Hello Everyone, the release of v7 0 0 Beta 1 is upon us! Please try it out, and give back any comments you have on the new, and often requested features found in this release Beta releases are the time to let me know about issues, before the GM release is put out

This release is comprised of 176 changed files with 13,894 additions and 6,315 deletions, when compared to the current v6 8 1 release

Download and install:

http://dadamailproject
com/support/documentation-7_0_0-beta1/install_dada_mail
pod
html

(Pro Dada versions are available)

Changelog is below - some of the highlights of new features are:

* Private Mailing Lists
* Abuse Reporting
* Subscriber Subscription Date saved as a Timestamp
* Advanced Search/Partial Sending List Options
* Mass Update of Subscriber Profile Fields, based on Advanced Search
* Support for Required Profile Fields
* More Powerful List Control Panel Address Importing, Mass Updating

Changelog:

Private Mailing Lists

Previous versions of Dada Mail were specifically designed to run Public Mailing Lists: mailing lists where anyone can subscribe to using the mailinglist's subscription form, and most definitely everyone can remove themselves (unsubscribe)

For public mailing lists and marketing purposes, this works just great, but many users want to work with the app for a different purpose: utilizing Dada Mail's mailing list organizational and mass mailing features for a private mailing list of contacts: a group of colleagues, or an internal company mailing list

Sicne this wasn't a role that Dada Mail was designed for, it hasn't fared very well, as List Owners became frustrate having to constantly deal with list members removing themselves (often by accident) The tools to run a private mailing list just weren't there and solutions to this problem felt very hacky

Dada Mail now has support for Private Mailing Lists A private mailing list is a mailing list used in a closed, internal setting; not for a mailing list used publically for marketing purposes

When a mailing list's mode is set to, Private, unsubscription links are not required (as they are in a public mailing list), but any unsubscription links found in a mass mailing message will be turned into a link to Request Removal This request will be sent to the List Owner, who will have the final say on who is removed from the mailing list

All other options for a mailing list are still available for a Private List, allowing you to tailor your mailing list to exactly what you need

More information about Private and Public Mailing Lists:

http://dadamailproject com/d/features-private_and_public_lists pod

Abuse Reporting

Dada Mail now has the ability to allow users to report abuse on your mailing list These abuse reports will be emailed to the List Owner, logged, and reported through the Tracker plugin

Subscriber Subscription Date saved as a Timestamp

Subscriber information now includes the Date of Subscription in a the Timestamp column

Default order for Membership >> View Screen, Show/Hide Timestamp Column

New options in the, Membership > View> screen in the list control panel allow you to set which column to sort subscribers by default, as well as if the Subscription Date/timestamp column should be shown

Advanced Search/Partial Sending List Options

The View List screen in Dada Mail's list control panel already has a simple search to find what you're looking for withing your various mailing list members

This search is simple to use, but sometimes you really need to drill down to specifically what you're looking for

This release of Dada Mail includes an Advanced Search, allowing you to search more specifically for exactly what you're looking for You may now search by email address, any profile field independently, as well as between subscription date ranges

Parital sending works the same way and the ability to send to members who have been subscribed between a range of two dates is also available

Mass Update of Subscriber Profile Fields, based on Advanced Search

Once you've done an advanced search on your subscribers, you will now have the ability to update any of the Profile Fields of your search results, en mass

Support for Required Profile Fields

Profile Fields can now be marked as, Required Form field validation is done on the subscription form, both client and server side The experimental JSON web service API also supports required Profile Fields

More Powerful List Control Panel Address Importing, Mass Updating

The List Control Panel Add/Subscribe/Invite screen now comes with a ton of new, and useful options and utilities:

Preserve or Update Profile Field Information

In previous versions of Dada Mail, any Profile field information you try to import could potentially be discarded, if the address you're importing already has profile field information This is because profile field information is shared between mailing lists, and importing a subscriber into a mailing list, may inadvertantly wipe out already saved information

Dada Mail now has the option to either preserve any already-existing profile field information, or update information that already exists - this choice on what to do can be made during the Verification step

Profile Field Data Validation

Since Profile fields can now be required, Dada Mail also checks for any required Profile Fields and will present you with the addresses that are missing these Profile Fields, in the verification step There is now the option to subscribe addresses that are missing the required Profile Fields

Dada Mail now has the option to allow you to mass update the Profile Fields data of subscribers who are already subscribed, stopping you from needing to fully remove subscribers, just to reimport them

Profiles and Profile Passwords

Along with Profile Fields, Dada Mail can now allow you to set a Profile Password, when importing subscribers This Profile Password allows your user to log into their own Profile, and make changes to their mailing list subscriptions Profiles are only made, if a Profile Password is created

Changes 7 0 0

Config pm default variables with HTML have been removed, templated out

HTML that can be edited in the Appearance and Templates > HTML Screen Templates> list control panel had their default values stored in the Config pm file

This hinders customization and internationalization, testing, as well as adding extra bulk to the already-too large Config pm file The values of these variables have now been templated out into their own files located in the, dada/templates/list directory

Config pm default variables of email messages have been removed, templated out

Email messages, that can be edited in the, Appearance and Templates > Email Message Templates> screen (as well as other email messages, that can be customized in various other places) had their default values stored in the Config pm file

This hinders customization and internationalization, testing, as well as adding extra bulk to the already-too large Config pm file The values of these variables have now been templated out into their own files located in the, dada/templates/email directory

The removal of these variables (as well as HTML screens) has removed over 1,100 lines from the Config pm file

Database Schema Changes

There are slight changes to the database schema for Dada Mail Both the, dada_subscribers and, dada_profile_fields_attributes have new columns Dada Mail should be able to modify your tables to the correct schema, but we do suggest backing up your database before upgrading

PlainText Backend - DEPRECATED

The stable release of v7 0 0 has the PlainText backend marked as DEPRECATED and will be fully removed at a later date

This will help make the app more streamlined by removing a good chunk of the codebase that's rarely used Most new features of Dada Mail cannot be utilized when using the PlainText backend anyways, which leads to confusion with users, as well as complicating the codebase, as checks have to make on what exactly the backend supports

New Deprecated Plugins/Extensions

None!

Even Beatitude (Scheduled Mailer) will still be around for v7 0 0, and should be able to support the new partial mailing list features (timestamp date range!) Beatitude is still listed as deprecated, but will not be removed (or rewritten), until its features (or similar) are available in another form