Bulkmail Job
A Bulkmail Job is where you define the content being sent for your bulkmail, as well as the recipients, headers, and content generation type. If a Bulkmail Job has been created as a child asset of a Bulkmail Post Office in the Asset Map, it will inherit the values of the post office. If, however, the Bulkmail Job was not created as a child of a Bulkmail Post Office, it will inherit the values of the default post office in the Bulkmail Manager.
Bookmarks to the headings on this page:
Tip: A Bulkmail Job can only be linked under a single post office.
Once your Bulkmail Job is created, you can configure its settings on its associated asset screens. The majority of these screens are the same or similar to those for a Standard Page and are described in the Asset Screens manual. In this chapter, we will only describe the Details and Preview screens, which are different for a Bulkmail Job.
Details Screen
The Details screen for a Bulkmail Job allows you to set up the email. For more information about the Status, Future Status, and Details section of the screen, refer to the Details Screen chapter in the Asset Screens manual.
Job Progress and History
By default, this section does not show on the screen until the job is either queued to run or is currently running, as shown in the figure below.
The Job Progress section of the Details screen
You can Cancel or Pause the job by selecting the appropriate value from the Control list. If you Pause the job you can Resume it at a later stage by selecting it from the list.
Tip: If you resume a paused job, it will not be processed until the next time the Cron Manager is run.
Once the job has been successfully completed, a record is added to the history list. This list shows you when the job was run and how many recipients the email was sent to. The figure below shows an example history list for a Bulkmail Job.
The Job Progress and History section displaying the Bulkmail Job history
Validate Job
The Validate Job section of the Details screen allows you check that the settings for the Bulkmail Job are correct. For example, the asset that contains the content for the email may not have a Status of Live or may not have the correct permissions set
The Validate Job section of the Details screen
When you click on the Validate Job button, the list of setting errors will be listed, as shown in the figure below.
Validation errors in the Validate Job section
In this example, the asset that is being sent, Bulkmail Content, is not Live and the Subject field on the Bulkmail Post Office has not been entered. Once the settings for the Bulkmail Job have been fixed the following message will appear:
A valid job listed in the Validate Job section
The Bulkmail Job can now be sent.
Warning
This section is shown when the Bulkmail Job has been queued to run or is currently running, and informs you that if you make changes to the list of recipients, the contents of the email or the header details, the change will not take affect until next time the job is queued to run. If you want these changes to take affect, cancel the Bulkmail Job and re-run it. The warning message that appears is shown in the figure below.
The Warning section of the Details screen
Recipients
This section allows you to select which User Groups, Usersor Bulkmail Users you want to send the email to. You can select as many recipients as you want by clicking the More… button.
The Recipients section of the Details screen
Content and Content Generation
The Content and Content Generation section allows you to configure the contents for the email.
Content and Content Generation section of the Details screen
The fields available are as follows:
- Asset to Send: this field defines the asset you wish to use as the content for the Bulkmail Job.
- Generation Method: this field sets the method by which Squiz Matrix generates the output email for the Bulkmail Job:
- Generate as set user: this is the default option for generating content and is used to create a standard bulkmail output which will be the same for each recipient. When the Bulkmail Job is run, Squiz Matrix will log in as the user that is set in the Generate As field and generate the email. This email is then sent to each recipient in the list.
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Generate as recipient: this option generates the content of the email specifically for each recipient in the list. Squiz Matrix will log in as each recipient in sequence, format the appropriate contents and send the email. You should use this option if keyword replacements are used within the content of the email.
Tip: The Generate as recipient method is processor-intensive and takes a long time to run. The quickest method of running a Bulkmail Job is to not use keyword replacements within your email, to select the Generate as set user method, and the Public user as the Generate As field.
- Email Type: select whether to send the email as HTML or Text Only. If this is set to Text Only, the Design and Paint Layout applied to the email will be ignored. The contents of the asset will be sent in a text-only email with all tags stripped out. By default, this is set to HTML.
- Generate As: this field defines which user is used to generate the content for the Bulkmail Job. If the Generate asset user option is selected for the Generate Method field, this is the user that Squiz Matrix uses to generate the email content to send. If Generate as recipient is selected, the user set in this field is used if the user is a Bulkmail User as they do not have access to log into Squiz Matrix. Any keyword replacements in the email content, however, will still be replaced with the information from the Bulkmail User.
- Design: this field defines the Design to use for the Bulkmail Job. If a Design is not set for the Bulkmail Job, the Design applied to the asset being used for the content will be used for the bulkmail. This field allows you to use an existing page in your site for your Bulkmail Job, but define a different Design. For example, you may wish to create a Design based on your Site design but with no menu, asset lineage, search box or login box.
- Paint Layout: this field defines the Paint Layout to use for the Bulkmail Job. If a Paint Layout is not set for the Bulkmail Job, the Paint Layout applied to the asset being used for the content is used. This allows you to use an existing page in your site, but define a different Paint Layout to use for the Bulkmail Job.
- Body Text Filter: if this filter is enabled, only those emails where the body meets the criteria will be sent. This is useful when the Generation Method setting is set to Generate as Recipient, where each user’s content may differ depending on the permissions that have been applied to the asset.
Header Details
The Header Details section of the Details screen section shows which Bulkmail Post Office the Bulkmail Job is using. For example, in the figure below, the Bulkmail Job is using the settings entered on the Bulkmail Post Office, as it was created as a child of the post office asset in the Asset Map
The Header Details section using the Bulkmail Post Office Header Details
If the Bulkmail Job was not created as a child of a Bulkmail Post Office, it will use the Bulkmail Manager for its default Header Details, as shown in the figure below.
The Header Details section using the Bulkmail Manager Default Post Office Header Details
If you wish to override the settings it inherits from the Bulkmail Post Office, deselect the Use Post Office Header Details field and click Commit. The following fields now appear in the Header Details section.
The Header Details section using custom Header Details
For more information on these fields, refer to the Bulkmail Manager chapter in this manual.
Preview Screen
This Preview screen is different to the Preview screen available for other assets. It allows you to send a test email so you can see what the email will look like when the Bulkmail Job is run.
The Preview section of the Preview screen
Enter the email address you want to send the test email to and click Commit. The email will be sent and a message added onto the preview screen informing you a test email was sent as shown in figure below.
Logged emails on the Preview screen