6. Members
6.1
Member Viewer
6.2 Add & Edit Member(s)
6.3 Delete Member(s)
6.4 Import Members
6.4.1 Database Import Format Selection
6.4.2
Select Source Table
6.4.3 Select Fields
6.4.4 Finalize Import
6.5 Export Members
You can access your lists in the main-program in the section "Member
Lists". Double-click on a list to open the
(list) member viewer. The
database viewer shows all member informations for the selected list in a new
window.
Pre-selection:
- "Edit List Members"
Same as a double-click on the list. The program shows all list members - "Edit Subscriber"
Shows only active subscribers
- "Edit Unsubscriber"
Shows only unsubscribers. Unsubscribers are members, who have unsubscribed from this list and are
not longer interested in receiving messages - "Edit Returned"
Shows invalid email-addresses (Returned Mails)
The Menu (1)
The menu on top of the window contains available options
to modify list members.
- "First 1000"
The program shows the first 1000 members by default.
If you have browsed through the records with "Next", you can click on "Home" to get back to the first 1000 members
- "Previous 1000"
Shows the previous 1000 members
- "Next"
Shows the next 1000 members
- "Add Member"
Opens a dialog, where you can add members - "Delete Member"
Deletes the selected member/record
- "Edit Member"
Opens the selected record in a dialog, where you can edit the record - "Import"
Opens the import-wizard. You can import members from MS Access, MS Excel or text files - "Export"
Opens the export-wizard. Export Members to a MS Access database. - "Manual"
Shows the program manual
Search for Email-addresses (2)
You can use the search function
to search the list for email addresses inside the field EMAIL ...
- Enter the search term in the edit field "Search Email". You
can use a complete email address or only a part of it ...
Sample: smith@my or smith - Now click on the icon "Search" or hit enter
- The program searches the complete database for records and shows them. Records, which don't match the search are hidden
- Click on the "Close Search" icon (X) to show the complete list again
List Member Section (3)
The first column contains the email address.
The email-address is the required to send out messages. The next columns contain
status information like "Date", "Status" or "Messages
received". The field "Date" contains the date a user subscribed,
unsubscribed or a message returned. All other columns contain custom fields.
You can use the fields for personalization. You can add custom fields when you
create a new list. Click on the tabs e.g. "Subscriber" to filter the
records. Now the window shows only members with the selected status.
- "All" Shows all your list members in the database
viewer
- "Subscriber" Shows list subscribers in the database
viewer. Messages are sent to list subscribers only
- "Unsubscriber" Shows unsubscribers. Unsubscribers
are members, which don't longer want to receive messages from you
- "Returned" Shows members to which the message
could not be delivered, e.g. invalid email address
- "Pending" Shows members, who sent a double opt-in subscribe request, which has not been confirmed by the new member. After the new member confirmed the request (the new member must reply to a confirmation message) the status will be updated to "Subscriber".
Sort Records (4)
You can sort all records ascending and descending.
The default sort category is the email address (ascending). Click on the column
to change the sort category. Click again on the same column to change ascending
and descending. Now the list is sorted descending.
You can view and edit all member records. You can change list specific fields
for personalization and the emailaddress.
You can also change the current
member status, which is important for sending a message.
Member status
Each list member has a status. Messages are sent out to members with status "Subscriber"
only.
- Subscriber:
The member is an active list member. Messages are sent out to members with this status only. - Unsubscriber:
The member has unsubscribed from the list and don't want to receive messages from this list. - Returned:
The member email-address is invalid. Next time you send out a list message, the member is ignored. - Pending:
The member has made a double opt-in subscribe request, which has not been confirmed by the new member yet . After the new member confirmed the request (the new member must reply to a confirmation message) the status will be updated to "Subscriber".
Edit Member:
You can change or edit the member information. Open
the list and select the record(s) you want to change. Click on the "Edit"
Icon or right-click on select "Edit Member" from the menu. Now a new
window opens, which contains all member information for the selected record.
Unused fields are
greyed. After you made changes, please click on "Ok"
to apply the changes.
If you want to delete manually one or more members from a List, please open the list and select the members which should be deleted. "Delete Member" will delete the selected members.
You can also use the icon "Delete" in the menu. The command "Database"
-> "Delete all Members (complete List)" deletes all records from
the list, not only the selected or visible and should be used with caution!
Hint: The import function could also be used to delete members from a list.
This function could be usefull if you
want to bulk-remove a large number
of members from a list or if you want to remove members of one list from
another.
Use "Import" to import members to your existing list. It
makes no difference if the list already contains members or not. A member (email-address)
can be listed once only, the program automatically sorts out duplicate email-addresses.
To start the import wizard, please go to the section "Member Lists"
and select the list. Click on "Import" to start the import
wizard.
MailList Controller can import MS Access, MS Excel and Plain
Text (.csv) format files directly - other
formats are supported through ODBC.
Hint:
The plain text .csv (comma seperated values) file should
have the column names (field names) in the first line and one record on each
line. Fields divided by a comma (,). e.g.
Email,Name
support@yourdomain.tld, Support
office@yourdomain.tld, Office
or
"Email","Name"
"support@yourdomain.tld","Support"
"office@yourdomain.tld","Office"
The MS Excel file should also con tain the column (field) names in the first
row . Please check the sheet for invalid cells (e.g. with ####### in it) and
for too large texts if you have problems using the import function.
6.4.1 Database Import
Format Selection
First of all select the file, which should be imported. Please click on one
of the file format buttons, e.g. "Microsoft Excel".
Now a
file open dialog opens. Please select the file and click on "Ok".
The text field "Connect String" shows the connect string, which
is uses to connect to the specified database
using ODBC. Click on "Edit"
if you want to modify this string by hand. This options is for experts only.
By default,
just select the database and the program creates the correct
connect string. Click on "Next" to continue.
Important:
Download and install the "2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity
Components" for MS Office 2007
filetypes. The ODBC driver can be downloaded
from www.microsoft.com.
The next dialog shows an overview of all tables or sheets inside the selected
database. A plain-text file contains
only one table, so the dialog is not
shown. Please select the table you want to import.
On the lower list-control, you see all fields included in the selected table.
This list-control is for information only.
You don't need to select any fields
here. Click on "Next" to continue.
The field "Email" contains the email-address and is required to
send out messages! The custom fields selection contains all fields from the
list. You can use up to 15 custom fields. All other fields are optional.
Click on the grey selector to open a drop-down menu with a list of available
fields.
Default Values:
Click on + to expand the default values.
Now you can enter a default value for each field.
The default value will
be used only if the import database does not contain a value.
Sample:
In this sample we use "Friend" if the database does not contain a
value for "Name".
The last page contains options for the import process. Please specify the status for the new list members.
Select the status for the new members. Its also possible to import the status
from a datatbase if the database was exported with MailList Controller. The
program will automatically use the status information from the file in this
case.
MailList Controller will not import duplicate email addresses!
Options:
- Delete Members: The program will NOT IMPORT any record, it will
remove the members from the list. This function is very usefull if you want
to exclude members from a second list, so that they are not inside both
lists.
- Update Members: Check this option if the program should overwrite
existing members.
- "Force Integer": This option can be used if you want to import a number. Sometimes the ODBC driver interprets a number as the wrong data-type and adds a .0. Use this option to remove the addition .0 during the import.
Import Log:
The import logfile contains details about each error.
The program tries to fix syntax errors automatically and
logs all corrections
here. It also does not import duplicate email addresses, which are also logged
here.
Sample Import_log.txt:
[Add] demo@arclab.com
[BLACKLISTED] unwanted@arclab.com
Add: 1
Update: 0
Syntax Error: 0
Not Added: 0
Delete: 0
Blacklisted:
1
In this sample the program has added one new user (demo@arclab.com)
and ignored one blacklisted user (unwanted@arclab.com)
To export the members, click on the section tab "Member List" and "Export List Members". Please select the List and the tables which should be exported. The table "ALL" contains all members with status information.
The program exports to MS Access and CSV (Comma Seperated Values), so that the exported file could be opened by a lot of other programs. If you select CSV, then the export file will only contain a single table. Click on "Change Target File Location" and select the path and filename. Click on "Finish" to start the export process.
Sample: Export to CSV (Comma Seperated Values)
CSV File:
"AMLC_EMAIL","AMLC_STATUS","Name","Custom1","Custom2","Custom3"
"demo@arclab.com","0","Alfred","Mustermann","Musterstadt","Germany"
…
The First line contains the field names.
AMLC_STATUS contains
the status information:
0 = Subscriber
1 = Unsubscriber
2 = Returned
3 = Pending (double Opt-In request not confirmed)
