Front-end Newsletter edition

Using AcyMailing Enterprise, you will be able to configure each of your lists and grant access to some group of users or to one specific user so that he will be able to create, edit, preview, test and send Newsletters from the front-end to this list. Your allowed users will even be able to see global statistics from the front-end.

This article will explain you, step by step, how to handle this process.

Grant access to some Joomla groups or to a specific user

• • Log in on the back-end and click on the menu Components -> AcyMailing -> Lists.

  • Edit one of your lists.

  • There are two ways to give access to some users to manage the list on the front-end, depending on your needs you will either grant these rights to one or several Joomla groups of users but you can also grant these rights to a single user.

Group Access

• • View/Subscription Access: This option enables you to lock the subscription of your list only to users belonging to one of the selected Joomla group.

  • Front-end Management: You can select in this area the Joomla groups of users which will be able to manage your list from the front-end.

  • AcyMailing will also grant this access to the creator of your list so if you only want one user to be able to manage your list from the front-end, then change the creator of your list.

Unique User Access

• Save your list to apply the changes.

Create or edit a Newsletter from the front-end

• Log in on your front-end using an username which belongs to one of your allowed Joomla Groups or the creator of the list.

• If you browse your lists archive section when you are logged in with a user account able to manage the current list from the front-end, then you will see add, edit and statistics icons. You can create a new Joomla Item menu (type AcyMailing) to browse your archive section or directly access index.php?option=com_acymailing.

Front-end archive

• The edit icon enables you to edit your Newsletter.

​At the bottom of the page, you will see an icon enabling you to create a Newsletter.

Create Newsletter

• If you click on one of these three icons, you will be redirected to the Newsletter edition screen.

Toolbar Frontend

• The options you get are similar to the ones displayed on the back-end, you can switch your template, add tags, replace your tags, save your Newsletter and preview it.

• You can write your subject, decide to publish your Newsletter, make it visible, choose to send the HTML or only the text version.

• You can create your HTML version of your Newsletter and your Text version (if you don't want AcyMailing to generate it automatically).

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• You can then select the receivers of the Newsletter. Only your attached lists will be displayed on this screen. I'm actually allowed to manage two lists from the front-end, that's why there are two lists on this screenshot but each user will have a different list selection depending on his rights.

Lists selection

• You can attach files to your Newsletter and you can also change your sender information.

• By default, the sender information will be the default ones you specified on your AcyMailing configuration page but you will find an option on your AcyMailing configuration page so that the default sender information are the name and e-mail of the logged in user.

Default sender

• The option Allow modifications indicates if you allow a user to edit a Newsletter created by another user. So if you select "No", only the creator of the Newsletter will be able to modify his Newsletter.

• The option Allow post-sent edit indicates if you allow a user to modify the Newsletter after the Newsletter has been sent. So if you select "No", the Newsletter can't be edited via the front-end once sent.

Test and send a Newsletter from the front-end

• Click on the button Preview / Send when you edit your Newsletter to access the preview screen

• You will see your Newsletter and the automatic text version AcyMailing generated (or the one you wrote).

• Like on your back-end, this interface enables you to send a test of your Newsletter to some users and send it.

Preview

• If you click on the send button, AcyMailing will ask you a confirmation and then will queue all your e-mails. AcyMailing does not start the send process on your own session so you can do something else and turn off your computer while AcyMailing will automatically take care of the send process. (this send process requires a cron task that you can easily configure on the AcyMailing configuration page).

Check the global statistics from the front-end

• Back on the archive section, you will see a statistic icon near the Newsletter subject for the Newsletter you already sent so that you can follow the send process and the success of your Newsletter via the front-end.

Stats

• If you click on that icon, a popup will open and display you the same chart statistics than the ones you can access from the back-end:

Stats

Customize the front-end edition

Using some CSS, you will be able to remove some buttons from the front-end edition to have a cleaner interface.

You should add this CSS at the end of the Component Front-end CSS file. You will find an option on the AcyMailing configuration page to easily edit it (tab "interfaces").

Edit screen

By default the front-end edition looks like:

Default Front-end

• You can remove the template button with the CSS #acybuttontemplate{ display:none }

• You can remove the tags button with the CSS #acybuttontag{ display:none }

• You can remove the replace tags button with the CSS #acybuttonreplace{ display:none }

• You can remove the separator with the CSS #acybuttondivider{ display:none }

• You can remove the preview button with the CSS #acybuttonpreview{ display:none}

• You can remove the save button with the CSS #acybuttonsave{ display:none}

• You can remove the apply button with the CSS #acybuttonapply{ display:none}

• You can remove the cancel button with the CSS #acybuttoncancel{ display:none}

Example #acybuttontemplate,#acybuttontag,#acybuttonreplace,#acybuttondivider,#acybuttonsave,#acybuttonapply,#acybuttoncancel { display : none} will remove all buttons except the preview one:

Only preview

You can also remove some fields from the front-end edition only by using some CSS:

• You can remove the alias field with the CSS #aliaskey, #aliasinput{ display:none }

• You can remove the created date field with the CSS #createdkey, #createdinput{ display:none }

• You can remove the published field with the CSS #publishedkey, #publishedinput{ display:none }

• You can remove the visible field with the CSS #visiblekey, #visibleinput{ display:none }

• You can remove the send html version field with the CSS #sendhtmlkey, #sendhtmlinput{ display:none }

• You can remove the send date field with the CSS #senddatekey, #senddateinput{display:none}

• You can remove the sent by field with the CSS #sentbykey, #sentbyinput{display:none}

• You can remove the summary field with the CSS #summarykey, #summaryinput{display:none}

• You can remove the thumbnail field with the CSS #picturekey, #pictureinput{display:none}

• You can remove the language field with the CSS #languagekey, #languageinput{display:none}

Example #aliaskey, #aliasinput, #createdkey, #createdinput, #publishedkey, #publishedinput, #visiblekey, #visibleinput, #sendhtmlkey, #sendhtmlinput, #sentbykey, #sentbyinput, #senddateinput, #summaryfield, #summaryinput, #picturekey, #pictureinput, #languageinput, #languagekey, #summarykey, #senddatekey{ display : none}

will remove all the options except the subject input:

• You can remove the attachments tab with the CSS: For J3.x: #mail_attachments_tablink{display:none} For J2.5: .mail_attachments{display:none} For J1.5: #mail_attachments{display:none}

• You can remove the sender information tab with the CSS: For J3.x: #mail_sender_tablink{display:none} For J2.5: .mail_sender{ display : none} For J1.5: #mail_sender{display:none}

• You can remove the meta tab with the CSS: For J3.x: #mail_metadata_tablink{display:none} For J2.5: .mail_metadata{display:none} For J1.5: #mail_metadata{display:none}

• You can remove the inbox action tab with the CSS: For J3.x: #mail_inboxactions_tablink{display:none} For J2.5: .mail_inboxactions{display:none} For J1.5: #mail_inboxactions{display:none}

• You can remove the three tab with the CSS: #newsletterparams{display:none}

• You can remove the text version input (and so force AcyMailing to automatically generate it) with the CSS #textfieldset{ display:none }

Example #newsletterparams{display:none} will remove the Lists, Attachments, Sender information and Meta tabs

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On the AcyMailing configuration page, there is an "Access Level" tab where you can attach one or several Joomla groups to your features... This area will also enable you to personalize your front-end edition and remove some features (such as the filters for example)

Preview screen

The same way you can remove some elements from the preview screen.

By default it looks like:

Preview screen

• You can remove the Schedule button with the CSS #acybuttonschedule, #acybuttonunschedule {display:none}

• You can remove the Send button with the CSS #acybuttonsend {display:none}

• You can remove the Spam Test button with the CSS #acybuttonspamtest{display:none}

• You can remove the Edit button with the CSS #acybuttonedit {display:none}

• You can remove the Close button with the CSS #acybuttoncancel {display:none}

• You can remove the Send a test area with the CSS #sendatest {display:none}

• You can remove the Lists area with the CSS #receiversinfo {display:none}

• You can remove the preview resize options with the css #acypreview_resize{display:none}

Example #acybuttonschedule, #sendatest, #receiversinfo {display:none} will remove the send a test / lists areas and the schedule button

Frequently Asked Questions

I have two registered users and two lists, how each user can manage his own list?

The owner of the list will be able to manage his list from the front-end regardless to the groups selected on the "Front-end management" option. So you should make sure that each user is set as owner of his list and that the option "None" is selected for the "Front-end management" option so he won't be able to send Newsletter to another list.

How to have a different template loaded for each user?

• You should create a custom field called "template" (type "text").

• Then edit the user profile and enter the template ID the user wants as default template.

• So if this user creates a Newsletter from the front-end, this template will be loaded by default.

What's the direct link to create a Newsletter from the front-end?

You should create a new Joomla menu and select the type AcyMailing : create a Newsletter.

AcyMailing follows the filters defined on the Joomla configuration page. By default registered users are not allowed to add html tags... you may want to change that on the Joomla configuration page, tab "Text filters".

Text filters