FAQ

How do I use personalized mailing lists?

A Mailing list is a special account consisting of a list of users. To send a message to all the users in the list you need only send to the Mailing List Account.

A Personalized mailing list is the same special account but with variable names and values assigned to each User in the list. These variables can then be used within your message and they will be evaluated for each user in the list, allowing you to customise the individual messages.

There are two types of personalized mailing lists:

1. static - variable values are stored in a file
2. dynamic - variable values are stored in a DataBase and you extract them via ODBC

Static Personalized Mailing List

1. Create a mailing list account

   Use Ctrl+M in Merak Config to create new mailing list account.

   Fill in Alias, Description and Owner fields and choose Members From Text File in Source option.

2. Set members and values

   Now click the Members button to edit mailing list members.

   

   Here you have to specify all the members and their permissions and parameters.

   

   Member is common user email address.

   Rights are all possible rights you can assign to a member.

   Parameters

   variable1=value1

   variable2=value2

   ...

   are the variables and corresponding values that you wish to use to personalise the messages you send to this mailing list.

   Within your message you can specify any of the variables in the format {{variable1}}, {{variable2}}, etc. and the variable's value will be used in the message.

   The screenshot above shows, for example, a variable called name with a value of John. So if you use {{name}} in you message then the text John will be used in the message to john@merakdemo.com.

3. Enable personalized mailing list

   You must enable variable processing in mailing lists.

   Click the Other tab and check the Personalized mailing list - variable fields option.

   

   Save the account and it is ready for use.

Dynamic Personalized Mailing List

You must have ODBC Settings set correctly for this to work. Look here (MS SQL 2000) for further information.

1. Create mailing list account

   Use Ctrl+M in Merak Config to create new mailing list account.

   Fill in Alias, Description and Owner fields and choose Members From ODBC in Source option.

2. Add the SQL query which will return a list of addresses, rights and variables

   The SQL query must return the list with the first element being the email address and the second element the rights for the email address. From the third element you variables can be in any order

   Example:

   SELECT Email, Rights, FirstName, Surname, Salary FROM Employee WHERE Sales > 1000

   

   You should use the Test SQL Query button to verify if your query returns email addresses or not. Only the first two columns are shown in the Test SQL Query window but you can see if the addresses are returned successfully.

3. Enable personalized mailing list

   You must enable variable processing in mailing lists.

   Click the Other tab and check the Personalized mailing list - variable fields option.

   

   Save the account and it is ready for use.