FAQS

All new architecture

toolsPowermail has been rebuilt from the ground up.  

When we say, "rebuilt", we have taken the last 3 years of experience and seen what Joomla users have needed and worked to incorporate these features.  

1.  PowerMail Pro is Joomla 3.x compatible.  In addition, we have changed our license method which had become unwieldy.  This allows easier installation after purchase and no hassle use of Powermail

2.  PowerMail Premium will be released in April 2014 and with this addition, we have added a plugin architecture which allows development of addons to Powermail for making it work with practically any Joomla extension you can think of a use for.

3.  With the release of PowerMail Premium, we have added support for the popular K2 content management system.

4.  We have developed architecture compatible with the bootstrap and xml coding changes of Joomla to keep in line with the future for Joomla development.  Our plugin architecture will allow us and other extension developers to create plugins separately quite easily to create new content through mail to be published not only to Joomla content but to other ccks such as K2 and easyblog.   

Powermail Tags

PowerTags are what takes PowerMail to the next level!!

There are 10 different powertags that can be used to direct your content right from your email or phone.

 

The following tags can be used if a user has been enabled in the backend as a "PowerUser"


{readmore}
{alias}
{secid}
{catid}
{publish_up}
{publish_down}
{state}
{metakey}
{metadesc}
{access}

PowerUser and Syntax of PowerTags:

There are 9 powertags that can be used by a poweruser. One tag, {readmore} is available to all users. The following include the syntax and usage.

{alias NAME} Place the name of the author overriding the default

{publish_up YYYY-MM-DD} This will populate the publishing on date
{publish_down YYYY-MM-DD} This will turn the article off on the specifed date

{state 0} Article will be unpublished
{state 1} Article will be published
{state -1} Article is expired
{state -2} Article is in the trash

Please note that the default state for a poweruser is for an "unpublished" state unless overridden with the above tags. This forces a poweruser to always think and decide whether to turn on or off the publishing state for each email sent.

{frontpage} Article will be on the frontpage

{readmore} Text before will be introtext and after will be fulltext. Please note that this is the one global tag that will work even for a non-poweruser.

{secid xx} Replace the xx with the desired section id
{catid xx} Replace the xx with the desired category id

{metakey xx} Replace the xx with the desired meta keywords for the article
{metadesc xx} Replace the xx with the desired meta description for the article

{access x} Replace x with either either 1 or 2.  1 = registered access, 2 = special access.  The default is 0 for public access.

Best practices for effective use

Best Practices for using Powermail effectively:

1.  It is best to use an internet based email to send your email always.  We have tested and configured PowerMail to work primarily using Gmail.  With version 1.2 and up, you may use Outlook and Windows Mail.  There may be some minor incompatibilities with the received content using this method, so be aware of this.

2.  If you would like to compose the email contents in Microsoft Word, you can do this and then paste the contents into the Gmail email.

 

Background of Powermail

powermailThe need for PowerMail was born out of a specific need for a community website for health care professionals.

We found that our users would not normally login and add content easily.

The need for an email based content delivery system was apparent.  The Joomla extension options were reviewed and tested and the MMS blog component was found to be the best suited for the purposes.  MMS blog was developed for a boy scout application to send content via a cellphone to a website and was well developed.   Unfortunately, the development of the component became stagnant.

 

PowerMail4Joomla grew out of the MMS Blog project that needed further development.  The component has been essentially completely overhauled and major portions have been re-written.

New features that were needed included:

1.  Emailing directly to Joomla content sections and categories

2.  Adding html capabilities has allowed rich content to be posted directly to websites by forwarding html emails with many photos embedded and more.  Photos can be directed to the front or end of an article.

3.  The use of Powertags which allow an enabled user to direct the mail to the section and category and overide the defaults in addition to allowing certain parameters or start and end dates to be sent in the email to direct the content without logging in.

 

Development of this component has taken much time and investment and this development continues for the purpose of improving the component to serve our community and your community better.

100% of the profit for the sale of this component did go toward helping toward reaching the blind poor in the developing world.  Vision Outreach International (www.visionoutreach.org) is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization dedicated to caring for the blind from cataracts around the world.  Mission Eyes Network (www.missioneyes.net) and Global Sight Alliance (www.globalsight.org) are community websites that involve ophthalmologists from all around the world that give of their time to serve around the world for the needy blind.

While PowerMail development is not under this auspice anymore, the developers are very involved.  If you would like to learn more or contribute directly to this cause, please see any of the above sites or go directly to www.givesight.org.

Powermail Feature List

PowerMail will revolutionize the way you update your website!

Here is a a partial list of new features:

  • Email rich content directly to your Joomla content sections and categories
  • Include embedded or attached photos
  • Include attached files such as:  .txt, .ppt, .doc, .pdf, .xls
  • HTML formatting including bold, italic, underlines, font sizes, font types, links, numbered or bulleted lists moves right into content seamlessly
  • Specify breakpoint in email for readmore in the content
  • Set a receiving email address to associate with a specific section and category
  • Title of the content corresponds with the subject line of the email
  • Allows unlimited receiving email addresses
  • Associate Joomla users with specific email addresses
  • Specify specific Joomla section or category based on receiving email address or based on sending email address
  • Default author of the content is the sender of the email
  • Specify a specific section and category for email from a certain user
  • Powerusers use Powertags which allow setting multiple control over your content such as:
  • publishing dates up or down
  • author overide
  • setting an article as a frontpage article
  • send an article as unpublished, published, expired or trash
  • send an article to any section or category overiding the default for the account or for the user
  • Decide which sending addresses are powerusers allowing use of powertags
  • Spam display protected with the default of any article received being "unpublished"
  • Backend List of content emailed by author, associated Joomla user or email account sent to
  • Specify maximum photo display size
  • Image control for alignment, margins, borders and can be customized differently for each sender
  • Administrator receives email notice of new content emailed including content in the email sent to monitor activity
  • Administrator can specify which attached files are allowed and the maximum size

Setup Instructions

1. Account Setup

First setup a new email address on your local server where your Joomla installation resides and note the email address and password.

Second, Setup one or more "account" for receiving email in the backend of PowerMail 4 Joomla

If using an email account on the same server that your joomla installation is on then use localhost as the server as below. Specify the user and password. Typical settings for email on your own local server would be:

Protocol: POP3
Server: localhost
Port: 110
User: Email address here
Password:
Option: /notls/

Specify the default section and category for this account and whether published or active. Specify interval for server to check for mail. See below:

Name: Specify any name for this account - we recommend placing the email name here again
Published No or Yes
Active: No or Yes
Interval: 1-30 minutes
Section: Select any joomla section
Category: Select any joomla category

Send an email to this address and make sure that there is some frontend activity on the website (just do a page view on your frontpage if you have a small inactive website or a new trial site)

Now you should receive an email as a superadministrator (if receive system email set to "yes") specifying a new user is using powermail and a second email specifying the content. If the "from email address" is already in the joomla user database, then the author will associate automatically with the sending email author's name specified in the Joomla user table.

2. User Setup
Under "User" you can associate any received email address with any joomla section or category (or leave it on the default section/category)
You may also associate the from email address with any Joomla user who is an author. (in case the "from email" is not already in the joomla user database)
You may change the default publish preference for the content from this email address (overiding the default global value of "unpublish")
You may any email address the message is coming from to allow the use of powertags ("be a poweruser")


We recommend that you leave the global default for publish for powermail to "unpublish" and set the publish preference for any user or any account to default or to "unpublish"

We recommend the following ways to use PowerMail 4 Joomla for best success:

1. Set up one receive email account within the backend and do not give this email address to anyone except top administrators. Give out a different email address to any user that wishes to add content. Choose an email address that you can receive or a specified editor can receive. You or your specified editor can then forward the edited email onto the "hidden" email address and embed any tags that are appropriate to publishing dates, publish status, section and category, author name and where to add readmore

2. Set up email accounts for each user that is a regular contributor and specify which section and category each user's email should go to. Only allow powertags for trusted users that have been educated on their use and that have sufficient rights to change content if needed once it is sent.


There are essentially 4 levels of control for both the publish status and for the content section or category for each email sent. These controls including their relative order of precedence are:
1. global settings - found under "parameters"
2. account settings - for the specific email the message was sent to
3. user settings - for the specific email address the message was sent from
4. poweruser tags overrides - if poweruser is enabled, the tags within the email content will take top precedence for controlling publish status and the section and category

If you wish to allow each user to have their own personal blogging space, set up a category for each user's blog and link each user's email to their category blog

3.  Parameter Setup

1.  We recommend setting the "publish new content" under the General tab being set to "no".  This way if a stray or spam email comes to the specific email address, it will not show up on the live frontend of the website.

2.  Under "Display Properties", you may specify the maximum display size of the image width for any attached image.  You may also select if you wish for images to be at the top, bottom or one on top and the rest at the bottom of the article.



 


 

 


 


Spam Prevention

 

1.  How can I prevent other users from posting content to my site via an account email?

 

 

we recommend that you set the "publish setting" in global parameters to "no" for the default.  This will prevent any spam that might get to an email address setup in the "account" sections from being shown on the front of the site.  If a user is trusted, they can be made a power user and can user the powertag of {state 1} to allow an email to be published immediately.  Also, a non-poweruser user who is trusted may also be changed to have their articles published immediately under the user section in the backend.  In this case, any email from this address to the account address will be published.

 

 

Powermail instructions

PowerUser Instructions.

  help

PowerMail 4 Joomla Help

 

database_download

Install

mail_receive

Account setup

users

User Setup

process

Powertags use

 

Installation

database_download

 

Install powermail component in standard joomla install fashion

A reinstall can be over the top of the current install without worry of losing your data
 

Account Setup

mail_receive

 

 

Setup one or more "account" for receiving email

If using an email account on the same server that your joomla installation is on then use localhost as the server as below. Specify the user and password. Typical settings for email on your own local server would be:

Protocol: POP3
Server: localhost
Port: 110
User: Email address here
Password:
Option: /notls/

Specify the default section and category for this account and whether published or active. Specify interval for server to check for mail. See below:

Name: Specify any name for this account
Published No or Yes
Active: No or Yes
Interval: 1-30 minutes
Section: Select any joomla section
Category: Select any joomla category

Send an email to this address and make sure that there is some frontend activity on the website (just do a page view on your frontpage if you have a small inactive website or a new trial site)

Now you should receive an email as a superadministrator (if receive system email set to "yes") specifying a new user is using powermail and a second email specifying the content. If the "from email address" is already in the joomla user database, then the author will associate automatically with the sending email author's name specified in the Joomla user table.
 

User Setup

users

 

 

Under "User" you can associate any received email address with any joomla section or category (or leave it on the default section/category)
You may also associate the from email address with any Joomla user who is an author. (in case the "from email" is not already in the joomla user database)
You may change the default publish preference for the content from this email address (overiding the default global value of "unpublish")
You may any email address the message is coming from to allow the use of powertags ("be a poweruser")


We recommend that you leave the global default for publish for powermail to "unpublish" and set the publish preference for any user or any account to default or to "unpublish"

We recommend the following ways to use PowerMail 4 Joomla for best success:

1. Set up one receive email account within the backend and do not give this email address to anyone except top administrators. Give out a different email address to any user that wishes to add content. Choose an email address that you can receive or a specified editor can receive. You or your specified editor can then forward the edited email onto the "hidden" email address and embed any tags that are appropriate to publishing dates, publish status, section and category, author name and where to add readmore

2. Set up email accounts for each user that is a regular contributor and specify which section and category each user's email should go to. Only allow powertags for trusted users that have been educated on their use and that have sufficient rights to change content if needed once it is sent.


There are essentially 4 levels of control for both the publish status and for the content section or category for each email sent. These controls including their relative order of precedence are:
1. global settings - found under "parameters"
2. account settings - for the specific email the message was sent to
3. user settings - for the specific email address the message was sent from
4. poweruser tags overrides - if poweruser is enabled, the tags within the email content will take top precedence for controlling publish status and the section and category

If you wish to allow each user to have their own personal blogging space, set up a category for each user's blog and link each user's email to their category blog

If you wish to use powertags, please refer to the "help" section for the syntax for each of the following tags:
{readmore}
{alias}
{secid}
{publish_up}
{publish_down}
{state}
{metakey}
{metadesc}
{access}
{end}
 

Syntax of PowerTags

 

process

 

There are 10 powertags that can be used by a poweruser. Two additional tags, {readmore} and {end} are available to all users. The following include the syntax and usage.

{alias NAME} Place the name of the author overriding the default

{publish_up YYYY-MM-DD} This will populate the publishing on date
{publish_down YYYY-MM-DD} This will turn the article off on the specifed date

{state 0} Article will be unpublished
{state 1} Article will be published
{state -1} Article is expired
{state -2} Article is in the trash

Please note that the default state for a poweruser is for an "unpublished" state unless overridden with the above tags. This forces a poweruser to always think and decide whether to turn on or off the publishing state for each email sent.

{frontpage} Article will be on the frontpage

{catid xx} Replace the xx with the desired category id

{metakey xx} Replace the xx with the desired meta keywords for the article
{metadesc xx} Replace the xx with the desired meta description for the article


{access 1} Article will be only viewed by registered users
{access 2} Article will be only viewed by special users

Global tags   Please note that these tags are available to all users (even for a non-poweruser.)
{readmore} Text before will be introtext and after will be fulltext.
{end} This tag will truncate all content of the email after the tag so that it will not be received. It is helpful for unwanted footers.

 

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