assigned to the above mentioned categories.

   3. When the node is saved, the user chooses to assign it to a
particular newsletter issue and a particular newsletter section in
that issue.  This is done for all of the nodes that will be included
in a particular newsletter.

   4. next, the user creates a newsletter node that would serve as the
actual newsletter.  when they do this they are given a list of choices
that are the terms in the category that have *not yet* been associated
with a mailing.  the user chooses the appropriate term (mailing) and
saves the node (newsletter).  when the node is accessed in the future
it aggregates all of the node content that was assigned to the
newsletter issue and displays the content (there are ways to define
article teasers, etc.)

   5. next the user will use the custom newsletter module to create
HTML and text versions of the newsletter.  the html version is "safe"
for google, yahoo. and aol such that the css ans styling are not
stripped.   the flow for this is pretty simple.

          * the user is presented with a list of newsletters in the system,
          * the user chooses a newsletter and a version(text or html)
(at some point there will be a choice for a template here)
          * the user clicks the generate button and they are presented
with a textarea that is filled with the newsletter content from start
to finish

   6. The user needs to copy the content of the two newsletter
versions (text and html) and create two files that will be loaded into
civicrm.  these two files can be tweaked as necessary for presentation
reasons.

   7. the user then goes though the standard civimail process for
sending the emails.


On 8/23/07, Shane Hill <shane@...> wrote:

> On 8/23/07, Emily E Frazier <emily.e.frazier@...> wrote:
> > Hey Shane,
> >
> > I was just wondering if this has gotten released yet?
>
> no.  not  yet,   we are very busy getting ready to launch the SMTP
> service.  we will get to it as soon as possible, lots of orgs want
> this.  :)
>
> we will announce when it is ready.   :)
>
> -Shane
>