Email Help

Sending emails with this site is powerful and confusing. We hope this page helps explain how best to use the capabilities. There are 3 main concepts We will dive into each one
Addresses Email Addresses are the 'who' email is sent to.

* Adding an email address: The "Add" button just below the title "Email Addresses" allows you to add an email address. Once clicked a new row is added for the entry of the new address. Once the email is entered (enter of OK click) it is checked for validity and uniqueness. If there are any issues the entry will momentarly be red. If there are no issues the new entry will be added to the top of the list of addresses.

* Deleting an email address - be careful as there is no warning or undo. There is a button next to each address with a red border and a "-" in the middle. Clicking that will immediately remove the address.

* Exporting - The "Export to clipboard" button allows you to copy all the addresses out of the browser to paste into other apps (e.g. excel).
Lists Email Lists are a collection of email addresses that have a unique name.

* Add a new Email List by clicking the "Add" button just below the title "Email Lists". Similar to the method for creating addresses, a new row is created where the name of the new list can be set (OK or enter).

* Editing an Email List - once created, the email list will have an "Edit" button beside it. When clicked, there will be a presentation of all the email addresses with check boxes next to each. Click them on or off to include or exclude the address from the list. Once complete click "OK". The "View" menu on the right side of the dialog allows you to quickly see who is in or out of the list. Bulk Operations: For your convenience there are 2 bulk operation buttons; Add and None which will either add every email address to the list or remove every email address from the list.

* Deleting an email list - be careful. Actually they are easy to recreate so you don't need to be very careful. There is a button to the left of each email list name that allows deleting the list. Note: if the list is used in a job then that job will have no list.
Jobs Email Jobs - this is where the magic happens! Email Jobs are given a unique name and some important attributes.

* Add a new Email Job by clicking the "Add" button just below the title "Email Jobs". Similar to the method for creating addresses, a new row is created where the name of the new job can be set (OK or enter).

* Editing an email job - again, use the "edit button" to the right of the job name (after setting the job name). Once clicked a dialog will be presented allowing the following attributes to be set:
  • Email List - this is a menu of the current lists. Choose the one that represents your target audience.
  • Email Subject - as you guessed, this is the subject that will be used for the email.
  • Email Content - This is set in one of 2 ways: 1) enter text directly or 2) Choose a file (upload .eml file). When a file is chosen it will be transformed from a .eml file to html. The html will be self contained meaning that items like images will be contained in the html. Note: for large .eml files it may take a few seconds to complete the transition to html.
    NOTE: You may "Preview" an email prior to sending it via the button just to the right of the Email Content label.
    The text of the email content may be edited directly via the text box just below the Email Content label.
* Deleting an email job - be careful. Actually they are easy to recreate so you don't need to be very careful. There is a button to the left of each email job name that allows deleting the job.
Note: after an email job is run it can be deleted - there is no harm in that as the log contains all the information about that job's performance.

* Save - once an email job is edited it should be "Saved" via the save button. Note when "Run" is chosen the job is saved prior to running.

Once all job data has been set the "Run" button can begin the distribution of emails. If there are any issues prior to starting a run an indication will be shown (e.g. missing list).

Notes about running jobs:
  • There is a background task that wakes up every 15 minutes to see if there are email jobs ready to run. The page currently needs to be manually refreshed to see status changes.
  • Email Jobs respect the limits imposed by email servers (max of 50 addresses per email, max of 50 emails per hour).
  • The email job status indicates when the job is running and when it is complete (done).
    The "Log..." button just below the EMail Jobs title will show the activity of all jobs for your account. This email log display shows the job name, date and time of when an email is sent, and the list of receipients for each sent email.
  • Best Practice - for a job that will be sent to many receipients check it first by using "Preview" or run a test email job with an email list that contains a small number of addresses.