Bridge Announcement List and Authorized Senders Enhancements in v11.7.0

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Bridge Announcement List and Authorized Senders Enhancements

The Bridge plugin allows you to send messages with Dada Mail through your mail reader without having to log into Dada Mail’s own list control panel – both for Announce-Only, and Discussion Lists,

You can set up a list of Authorized Senders who, along with your List Owner, are allowed to send messages to your mailing list. Your Authorized Senders won’t need to log into your mailing list list control panel.

We have added several features to allow you to send more effective announce-only messages through Bridge:

Rewrite From: Header Correctly

The first change we’ve made is actually a bug fix. One way to run your announcement list utilizing Authorized Senders is to rewrite the From: header, so all messages sent to your mailing list use the List Owner in the From: header, no matter what Authorized Sender sent the message.

Look for the radio button labeled,

Rewrite From header to List Owner

in Bridge

Another option available is to preserve the original From: header so that any replies go to that address, rather than the List Onwer. The issue was that the From: header wasn’t correctly managed to deal with DMARC restrictions.

Say you have an Authorized Sender that’s using a Gmail account, and you’ve set up your mailing list to send using your own SMTP server. Sending a mass mailing from your own server with (for example) a Gmail address in the From: header won’t work. You’ll need to instead send the message “on behalf of” the original sender, just like we do for discussion lists. In past versions, this wasn’t happening, and in v11.7- it now is. Rejoice!

Look for the radio button labeled,

Rewrite From header to be “on behalf of” List Owner

in Bridge.

Don’t rewrite the From header for email addresses from certain domains

We’ve also added an option to list domains that you would not like this rewrite to happen, just in case your mail system has already allowed certain additional domains to be sent through it.

Look for textbox labeled,

Don’t rewrite From header for the following domains: (one domain per line)

Set the Reply-To: header

The ability to set the Reply-To header to the List Owner or the original sender (or no one!) has been kept, even though the From: header need to be sent “On Behalf Of”.

Mention the original sender

Similar to what you’re able to do already for discussion lists, you can now set your mailing list to mention who the original authorized sender was, who sent the message. This option can be enabled (default) and disabled in Bridge for both announce-only and discussion lists. Look for the checkbox labeled:

Mention the original sender of the message at the top of the message itself

in Bridge.

v11.6.0 Released: new features to look out for

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v11.6.0 is out the door, and with it are some welcome changes. Most of the changes of v11.6.0 are on the backend of the app, and most likely won’t be noticeable to a casual user. Plow into the actual changelog to see what those are.

Here are some things to look out for on the frontend:

Global Unsubscribe + Global Black List Safeguards

Dada Mail has a global setting called, Global Unsubscribe, which allows you to unsubscribe an email address from all your mailing lists, when you unsubscribe an email address from any of your mailing lists. It’s a powerful feature! Dada Mail also has the ability to remove all your Subscribers with the push of a single button:

The, Unsubscribe All button: use with care.

This button is problematic, if Global Unsubscribe is enabled, since not only will Dada Mail unsubscribe everyone from your mailing list, it may in fact unsubscribe everyone for every mailing list.

We’re not going to remove this ability – it may be something you rely upon, but we are going to put some safeguards in. First, we’ve put an alert box on top just to remind you that Global Unsubscribe is a Thing:

Just to remind you…

If you try to use the “Unsubscribe All” button, the alert box that pops up will also remind you that Global Unsubscribe is enabled:

Just to warn you…

This button itself is also disabled. You may enable it in the Membership: Options screen. Look for the checkbox labeled, Enable, “Unsubscribe/Remove ALL” Members button:

Check this checkbox to enable Unsubscribe ALL subscribers button

Hopefully, this will help stop inadvertently causing chaos to your mailing lists! Similar situation when the Global Black List is enabled: button to remove all Blacklisted is disabled, alert box will mention this feature being activated, and there is an alert box reminding you at the top of the table that shows your Black List.

Other things to look out for: the admin menu now lists which theme you have enabled, right on the menu:

See the Theme that’s enabled in the admin menu

Want Whatsapp support? You’ve now got WhatsApp support. Your Whatsapp number will appear in the footer of your mailing list email messages. Set it under, Mailing List: List Information:

Let your users know that your organization can be contacted via WhatsApp


v11.5.1 Bug Fixes and Welcome Changes

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v11.5.1 is mostly a bug fix release – we suggest anyone running a previous version of Dada Mail to upgrade (as always). See the changelog for all details for this release. If you need an upgrade, we’re here for you.

In this post, we’re going to look at a few changes that you may welcome:

Cleanup of backup file/directories

During an upgrade, Dada Mail’s installer makes backups of some of the directories it finds in the, dada_file_support_files directory. If you’ve been running Dada Mail for a while, and have been on top of upgrading, this directory can get filled with more backups than you’d know what to do with. So many, that it can be a pain to have to manually remove the unneeded backups.

Here’s an example:

This screenshot looks into the dada_files_support_files directory via an FTP client, showing 30+ backups of the, “ckeditor” directory! Not good. If we run a du -h on the directory, we’ll find out that all these files take quite a bit of space:

Yikes: about 2 gigs of wasted disk space.

Now, when you upgrade with Dada Mail v11.5.1, only the last 3 backups will be kept, the rest will be removed. Here’s the dada_mail_support_files directory after the upgrade to v11.5.1:

Much cleaner!

And the disk space is down, too:

By about 90%!

Second cool thing to look for are for those running discussion lists that utilize moderation. We’ve made it a little easier to find the list of messages awaiting moderation. Under Plugins/Extensions: Bridge, look for the settings that deal with Moderation. A new button should be visible that allows you to see all the messages that are awaiting moderation:

Clicking this button will bring you to the listing of awaiting messages:

Each row in the able will show the message From and subject, as well as when the message was sent. Four buttons are available, allowing you to approve, deny, delete, or even resend the moderation message to the moderators.

Setting up a private notification system with Dada Mail

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We recently started offering Lifetime upgrade overage to our install/upgrade options, complementing the one-time, and yearly upgrades. We also give people the choice on if they would like us to upgrade them whenever a new release is put out, instead of having them request an upgrade from us. This can save us both time.

But, we don’t want these upgrades to come as a huge surprise, and we don’t want to stop communicating with our clients. So, we decided to set up a simple upgrade notification mailing list for our paid clients, and of course: we used Dada Mail to allow us to set everything up within minutes. Here’s how we did it:

Continue reading…

New in v11.5.0: Send Test Mass Mailings to Multiple Recipients

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Test sending out your mass mailing is a great idea to do, before you commit to sending out the message to your entire mailing list.

In past versions, Dada Mail could only send only send a test mass mailing to one email address at one time.

Starting with v11.5.0, Dada Mail can send a test mass mailing to multiple addresses at once.

By default, this list of test recipients can be created per draft message by typing in the email addresses in the same text box that previously only supported one email address. By default, up to ten email addresses may be added to this text box, and sent a test mass mailing.

Additionally, a Testers List may be enabled so that the same list of addresses can be sent a test mass mailing for all draft messages. This sublist can be administrated simnilarly to your main Subscribers list.

Here’s where to find all these new enhancements:

When drafting a new mass mailing, click on the, Options tab, then click on the, Testing tab. This is where you’ll find the text box to list the addresses you would like your test mass mailing to be sent to. By default, you can enter up to ten addresses (read on to find out how to change this default). Separate each address you enter in the text box by commas, spaces, and/or new lines.

When drafting a mass mailing, click on the Options tab, then the, Testing tab to find the textbox to enter in recipients to send a test mass mailing to.

When you’re ready to send out a test mass mailing, click the button at the top of the screen labeled, Send Test.

Click, Send Test when you’re ready to send out your test mass mailing

The screen will refresh to show you the mass mailing monitor for your test mass mailing. A button will be shown at the top of the screen labeled, Return to Editing Draft.

Click the button labeled, Return to Editing Draft to get back to your draft message

Click this button to return to your draft message, so that you can continue editing the message, or to send the mass mailing out for real. (Note: In previous versions of Dada Mail, you would never leave the draft editing screen, as only one email address would be sent the test mass mailing.)

To enable the Testers List, go to Membership: Options in the list control panel. Find the section labeled, Testers List to see the options available to you. Check the option labeled, [x] Activate Testers List to enable the Testers List.

Check, Activate Testers List, then click, Save

Options below this checkbox will allow you to specify if there’s a limit to how many addresses you may have in your Testers list as well as what that limit is. The limit set here will also affect how many addresses you can add to the text box in the drafts screen, per draft message.

Once enabled, the Testers list can be accessed in the list control panel under, Membership View. Click the tab labeled, “Testers” to see add/edit/remove addresses in this sublist.

And once enabled, you can toggle between using your Testers list and a unique list of addresses per draft message in the draft message itself. Revisit the Options: Testers tab(s) to now see the two options available. Select, Send to Testers sublist to send your test mass mailing to the Testers.

Toggle between using a unique list of test recipients for this draft, or use the Testers sublist

Sending a test message can be useful in a few different ways. With a test mass mailing, you can make sure that delivery is working to specific addresses, domains, and email services, and that the email message itself is displaying correctly on a spectrum of services and devices. This can also help you get a checkoff of the content an design of your mass mailing if you’re working within a team.

There are a few things that happen differently when sending out a test mass mailing. To start, none of the recipients of a test mass mailing will be able to unsubscribe through the test mass mailing. Also, test mass mailings will not be tracked for things like Opens, Clickthroughs, or Bounces.

Dada Mail’s New Unsubscription Options (v11.3.0)

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v11.3.0 of Dada Mail introduces some very useful enhancements to Dada Mail’s unsubscription system. A healthy mailing list includes easy ways for people to remove themselves from your mailing list when they have decided they do not want to be a part of it anymore. Let’s look at the options currently available to you as the list owner, when you are running a public mailing list – but first, let’s talk about what needs to be in place for you to run a successful public mailing list:

Continue reading…

Use Third Party Email Template/Layouts in Dada Mail

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Can you use a third party email layout with Dada Mail? Absolutely! So long as you have HTML for Dada Mail to send, it’ll send it!

In this walk through, I’ll be using a template created by stripo.email (no affiliation). Stripo allows you to export the HTML for your email message – look for the, Export button,

then choose, HTML

Once you have the HTML, you’ll want to open it up in a Text Editor, and replace the unsubscribe link, with what Dada Mail uses. Here’s the template tag that Dada Mail uses as a placeholder for its unsubscribe link:

<!-- tmpl_var list_unsubscribe_link -->

In my template, I found the link for, “Unsubscribe” and placed this tag in the, href="" parameter.

Log into your list control panel, and create a new draft message.

Under the, HTML Version tab, paste the source of your message into the source of the Rich Text Editor – (click the, Source button to reveal the source!)

Since this email message is fully-formed, it doesn’t need a layout of its own. Click the, Layout tab and select: Don’t Use a Layout

Almost done! Preview the message by clicking the, Preview button and make sure everything looks good, before sending things out:

Looks good! One thing to double-check is if the, Unsubscribe link is properly set. You’ll know this if the Unsubscribe link shows this when hovered over (don’t click it!)

http://your-domain.com/dada/mail.cgi/t/CONFIRMATION_TOKEN/

Dada Mail will add its own unsubscribe link + text, if it can’t find one in your message. So, if one is added by Dada Mail, it may be because the one you tried to add didn’t work correctly.

And that’s all there is to it!

Some tips:

Make sure css is already inlined. Dada Mail won’t do this for you, when you pick, “Don’t use a layout” in the Layout Options. There’s online inliners to help you (example). Just paste the HTML you’re using in these tools, inline it, copy the results, then paste those results into Dada Mail.

If you’re going to use an outside template/layout often, consider disabling the rich text/WYSIWYG editor. This will speed up pasting in the message itself. In the list control panel, go to: Control Panel Settings: Options. Under:  WYSIWYG Editor Options, Select: Don’t use a WYSIWYG Editor.

Dada Mail v11.2.0 Released

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Dada Mail v11.2.0 is out the door! Being a feature-rich release, there’s a quite a few things to go over. Below will expand upon the changelog to help you discover the new features in Dada Mail.

No, “Send a Webpage” screen! (But don’t worry!)

Dada Mail v11.2.0 is the first release to remove the Send a Webpage screen since it was introduced many, many years ago. Please don’t worry though, ALL the features found within that screen have been folded into Dada Mail’s Send a Message screen. We’re hoping that this design change helps simplify how and where you can go from within the list control panel to create a message.

Look below the rich text editor for additional ways to create a message.

A mass mailing message can be created by:

  • writing or pasting content into the rich text editor
  • fetching the message from a specific URL
  • creating the message from a RSS/Atom feed

One small, but important change you’ll also discover is a simple check for any unsaved changes. If you do navigate away from the, Send a Message screen with any unsaved changes, a prompt will alert you about this, and give you a choice of canceling the navigation.

We’ve also changed the list control panels top menu:

Drafts/Stationery/Schedules now reads, All Drafts/Stationery/Schedules. This screen is where you would select the draft message you would like to work with. This screen is also the default screen you’ll see when you log into your list control panel.

 

We’re hoping these changes help simplify creating and working with multiple draft messages.

The All Drafts… has a few changes itself. The biggest one is the inclusion of a, Preview button, so you can see and compare draft messages, without having to go to the Send a Message screen!

(once clicked)

Both Send a Message and Send a Webpage aren’t listed. Instead a new menu item reads, + New Draft Message. Clicking on this menu item will take you to the Send a Message screen, and will always create a new draft message, rather than loading an already-existing draft message.

New Option: Save Sent Draft Messages as Stationery

Many times, people would like to re-use a previously sent message for a new mass mailing. Now,
Dada Mail has an option to save previously sent messages you’ve authored in the list control panel as
new stationery messages, which you can then use to create a new draft message from.

Here’s how:

  • Once logged in, go to, Mass Mailing: Options.
  • Find the option labeled, Save sent draft messages as stationery.
  • Check that option to enabled it, then Save.

Drafts messages sent from the, Send a Message screen will now be saved as Stationery, able to be re-used for a future mass mailing message draft.

New Ignore Bounces Sublist

Discussion List Owners have reported that sometimes there’s one problem domain with important list members, who have an uncooperative mail server that seems to bounce back messages coming from the discussion mailing list. If the bounce handler is installed, eventually these members will be removed from the list, even though their address is valid. Ugh!

To counter this, Dada Mail can now ignore addresses and/or domains in a new, Ignore Bounces sublist. Here’s how to enable it:

  • Navigate to, Plugins/Extensions: Bounce Handler (the Bounce Handler will need to be installed and configured).
  • Find the option labeled, Enable Ignore Bounces
  • Check this option, and Save.

Now, when you visit the, Membership: View screen, a new tab will appear labeled, Ignore Bounces which will allow you to administrate this sublist like any other sublist:

The Ignore Bounces sublist works similar to the Black and White lists, where you can either enter in a specific address, or just part of an address. For example, adding @important-domain.com will direct Bounce Handler to ignore all addresses bouncing from from important-domain.com. Adding steve@ will ignore any email address with, steve in it, like steve@another-domain.com or steve@third-domain.com.

If these features sound awesome, give v11.2.0 a try! If you need help with installation or upgrading Dada Mail, check out our install/upgrade services!

And please, let us know how Dada Mail is working for you!