[MC] Newsletters 1.0.0

Newsletters gives your AdminCP a proper newsletter workspace. Compose an email from blocks in a drag-and-drop builder, fill it with your forum's latest threads, preview it exactly as members will see it, then send it to the members you choose through the native mail setup and job queue. Sends go out now, at a time you pick, or every day, week or month, and every member's outcome is recorded as it happens.



Features

Drag-and-drop builder

• Blocks: Hero, Text, Image, Image + text, Button, Buttons, Divider, Spacer, Social links, Sign-off and Forum threads, with a required Unsubscribe footer
• Drag blocks in from the library and reorder them on the canvas, with keyboard alternatives for every drag
• Bold, italic and links in text blocks
• Every block has spacing, background colour and hide on mobile settings, plus its own options such as image side and width, button colour and shape, or divider style
• Undo and redo, and autosave two seconds after you stop typing
• The canvas draws your board's email frame, so what you build looks like what members receive
• A Needs attention panel lists anything that would stop the send and takes you straight to the block

Forum threads in your newsletter

• A Forum threads block lists new threads, latest activity or trending threads from the forums you choose, optionally including the forums inside them
• Compact, excerpt or thumbnail layouts
• Threads are listed as a guest sees them, so private forums never leak into an email
• A Forum threads block can skip threads an earlier one already shows
• The list is frozen when the send goes out, so every member gets the same threads
• An email whose only content is an empty Forum threads block is not sent, so a quiet week never mails a blank newsletter

Email that looks like your board

• Colours and fonts come from your email style, inside the native email frame
• Every message carries a plain-text version
• Preview the exact email at desktop and mobile width, with sample data or as a chosen member
• A preheader line for the inbox preview
• Unsubscribe links use the native email-stop pages and List-Unsubscribe headers

Templates, image library and merge tags

• Build reusable templates in the same builder and start new campaigns from them
• Two starter templates, Weekly digest and Announcement, are added on install
• Duplicate any campaign, including one already sent
• Archive templates you no longer use, and delete an archived one. Campaigns made from it keep their own copy.
• An image library: upload once, reuse in any campaign, and see where each image is used
• Personalise with merge tags such as {{username}}, plus your own text and web address snippets
• Snippet values are frozen when a send goes out

Sending to your members

• Choose every eligible member, members of chosen groups, or the full native user criteria
• Members who opted out of administrator email, banned or invalid accounts and any groups you always exclude never receive a newsletter, and every member is checked again just before their message goes
• A readiness check before every send, with optional rules for a missing postal address, a sender on another domain and personal-data merge tags
• The confirm screen shows how many members will receive it. Large sends ask you to type the count.
• Send a test email to up to ten addresses first

Scheduled and recurring sends

• Schedule a send once, from 5 minutes to a year ahead
• Repeat daily, weekly or monthly at a set time in a named time zone, with daylight saving handled
• Each issue of a recurring newsletter is an ordinary campaign with its own delivery record, and the Delivery page keeps a history of every issue

Delivery you can trust

• Every member's outcome is recorded as it happens: sent, failed, skipped, unknown or not sent
• Refused messages are retried on a schedule you set (default after 5 and 30 minutes)
• A message that may already have been delivered is never sent twice automatically
• Per-second, hourly and daily sending limits, shared by every campaign on the board
• A send whose job was lost is picked up again by a scheduled task
• Stop a send at any time, and resend to failed members once it finishes

Audit log

• Every send and administrator action is logged: dispatched, paused, completed, cancelled, refused, edits and more
• Filter by event, actor and date, and export to CSV
• Pruned automatically after a retention period you set (default 90 days)

Permissions and options

• View, manage and send are separate admin permissions, granted to no one on install
• Default sender name, address and reply-to, and a postal address for every footer
• Options are split across Sender, Audience & safety, Delivery and Testing tabs
• A console self-test, php cmd.php mc-newsletters:self-test, checks your mail setup, job queue and scheduled tasks

Other features

• An overview of drafts, scheduled, recurring and sending campaigns, recent sends and anything that needs attention
• A campaign list with each campaign's progress and delivery at a glance
• Works with any mail provider that offers SMTP, set up in the native email options
• Keyboard alternatives for drag and drop, screen reader announcements and labelled controls
• Phrased throughout, with right-to-left support in the email

FAQ

Will members who turned off administrator emails still get newsletters?
No. They are always left out, whatever audience you choose, and every member is checked again just before their message goes, so someone who unsubscribes during a send is not mailed.

Does it work with Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark or SendGrid?
Yes, through their SMTP service, set up in the native email options. There is no direct API integration, and bounces are handled by the native bounce processing.

Does it need a server cron?
Sending runs through the native job queue, so it works without one. On a busy board, a server cron calling php cmd.php xf:run-jobs every minute keeps sends moving at the rate you set.

What happens if a send is interrupted, for example by a server restart?
It carries on. A scheduled task picks up a send whose job was lost and continues from where it stopped. A message that was being handed to the mail server at that moment is marked unknown rather than sent again, so no member gets it twice, and you can choose to resend those yourself.

What happens when I uninstall it?
Its campaigns, templates, snippets, images, delivery records and audit log are deleted. Back up first if you want to keep them.

Is there branding, and can I remove it?
Yes, a small footer credit. Removing it is free: switch it off with the Remove branding option in [MC] Core Library.



Screenshots

Drag-and-drop builder


Forum threads in your newsletter


Email that looks like your board




Templates, image library and merge tags




Sending to your members


Scheduled and recurring sends



Delivery you can trust


Audit log


Permissions and options


Other features