1. Unzip the file and transfer to your server with the following

2. Chmod csNewsletter.cgi to executable (chmod 755). Ask your server administrator for assistance if required.

4. Run csNewsletter from your we browser.

Example: http://www.mycompany.com/cgi-script/csNewsletter/csNewsletter.cgi

When the script is run for the first time, it goes into setup mode. The setup screen will appear where you can verify and modify the setup variables. Most of the time, there will be no need to modify any of these variables except the username and password variables. Those control access to the control panel and you can change then to anything you desire.

When you click the save button on the installation screen, it should automatically create a file called setup.cgi which will look something like:

$cgiurl = 'http://www.cgiscript.net/cgi-script/csNewsletter';
$cgipath = '/www/vhosts/cgiscript.net/cgi-script/csNewsletter';
$sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
$username='demo';
$password='demo';
1;

Note: If you keep returning to the setup screen then your web server doesn't have the ability to write to your directories. If that is the case, a work-around is to chmod the csNewsletter, attach, backups, image_upload, and lists to 777.

Hint: Deleting the setup.cgi file that is automatically created when the script is first run will trigger the script to go back into setup mode.

Installing the script in your cgi-bin directory

Due to the limitations of cgi-bin directories, you'll need to create 2 directories when installing the script in the cgi-bin directory. One directory inside cgi-bin that will contain the script and a directory outside the cgi-bin directory where all the other files will reside. For example, in your cgi-bin directory upload the csNewsletter.cgi and libs.cgi file in a csNewsletter subdirectory.. i.e. cgi-bin/csNewsletter

Create a directory outside your cgi-bin directory like cgi-script/csNewsletter and upload the remaining files there. Take the default setup.cgi file that was created in the initial setup and add the following 2 variables:

$htmlpath = '/path/to/csNewsletter/directory';
$htmlurl = 'http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/csNewsletter/directory';

So, for example, your final setup.cgi file ( that should reside in your cgi-bin/csNewsletter directory ) should look something like:

$htmlurl = 'http://www.cgiscript.net/cgi-script/CSNewsletter';
$htmlpath = '/www/vhosts/cgiscript.net/cgi-script/csNewsletter';
$cgiurl = 'http://www.cgiscript.net/cgi-bin/csNewsletter';
$cgipath = '/www/vhosts/cgiscript.net/cgi-bin/csNewsletter/';
$sendmail='/usr/sbin/sendmail';
$username='demo';
$password='demo';
1;

If you have any problems or questions with the installation, don't hesitate to email support@cgiscript.net. We also offer installation services.

 Go to [root url]/csNewsletter.cgi where [root url] is the location of the script.

Example: http://www.cgiscript.net/cgi-script/csNewsletter/csNewsletter.cgi

the login and password is what was configured during the initial setup of csNewsletter.

Creating and Deleting Lists

Once you've entered the management screen, click on the 'Create New List' to create your email list. To permanently delete a list, highlight the appropriate list in the dropdown and click the delete button. Backups of your lists will be saved in the backups directory when you delete a list.

Add Manage the Users of Any Particular List

In the user management section, select the appropriate list in the current list dropdown box. Once selected, you can click the 'Add User' button to add an email address to the list or highlight a user and click the delete button

Public Add Configuration

This section controls the subscribe and unsubscribe form you can supply your members. The subscribe message sender and unsubscribe message sender should be filled in with the email address of where you want to say these messages come from..i.e. listmaster@yourdomain.com. You can also modify the default message that is sent out. Enter the phrase <list> where 'list' is the name of your list to have that inserted into the email.

Composing Newsletters

To compose a newsletter, first click the 'Addressed To' button to select the list or lists you want to send the email to. You can also manually enter email addresses in the 'Also Include' field.

Enter a 'From' email address and a subject for the message.

Enter the body in the text area. If you are using Internet Explorer 4.0 and up, you can use the online WYSIWYG HTML editor. Click the 'HTML Editor' for this option. Once you have created your page, click the button in the toolbar that looks like a floppy disk to save and return to the management screen.

You can also add an attachment to the email. Click the 'browse' button to select the file off your local hard drive to attach.

Once you are satisfied with how the newsletter works, click the 'Next' button. This will take you to a preview page where you can look over your newsletter before sending it out to the list. There is also a check box to include an unsubscribe link on the bottom of the emails. This option is checked by default. Click the 'Send' button to send the email to the list.

When you click the send button, it should immediately display a message that your email is being sent to the click. DO NOT click the refresh button at this point. This will send the message to the list twice. It goes matter if you have 5,000 email address or 5, it should come to the final screen very quickly. The program sends the emails in the background so you don't have to worry about your browser timing out or closing your web browser prematurely.