Activities ::: mod_newsletter

Maintained by

David Bogner,

Wunderbyte GmbH

This is a newsletter module for moodle. First stable release. It provides the basic features of common newsletter tools. Using it with moodle VERP bounce processing is recommended. But we will add an additional bounce processing feature that will be easier to configure.

Latest release: 4 weeks

292 sites

147 downloads

52 fans

Current versions available: 6

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Newsletter module

This is a typical newsletter module for moodle. The features are:

Subscription methods: Opt in, opt out, forced
Management of subscribed users: Cohort (un)subscription, Ajax user (un)subscription, filtering users
Auto generated unsubscribe link
Subscription of not yet registered users
Multiple attachments
Stylesheet: Attach a stylesheet and it will be converted to inline CSS (this is necessary for mail clients)
Report of sent issues
Resuming sending newsletter if there was a problem so that all recipients will get the newsletter
Prevent duplicate message sending
Issues overview with sort options: year/month/week
Uses moodle internal VERP bounce system, if it is configured correctly
Easy to use bounce processing: Just setup the mailbox for the noreply adress defined in the moodle configuration and it will automatically add bounce processing to all the newsletters
Personalised newsletters: Supported replacement are (The pattern format starting with news:// makes it possible to use in in links without being modified by the editor):
- issueurl (URL pointing to the current issue for web view)
  Pattern for replacement: news://issueurl/
- issuelink (a full html link pointing to the web view of the current issue)
  Pattern for replacement: news://issuelink/
- firstname (First name of the user, the newsletter is sent to)
  Pattern for replacement: news://firstname/
- fullname
  Pattern for replacement: news://fullname/

Upcoming features

Tracking of read newsletter issues
Statistics
Templates engine

Useful links

Website URL

Source control URL

Bug tracker

Screenshots

Contributors

David Bogner (Lead maintainer)

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Wunderbyte GmbH: Product owner

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Automated testing support

Comments

David Bogner
Mon, 22 Feb 2016, 3:52 AM
@Andreas: Yes there will be a new version also available for M3.0 in approximately 3 weeks.
Michelle Du Breau
Thu, 28 Apr 2016, 4:39 AM
I installed everything. Now I have setup the configuration. Whats next? Where can I find the "button" to create a new Newsletter? When I go to www.mydomain.com/mod/newsletter there comes only a message "content goes here"

how can i write a newsletter now? thank you
David Bogner
Sat, 30 Apr 2016, 1:45 AM
Hi Michelle. The newsletter is an activity. You can add it the same way you add any other activity like an assignment, etc.
Michelle Du Breau
Thu, 5 May 2016, 4:32 AM
Hello,

I have installed the plugin in, using moodle 2.8. I can see the settings under admin/plugins/activity-modules.
I can edit the settings - thats all. I do not see a menu entry for creating an issue.
Saranya Kanagaraj
Tue, 10 May 2016, 3:57 PM
Hi,
I have installed the plugin in moodle 3.0.2. It works fine. Could anyone tell how a not registered users subscribe to the newsletter? I have seen this feature is available.
David Bogner
Wed, 11 May 2016, 8:23 PM
Hi Saranya, you have to enable guest subscription in /admin/settings.php?section=modsettingnewsletter (Site administration block) in order to use guest subscription.
Mason Colbert
Thu, 2 June 2016, 2:45 AM
I am running Moodle 2.9.5+ (Build: 20160407) on a Centos 7 OS -- I cannot get the newsletter to actually send. It indicates that it was sent (no errors) but it does not actually send the newsletter. All other email related functions (forums, email test, quickmail plugin) are operating normally. The system is not sending any errors that I can detect to indicate why it is failing to send. Any tips for troubleshooting are appreciated!
thanks....
Mason Colbert
Fri, 3 June 2016, 1:09 AM
I think this is an OS issue. I have the same version of Moodle on an Ubuntu 14.04 VM and the newsletter module works fine. On my Centos 7 VM (same machine, moodle version, newsletter version) it just does not send (all other email functions work fine). I am forced to use Centos because the production system must be hosted on a Centos system. I've configured and successfully tested bounce handling, ran the cron debug, which shows no errors so I am really scratching my head over this one. It just will not send out the newsletter. Any tips or ideas deeply appreciated!
bobby demers
Wed, 15 June 2016, 11:43 PM
Unfortunately I've had to uninstall it.
It stopped our entire Moodle from sending messages via the forum, and for some reason also stopped the CRON from running.

Hopefully whatever issues with get sorted as it looks like it might be a useful feature at some point
David Bogner
Thu, 16 June 2016, 8:05 PM
Hi Bobby,

which Moodle version do you use? Could you give some details about the error messages so that we can fix the problem. Thank you.
Kind regards,
David
bobby demers
Tue, 21 June 2016, 10:42 PM
Hi David.
The Moodle version is 3.0.2+ (Build: 20160211) I had it running on a test course to see how it worked and if it would be useful to our organisation.

I wasn't given the specific error message by our hosting firm. Only the information that it was the problem when our forum messaging stopped working.

Where would I look for this error message to pass onto you?

Regards

bobby
David Bogner
Mon, 27 June 2016, 4:46 AM
Hi Bobby,

nevermind. We will try to reproduce the problem on Moodle 3.0. If you have any information (Develop debug mode in Moodle), than you can always paste it here.

Kind regards,
David
Georg Wiesinger
Fri, 29 July 2016, 3:32 PM
Hi David, does this plugin basically work with Moodle 3.1.1? I tried it a couple of days ago but had to uninstall the plugin as it stopped the cron entirely.
David Bogner
Sun, 31 July 2016, 7:13 AM
@Georg: We did solve those problems. Cronjob should now run smoothly.
Hamed Azimi
Fri, 5 Aug 2016, 6:28 PM
Hi David,

when I want to edit a Newsletter in a course, I get a white page, and in debugging, I see this error:
Fatal error: Class 'mod_newsletter' not found in /home2/learn/domains/mysite.com/public_html/mod/newsletter/lib.php on line 776

Any opinion will be appreciated.