Thread

its been an in-house service only since november 2009:

http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/126886/P126/#670963

ah, Wow! this is very cool.

Bought, installed, but no joy yet. Screenshot attached (same display results using default theme as with mine).

Notes:

1. Have a default mailing list.

2. Deinstalled and reinstalled. Firemail database tables went away and were recreated on new install as one would expect.

this is actually not a problem with FireMail but with the server settings. the error is described here in the first purple box:
http://www.codeignitor.com/user_guide/general/alternative_php.html

can you please open the following file:
system/expressionengine/config/config.php

and make sure that the following line is set to true as follows:
$config[‘rewrite_short_tags’] = TRUE;

The good news- I went into my server and manually changed the short tags setting to ‘On’. FireMail seems quite content with that and I can proceed to trying to send emails ...

Here is the bad (or confusing) news: config.php already had short tags set to TRUE. Why would this not have done the trick per the CodeIgniter note? Should you alert EE staff or is something else awry with FireMail or my configuration?

EDIT: I should say that I discovered config.php set to TRUE before editing my server manually.

i’ll investigate further but i think it may be partly to do with my code. i used the syntax:

<? do_something(); ?>

instead of

<?php do_something(); ?>

i thought that was ok with php’s alternative syntax but maybe not. anyway i’m already updating this in the view files for the next minor release.

CodeIgniter will optionally rewrite short tags on-the-fly, allowing you to use that syntax even if your server doesn’t support it

perhaps only this type of sysntax is rewritten:

<?='echo this'?>

Sending emails is a breeze. However, this is the behavior I have tested:

1. If a link is included in the email and clicked, the statistics show both ‘opens’ and ‘clicks’, but only for mail sent to a mailing list, not for mail sent to a member group(s). The latter exhibit the behavior in 2. below.

2. If a link is not included in the email and the email is opened, no statistics are returned to show that the email(s) was opened.

3. If a link is included in the email and the email is opened, but the link is not clicked, no statistics are returned to show that the email(s) was opened.

So:

open-click—> statistics returned for mailing lists only.
open (no link in email)—> no statistics returned
open (link in email)—> no statistics returned

Quick note that including ability to use EE templates is a crucially needed feature for me as well.

1. If a link is included in the email and clicked, the statistics show both ‘opens’ and ‘clicks’, but only for mail sent to a mailing list, not for mail sent to a member group(s). The latter exhibit the behavior in 2. below.

2. If a link is not included in the email and the email is opened, no statistics are returned to show that the email(s) was opened.

3. If a link is included in the email and the email is opened, but the link is not clicked, no statistics are returned to show that the email(s) was opened.

russ, not sure about the quality of your testing, but…

1. it works for all emails, not just mailing lists

2. as noted on the website, opens can only be recognised if the email client displays images in the email (some email clients ask you if you want them to display the images).

3. same as 2 above

also note that once a link is clicked, the email is marked as opened regardless of whether images were displayed

 
russ, not sure about the quality of your testing, but…

Ouch, you’re getting to know me ....

 
2. as noted on the website, opens can only be recognised if the email client displays images in the email (some email clients ask you if you want them to display the images).

I tested in Gmail on two different machines, one using regular GMail, the other Mailplane. Both were set by default to show images and both do so (checked by sending other image-heavy html mails just to be sure). As you know, GMail (and Mailplane) does prompt about showing images if default for images is not on .... but default is ‘on’.

(Mailplane is a slick little app, btw).

I am a happy SiteMaps user and love your stuff. Hope the problem is my sloppiness. I’ll need to work through a few cases again, I ‘spose and then get back to you again. Not sure what to do at this stage re: your point 2. I’m in FireMail eval mode and using other software for sending serious mail, so no rush or frustration on my side.

oops, sorry if that came out rude!

ok i just tested again and it worked for me but i’ll investigate and try to find out why its not working for you. in the meantime could you look at the source of the email in your gmail client (show original) and look for an image at the bottom that you didn’t add to the email. it’ll be of the form:

<img src=“http://www.your-site.com/index.php/?ACT=29&spoor=fa8bffec8934893393442c” width=“1” height=“1” />

You weren’t rude at all; to the contrary. I just thought it was funny. Don’t go testing until I check out the source as you request. I don’t have a lot of time today, but I’ll do this and get back ASAP with an EDIT to this post.

EDIT: good news in a computer-ish way and I can’t feel too dumb. I don’t spend my life memorizing the ridiculous ‘features’ of most software. Google Mail (I’m sure you know, but I had ..... forgotten) ‘protects’ us by refusing to show images until you have opened them twice from a given sender. Then, they are automatically ‘trusted’. If I got that right.

The default setting to open images doesn’t mean jack until then. I learned this after going back to look at test emails and seeing to my (yes, now) frustration that the images were indeed ‘off’ because I am not (yet) a trusted sender.

Whatever.

So, it appears that I will experience in FireMail what I reported re:statistics with any recipients who are not yet my chums (twice-over) .... but only with some software client software ..... as well as see that permanently for recipients who do, in fact, have default images turned off.

Hmm. Ben, do you know if you are using the same method here to register open’s as other mail software (MailChimp, for instance)? Just curious. Mercifully, my life has been free of this consideration until this morning.

Meanwhile, give me a day or so to work through my ‘testing’ again before you look for presumed problems. I hate computers, don’t you know? My lost productivity across the last 25 years is scary. Think I’m kidding, but not sure.

ah well found!

unfortunately yes, it is the same in MailChimp and other such software.

keep in mind that clicking on a link will register it automatically as opened, and that the click-through rate is probably more significant (and certainly more accurate) than the open rate.

that explains the other points that you raised so nothing left to do but add more features!!

thanks for taking the time to test this and hope you get a chance to send out mass mail soon
(WARNING: pressing the refresh button on the stats page can be addictive!!)

Yah, opens are almost (not quite) meaningless, compared to click-throughs. You certainly have my blessing to add new features 😉. I’ll report back on all the fun after I send out a small mass mailing for a legitimate purpose. Soon.