Simplenews is an easy way to manage newsletters.

Download Simplenews from drupal.org/project/simplenews. You will also need Mime Mail from drupal.org/project/mimemail. Install and configure Mime Mail first then install Simplenews.

Simplenews includes the Simplenews module described as Send newsletters to subscribed email addresses and it depends on the Taxonomy module included in Drupal core. Simplenews also includes Simplenews action described as Provide actions for Simplenews and depends on Simplenews, Trigger, and Taxonomy. The Trigger module is included in the Drupal core.

Simplenews adds a wide range of administration options. You can access all the options in Administer » By module under Simplenews and through other parts of the administration system.

• Configure permissions
• Draft issues
• General (In Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews)
• Newsletter (In Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews)
• Newsletters (In Administer » Content management)
• Newsletters
• Send mail (In Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews)
• Sent issues
• Simplenews (In Administer » Site configuration)
• Subscription (In Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews)
• Subscriptions
• Get help

Permissions

You manage Simplenews use through the following permissions.

• administer newsletters
• administer simplenews settings
• administer simplenews subscriptions
• send newsletter
• subscribe to newsletters

General

Visit Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews » General to define the content types to be used for newsletters. Simplenews creates a content type of Newsletter issue, described as A newsletter issue to be sent to subscribed email addresses.

You then select a vocabulary for your newsletter. Simplenews says This vocabulary identifies newsletter series. Note that changing this vocabulary will require existing newsletters to be re-tagged and activated newsletter blocks to be re-activated. D-theme.com already had a vocabulary named newsletter and Simplenews defaulted to that vocabulary.

Newsletter defaults

Go to Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews » Newsletter to set the defaults for all newsletters. Newsletter specific settings can be found in the newsletter's settings page.

You can set a format of plain or HTML for the newsletter. HTML will require the Mime Mail option installed and working.

Priority provides a setting that might make some email race ahead of other email. Simplenews says Note that email priority is ignored by a lot of email programs.

There is an option to request a receipt from the receiving email system but a receipt does not mean a human has read or is going to read the email. A read receipt would be more useful but few email systems use read receipts and the lack of a read receipt does not indicate when or if the mail will ever be read.

The send action can be Don't send now, Send one test newsletter to the test address, or Send newsletter. You can then supply a list of email addresses to be used as test addresses.

You next set a default sender address that will be used for confirmation emails.

Manage Newsletters

Administer » Content management » Newsletters gives you a few options.

Sent issues lists newsletter issues sent and pending.
Draft issues lists newsletter issues not sent and is described below.
Newsletters Lists newsletter series with options to add and edit.
Subscriptions provides your newsletter subscription management.

Send mail

Select Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews » Send mail

You can choose to use cron to send newsletters. You do not need this for testing. You do need it when you send lots of email because it spreads your email out across the day and saves you exceeding any email limits set by your Internet Service Provider.

Cron throttle sets the numbers of newsletters sent per cron run. Cron execution must not exceed the PHP maximum execution time of 30 seconds. You find the time spend to send emails in the Recent log entries. Your cron setting must run cron at frequent intervals. If you send thousands of email and you are allowed to send 300 per hour, you want cron to run every hour so that the thousands will go out across the day and night. Using the example of 300 per hour, if you can send just 50 in one cron run, you want cron to run every 10 minutes or more frequently.

The mail spool expiration settings lets you expire mail immediately or after an hour or a day or a week. Simplenews says Newsletter mails are spooled. How long must messages be retained in the spool after successfull sending. Keeping the message in the spool allows mail statistics (which is not yet implemented). If cron is not used, immediate expiration is advised.

There is an option to log emails and that records only that the email was sent to the mail sending routine and does not indicate the mail arrived anywhere.

Subscription

Administer » Site configuration » Simplenews » Subscription lets you specify two things, the synchronisation of subscriptions with user accounts, and the text of confirmation emails. The email text can have substitutions. The substitutions are unique to Simplenews and do not use the Token module. The Token module will be standard in Drupal 7 and could be used in Simplenews now.

Subscriptions

Administer » Content management » Newsletters » Subscriptions lists subscriptions with options to activate, deactivate, subscribe, and unsubscribe. There are also facilities to mass subscribe, mass unsubscribe, and to export subscription lists.

Draft issues

You create a newsletter then a draft issue then edit the draft issue then publish the issue. Create the draft issue in Administer » Content management » Newsletters » Draft issues
Existing issues are listed under Title, Newsletter, Date created, Published, Sent, and have an option to edit the issues. There is an option to filter the issues by newsletter.

Sent issues

Administer » Content management » Newsletters » Sent issues is the same as the draft issues list and lists issues that were sent.