ListMessenger 1.1 Update 2

Written by Matt SimpsonJune 24, 2004

As much as I was hoping to have this done or at least seeded as a release candidate by Monday, it really doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now. Some code complications and feature modifications are taking much longer than I ever thought; basically just figuring out how things are going to work with each other properly is what’s taking the time.

The way I designed it on paper was flawed, of course, so I want to make sure I get it correct in the code. If absolutely nothing else, I will definitely release some screenshots by the end of the weekend (I want to wait until all the new icons are in place).

ListMessenger 1.1 Update

Written by Matt SimpsonJune 14, 2004

I felt as though I should post a note to announce the development status of ListMessenger 1.1. I am very happy to say that it is going along quite well and despite some initial delays, development is on course and the release date of June 28th, 2004 is expected to be met. While I expect that it will be ready for June 28th, I will probably initially release it as a Release Candidate and make it available to all current ListMessenger Pro users who wish to participate in the development process. After it’s been tested in some larger environments (might take a few days to a week) it will be officially launched to the public.

Thorough testing is underway at the present time; however, I’ve learned along the way that the best tests are done by the users themselves.

I will also say that ListMessenger is being, for the most part, re-written and there are many enhancements and new features which are going to be included.

Remember, ListMessenger Pro users receive all ListMessenger Pro upgrades at no cost.

More status updates will be posted in this section as they are available. I’ll also probably post some screenshots to tease when all major sections are completed.

ListMessenger Pro 1.1 Development Plans

Written by Matt SimpsonApril 17, 2004

I am pleased to announce the development plans for ListMessenger Pro 1.1 to the public. After careful consideration and input from customers here are the features that will be added for the 1.1 release:

  • Administrator customizable fields which will affect all groups. This will change in the future to include a group-specific field list; however, the 1.1 release will have the ability to manage custom fields for all groups only.
  • Option to allow notification of administrator or administrators of new subscriptions. This again, will affect all groups and will not be group specific.
  • The ability to manage file attachments and send attachments to groups.
  • The functionality to offset your servers default time zone.
  • The functionality to modify the default character set of your messages.
  • The option to allow end-users to select their desired display language in the end-user tools.
  • The ability to move the “public” folder out of the ListMessenger application directory and place it wherever you wish.
  • The upgrade of the following internal applications: PHPMailer CVS, HTMLArea 3.0rc2, PCLZip 2.1

The ability to sort by subscription date (added)!

Other possible changes that will be dependant on development time include:

  • Removal of all MySQL specific code and the inclusion of the ADOdb database abstraction library.
  • The requirement of PHP’s magic_quotes_gpc removed by adding a function that checks for such occurrences.

Along with these additions, there will be interface improvements and all known bugs from current releases will be fixed.

The intended release date of ListMessenger Pro 1.1 will be Monday, June 28th, 2004. Please note that this release date is an intended release date and if the modifications are completed before this date it will be released; however, at the same time if the modifications are not complete, it will not be released.

  • ListMessenger Light 1.1 will have some new features as well. Including all features listed above accept:
  • File attachment and management support
  • Administrator customizable fields

There is no intended release date for ListMessenger Light 1.1, although it should be released around the same time as ListMessenger Pro 1.1, but not before.

We will also be making modifications to our Members Area over the next several months, to include even more usable features besides the current key management and purchasing system. We will be introducing such features as an integrated trouble support ticket system for Pro users, an integrated knowledge base, integration with the forum so that ListMessenger Pro users can be uniquely identified in the forum. We will also be adding Visa, Master Card and possibly more payment methods to the system so that we can extend purchasing services to regions where PayPal currently does not provide account service. PayPal will still be available; this will be an added payment option.

Finally, we plan on really putting some serious effort into further development of our very successful reseller program. Resellers will be encouraged to play a larger role and further integration solutions with their private services is something that we look forward to supporting.

Thank-you for taking the time to read this release announcement, we look forward to powering your mailing list management needs for many sites to come.

Forum & Members Area Downtime

Written by Matt SimpsonFebruary 29, 2004

This evening from approximately 7:45PM EST until tomorrow morning (Monday, March 1st, 2004) until around 10:30AM EST the ListMessenger Forum as well as the ListMessenger Members Area will be unavailable while we do a server change.

While downtime should be minimal, the backup that we make this evening will be restored to the new server tomorrow morning meaning that any purchases from the Members Area or postings in the forum would be lost. We feel that it’s best to remove access to these area’s until after our upgrade so as not to create any confusion with potential customers or cause any forum posts to be lost.

While we realize that this upgrade may be of some inconvenience to some users, we feel that it’s better for the greater good.

So please post and shop away until 7:45PM EST today, if not, we’ll see you tomorrow when we’re back online!

ListMessenger Light 1.0 Released

Written by Matt SimpsonFebruary 23, 2004

I am pleased to say that after a much delayed release date, ListMessenger Light 1.0.0 (free version) has been released to the public. This version supports updated code and is the first of what will be a long line of Lighter versions of ListMessenger.

The features missing in Light from ListMessenger Pro are:

  • There is no integrated subscriber history / details.
  • There is no importing & exporting abilities.
  • There is no text-based spell checking support.
  • You cannot modify the speed in which messages send.
  • Script warns administrator once subscriber list is greater than 200 users.
  • There are no backup & restore tools.
  • No access to priority forum support.
  • No access to trouble ticket support.
  • No access to members area.

ListMessenger Light is the perfect solution for:

  • Small personal / commercial / non-profit websites who do not expect a lot of traffic and / or subscribers.
  • Web-masters / Web-designers who would like to evaluate the product and ensure that it will run on their server prior to purchasing the Pro version.
  • Users who need a fast, light solution for a temporary project or product.

If it does end up that you do need to upgrade to the Pro version because you have more than 200 subscribers, or you like the product or for any reason, it’s as easy as purchasing it, and uploading all the new files to your ListMessenger directory. Nothing else needs to be done as both versions use the same database content and structure. This can be done by anyone in a matter for minutes.

If you have any questions / comments, please feel free to post in the forum.

ListMessenger Pro For Mambo

Written by Matt SimpsonFebruary 5, 2004

I am proud to announced that ListMessenger Pro is expanding it’s horizons. A new type of integrated ListMessenger will be available for purchase later this month with complete integration with Mambo CMS [http://www.mamboserver.com]. Phil Taylor, a full time developer for Mambo Server and myself will be working together to bring you ListMessenger Pro for Mambo.

Mambo Open Source is a commercial quality, GPL’d Content Management System (CMS) which makes building and managing a website simple. Mambo is a very highly respected application with a huge market share in the CMS industry. Enterprise applications such as Plesk have chosen Mambo as their integrated CMS tool and we couldn’t be happier to have a new completely integrated version of ListMessenger to share with this exciting and vast community of users.

More details will be available soon on the ListMessenger Pro for Mambo website http://mambo.listmessenger.com.

Christmas Announcement E-mail Problem

Written by Matt SimpsonDecember 21, 2003

Yes, so today I sent out the first Announcement to everyone that subscribed to the ListMessenger mailing list through the Members Area; however, I didn’t realize my version of ListMessenger was the original release of 1.0 that doesn’t work properly and has problems with the headers. 

So needless to say, I’m apologizing for this and I have upgraded my own stupid version as of now. It won’t happen again.

New ListMessenger Website & Upgrades

Written by Matt SimpsonDecember 15, 2003

A New Face for ListMessenger – A New Forum for Users

After over a year and a half calling http://scripts.digitalorphans.org/listmessenger home, the new ListMessenger website has finally been launched at http://www.listmessenger.com and will continue to expand over the next few months. Content to be added includes manuals and documentation, search functionality, reseller and community information as well as the much anticipated ListMessenger Light 1.0. I feel that the new website is the professional face to a professional product and with enhancements will do us well for the exciting year ahead.

I also took this opportunity to upgrade the forum from InvisionBoard 1.1.2 to InvisionBoard 1.3 and give it a similar look and feel as listmessenger.com.

In either case, there are bound to be a few hiccups somewhere that we haven’t caught during debugging and testing, so if you find something that you feel doesn’t work properly or has errors please send a bug report to: bugreport@listmessenger.com and please include the exact URL, your operating system, web-browser and version as well as any special applications you may have had running at the time the error occurred.

ListMessenger Pro 1.0 Released!

Written by Matt SimpsonOctober 7, 2003

First Commercial Version of ListMessenger Now Available With Many New Features, Enhancements and Fixes.

I am very pleased to announce that after a full year and a half of development and many contributions by both end users and many outside sources, ListMessenger Pro 1.0 is available for purchase. The cost of the professional version is $49.95CAD (~$37.54USD) and can be purchased by registering in the ListMessenger Members Area.

ListMessenger, with the help of such open source projects as PHPMailer, PCLZip and PHPSniff, exceeds expectations as a well designed, easy to use and extremely robust mailing list management solution for any web site. ListMessenger is feature packed but because of its intuitive design remains simple enough so any administrator can quickly manage his or her own mailing list and send out important newsletters or information.

Some of ListMessenger Pro’s many new features include:
– Rich Text Editor Integration (IE Only)
– Microsoft Excel & CSV Importing with confirmation ability.
– Public Message Archive System
– Automated Unsubscribe Link
– End-User History Viewer
– Database Table Prefixes
– Optional Persistent Database Connections

ListMessenger includes many more features, not listed above as well.

Also, the much anticipated ListMessenger Light 1.0 (the freeware version) will be released sometime in the next few weeks. Detailed information will be available on our website shortly.

ListMessenger Pro 1.0 Release Delay

Written by Matt SimpsonSeptember 29, 2003

Much to my dismay, I am posting this thread to inform users that ListMessenger Pro 1.0’s release date has been pushed back one week, to Monday, October 6th, 2003.

There are a number of factors that lead to this delay. The major one being that I could not find a suitable e-commerce solution for purchasing software and managing licence keys, so I had to write my own. This solution is what will be required for users to purchase and generate the keys needed to run ListMessenger Pro. I figure that one week extra week will ensure that the released product is of the quality that I, myself, would expect to purchase.

I will post further status details in this thread as I have them:
– Completed: support management system
– Completed: store application design and database
– Completed: store signup process
– Completed: store signin process
– Completed: store shopping cart process
– Completed: store order management process
– Working: store key assignment process
– Working: ListMessenger key integration process
– Working: ListMessenger key tracking process
– Working: ListMessenger update scripts
– Working: ListMessenger setup scripts
– ToDo: final testing and QA
– ToDo: new ListMessenger website