Email Newsletter Software, Mailing List Management and Email
Software Solution for Windows
How to Setup a linked List for Newsletter Distribution
Article: How to Setup a linked List
with MailList Controller
A list is a group of recipients (email
addresses). In addition to the email address, a list can
also contain other information, e.g. the name, which can
be used for personalization. Its possible to create
multiple lists, to send out messages to different
groups, e.g. a newsletter-group and a group with
business partners. Each list has its own database.
MailList Controller default List Type:
Regular List (Managed List)
A "MailList Controller Liste (Managed
List)" is the default list type and is recommended
for most purposes. It allows Subscribe and Remove
email requests, personalization, and list automation.
The database is stored local inside the MailList
Controller database. Its also possible to import
members from an external database to this list-type,
e.g. a MS Access, MS Excel, Text or ODBC database.
MailList Controller additional List Type:
Linked List (External List)
This type of list is much different. The recipients
are not stored locally - the program retrieves the
email address and other data directly from the
external database. It could be used e.g. to connect to
a MySQL database on your webserver.
MailList Controller opens
the external database in READ-ONLY mode, which means
it will not change or save any data to the external
database. For this reason Subscribe requests (via
email) are NOT available. Remove requests are
available, but this information will be stored outside
the external database (using a local database).
The main intention of this list type is to provide
an easy and effective way to send out messages,
without processing incoming messages. e.g. if you want
to use a php webform for Subscribe and Remove, which
has direct access to the external database so that
email requests are not required. If you don't want to
process incoming messages, then you should leave the
pop3 server empty when setting up a new list.
The setup is very easy just create a new list
and select "Linked List".
Now select the database, which you want to use.
Download and install the "2007 Office
System Driver: Data Connectivity Components" for
MS Office
2007 filetypes. The ODBC driver can be downloaded from
www.microsoft.com.
Use "ODBC" if you want to connect to a
database, which is not listed on this screen.
Please make sure, that the required ODBC driver
is installed on your system. If you want to connect to
a MySQL database, then you need to install the
"MySQL ODBC Connector" first! You can
download it from www.mysql.org.
Create a new "SYSTEM DSN" (not
a USER DSN) or select an existing "SYSTEM
DSN" data source connection within the ODBC
managment.
Select the table, which contains the
recipients.
Select the field, which contains the email
address of the member.
Select the fields, which should be available
for personalization.
Thats all - now the list is setup and
ready to use.
Double-click on the "List" in the
section "Member Lists" to verify the list
members.
Important: if you can see the members in the
member viewer, but you cannot send out a list message,
then please take a look at this
page for troubleshooting.
