Exercise 6: How to setup e-mail newsletterIn order to successfully distribute newsletters you usually require very expensive Listservers and CGI scripts. All your needs can now be satisfied using PostCast. PostCast can completely automate all operations related to E-mail Newsletters. You can automatically process the subscribe and unsubscribe requests and message sending to your subscribers has never been easier. I will now occupy myself with the task of showing you how to automate almost all operations. All that is left in the end is to write new issues of your newsletter. Supposing that you have already read the previous Exercises and that you know how to set up the program to send and receive messages. I may also assume that you had already covered sending e-mail from the program. The basics of e-mail sending can be found in Exercise 4. 1. First we shall create a new project. The projects enable you to group all the settings into files, so that you would be able to open them when needed. This time creating new projects is even more useful due to the fact that you would be using separate e-mail addresses for the subscribe and unsubscribe requests, that you would be using separate settings with respect to the message data import, etc. Click the 'New' button from the toolbar to create a new, empty project. 2. Set up the program for e-mail sending and receiving. Enter the data related to your mailbox, the SMTP server... It is advisable to provide a separate mailbox for receiving messages related to the newsletter (e.g. newsletter@yourserver.com). 3. Set up the database and create a new table. Name it 'Newsletter' and insert a column named 'E-mail'. This column shall contain your clients' e-mail addresses. 
4. Click the 'Save' button from the toolbar and save the project as 'Newsletter.poc'. Now you have saved the input settings. 5. Now we shall set up the program to automatically forward the subscription requests. Select the 'Tools/Message rules' option from the menu. Click the 'Add' button to add a new message rule. A new window will appear. Use the 'Enter the keywords for this rule' text box to type: subscribe. Click the combo box at the bottom of the window, above which 'Action to take' is written and select the 'Add to the list' option. Click the 'Settings' button beside the combo box. A new window will appear, with the appearance as in the figure below: 
Select the 'Newsletter' item from the list box and make sure that the 'Name of your e-mail field' combo box contains the word 'E-Mail'. Click the 'OK' button to close this window. Look at the figure below for the appearance of the New Mail Rule window: 
Click the 'Apply' button to finally set up the Message Rule. 6. Similarly to the subscribe request, the unsubscribe request is treated in similar fashion. Click the 'Add' button to add a new message rule. Use the 'Enter the keywords for this rule' text box to type: remove. Click the combo box at the bottom of the window, above which 'Action to take' is written, and select the 'Remove from list' option. Click the 'Settings' button beside the combo box. Select the 'Newsletter' item in the List box to verify that the 'Name of your e-mail field' combo box contains 'E-Mail'. Now click the 'OK' button to close this window. 
Click the 'Apply' button to add this new Message Rule. 7. Now, I am going to show you how to set up the autoresponder, which will reply with an e-mail message to every subscribe/unsubscribe request. This will be done using the 'Reply with message' rule. Click the 'Add' button to add the new message rule. Use the 'Enter the keywords for this rule' text box and in it type: subscribe. Click the combo box at the bottom of the window over which 'Action to take' is written and select the 'Reply with message' option. 
Click the 'Settings' button beside the combo box. Set the Subject and Body of reply messages as shown in the figure: 
Click the 'Save' button to save the message and then the 'Apply' button to add the new Message Rule. Add another 'Reply with message' message rule for the unsubscribe requests in the same manner. Type remove within 'Enter the keywords for this rule' text box. Choose the subject: Re: your unsubscribe request In the message body type: As you requested, you have been unsubscribed from PostCast Newsletter. 
Click the 'Save' button to save the message, and then the 'Apply' button. Now you should have 4 message rules which would automatically add and delete subscribers to your Newsletter, and which would send a message to the sender for every action taken. See the figure below: 
8. Click again the 'Save' button from the toolbar and save the project. Now you have saved all the input settings. PostCast is now ready to perform any kind of operation related to your Newsletter. Send every issue from the E-mail Merge program section (read Exercise 4). Test the program by sending several messages with subscribe and remove subjects. Every time you want to process the requests, select the 'Send and Receive' options, or simply click the 'Start' button from the toolbar. Watch the e-mail address table change each time and note how the program starts the autoresponder after each subscribe/unsubscribe session. Important: when adding new subscribers the program will insert new addresses into the table in the following format: "subscriber name" <subscriber e-mail address> Some subscribers will only have their e-mail addresses imported, since their e-mail program is set up differently. In any case, you should not worry about imported e-mail addresses, as each and every message would reach its destination regardless of the format. The basic difference lies in the 'To' e-mail space of the message which your subscriber would receive. With "subscriber name" <subscriber e-mail address> address type your subscriber will receive a 'subscriber name' within the 'To' space, 
whereas the others get their e-mail addresses within the 'To' e-mail message space. 
Considering the unsubscribe request, the program will concentrate exclusively on the e-mail address. If, for example, the table contains the "Mike Handle" <mike@somehost.com> data, and if a subscriber sends you the unsubscribe request, PostCast will ignore the name and demand only mike@somehost.com e-mail address in the table. If it detects the record of mike@somehost.com e-mail address, the program will erase it regardless of the name. Exercise 7: Autoresponder | 
