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BigSender Administrator Guide
Troubleshooting FAQ
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| Q: |
How do I import my existing contact list from some other application?
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| A: |
BigSender is designed to easily work with legacy data sources (an existing list) or you can start a new list from scratch and populate it via the online subscriber box.
Let's say you currently have your list in Excel, Access, FileMaker or some other desktop database or spreadsheet application. These applications will all let you "export," "save as" or "report" to an ascii text file (.txt), usually tab-delimited (meaning a tab character is used to separate the fields in each record) and each record on its own line.
Upload to your server that resulting file forcing ascii text mode using AdminPro or your usual FTP software. Save by any file name and anywhere you like on your webserver and simply point BigSender to it via the BigSender Configurator – After logging into BigSender as the administrator, click the "settings" button and idenfity in the Configurator field after the "list source" prompt the path (from the server root) and the file name. Complete the field number information for the location in each record for the email address field and the name field(s) and click the "save settings" button. The user interface / main menu should now report the quantity of records in your list. Your next step should be to click on the "clean" button to ensure your list is ready to use.
Should you want to, that same source file may also be downloaded and imported into your desktop database or spreadsheet software.
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| Q: |
What do I do when I click the "send message" button and get an error?
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| A: |
Some licensees have reported that a "server 500" error message is returned when they finish composing their message and click the "preview," "send test" or "send message" button. Though we are working to isolate and resolve it, this issue seems associated with the new plain-text wordwrap feature introduced in the 3.70 release. This workaround is reported to be effective: Select a different wordwrap value for the number of characters per line or selecting "no wordwrap" and the issue should resolve itself.
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| Q: |
Why doesn't the "update" button appear in my admin controls?
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| A: |
The Instant Updater feature is only accessible to logged-in administrators who have "settings" privileges. Additionally, BigSender queries the server for the location of the standard LWP (libwww-perl) modules and, if not found, the Instant Updater feature may be disabled. Some servers do not correctly report the existence of the LWP modules and, for such cases, we have developed into BigSender a workaround which is freely available to any BigSender licensee on request.<
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| Q: |
How does BigSender automate removal of recipients whose emails have bounced?
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| A: |
Add the POP account login to the "automated bounce manager" Configurator settings for the same email address you have set in the Configurator as your "errors" email address. Once verified and saved, you need only to click the "bounce" button that appears among your administrator controls and BigSender will automatically perform the tasks of checking that mailbox for reject notification messages, grabbing the original recipient's email address from those notifications, and either remove the recipients that match that email address or mark that record as "bounced."
You may also remove recipients with invalid email addresses manually with a simple point-and click: Every "bounced" email (messages that have been returned to you undeliverable by the recipient's mailserver) has a special link embedded in the header that, when you click on it, can immediately remove that subscriber from your list. BigSender users often filter such bounced messages to a special mailbox in their email software then, after a few bounced message have accumulated, they perform a quick point-and-click session. Then, just clear that mailbox for the next batch.
If you have a troubling volume of subscribers who, for whatever reason, submit invalid email addresses, you might try a handy BigSender feature that requires new subscribers to confirm their subscription from a unique "opt-in activator link" in an email that is sent automatically when they subscribe... Simply go to your BigSender Configurator and check the "opt-in activator" option to begin significantly reducing the number of bogus subscriptions to your list.
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| Q: |
Why do some BigSender users experience lengthy delays when adding or removing their records?
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| A: |
To ensure the integrity of your list data during the vulnerable "save" process, BigSender employs its own unique locking technology that will cause another user's task to wait until the first save is complete. This delay is usually only a fraction of a second and is not noticeable, though it is feasible for the delay to last up to sixty seconds.
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| Q: |
What should I do if my web browser "times out" during a broadcast session?
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| A: |
Often, BigSender will continue to broadcast despite the lost connection to your web browser... Invoke BigSender again in your web browser and note the "last successful email sent" record number. Then after a few moments, refresh that page in your web browser. If that error message record number changes, BigSender is still sending messages. If after refreshing that page, the error message record number remains the same, you may go to the BigSender Message Composer and continue broadcasting your outgoing message from the very next record number reported in the log report.
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| Q: |
What do I do if I am having trouble staying logged in as the BigSender administrator?
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| A: |
If you have been a long-time BigSender user and have recently updated your software, you may experience difficulty staying logged in as the administrator when you attempt to go to the Configurator or the Message Composer screens, for example.
The coding responsible for how BigSender's cookies are written to and read from your web browser has been rewritten for improved reliability – especially for those managing multiple lists, so the best remedy is to open your browser's preferences or settings and go to "advanced" > "cookies" where you should delete all cookies there that are associated with your domain. Click "okay" then login again as a BigSender administrator. You should find logging in and out much more reliable from that time onward.
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| Q: |
My company is changing to a different hosting firm; how do I move my BigSender installation to the new server?
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| A: |
You can simply delete all your BigSender-related files from the old server and perform a clean installation on the new server. However, your new installation would begin with the factory default settings rather than the settings from your old installation. Follow the steps below to ensure your new installation will have the same settings as your old installation:
Moving BigSender To a Different Server
Prepare the New Server
- Make a directory in the domain root. Name the directory "data" or whatever you named the directory that contained your list on the old server.
- Make a directory in the domain root. Name the directory "news" or whatever you named the news archive directory on the old server.
- If you made any other directories for BigSender Gateway installation, be sure to duplicate those in the new server.
- Make a note of the path from the server root to the domain for manually adjusting some files.
- If a Windows server, make sure the properties for /data, /news (and any other new BigSender-related directories are read/write/rewrite/delete and the properties for /cgi-bin and any gateways directories is /read/write/rewrite/delete/execute
Grab the Files from the Old Server
- Using AdminPro or other FTP software, download all BigSender-related files from:
- /cgi-bin (including the hidden ".bigsender.txt" file)
- /data (your list)
- /news (archived messages and Snapshots)
- /gateways (or other directory containing your BigSender Gateway applications and their subdirectories, hidden Configurator setting files, archived messages and Snapshots)
- Using an ascii text editor such as Note Pad, Word Pad or SimpleText, open the .bigsender.txt file and find the line near the top that looks something like:
$msource='/abunch/of/paths/data/list.txt';
then change it to the path structure on your new server from the server root to your list. Save.
- If you have Gateways installed on the old server, you'll want to open each of those gateway CGIs (eg. bigsender2.cgi), find the line that looks something like this:
$realsource="/home/some/paths/cgi-bin/bigsender.cgi";
and change it to the path structure on your new server from the server root to your new list. Save each.
- Delete all BigSender-related files from the old server (your license permits one installation of BigSender at any one time.)
Finish Up on the New Server
- Using AdminPro or other FTP software, forcing ASCII text mode in your FTP software, upload all BigSender-related files (force ASCII text mode) to the appropriate directories (/cgi-bin and /data, /news) and any others, then, if a Unix or Linux server, chmod to 755 or higher (depending on your server's requirements).
- Invoke the new installation of BigSender in your web browser (http://www.yourdomain/cgi-bin/bigsender.cgi or you may need to use the new location's IP Address for a few days), login as an administrator, click "settings" and ensure all the settings are as you'd like them.
On request, we'll move your BigSender system for you, usually within a few minutes – at no extra charge!
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| Q: |
Can I sell advertising in my newsletter to use BigSender to generate income?
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| A: |
BigSender does not restrict in any way the nature of the content of your messages and message archive. Your own subscriber constituency and advertising policies will determine whether that is a desirable course.
BigSender's hybrid plain text/rich text messaging technologies will absolutely display advertising delivered from your own website or via third-party ad networks such as Adknowledge, Double-Click and BurstMedia, etc. As with your website, impressions are only tracked when the message is viewed by the recipient with software that supports HTML and any clickthroughs are recorded in the normal way.
Note that many email software applications (such as Eudora, for example) do not support JavaScript nor "rich media" such as forms or embedded files such as Flash or QuickTime, so you probably want to ensure that your mailings only include regular hypertext links and image tags.
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If you have a question that hasn't been answered here, elsewhere in the Administrator Guide or in the Contextual Help System, we encourage you to contact us right away using the Support Form.
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