Configuring the Newsletter System

This page details the controls in the Webonizer Newsletter System configuration file. These controls are only available to the site administrator and can be reached in the Administration > Site Settings > Newsletter Configuration.

Newsletter Controls

These settings control some of the basic settings for the newsletter system.

Newsletter Topic Method

This setting controls what type of article can be sent as a newsletter. The default is "Only Newsletter Topic":

Only Newsletter Topic restricts newsletters to those articles whose primary topic is set to Newsletter.
Any Topic allows any article to be sent as a newsletter.

Allow Multiple Sending

If set to On, then the same article can be sent out as a newsletter more than once. If set to Off, then an article cannot be sent out again after it has been sent.

Limit Per Month

This setting limits the number of newsletters that users on the site can send out in a 30-day period. The purpose of this control is to limit the possibility that the site's emails get blocked by ISPs as spam due to overuse.

Site Admin Unlimited Sends

If set to On, this will allow the site administrator to send out as many emails as desired regardless of the value in Limit Per Month.

Title Options

These controls set how newsletters generate titles (which also serve as subject lines in emails).

Title Method

This menu chooses the method by which titles are generated. The default is "Member Display Name".

Member Display Name will cause the title to be the display name of the author with the word Newsletter appended to it.
Static will cause the title to be the Newsletter Title (field listed below).
Article Title will cause the title to be that of the article that was used for this newsletter.

Newsletter Title

This field is used as the title of the newsletters if and only if Title Method is set to Static.

Append Issue to Title

If set to On, this will cause the title to include " - Issue #" after the title.

Append Date to Title

If set to On, this will cause the title to include " - Month Day, Year" after (the issue if present, and) the title.

Email Options

These settings control the email address and email from name in outgoing newsletters.

Author Method

This setting controls how to set the from name in outgoing newsletters. The default is Member Display Name.

Member Display Name: Use the name of the author
Static Name: Use the static name listed below
Site Name: Use the site name.

Static Name

This setting controls the name in the From field of the email if the Author Method is set to Static.

Newsletter Email Address

This is the email address that all emails newsletters get sent from.

Send Options

These settings control what extra (automated) content to send in newsletters, including images, latest articles, etc.

List Recent Articles

If this option is set, your newsletter will include a list of recent articles that includes their title, description and a link to go to the article. The number of articles is controlled by the Recent Articled Limit. Further controls to what articles are included also follow.

Only Since Last Newsletter

If set to on, the list of articles will only go back to the last newsletter that is sent out.

Recent Articles Limit

This is the numeric limit of the number of articles to include in the list of recent articles. The default is 20. Note that if this value is greater than the number of articles posted since the last newsletter and "Only Since Last Newsletter" is set to on, there will only be as many articles as were posted since the last newsletter.

Append List to Article

If this setting is turned on, the actual content of the article (as viewed on the website) will be modified to include the list of articles that were generated when the newsletter was sent.

Article List Limit To

This list of options gives finer control over the type of content to include in newsletters. Please pay special attention to the rules expressed below.

Author Limits: These four options control whose articles will be included in all newsletters. The first option (Newsletter Author) is always required. NOTE THAT THESE SETTINGS ARE CHOSEN BY OR. This means that if you have Newsletter Author and Front Page Members, the list will include articles by the newsletter author or those by members with the front page permission.
Flag Limits: These options are for only sending articles that have been flagged as featured, reviewed, etc. NOTE THAT THESE SETTINGS ARE CHOSEN BY AND. This means that if you have checked Reviewed Articles and Featured Articles, the list will only include articles that are both featured and reviewed.

Article List Minimum Priority

When set to anything above 0, this will limit those articles whose minimum priority is equal to or greater than the priority set here.

Find Featured Images

If set to on, the system will find featured images to include with the newsletter if the article being used for the newsletter does not have any images associated to it. Regardless of this setting, the newsletter will always include the images that are associated to the article being used as a newsletter. If turned off and the article has no images, the newsletter will not have any images.

Note the format of images changes somewhat depending on whether the images are from the newsletter article or whether they come featured images based off of the Find Featured Images Setting.

Images from Newsletter Article: These images will link to a page that shows the full-size version of the image.
Images automatically generated because Find Featured Images is set to On will link to the article from which the image is associated.

Featured Images Limit

This is the limit of featured images to find if Find Featured Images is set to On. If Find Featured Images is off, this limit is ignored, and the number of images in the newsletter article will be the number of images in the newsletter.

Add Images to Article

If this setting is on and Find Featured Images is also on, then any images that the system finds for the featured image list (that are also authored by the newsletter author) will be associated to the article used for this newsletter.

Format Options

These settings control some of the formatting of items included in the newsletter. As of Webonizer 2.285 there is only one control.

Media Placement

This controls the placement of media in the newsletter. Default placement is Second Column.

Second Column: This places the media (images and links to the article on the site for extra media like video, PDFs, etc) into a second column to the right of the main body content.
Before Article Body: This places the media at the top of the newsletter before any other content.
After Article Body: This will place the media below the newsletter article body content and before the featured article list.
After Articles List: This will place media at the bottom of the page following the list of featured articles.

Static Content

These fields control static content that will be included in all outgoing newsletters. You can use full HTML.

Introductory Content: This is static HTML content that will appear at the very top of every newsletter.
After Body: This is static HTML content that will appear after the body of the newsletter article (and media if set to After Article Body).
Ending Content: This is static HTML content that will appear at the end of all newsletters.

Subscription Form Options

These settings control the forms for subscribing to email newsletters.

Show Subscriber Count: If turned on, the forms for subscribing to the newsletters will show how many people have subscribed to the newsletter. If off, the subscriber count will not appear.