General Terms and Definitions
Courier uses different Sophora document types to persist its data.
Users can be subscribed to distributors, which are typically mailing lists. Either Sophora editors manually subscribe users to distributors (e.g., using the Sophora DeskClient), or a web application may be used to allow users to manage their subscriptions themselves.
Messages contain the content that is being sent to users and represent, for example, newsletters. A message contains a list of distributors which are used to determine all receivers of the message. A message is being sent when the document is published.
Currently Courier offers the following adapters:
- Email: Send messages via email (“electronic mailing lists”).
A Note on Courier and ACS
It is highly recommended, but not strictly necessary, to store all user related information in a seperate Sophora repository instead of the main server. The Sophora module ACS serves this purpose.
Using Courier for Email Newsletters
This section describes how to use Courier to create, preview, and eventually send newsletters via email to distributor recipients.
Creating a Newsletter
Newsletter documents contain various input fields that are necessary for sending a newsletter (see image). You find fields for the sender’s name, address, the reply address, and the subject of the message.
The the actual content of the mail can be authored using a copytext. In this text, you can use special placeholders that Courier replaces with content from the receiver and the message. Refer to the administration guide on how to create templates for your mails.
Previewing a Message
Courier provides two previews for a newsletter message, a HTML version and a text version. In these previews, Courier will render the newsletter the same way it does when sending it.
Sending Newsletters
To send a newsletter, you have to save and publish the newsletter document. Courier then automatically sends emails to the receivers subscribed to the selected distributors.
Sending Test-Newsletters
With the test-newsletter button you can send one email/newsletter to an address of your choice. This feature allows you to test the sending of an email and check the presentation of the content.
Subscribing to Distributors
Courier provides flexible mechanisms to subscribe users to distributors. Therefore, the subscriptions process is highly customer-specific. Typically, users can be subscribed to distributors by Sophora editors, or a web application can be used to let users manage their subscriptions themselves.
