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v6 missing mailing list features in the back end
Question
I have upgraded to v6 but now the mailing list functionality appears to be missing from the back end. Why is this?
Answer
Some of the newsletter mailing list functions have been removed intentionally. For anything other than very small lists (perhaps 50 addresses), script timeouts become an issue. An ASP script is not the best platform from which to bulk mail.
There are many packages much better suited to doing the actual mailing. Windows executable code will run faster, won't suffer from timeout issues, and won't hog server resources with scripts running for long periods. Most of these allow a CSV or Excel spreadsheet of addresses (and other data) to be imported.
CactuShop v6 provides an export method through the 'export data' feature in the back end. This system allows configurable exports and CactuShop ships with a pre-written mailing list export one.
Since mailing list records are now simply a flag on the customer records, searching for specific email addresses is done through the customer search.
CactuShop still includes the requirement for customers to be 'opt in confirmed', i.e. that they must click a link on a confirmation mail before their address is confirmed and they will feature as part of the mailing list.
So in v6 onwards, the mailing list functions are very much mailing list management rather than actual mailing.