I have installed 4.3.6 of Opt In Email on a clean 5.5 install of DNN, and I am having a lot of bugs.  Can I use an older version of Opt In Email instead?

I used a previous version of the product and did not have any of these bugs, do I need the newest version of Opt in Email to work with DNN 5.5?


Here is the list of bugs I have so far:

• opt out link is showing ugly URL not work "unsubscribe"
• links are not working when link tracking checked
• AJAX hang issues in IE
• Mail Merge tokens not being entered into telerik html editor
• images not inserting properly
• preview of email shows only the first one repeatedly, not the one clicked

I'd prefer to just go back to an older version that is stable, I don't need any of the new features. Please let me know if I can do that

Thanks

James

Hi James - Thanks for your comments and feedback. I apologize for the frustrations, but keep in mind that 5.5 is a very new versions of DNN and most of these issues are not directly related to the module but actually because the editor has changed between DNN versions.

A couple of specifics:
1. Which token are you using on the Opt Out Link? There are many tokens to show the text, the full URL, etc... when you click the 'View Source' in the Telerik editor what does it show in this section?

2. For link tracking you are probably running into the same issue with the editor, maybe its adding two http:// instead of one? If that is the case what link tracking token are you using, the full or the one that includes the link text?

3. I saw your other thread on AJAX issues, not really sure on this one. Can you please check on our test site at www.betasprings.com that is also running on 4.3.6 and let me know if you have the problem there? This should help isolate if the issue is site specific or browser specific etc...

4. The client side / JavaScript code that typically adds tokens into the editor has stopped working because DNN 5.5 is no longer using the FCK Editor. We are working on a method for this to happen in all of our modules but for now we added a work around. Please go to module configuration within the Advanced Newsletter and under general settings you will see something for 'Insert Token Method'. This is by default set to Client Side and you need to change this to be 'Server Side'. This should then allow you to insert tokens however unfortunately it inserts it at the bottom and not in the exact location of where you are at.

5. There are a few settings that affect images such as if you have a header tag, if you check the box in general settings that says 'do not replace full portal alias with images' etc... I would need to actually view the source of the images and see what the URL is to find out why its not working right.

6. Where are you seeing the preview of emails at? I will need more clarification on this one.


You can revert back to an earlier version of Opt In Email. You would need to uninstall/reinstall the module. I wouldn't suggest doing this though because even though you think the other versions are more stable, you would end up having the same problem because the editor changed in DNN and this is actually what is causing the majority of the conflicts. In other words, if you ran the older version you would have the same problems you are describing with hyperlinks, tokens, images not showing up necessarily, etc... Now - if you change out the editor to use the FCK Editor instead of the Telerik editor you would be better off.


I should note: We are aware of the client side mail merge tokens not functioning right for the Telerik editor however most of the other items have not been brought up by other customers yet (we are also running on 5.5.1). I am wondering if the majority of your settings are a specific editor setting that is making all of your hyperlinks or images not work right. Since everything is basically related to this editor, image links, tracking links, opt out links, etc... In other words I think once we find the problem that is causing one item not to work the others should also work. It might look like you are dealing with 5 problems but its probably just 1 that is affected in several areas.


We are working towards moving the code to using both the FCK and Telerik Editor and should have this in the upcoming 4.4 release. Please keep in mind 5.5 is very new and thanks for your patience.

Thanks,

Chad

Hello Chad,

Thank you for your quick and thorough reply. I really appreciate that!

It looks like the source of a lot of these issues is the Telerick controls. Is there an easy way to switch back to the FCK editor?

It turns out the long ugly URL was my fault, I was using the wrong token, so this is corrected now.

I am going to look further into the images and links issue as soon as I am given a chance and I will keep you up with my progress. We were able to get the one newsletter out for the time being , So I have some time to investigate.

The AJAX issues seems to be happening randomly now and not with one browser only but also not consistently either, so I am not sure with this one.

Thanks again for your help

James

What a mess!

I upgraded to 4.3.6 on a DNN 5.5.1 site that has been working perfectly (except for 90% failed distributions that aren't failed, but that's not new). I send out a mailing to a list of ~380 twice a week. The last send worked perfectly, after which I installed 4.3.6, and last night was a nightmare.

An email that properly looks like (in part):
=========================================================

If you have any problems placing your order, or if you would rather place your order by phone, please call The Quarterdeck at 978-897-9165, before 3:00 pm on the day of pick up - every Wednesday and Friday.

The pick up schedule is unchanged - at The General every Wednesday and Friday between 4:00 pm, and 7:00 pm.

Just In!

1. Hake Fillet: $9.99 lb 
     (try this in any recipe that calls for cod, you won't be dissappointed)

2. Sea Scallops 10/20 per pound: $18.99 lb
     (Delicious any way, whether raw, pan-seared, or grilled)

3. Lemon Sole Fillet (Local): $13.99 lb
     (roll with your favorite stuffing and serve with asparagus spears)

4. Steelhead Trout Fillets: $9.99 lb
     (a flavor cross between salmon and trout)
===============================================

got to some recipients as:

===============================================

If you have any problems placing your order, or if you would rather place your order by phone, please call The Quarterdeck at 978-897-9165, before 3:00 pm on the day of pick up - every Wednesday and Friday.  
                         The pick up schedule is unchanged - at The General every Wednesday and Friday between 4:00 pm, and 7:00 pm.  
                             Just In!      
                           1. Hake Fillet:  $9.99 lb  

                                       (try this in any recipe that calls for cod, you won't be dissappointed)



                         2. Sea Scallops 10/20 per pound:  $18.99 lb 

                                       (Delicious any way, whether raw, pan-seared, or grilled)



                         3. Lemon Sole Fillet (Local):  $13.99 lb

                                                     (roll with your favorite stuffing and serve with asparagus spears)



                         4. Steelhead Trout Fillets:  $9.99 lb

                                         (a flavor cross between salmon and trout)

=======================================================

Having already seen this thread, I tried switching back to fckeditor, but that didn't help. 

Diagnosing the problem was made difficult by the fact that some recipients received it properly formatted, and some didn't. A test list of 7 members went out perfectly. All sending, by the way, was going out using "Schedule Immediately".

In desperation, I tried sending via "Send Immediately", and it worked. All messages went out properly formatted.

HELP!!!!!

I am having trouble convincing my client not to switch to Constant Contact. What should I tell her?

Hi guys - these threads actually need to be broken down into probably several seperate threads as they are all related to seperate issues. Meredith, I know you started a new topic on your processing message so I will just address the other two issues/posts here.

James - As far as the editor you can swap out the editor to use the FCK Editor by changing the settings in the web.config file. I believe if you review the web.config from earlier versions and use the same editor settings for the DNN Text Editor instead of the Telerik it will use that editor. It sounds like this might be the best way to go until we release a patch or version that fully supports the Telerik editor. As I said though, the only logged issue I am aware of with this editor is that you have to choose to use 'Server Side' tokens instead of Client Side tokens which is a setting we just recently added to temporarily support all editors. As far as the AJAX processing message, if you can duplicate it we should be able to dig into this further, if its not very consistent though that makes it more difficult.

Worth - Sorry to hear about the frustrations... I do know how difficult and frustrating it can be if you are trying to get a newsletter out and something like this happens. We have not had any widespread reports of this but have seen a few instances where somehow during distributions if the Opt In Email subscriber didn't have their email type set to 'HTML' then it would set the email mode to TEXT format which is exactly what it sounds like happened here. In the upcoming patch for 4.3 (due out on Friday but I can get you a copy tomorrow if you want) we added a few additional precautions to make sure this doesn't happen, always initially default the mode to HTML, and also added new enhancements that allow you to enter CC and BCC addresses just in case you always want to be BCC'd and verify an email looks correct for each and every email sent out. Some of the changes that had previously taken place were put in place because of some email issues that 5.4.4 had (you can review my blog on those here: http://www.datasprings.com/News/Blo...fault.aspx ) but it sounds like those have now been taken care of.

So... The upcoming patch should fix several of these items and this should be ready by Friday.


Thanks,

Chad

I have made some progress on my issues from earlier in this thread

I have switched back to the FCK editor and it has fixed the token problem. So now I can add the link tracking tokens and the opt out tokens.

to do this, I switched the following line in the web.config file :

htmlEditor defaultProvider="TelerikEditorProvider"
to this:
htmlEditor defaultProvider="FckHtmlEditorProvider"

(note I there is a open bracket and close bracket on either side of this, but the editor wont allow it , so I had to leave them out)

I am still having an issue with images. The site is in a sub directory, not the root, and Opt In Email is still not creating the URL path to the image properly. This is what it is creating:
src="http://old.datasprings.com/Newsletterhttp://www.chrisrobinsontravelshow.ca/Newsletter//portals/0/chrisBlog.jpg"

it should be:
src="http://www.chrisrobinsontravelshow.ca/Newsletter//portals/0/chrisBlog.jpg"

it is adding an extra "/Newsletter" in front of the URL that is causing the image not to show.

If I change the setting in the Control Panel: "Do not replace images with full portal alias: ", It creates a URL like this:
src="http://old.datasprings.com/Newsletter/Portals/0/chrisTalks.jpg"
Which also doesn't work

Is there a way to make Opt In Email use the correct path for images when the DNN site is in a subdirectory?

The directory of the site is: "http://www.chrisrobinsontravelshow.ca/Newsletter/"

Thanks for your help,

James

Thank you for the detailed info James!

-Chad

James - The way around your image URL issue is to go into module configuration and enter the correct alias under 'Alternate Portal Alias'. This is needed if your DNN installation isn't on a standard www.site.com and has an extra alias such as www.site.com/somethingelse

Thanks,


Chad