Thread

I use EE to manage mailouts to email list of around 400.

My host’s rigourous anti-spam policy limits the amount of emails i can send in any given 10 minute period to around 30 when sent via SMPT and PHPmail. Changing hosts is not an option.

However, the EE Email Configuration panel has the following feature:

Use Batch Mode?
Batch Mode breaks up large mailings into smaller groups, which get sent at intervals. Recommended if your site is hosted on a shared-hosting account.

with an option on batch size.

So, just wondering what the interval between batches is set to and whether there is any way to alter it. My options are either to attempt to use batch mode and hope it works with the interval set to a 10 minute interval, if it can be set this high, or to carve up the list into chunks of 30 and send manually every 10 minutes.

I’m not a fan of doing it this way- keep in mind, the browser window needs to remain open until the batch completes.  I personally would consider going with a dedicated email option.  That said- it is possible to set both the batch number- how many go out at a time- and the time between ‘batches’ (basically you change the time between page refreshes, as a batch is sent every refresh).

To change the refresh interval, you’d need to open up system/cp/cp.communicate.php and look around line 965:

$DSP->ref_rate = 6;

Change the time- which is in seconds- to however long you need it to be.

Make sense?

That makes sense. Thanks. I might give it a go out of interest, but you’re right, a 10 minute browser refresh between 10+ batches doesn’t sound ideal.

Should I be altering any admin timout settings to make sure this isn’t a problem?

Also, whilst we’re talking mailing lists, do have any recommendations for a dedicated solution? I’m a Mac user and also have a dotmac account.

Hm- good point on the timeout.  But I do believe the refresh every ten minutes would take care of that.  If not- cookies only definitely would.  But should be fine with sessions and a 10 minute refresh, so no problem there.  It’s just- tedious.

I’ve had a couple of clients use Constant contact for email solutions.  I didn’t set it up- they were already on it.  Seemed pleased with it- and I managed to integrate signup with EE using the API in no time.  I do believe there might be an actual plugin or something for that floating around the forum.  At least- I know others have done it as well.

But- it’s not something I’m up on.  You might consider posting to the ‘General Forum’ to see what others would recommend.  Folks here have a lot of experience, so you can usually get good input on pros/cons.