First an apology for delaying the release this far. I ran into some serious personal problems that needed my urgent attention. This is why I haven’t been able to release this version on the previously mentioned release date.
In this release, I have added the following features:
- Ability to attach images inline with HTML e-mail – In version one and pretty much everywhere else, HTML e-mails were sent simply by inserting the HTML code in the e-mail and adding the necessary headers. If you had images in the e-mail they would be blocked by almost all e-mail clients and webmail clients today. HTML e-mail specification allows attaching e-mail within the body of the email so that e-mail clients don’t block the images and force you to provide an alternate version.
- Set the number of e-mails that can be sent in an hour – Most web hosting servers limit the number of e-mails that can be sent in an hour. If your server exceeds this limit the host may queue up your excess emails and send them in the next hour like my host (thank you namecheap!) or suspend your account and put up a nasty message for your visitors to see. I have changed the plugin to send a fixed number of e-mails every hour. This limit can be configured under the Settings page in the newsletter section in your admin panel
Previously this plugin used the PHPMailer PHP library. In this version I have changed it to the Swift Mailer PHP Library which I found more suited to this particular application as this library is faster and consumes less server resources. This library also makes a few interesting features that I am planning to implement in the next version much easier which means the next version will be released within the one month.
These are some minor changes in this version. Besides these, this version removes some common bugs in the program.
Download
Download the new version from the spanking new website I’ve created for the plugin:
Features Unimplemented
There are some practical difficulties in implementing couple of features that I had promised earlier so I have decided against implementing them in this version.
Chicklet Generator – Unfortunately I haven’t been able to add the subscriber count chicklet generator in this version because of some difficulties in implementing the feature. The feature turned out to be much more complicated than I imagined it to be.
I don’t want to add a feature without testing it and which may end up causing major problems for your web hosting server.
The chicklet generator is supposed to generate an image file that shows the number of subscribers for a particular newsletter. The subscriber count image is generated by PHP by fetching the subscriber number using a database query. If this query is executed every time the image is loaded, your server could get overloaded and become very slow. The solution I’ve come up with is to generate the image once every day and serve it to the reader for the rest of the day.
Skip sending post by e-mail – In version 1.0 it was possible to skip sending a blog post to e-mail subscribers by checking a checkbox in the "Add New" or "Edit" interface. But there were some bugs that led to this feature causing some major problems with approving comments. I felt fixing this was one hairy mess that is better demolished and built from scratch.
I will be adding more customization fields in the "Add New" and "Edit" pages:
- Customize the e-mail that e-mail subscribers receive for a particular blog post. You will be able to add custom field placeholders while writing blog posts and they will be automatically substituted in the e-mails sent when that post is published.
- Skip sending a blog post by e-mail if it hasn’t already been sent
- See the progress of mailouts – Since the e-mail is sent in batches, it becomes possible to see how many subscribers received their e-mails.
I Need Your Help!
The past two months have been very difficult for me with me having 9 hour hectic work days so I haven’t been able to get much work done on this plugin. But I want you to know I haven’t fell asleep at the wheel. I want to create the best free WordPress autoresponder plugin that will help anyone build a following without any investment.
I created this plugin to learn how to create wordpress plugins as well as solve a problem that I was facing. There is plently of room for improvement in this plugin.
How you can help?
- File bug reports – If you find that the plugin isn’t sending. I really
- Request features – I am listening. Use the contact form, use the feature request form. I want to know what you need.
Why Is This Not In The WordPress Repository
Adding this plugin to the WordPress plugin repository serves absolutely no purpose for me at all. I don’t have patience to endure their long and strict approval process. In my opinion the rules there are geared to help WordPress.org and the WordPress brand more than the plugin developer.
Once I submit this plugin to the repository no body who uses it is going to care what happens to the guy who developed it. Users will happily click on the automatic updater and praise WordPress and write on how convenient it is for them to manage their blog with. Besides, the wordpress people haven’t exactly been nice to wordpress developers.
I really don’t care if my plugin doesn’t meet the WordPress coding standards or if another WordPress plugin developer feels like I have verbally abused his mother while reading my source code. This is a very useful software. That is what truly matters. I will be distracted from this goal if I put this plugin in the wordpress directory. I don’t want my freedom to link to someone FROM MY WEBSITE be taken away from me for a entry in the wordpress directory which may or may not bring me anything.
This plugin is my hard work and I am not about to give all the benefits of my work (traffic, recognition, business) to someone else in the name of sharing and openness and community. That is just stupid.
As a result you won’t receive the update messages in the plugin page. I can however give you regular updates and support this plugin if you subscribe to this blog by e-mail or add yourself to the mailing list. As you can tell, I am thoroughly pissed at the WordPress repository moderators for the trouble I have had to go through to submit a theme in the past.
–End Of Emotional Nonsense Rant
