Hi there,

I'm writing in here because my Snowcovered ticket seems to have gone dead... or perhaps there's a holiday I don't know about.

In any case, the most serious and pressing workflow flaw in Opt-in is the lack of any means of saving a draft newsletter; whether for convenience, time management, approval, or simply as a template.

I want to know if this is something that is on a to-do list, and if it is then is it upcoming any time soon?

I have to ask because I waited 6 months for the activation border to vanish from the flash module, and I have a handful of older modules that I waited and waited for but were never updated at all.

Is Opt-in on the work schedule any time soon?

Thanks for any update on this.
Rob

Robert,

Hi. The only two Snowcovered tickets that I see for you were both opened in the last 2 days (which happened to be Saturday/Sunday) and we do not always monitor these on non-business days. Its not Monday morning and we just responded to the first one....

Yes, we have plans to upgrade 3.0 of Opt In Email however the planned released schedule is not until March-April. The most significant features on the roadmap is the ability to setup 'Series' of emails that can be specified per opt in list, and we will research the ability to have a draft as well. You can check out more details on this feature in this thread.

To be honest, this is the first time that this has been requested (although I do see how it would be beneficial), between having a template you can specify within settings and being able to send out test emails and using the 'Previous Newsletter' and then 'Load from previous newsletters' you should be able to save drafts with this method. Or... as a work around until you can simply click the 'HTML Source' from within the newsletter and copy/paste it into notepad on your local PC. Save that and later when you return to the newsletter you can navigate back to 'HTML Source' within the editor and paste the draft you wanted to save.

When we do research this, are you thinking a 'Load from draft' similar to the 'Load from previous distribution'? Or are you thinking it would automatically be there and replace what the template is set to?

Do any of the work arounds I suggested (template within settings, previous distributions sent to maybe an empty list,  or copy paste the text/html to your local hard drive) work as a solution?

-Chad

Just updating this thread so it doesn't look like nothing further happened.

The ticket was found at Snowcovered and we went over a variety of issues including a bug fixed in the patch released since then.

I'm shelving Opt-in until the next release, which is due around March 08. The workaround for creating a draft or template copy is fine for someone like me, but is simply unmarketable to clients. However, I can certainly provide a few comments resulting from my assessment of the module.

I think the strongest point in favor of this set of 4 modules is the opt-in module itself. It's the only one around that combines importing, roles and ad-hoc subscriptions. It doesn't however allow a user with module edit rights access to all functionally that one would expect the newsletter manager to handle. Instead, one has to have higher page edit or admin rights, and that isn't going to suit implementation in a typical business.

The other strong points are the verification and removal system with plenty of templates, and the tracking system, which could ultimately prove more accurate and valuable in an intranet situation than out on the web.

I think the weakest part overall is the content creation workflow, which is really about the same as the core newsletter module. One essentially has to compose, create and deliver the newsletter all in one go.

Providing a "save as template/draft" system is essential for anything more than simply sending a quick note out. There is a previous request for this a few posts below this one in this forum and the other two newsletter modules I have assessed both have this.

Also weak is the archive module. This looks and operates like an after-thought. It's basically a collapsed list containing all newsletters that were assigned to it prior to delivery. Unless it gains paging and some form of content management to alter or remove items, it's going to cause trouble with a heavy publisher.

I look forward to the next release and thanks for the support on Snowcovered 

Best regards,
Rob