BroadFast version 1.9
Overview
BroadFast is extremly easy to use, fast, small and light but very powerful script for broadcasting, mailing list managements and sending newsletters.
Contents
Requirements
The script needs only web host with PHP 5 (or newer) and a MySQL 5 (or newer) database. For delayed email sending cron jobs must be enabled on the server (if this is a problem you can fake the cron jobs).
Installation
The installation of BroadFast is very simple and requires only few steps.
1. Create a database for use of BroadFast. BroadFast can also share the same database with other
applications you may have on the host
2. Upload the files on your web host
3. Visit install.php with your browser and follow the instructions.
To use the software visit admin.php
Changing the design
You can modify all files from folder 'templates' with any WYSIWYG or code-level web editor and change
styles.css for the stylesheets.
Using BroadFast
1. Create Newsletter/Broadfast
This
is the default page which you see when you log in in the
administration. Here you can broadcast all the users in your mailing
list (the lists are described later below) or save the newsletter for
further redaction and sending later. You can choose to send in text
only or html format
2. Saved Newsletters
On this page you will see all saved newsletters sent or saved
previously. You can edit or open any of them and use it again.
3. Manage Users
This screen allows you to edit your mailing list. You can edit and
delete members, activate or deactive or add members manually.
Here you will find 2 other advanced features:
- Import/Export - it allows
you to import members from Excell (CSV file) and export them into comma
separated file
- Synchronize - This unique
feature is for advanced users only. It allows you to integrate
BroadFast with any other existing web application you may have. If you
have a MySQL database with members you can synchronize the mailing list
which you have in BroadFast with that database. In the Database Details
section you should enter the connection values for the source database.
If BroadFast shares the same database you can leave all these fields
blank. The Members table details section
is to enter the actual name of the table where the members data is
stored. You also need to fill the names of the fields where the
specific data (name and email) is stored and the system even allows you
to use more than one field for "name" (for example your application may
store the name in 2 fields - first_name and last_name)
4. Files and Links
You can embed URLs to web pages and files in your emails and also track the number of
clicks/downloads they receive. Visit the Files/Links menu and add your URLs or upload your files.
The system will show you the tracking URL which you can use in your newsletters.
5. General Settings
Here you can change the administrators password or to activate or
deactivate online registration module. You can also set if you want the
mails from broadcast to be sent immediately or via cron job (see
below). You can limit the amount of mails sent per hour accordingly to
your hosting limitations and to set delay between each mail (for the
same reason).
- Sending the mails as cron job: If you want to activate it you need to
schedule execution of sender.php once per hour
6. Bounced Mails Settings
Using this advanced feature Broadfast can automatically clean up your mailing list from innactive accounts. You can delete or deactivate accounts after a number of bounced back mails. Your bounce address must be real email on the server and it should be different than the "Sender" email. Then you need to add a forwarder that will forward the emails received from the bounce address to the script bounce.php. The format of the command slightly differs on different server, so you will need to check what is it on yours. Please don't contact me asking about this - only your server administrators can answer you.
7. Translating BroadFast to your language
Using the language file you can easily translate the software interface to any language. The simplest option is to simply translate the strings at the right side of the "=" at every line in inc/lang/en.php. A better way would be to copy the file, give it a different name (for example "es.php" for Spanish) and do the same translation there. Then locate the "lang" setting in bf_settings table and change "en" to "es". Feel free to contact me if you need help with this - multilanguage support has just been added to this version so it will be polished in the next one.
Upgrading BroadFast
If you currently run version 1.9 or newer:
Upload all files on the server except inc/mysql_wrapper.php. Then load upgrade.php in your browser. All done!
If you currently run version 1.8 or older:
Export your database data without structure. Upload ALL files on the server. Run the install script. Then reimport your data back to the MySQL database.
It's always recommended to download a backup from phpMyAdmin before you upgrade.
Don't forget that upgrades are free 1 year after your latest BroadFast purchase and after period are offered at a discounted price.
Support
For any problems or questions contact me on admin@pimteam.net
License
The license of this script allows you to install it on unlimited domains that you own. Reselling it however is not allowed. For resell (PLR) rights please contact me by email.
The script is using the following LGPL or MIT licensed third party packages: SwiftMailer.
A Product of P.I.M. Team Bulgaria