Email Blast plugin for Thunderbird - html-email

I've had a look in the Thunderbird plugins for an addon which will work as an Email Blast application to send out bulk mailers but found none. I was wondering if anyone knows of one or if none exist, I'm planting a seed! :)
Cheers,
James

James,
I suggest you sign up with an Email Service Provider instead of using a plug in. There are many providers with free programs. You should have no problem sending a few hundred emails per month for free. If you need more than that, it will only cost a few dollars.
Plus you will get all kinds of nifty tracking!

Related

What is the best way to programmatically extract text from an email from a additional inbox?

I recently started working at an IT company as a support agent and one of the things we do is managing the backup of our clients' servers.
It's all working nicely, but one part is just terrible, which is the backup log. The backup log is a excel file with a list of all the clients and for each of them a list of dates and whether or not the backup has succeeded on that date. The data in that document comes from emails rapports that are automatically sent when the backup finishes.
But here comes the bad part: Once in a week there is an employee who checks ALL THE EMAILS and manually fills the backup log. This was too much for me, especially knowing that we only have about 5 employees.
Solution: Make a script that does it for you. Yeah, I know and I think I'm capable of doing that, but there's a few things that I'm not sure about and I hope you guys could help me with it:
The mails are all in a different folders in an inbox that I had to add to my outlook manually and I don't know how I can programmatically reach it.
I don't know in what language I should use for this. I'm able to do it in a lot of languages, but I don't know which one suits this best
These are the only two things that I don't know and I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this.
EDIT:
The server is an exchange server with IMAP enabled. I eat java for breakfast and I've used JavaMail before, so I think I'll go with that, thanks
This is a pretty open-ended question....
You should pick a language that you're comfortable with and that has a good email support library, e.g., JavaMail for Java.
If the messages are in an Exchange server that has enabled IMAP support, you should be able to read the messages using JavaMail or any other library that support IMAP. If the server only supports the Microsoft proprietary protocol, you have fewer choices.
We really need to know more about the mail server you're using to offer much more guidance.

Outlook Emails to assigning database

I'm def not looking for someone to do this project for me, just bouncing off some ideas with a guru or two.
I have emails going into a global box that is shared by a few employees. I need to find a better way to assign the work out. In the past, it was grab and go. Today, an employee assigns the work out.
I'm trying to find a simple way using maybe Excel or Access, that I could copy/drag the email and it would provide who should work it and how much work they have done by week/month/year.
It's not possible to use an inhouse ticketing system, because it is non employees that send mail to this inbox, so they would not have access to using the in house ticketing system.
Would it be easily possible to design something like this or is this a more daunting task? What software would you recommend or method would you use?
Thanks for your time.
I recommend converting emails to Tickets, using a CRM/ticketing system with such feature. It would save you the hassle of developing and mantaining custom code, for a commom feature needed not only by you, but many other firms:
A quick search for "convert emails to tickets" yielded:
https://wiki.vtiger.com/index.php/Mail_Converter
http://community.geminiplatform.com/blogs/15/how-to-convert-emails-to-tickets-with-gemini
Both vTiger and Gemini are free to use.

dotcloud - google apps email configuration

I've checked out dotcloud, it seems quite promising. I use google apps for my email, so it is very important for me to be able to set up my MX records to point to gmail servers.
I want to know if this is possible with dotcloud, I tried searching for this but didn't find any references.
Could someone who has used dotcloud tell me how this can be done?
At dotCloud, we don't take control of your DNS so you are welcome to send your mail wherever you want. We have plenty of users who use gmail for email and have their sites and applications hosted on dotCloud. If you have any additional questions, feel free to shoot us an email at support#dotcloud.com - we'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.
Best Regards,
Charles H
Full-disclosure: If it's not immediately obvious, I work at dotCloud.

Split testing transactional emails

I'm trying to figure out a solution to manage our transaction emails (such as the welcome email, you've got a bid, etc...)
We would like to be able to allow marketing to manage the content of the emails, and create split tests to test content / subject lines / etc...
Ideally we could invent our own success metrics to report back to the email management system (such as user completed registration, accepted bid, etc...).
Right now we have our emails in templates using stringtemplate. The code replaces tokens with the correct content for that email.
Strongmail is a potential solution, but it is pricey - anybody have experience with alternatives?
I'm looking for the same kind of service, and https://www.sendwithus.com/ seems to do the job.
Have you taken a look at PostageApp?
Currently, it's a layer between your web app and your SMTP server which has additional features for your transactional emails.
With PostageApp, you are able to create two different templates and have them triggered alternately with different content and subject lines. However, the metrics that you would want to use for A/B testing aren't built into the system yet, so I'm not sure if it would be a good fit for you.
Full Disclosure: I work for The Working Group, the company that created PostageApp.
But if you do have questions about what we can help you with and what we can't, definitely let me know and I can answer plenty of questions for you!
Try http://www.cakemail.com/
It is a third party, you design your workflows and give them your contacts.
I work for a 6 million a year website company and we direct all our clients to them, so far so good, everyone is happy.
You have to contact them to have a price but you can get a free account for testing

Programmatically Fax from Internet form

I'm new to programming, and my only area of expertise is web design/simple development on platforms like wordpress/expression engine. (Yea, you guys can laugh).
I have a new client who currently receives medical faxes through an online form (the user fills out a form concerning their prescriptions and once submitted, it faxes the info).
I'm completely redesigning their site, and I'm not sure how online faxing works.
Has anybody dealt with internet faxing? How does it work? Does/can it go through email?
And is it possible to send a fax through a form with javascript/php or route it through email?
Don't pay for it! All you need is a modem on the server and a standard phone line. Then set up a fax print driver under your os (you can do it on windows and unix).
The unix way is mgetty/sendfax : http://mgetty.greenie.net/doc/mgetty_3.html#SEC3
The Windows way : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306657
There are other ways but unless you can't get a phone line you'd be mad to pay fees for it.
Would it not be helpful to look at how it is currently being done, that way you can learn a thing or two about the process before trying to go do it again? That way you can find if it is using any special libraries or techniques or services to send the fax and you can then either duplicate the code or use it as a template to get started on your own solution.
All of what your asking is possible. I would recommend finding a service provider who can send the fax for you. They all have different interfaces requirements and pricing. I used to use DataOnCall which is now called Fax.com
They had a web service which we would post the document to be faxed plus additional information. They were a preety reasonable service. This was several years ago so I can't speak how they currently fair.
Take a look at eFax's SDK. I haven't used it, but it looks like it might be useful to you.
Yes, you can send faxes via email through several services; this link seems to have some useful information. I worked at a company previously that did this same sort of thing, and while I don't recall the exact service we used, most of them are very similar, and they work reasonably well.