Bulk mail

[Kit_L]

In the current version, 4.2.7, there is a feature "Bulk mail" (under Members, ACP). Admins need a User's Guide, I feel.

Neither the "Sent To" nor the "Time Taken" fields report properly. Here are yesterday's figures:

I have 1,750+ members, and all the mail was sent out yesterday.

As well, I did not know to ask about my host's email constraints; as a result, 3,000+ bounce-backs from my host's server, and many members received the same email 2–5 times.

One more problem in use: there is zero feedback from the system that "Proceed" has had any effect. I "re-proceeded" a number of times, thinking that I must have made an error. This probably explains the 5,491 members, in part, but not why some members only received one email, and some five.

Can this feature be looked at some time, please?

[opentype]

You better open a support ticket to have that checked out at your site. Sounds more like a bug report specific to your installation than a feature request. 

[Cyboman]

@Kit_L Please tell us the reason here, what was wrong with the bulk mailer as soon as your ticket will be solved. Thanks.

[Kit_L]

@Cyboman: the problems I had with bulk mailer are listed in my post.

I did put in a support request, but all I got back was that "no one else has had a problem with it". As a newish site admin, I posted here for both feedback about my experience with it, and what I would like to see implemented as improvements in the future. The main problems are as described above.

@opentype: ditto.

The main problem is that clicking Proceed gives the user zero feedback (you don't know if it failed, was not configured properly, or that the process is underway). A simple progress bar is all that's needed. 

Because no feedback, I assumed that I had made a mistake, and clicked Proceed more times; hence the problems I encountered.

[opentype]

3 hours ago, Kit_L said:

A simple progress bar is all that's needed. 

But – if things work correctly – there is a progress bar. I see it all the time when sending bulk mails. In fact, I logged a bug about it not moving last year and it was then fixed. And if the mails are send out as background task, the list view shown in your screenshots should give the proper status. “not started”, “5000 sent”, “10000 sent”. That’s why I concluded there must be something wrong on your site. I see the things you asked for in my ACP already. 

[Kit_L]

@opentype: what could be wrong with my install, do you think? No plugins; plain vanilla; I always upgrade when notified. And this is why I lodged a support ticket, with the result noted in the first post above. And I uploaded a screenshot that showed this, including the 48 years taken to do the task. No progress bar in my install—what do you suggest to fix this?

[bfarber]

Some email send types will show a multi-redirect screen with a progress bar immediately after you click to send a bulk mail. Some will instead launch a background task and you can monitor the progress via a progress bar on the AdminCP dashboard.

In a recent release we moved all bulk mail sending to a background task, so when you launch a bulk mail or resend one, you should be able to go the AdminCP dashboard to see the status in the background tasks block.