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Requirements

• Joomla! 1.5.x
• A working Mailman installation
• Access to the site password for Mailman

Upgrading from v1.0.0 beta

WARNING: It is important to follow the steps outlined below to prevent the loss of data when upgrading to the latest version of the component. If you have groups, managed mailing lists and other data that you would like preserved, please follow the instructions below carefully.

The steps you should take if you have installed the Mailing List Component beta and wish to upgrade to v1.0.0:

• Edit the file joomla_root/administrator/components/com_mailinglist/uninstall.mysql.sql. Delete the four lines in that file so it is blank.
• Uninstall the component (Extensions > Install/Uninstall > Components > Mailinglist)
• Download and Install the new version of the component and follow the upgrade instructions

New Installation

After using the Joomla! installer to install both the mailinglist component (com_mailinglist) and the mailinglist plugin (plg_mailinglist), you will need to complete some additional steps to get up and running. For details on these steps, please see below.

• Enable the Plugin (Extensions > Plugin Manager)
• Configure the component (Components > Mailman Admin > Settings )
• Create mailing lists or add existing mailing lists Components > Mailman Admin > Manage Mailing Lists)
• Add and configure Groups in the Mailing List Component (Components > Mailman Admin > Groups)
• Add mailing lists to Groups (Components > MailMan Admin> Groups)
• Add users to Groups, or have them added automatically! (Components > Groups)

Configuring the Component

Components > Mailing Lists > Settings

The settings tab requires two pieces of information for the initial configuration of the component: the MailMan server URL and the password for the MailMan server.

Finding the URL If a list on your Mailman server can be accessed at http://www.example.com/mailman/listinfo/test-list then you would enter http://www.example.com/mailman.

If the URL you enter does not seem to be valid, the component will try to fix it for you.

Finding the MailMan password
This is the site password or the list creator password for your Mailman server. This password should have the ability to create new lists. For more details, please see this Mailman documentation.

Mailing Lists

Adding a preexisting mailing list can be accomplished by selecting the "Add Existing" button on the Mailing List tab of the component backend. Alternatively, you can create a new list using the use the "Create New" button on the Mailing List tab to create new mailing lists.

Create a new mailing list

Creating a new mailing list from the component asks for four pieces of information:

List Name: The name of the list, displayed to users.
Description: An optional description of the list.
Owner Email: The email address of the owner of the list. This address will receive all administrative requests for the list as well as any requests for approval.
Advertise: This option determines if the list should be visible to users by default.


Add existing mailing lists

Selecting the "Add Existing" button on the mailing list tab will display a list of the advertised mailing lists of the MailMan server. Select the lists you'd like to manage using the Mailing List Component and these will be made available for selection within the component.

If you know the name of an unadvertised list, you can type it into the box on the right. Multiple unadvertised lists can be made available using a comma separated list. An unadvertised list is one that has not been made publicly visible.

Managing an individual mailing list

By selecting the name of the list displayed in the mailing lists tab, you can manage an individual mailing list directly through the MailMan interface or manually add or remove list subscribers.

Add and configure Groups in the Mailing List Component

Groups are the relationship that connects mailing lists and users. A Group defines a collection of mailing lists that can be accessed by users in this group. A mailing list can be accessible to many groups and users can be members of many groups. All users who are members of this group will be able to see the lists made available to the group.

Users can also be added to groups automatically. On the group details page, displayed by selecting the name of the group you'd like to modify, select the link that says "Manage mailing lists for this group" at the bottom of the list. This will display a list all the mailing lists available to the members of this group. To have all members subscribed to a specific mailing list, select the edit icon next to that mailing list's "Auto Subscribe Users" column and select "yes". Then, click the small save icon at the top of the column. This will subscribe all existing users of the group to the specified mailing list(s) and will automatically subscribe any users who are added to the group at a later time.

About

The About tab will display general information about this component including the developers, the installation instructions and documentation for the use of the component.

Information about the GNU mailMan mailing list manager can be found at: http://list.org/ .

FAQ

How do I manage lists that are already in use on my Mailman server?

This can be easily accomplished by using the "Add Existing" button from the main screen (Components > Mailing Lists).  This will allow you to check off lists (if they're advertised) or enter their names manually (in case they're private).

I'm logged in to the front-end, but I don't see a link to subscribe or unsubscribe to mailing lists

You should add a menu item (usually in the "User Menu") to the Mailing Lists component.  It should only be made available to registered users.

This is almost always caused by your user not having access to any lists.  In the backend, select the "Groups" tab and make sure your user is in at least one group.  Then, make sure that the specific group or groups that your user is in has access to one or more mailing lists.  Selecting a group's name from the "Groups" tab will show you this information.  There will also be a button that can be used to automatically add all Joomla users to the given group.

When does the component sync its tables (data) with the Mailman server?

The component always keeps data up-to-date on the Mailman server.  That is to say, it synchronizes data as changes occur.  If you input data into the Mailman component manually, you will need to make those changes on your Mailman server as well.

Is there an option to subscribe all users of a group to a given mailing list?

Yes.  Go into the group configuration screen (on the "Groups" tab) and select the group.  On the group details page, select the link that says "Manage mailing lists for this group".  This will display a list all the mailing lists that the members of this group have access to.  To have all members subscribed to a specific mailing list, select the edit icon next to that mailing list's "Auto Subscribe Users" column and select "yes".  Then, click the small save icon at the top of the column.  This will subscribe all existing users of the group to the specified mailing list(s) and will automatically subscribe any users who are added to the group at a later time.  Note that users can still unsubscribe from any mailing list by using the frontend component.