phpList Plugin

phpList Plugin Problem

Help! Just installed the phpList plugin and now my aMember site displays the following error:

MYSQL ERROR:
Table 'ombaweb_plst1.phplist_user_list' doesn't exist
in query:
SELECT id, name FROM ombaweb_plst1.phplist_user_list

What is interesting is that I put in the correct database prefix. phplist_user_list doesn't exist. I looked in the db and phplist_user_user is the correct table for phplist users. I am using the latest version of phplist (2.10.4). Did the table structure change with the latest version? How can I get back into the admin section to disable or change the plugin? My site is down right now...

Ok, I deleted the phpList plugin just to get aMember back up and I get the following error at the top of each aMember page:

<b>WARNING:</b> Plugin file (/home/ombaweb/public_html/amember/plugins/protect/phplist/phplist.inc.php) for plugin (protect/phplist) does not exists in line 54 of file /home/ombaweb/public_html/amember/plugins.inc.php

Where is it referencing the phplist plugin at? Is this stored in the cache somewhere? I just want to completly remove it until I can get a resolution to the plugin problem. Thanks!

Hi!

In the amember_config table you will find those entries.

I have had similar problems and have already reported this in here. The deactivation DOES NOT delete references in the config table, which I find very inconvinient.

Also there is no reason why one needs to have them after deactivation.

So actually you need to have the plugin in there FIRST before you actually remove/de-activate it...

Hi Alex!

>>> Just disable the plugin at aMember CP -> Setup -> Plugins.

How can he deactivate? He has no access to amember!
The error is out of a white page because he could NOT ACCESS aMember admin!!!

So there are two possibilities:

1. Delete those entries from the config table, as I suggested earlier
2. Cheat the scripts by placing the plugin file EXACTLY THE SAME NAME how i was earlier to match with the config entries referencing the plugin.

Well, you did not beleive my Bug report earlier:

http://amember.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5444

I have seen this error and have given the solution as to how I solved the problem.

Also, in my message above, I repeated once again that it is not necessary to let the config entries in the amember_config field after a plugin is deactivated.

If a plugin does not exists in the directory, then amember will crash. This crash occurs, if I remember it correctly, because the entries are still there in the config table.

Here the problem occurs under the following conditions:

If the user removes the folder of a particular plugin WITHOUT DEACTIVATING THAT PLUGIN. Then everything goes wrong, there is no access to amember!!! This is because amember does not hover over the directories of plugins and quirk if it does not exists and simply tries to look in the database.

Here, aMember cannot and must not remain blind. Therefore it is neccessary to give aMember scripts an extra function to check if those directories are there and if they do not exists, then go further and should not crash .

I am working on this for a client. Here is what I did so far.

I setup all the tables for phplist in the amember table and then set the value for protect.phplist.db in the amember_config table to phplist_. This removed the db error we were getting.

John

I finally got this to work.

In addition to everything before you have to edit the:

amember/plugins/protect/phplist/phplistinc.php file and look for the queries where they are trying access the table 'user'. Change them to user_user

FROM [db]user

should be:

FROM [db]user_user

I think that was all I had to do. If I think of anything else, I will post it here.

This plugin needs a lot of work!

John

The first few versions of the plugin were full of bugs.

You have to edit the code manually to ensure your PHPList database prefix is correct in the plugin code. A simple find-and-replace will do the job.

Make sure you've got the latest version - log into your member area and use the download link.

Bought phplist integration few weeks ago but can't get it to work. aMember staff wants an additional $50 to get it to work. WTF? I thought I'm buying a solution to automatic email, not a software I can't get to even work.

Hi!

You know what I did?

I simply mapped the fields for modification in a plugin I created for phpList.

I simply export all emails, import all the emails directly in the phplist the way I want. Then it does everything necessary. (I do actually use it but simplyplay with it) This way, it works very good for me.

I got it to work properly

Alex mine is working correctly at http://www.wmfsb.com I gave you the fix via help desk...

Send an email.

I'm no programmer so know very little/nothing about it so I'm expecting the plugin I purchased can work without any more "work" from me. Am I expecting too much? I purchased a pdf download script in the past and that one works great, I was very satisfied but not this one. I simply want phplist plugin to replace the basic aMember send automatic emails that overloads the server everytime I use it to send out 3000 - 4000 mails. Cannot aMember staff simply configure/covert my current auto email setting as it is now so it can be automated with phplist that I already purchased?

Thanks draj, but as I said above, I'll have no idea what you're talking about.

Hi!

Uh, this would happen as the phpList plugin cannot send emails in batch.

This problem is from phpList/Server and not aMember. It will overload...

Not according to this thread: http://www.amember.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18368&postcount=5

I purchased PHPlist integration basically after I read that post. I'm really screwed if that ain't true

Hi!

I strongly advise people like you to use windows based email clients. There are hundreds and you could use them with ease and do not get into pains of configuring a linux client for just a few thousand emails relay.

So if you have a client (not a person but software, you know what I mean?) then you could make a SSH Tunnel and have all the ports of your server functioning as localhost.

However to your problem.

I saw the post very quickly and could not determine if it was written there that you could trigger an event of batches with a schedule, i.e. every five min. send 100 emails like thing. Thats what you need.

For you anathor option would be to get the info out of amember by exporting, then import in an excel or access database table, then divide the lisrting into 4 - 10 parts and thereafter IMPORT directly and seperately into phpListing.

During import, you can specify th name of a mailing list. So you can name it like MList_1, MLIst_2, MList_3, etc and the emails belong to a mailing list series.

Then you can send MList_1 and this may contain only like for e.g. 500 emails. Hence it will work!!!

Thereafter all the modification of amember etc will be reflected into phpList due to plugin.

If the above does not work, reduce the number of batch processing emails in that list or change your internet provider.

Throttling / Batch Processing IS Possible in PHPList

I can't believe people overlooked these settings in the config.php file in PHPList. You had to edit this file when setting up PHPList!

Here's the original code in config.php you need to adjust (no throttling by default):

PHP:

# batch processing
# if you are on a shared host, it will probably be appreciated if you don't send
# out loads of emails in one go. To do this, you can configure batch processing.
# Please note, the following two values can be overridden by your ISP by using
# a server wide configuration. So if you notice these values to be different
# in reality, that may be the case

# define the amount of emails you want to send per period. If 0, batch processing
# is disabled and messages are sent out as fast as possible
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE",0);

# define the length of one batch processing period, in seconds (3600 is an hour)
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD",3600);

# to avoid overloading the server that sends your email, you can add a little delay
# between messages that will spread the load of sending
# you will need to find a good value for your own server
# value is in seconds (or you can play with the autothrottle below)
define('MAILQUEUE_THROTTLE',0);


On shared hosting, I would change this to something like this:

Here is the code I suggest :

PHP:

# define the amount of emails you want to send per period. If 0, batch processing
# is disabled
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE",180);

# define the length of one batch processing period, in seconds (3600 is an hour)
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD",3600);


These settings tell PHPList to send 180 mails per hour. Try increasing the MAILQUEUE_THROTTLE setting if there are still problems. You really need to experiment on this one - every host is different.

Some MTAs used by shared hosting companies will employ a 'Silent Drop' feature where once a threshold is reached any further emails are silently ignored (no errors, but not sent).

A good strategy would be to ask your host how many emails you are allowed to send per hour.

e.g. If they say 250. You'd set MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE to 250 (emails), but I'd then also set MAILQUEUE_THROTTLE to 14 (seconds). Since you can only send 250 in one hour, you might as well spread them out as much as possible and avoid getting rejected requests / overloading servers.

--

@ SacredMagick:

No plugins 'replace' aMember functionality. They all just synchronise data between the aMember database and any external application. So to send your emails, you need to use the PHPList admin interface.

--

Word of note: I am fed up with PHPList, and am working on making a better, more flexible, more scaleable and faster application. aMember has taught me a lot about PHP, and thankfully it's mostly well-written code.

The PHPList code is appalling - really badly written; bad design, poor structure, spaghetti code, no consistency, most features broken, slow performance.

It seems like the whole thing is designed to make customisation as difficult as possible.

Development is also practically non-existent - releases seem to come twice a year at most. Finally, the developers are very obnoxious, arrogant and intolerant to to new users and suggestions.

Hi joe_asto2!

Your expressions brought me to laugh, not because of your problems but the linguistic expressions.

I think you did express very correct opinion of phpList and I had the same opinion. I thought the same.

Further, I did not use it for my live site. I did not need it but was planning and testing. Hence I could not know each and every details of the config. But it is good to know that there is a batch processing system.

However, I decided to use a different system, if I may discuss on your word of note.

I think the best possibility if to make a SSH Tunnel and use a local client. For this there are hundreds and by this you sidetrack the entire linux <> server problems. It therefore becomes much easier to maintain a local database on client and use the server relay.

Most of such clients software offers a very well management of campaigns, click tracking and respective mailbox maintainance.

I've been intending to go for this plugin for the following reasons:

1. there is NO EMAIL throttle in AMEMBER meaning it is a problem for anyone who has to limit the number of emails sent out over a period of time in order to not be blocked off as a spammer. If Amember had this facility it would make life much easier for all. Is this mod in the pipeline?
2. It's a bit easier to format html mail in PHPlist than in amember Pro.

But judging from the above comments the plugin seems a long way off working smoothly. One thing not clear to me is whether the plugin also updates users on PHPList according to their mailing list preferences? Is this the case or does it just simply update the email addresses?