Importing emails to newsletter module.

Hey guys, I downloaded the subscribers_1.csv file from my site. What info/fields do I need to populate other than the email address? I thought I could just add the email address and the software would do the rest when I imported it in to the newsletter import mechinism, but doing that resulted in none of the addresses being imported.

I read somewhere (sorry cant remember where it is), that the import has to follow the same pattern as the news letter display. I assume this means you have to include what level the person has subscribed to as well.

I personally prefer the csv files to be in columns and not the row arrangement, i expect there is a good reason for this though. I havnt looked at the news letter functionality, it is a ways down my list. But my instinct is, this could be tied into other things to make it pretty powerful.

 

It should work with virtually any CSV of emails.

I can't test right now as I'm in the middle of a big and messy coding task, but I should be unravelled in a couple of days.

If you want me to specifically test a file that doesn't appear to work I'm happy to, mail it to chris@ocproducts.com. It could just be a file containing one email address, if that won't import as you expect it to.

lg11 , I'm not sure what you meant there about column vs row arrangement, unless you mean each email address would be in a different column - but I've never seen a CSV transposed like that.

I wouldn't worry about it Chris. I'll figure it out later today. I've successfuly done it with ocP before, so I'm sure it's something on my end.

Well actually I believe the code has been changed significantly, so it could always be a bug.

All i meant was i prefer emails in one column and then information like group in another column. I will see if i can explain better. Not that it matters.

Oh right. What's probably happened is whatever you opened the CSV in had default import settings assuming a TSV. Which is kind of stupid I know but it happens. Make sure you load it up with the delimiter set to comma rather than tab.

I think your right Chris, i got it to display as expected. I think this is maybe Chips problem as well, i will play with this because doing the list one way gets you Tab delimited and the other gets you CSV.

I cant remember what i did now, as i played with it last night to try and help Chip.

But just now i exported a small list and it looked as you would expect in excel. Come on spill the gory details, where were you all weekend? We dont like others having fun when we are busy .

I'll check that. Should've thought of it since I used MS Excel to edit my subscriber file. I had a little over 300 emails in the file and it only imported the first one.

I think there is a bug though, i will do some screen shots. keep in mind i only added some fiction addresses via the front panel, that might explain it.

But this is what i get.

So ACP


Under general i assume you should see everyone but admin etc. Click on the view button to see in composr, and you see the following.


Now while you see the three people i added via the subscribe box on the front page, what i dont understand is, under view subscribers why only show the users domain? I am not sure what use seeing a load of gmail.com is? why is the actual address not shown?

Then same thing but this time we export as csv from the same page, you would expect to see exactly the same (ish).
So we are here and going to click like this.

It opens but you see this.


You see nothing. no addresses, and yet the same thing under ACP shows you email domains.

If we choose site members under ACP and click to view on screen like this.

Actually no that makes sense, its showing me one user and there email addresses, i must have been signed in when i did it.

But the csv file for site members shows something different to the screen version, you get this



It shows admin but only the main address.

Now if we goto newsletter admin we get this on screen.

We get the same domain provider screen for the screen version, but we get a completely empty csv file.
I dont have a database with alot of users etc at the moment, so maybe mine is showing differently.

I will populate the database and see what happens. But if Chris glances at the screen shots, he will know if what i am seeing is normal or not.

Thinking about it, it still seems odd on no screen do you see the complete email address of the alias emails, just the email domain. The three other email addresses i can understand why they show as one user, but i dont understand why you cant see what the complete email address is on any screen?

Hi,

On possible confusion with CSVs, I've created a tracker issue:
0003032: Bulletproof spreadsheet importing - Composr CMS feature tracker
Maybe we'll target for v12, but I wanted to write it down.

On inconsistent subscriber list:
It's likely the newsletter subscribers you don't see didn't have the confirm link clicked for them.
The domain list is a nice little summary, but it doesn't filter out based on confirmation status or various other things so it is misleading you here. We'll tidy that up, but I think there's no bug per se.

I think your right, mine wasnt a real test. When i added more and did it correctly then it displays more like i would expect.

So not a bug, juts relies on the idiot not being an idiot and signing up for the actual news letter

V12!! Can we get V10 out of RC first

V11 is nice, i like the screen handling on it

Ok, well I made sure it is a comma delimited file. I entered just the subscribers email and tried importing it using the General newsletter and tried both New Subscribers and Not Subscribed. BOth ways gave me the message unsubscribing 35 users, processing 36 email addresses.
I also tried assigning each email address a subscriber id and confirmed code and still get the same message. So I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong really. I did go to my home page and signed up using my gmail account and then confirmed the link in the email. Then I downloaded the subscriber file and see where it assigned my gmail account subscriber code of 38. I really don't know what else I should try or do.

Hi,

I'd need to see the particular CSV. It shouldn't do that, but it may be dependent on how it is detecting the columns in there.

On further testing I'm noticing more confusing clunkiness, so I'm cleaning this up for the next release. The messaging is rather confusing.

Chip do you want to share the file with me?

I have a test set up, so it wont email your customers i promise LOL.

I might be able to help while Chris is busy.

Entirely your choice i will whisper my email to you.

Here's what I found users may find confusing…

1. The "Subscription status" should really say "New subscription status". It's the target status that will be set for everything processed. I think some users probably would think it is the source status.
2. The messages have some bad grammar sometimes.
3. When users are removed (when that's the option selected) it doesn't remove newsletter accounts, it just unsubscribes them from the specified newsletter. When you then go back to re-import it therefore doesn't say those accounts were created because they already existed (it will set the subscription for them though).
4. If the CSV has a 'Level' column it takes precedence over what you choose for "Subscription status". It's best to just not have that column.

All these are resolved for the next RC.

I havnt used this much, so i didnt follow exactly what you meant Chris, the best thing i can do is set up a load of email accounts and try it out. Then i can feedback what i struggle with.

Either way you look at it, its this kind of thing that makes Composr different and better. I guess it also helps for future versions. Overall its really coming on nicely, very user friendly.