Squiz Matrix Newsletter #392
24 AugThere's less than a week to go till the 2012 Squiz and Funnelback International User Conference! This year's conference will take place at the Hilton Brisbane Hotel from August 30th to the 31st and promises two days packed full of informative presentations, workshops and training sessions.
It's still not too late to book your ticket if you haven't done so already. Prices for the Squiz & Funnelback International User Conference 2012 can be viewed on Squiz web site. Packages are available for groups of three or more. Registrations can be submitted through the Hotel Network.
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This week we have three new features to report, all involving enhancements to Squiz Matrix's Bulkmail package. Continue reading below for more information on all this week's developments.
Bulkmail Job: New Scheduling Settings Screen
Due for release in version 4.12.0 (November 5th 2012)
Squiz Matrix's Bulkmail Job asset defines the content and recipients of a bulkmail configuration. Previously, for a Bulkmail Job to be run, users would have to manually change the asset's status or use the schedule_bulkmail_job.php script.
This feature adds new settings to the Bulkmail Job asset, allowing you to enable and configure automatic scheduling of your jobs.
The Bulkmail Job Scheduling screen allows you to enable scheduling for the job and provide a start date. You can then specify the frequency of how often the job should be run (either hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or not at all).
Once enabled, the Bulkmail Job will be queued to run at the specified start date and time, and then continue to run subsequently at the specified frequency.
This feature has been added to provide users with effortless scheduling of the jobs within their bulkmail configurations.
New Trigger Action to Schedule a Bulkmail Job
Due for release in version 4.12.0 (November 5th 2012)
Along with the aforementioned Bulkmail Job Scheduling feature, a new trigger action has also been added to Squiz Matrix to schedule a Job to be run when a trigger is fired.
The Schedule Bulkmail Job trigger action can be configured to override the default settings of a selected Bulkmail Job, allowing you to instead send the asset that fired the trigger (or an asset of your selection), as well as selecting the recipients of the job.
You are also able to enable the Subscription Filter on the selected Bulkmail Job, specifying whether to use the Bulkmail Job's set subscription filters or to override these filters. This is a new feature to the Bulkmail Package which is outlined in more detail below.
This feature has been added to provide users with additional implementation options for their Bulkmail set ups.
Bulkmail Job: New User Subscription Screen
Due for release in version 4.12.0 (November 5th 2012)
We have one more new screen that has now been added to the Bulkmail Job asset, this time allowing you to configure user subscriptions for the jobs within your bulkmail configuration.
The new User Subscriptions screen allows you to enable user subscriptions for your Bulkmail Job. When subscriptions are enabled, categories can be created, comprised of Asset Metadata Field rules to match a user asset's metadata against a specified value.
User Subscriptions utilise the use of a Search Page asset to query a selection of assets using the matched subscription metadata value. Assets returned on these searches will then be sent (individually) to the users within the corresponding subscription category.
For example, you could create a location subscription category, matching metadata values such as Sydney and Melbourne. The Search Page would search these queries, and return a selection of articles for these users, sending them content appropriate to their location.