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Help - Lists

The Lists menu allows you to create and manage your lists of email addresses, as well as lists created by your users. HTML allowing people to submit their email addresses to be added to specific lists can also be generated from the Lists menu. There are four options within the Lists menu: Lists (displayed by default when the Lists menu is opened), Create List, Find List and Subscribers.

Lists
The total number of subscribers in a particular list is listed beside the number of validated subscribers. Clicking on any of the menu headings ("List Name", "Created", "Subscribers", etc.) allows you to sort the lists by those headings. Clicking on either of the subscriber numbers will display a record of those subscribers on the list and allow you to search for other subscribers (see the "Search Subscribers" section below for details on searching). Clicking on a subscriber's name allows you to modify that subscriber (see the "Subscribers" section below for details).

You can validate or delete subscribers on the list by checking the boxes beside the desired subscribers (check the box at the top of the form to select all subscribers) and clicking either the "Validate Subscribers" or "Delete Subscribers" button.

You also have the option of searching for subscribers (see the "Search Subscribers" section below for details) or importing subscribers to the list (see the "Import Subscribers" section below for details).

Editing Lists
Clicking on a list's name brings up a form allowing you to modify all aspects of it.

- The list name and templates must have values.

-The value in the "Description" field will not be shown to subscribers subscribing to or unsubscribing from the list. The Description field is only visible to administrators or users while editing their lists.

- The "Require Double Opt In" option toggles whether or not subscribers will automatically be validated when subscribing to the list. If it is set to "No", subscribers will be automatically validated. If it is set to "Yes", subscribers will be sent a confirmation email allowing them to subscribe.

- The template options allow you to select which templates will be used to create the emails that are automatically sent to subscribers during the subscription process. The default templates can be modified or new ones can be created from your Account menu.

> + The "Opt In Template" builds the email that will be sent to subscribers allowing them to confirm their subscription if the "Require Double Opt In" option is set to "Yes". The "validation" template contains this message by default.
> + The "Subscribe Template" builds the email that will be sent to subscribers informing them that they have successfully subscribed to the list. The "subscribe" template contains this message by default.
> + The "Unsubscribe Template" builds the email that will be sent to subscribers after they have unsubscribed from a list, informing them that they were successfully unsubscribed. The "unsubscribe" template contains this message by default.

- The URL options control where subscribers will be directed after they have performed certain actions. Clicking the "Use Sample" button will insert sample locations of the pages, although you can specify any location you like.

> + The Success-Subscribe field contains the URL to which subscribers will besent when they have successfully subscribed to the list.

> + The Success-Unsubscribe field contains the URL to which subscribers willbe sent when they have successfully unsubscribed from the list.

> + The Success-Validate field contains the URL to which subscribers will besent after their subscription to the list has been validated.

> + The Failure-Subscribe field contains the URL to which subscribers will besent if they were not able to successfully subscribe to the list.

> + The Failure-Unsubscribe field contains the URL to which subscribers willbe sent if they were not able to successfully unsubscribe from the list.

Click the "Update a List" button to save your modifications, or click the "Reset" button to restore the options to their original settings.

Generating List HTML
While modifying a list or looking at its subscribers you can click the "HTML" link to display a window containing HTML that can be added to a webpage to create a form allowing subscribers to subscribe to the list.

Import Subscribers
While modifying a list or looking at its subscribers you can click the "Import" link to display a form allowing you to import subscribers to a list from a text file or from a list.

- By default the list you were viewing/modifying will be selected, but you can choose to import subscribers to any list(s). Select the list(s) you wish to add subscribers to by clicking on the desired lists in the top menu (hold "Ctrl" while clicking to select multiple lists).

- If you are importing subscribers from a text file, enter the path to it in the "From file" field, or use the "Browse" button to select it.

- If you are importing users from a list that you will type in or copy and paste from somewhere else, enter the email addresses (and subscriber names if desired) in the "Subscribers" field.

-If you are importing subscriber names as well as email addresses, check the "Subscriber Name" box in the "Fields To Import" section (the "Subscriber Email" box cannot be unchecked).

- If the subscriber data you are importing uses a delimiter (a character or a set of characters inserted between fields to keep them separate) to separate the subscriber names from the subscriber emails, enter the delimiter in the "Fields: Delimiter" box.

- If you have used a delimiter which appears within any of the subscriber data you are importing as a regular character (if, for example, you use the dash character as a delimiter and some of your subscribers' email addresses contain dashes), you will have to provide an escape character in the field provided. The escape character will have to be entered before every delimiter character in the import data that you do not want to be recognized as a delimiter (the escape character would have to be entered before every dash used in subscribers' email addresses in the above example). This will prevent the import from using the dashes in the email addresses as delimiters and the escape character will be removed, leaving the email addresses and their dashes intact.

- If you have selected an escape character which appears within any of the subscriber data as a regular character, you will have to add another escape character before it (two consecutive underscore characters would have to be entered in order for one underscore to appear in the import data if the underscore character was set as the escape character).

- If the escape character appears in front of the delimiter character as regular characters in any of the import data (a colon followed by an underscore within a subscriber's email address), two additional escape characters will have to be entered in front of the escape character and delimiter in order to keep the data intact. For the above examples, three underscore characters followed by a dash would be imported as one underscore and one dash.

- If the subscriber data you are importing uses a delimiter to separate records from one another, enter the delimiter in the "Records: Delimiter" box.

- If the data you are importing contains a description or some other information that you do not wish to import, you can enter an "Ignore first lines" value in the field provided, specifying how many of the first lines of the data you do not wish to import.

Click the "Import" button to perform the import, or click the "Reset" button to clear the import menu.

Create List
Clicking the "Create List" link brings up a menu allowing you to define all aspects of a new list of subscribers.

- Provide the list with a name in the field provided. This field must be completed.

- Enter a description which will be displayed when you are reviewing and editing your lists.

- The "Require Double Opt In" option toggles whether or not subscribers will automatically be validated when subscribing to the list. If it is set to "No", subscribers will be automatically validated. If it is set to "Yes", subscribers will be sent a confirmation email allowing them to subscribe.

- The template options allow you to select which templates will be used to create the emails that are automatically sent to subscribers during the subscription process. The default templates can be modified or new ones can be created from the Templates menu.

> + The "Opt In Template" builds the email that will be sent to subscribers allowing them to confirm their subscription if the "Require Double Opt In" option is set to "Yes". The "validation" template contains this message by default.
> + The "Subscribe Template" builds the email that will be sent to subscribers informing them that they have successfully subscribed to the list. The "subscribe" template contains this message by default.

> + The "Unsubscribe Template" builds the email that will be sent to subscribers after they have unsubscribed from a list, informing them that they were successfully unsubscribed. The "unsubscribe" template contains this message by default.

- The URL options control where subscribers will be directed after they have performed certain actions. Clicking the "Use Sample" button will insert sample locations of the pages, although you can specify any location you like.

> + The "URL Subscribe Success" field contains the URL to which subscribers will be sent when they have successfully subscribed to the list.

> + The "URL Unsubscribe Success" field contains the URL to which subscribers will be sent when they have successfully unsubscribed from the list.

> + The "URL Failure" field contains the URL to which subscribers will be sent if they were not able to successfully subscribe to or unsubscribe from the list.

Click the "Create a List" button to create the list, or click the "Reset" button to blank all fields.

Find Lists
Clicking the "Find Lists" link will display a detailed form allowing you to search for lists you've created.

- Enter values for the lists you are searching for (List ID, date created, etc.), and define your search parameters in the bottom section of the form.

- You can define the maximum number of lists you want the search to display in the "Maximum Hits" field.

- If the "Match Any" box is checked the search will return all lists containing any of the search criteria entered in the search form. For example, a "Match Any" search for lists with "2" in the List ID field and "admin" in the Users Email field would return all lists which contain "2" in the List ID field, even if they did not contain "admin" in the Users Email field.

- Enter words that will be searched for in all fields in the "Keyword Search" field.

- The "Sort By" drop-down menus allow you to select whether to sort the search results by list ID, Name, description or creation date, and whether to sort the results in ascending or descending order.

Subscribers
Clicking the Subscribers link allows you to search for specific email addresses contained in the lists on your Gossamer List installation.

Search Subscribers
While modifying a list or looking at its subscribers you can click the "Search" link to display a form allowing you to search for subscribers using any search criteria.

- Enter a search value in the field provided.

- Choose to search by email address or subscriber name.

- Choose which lists you wish to search (or choose all lists) and click the "Search" button.

-Clicking the "Advanced" link will bring up a more detailed search form, allowing you to search for multiple values and sort your results.

-You can also do a quick search for subscribers by clicking a letter to view subscribers beginning with that letter.

While viewing a list of subscribers you can sort the list by clicking on the headings ("Email", "Name", etc.).

Editing Subscribers
While viewing lists of subscribers, you can check the boxes desired subscribers and perform one of three actions on those subscribers by clicking the appropriate button: "Reset Bounced Emails", "Validate Subscribers" or "Delete Subscribers". You can also click on a subscriber's name to bring up a form allowing you to modify that subscriber in more detail.

-You can choose to mark the subscriber as validated or unvalidated.

-You can choose to modify the number of times the subscriber's email address has bounced incoming messages.

-You also have the option of giving the subscriber a name.

-Click the "Modify a Subscriber" button to confirm changes or click "Reset" to revert to the last saved version of the subscriber.

Adding Subscribers
Clicking the "Add" link brings up a menu allowing you to manually add subscribers one by one to lists. Select the desired list, enter the Email Address and Name of the subscriber in the fields provided and click the "Create Subscriber" button.

Importing Subscribers
Clicking the "Import" link will display a form allowing you to import subscribers to a list from a text file or from a list. See the "Import Subscribers" section above for details.

Remove Bounced Emails
While modifying a list or looking at its subscribers you can click the "Remove Bounced" link to remove addresses from the list that have bounced incoming messages a certain number of times. Choose when to remove bounced addresses from the first drop-down menu (equal to a certain number, greater than a certain number, less than or equal to a certain number, etc.), define the number of bounced emails in the text field, and choose which lists to remove the addresses from (either a specific list or all lists). Click the "Search" button. You then have the option of deleting the subscriber records matching your search, or resetting their number of bounced email to zero by checking the desired subscribers and clicking the corresponding button.