Subscribe2 Development

I've begun working on the next version of subscribe2, version 2.2.0. This version will only work with WordPress 2.0 and above (whenever it's released).

Read on for a quick run-down of some of the new features.

  • Removal of the subscribe.php helper page, which has been the bane of my support existence. The new version will contain all user and admin functionality inside the single plugin file.
  • Introduction of a new HTML tag, <-subscribe2->, which will be replaced by either the subscription form or the response to a form submission. This should allow you to place the subscribe form on any post or page in your blog!
  • A new menu for registered users to control their subscription options:
    • subscribe to email notifications for individual categories
    • select plaintext or HTML email delivery
    • select excerpt or full message delivery

Obviously, subscribe2 provides some real incentives for readers to sign up to become registered users of the blog. To further encourage that, and to make some of the coding decisions easier, subscribe2 will remove some options for the general public:

  • non-registered subscribers will receive excerpts only
  • non-registered subscribers will receive plaintext email only

These changes will result in subscribe2 generating more mail per post, as it sends mail for each combination of plaintext/excerpt, plaintext/full text, html/excerpt, and html/full text. For most users this won't be a problem, but I've received a few support requests from users of really restrictive hosts that limit that number of emails allowed per hour (yuck!).

Development is slow, but steady. I hope to have version 2.2.0 ready as close to the release of WordPress 2.0 as possible.


30 Responses to Subscribe2 Development

  1. 2172 Peer 2005-12-16 09:41:27

    Hi,
    perhaps you could add a daily oder weekly newsletter function too ?

  2. 2174 skippy 2005-12-16 14:19:08

    Peer: this is an oft-requested feature. I will not be adding it. Here's why: the next version of susbcribe2 will allow registered users of the blog to sign up for email notifications on a per-category basis. Registered users will also be allowed to select HTML or plaintext delivery, and full-post or excerpt-only delivery. To send a daily (or weekly) message for each combination of amount+format while maintaining category subscriptions is considerably more work than I'm interested in doing.

    If you really want daily deliveries, try using bloglet. They take your RSS feeds and send a single daily email to subscribers.

  3. 2189 Christiaan 2005-12-19 04:37:00

    Sounds good Skippy. Will the admin be able to change all subscription options for any registered or non-registered user (including overriding the non-registered user restrictions)?

  4. 2191 skippy 2005-12-19 11:43:28

    Christiaan: the admin will not be able to change subscription options for registered users through the plugin interface. You'll need to manually adjust the database if this is something you want to do.

    I'm not sure I understand the second part of your question. If you're asking whether an admin can, for example, enable full-text HTML delivery to a non-registered user, the answer is no. All non-registered subscribers are treated the same.

  5. 2216 Marco Raaphorst 2005-12-22 08:55:12

    okay, I presume that the current version doesn't work fully under WP2.0? I emailed you about that.

    sounds great, if you can do an update for WP2.0!

    best of luck!

    Regards,

    Marco

  6. 2435 Christiaan 2006-01-09 04:48:21

    Hi Skippy, thanks for the reply, what I mean is that I don't want to force my readers to register in order to receive the HTML version. I'm happy for all my non-registered users to get the HTML version. What adjustments to the database would I need to make?

  7. 2543 Christiaan 2006-01-25 10:19:54

    Skippy, any thoughts on my comments?

  8. 2638 skippy 2006-01-25 12:53:41

    Christiaan: you won't need to alter the database at all in order to accomplish what you want. Instead, you'll need to edit the subscribe2.php file. Hopefully eveyrthing should be commented enough to make it (relatively) easy to change in the way you want. This is not a change I'm going to support.

  9. 2969 coppertone39 2006-03-13 03:12:06

    Hello
    I was about to install your plugin subscribe2 v 2.1.5 when I started reading you posts, then I came across this subscribe2-development for WP 2.0 My question is this. Will your older version of subscribe v2.1.5 work with WP2.0 or do I have to wait for the newer version?

  10. 2967 skippy 2006-03-13 13:34:06

    coppertone39: subscribe2 2.2.2 is the current latest version, and it works with WordPress 2.0+.

  11. 2984 Denise 2006-03-15 20:45:15

    Hi Skippy -

    I'm having a problem with getting your plugin to work on my site -- it sends out the confirmation emails, but then when one clicks on the confirmation link it just takes them to the archive page and when I go to Manage|Subscribers, everyone is listed as not confirmed.

    Suggestions?

    Thanks so much in advance!
    Denise

  12. 2985 skippy 2006-03-15 20:49:01

    Denise: the latest official release of subscribe2 is version 2.2.2 -- are you using that version?

  13. 3126 jgh 2006-03-30 00:05:48

    hmm, on the confirmation link that gets sent out... Is that really supposed to display all of the previously existing pages on one page, after another or have I boffed something here? I suspect the latter but am not sure how to correct it.

    For reference, I have one single, unique "page" created, which only holds the subscribe2 token (ie. I'm not trying to do anything funky here.) Please let me know if any additional info is needed to diag.

    Thanks! And double thanks for your work on this, I think it's very cool!

  14. 3127 jgh 2006-03-30 00:19:19

    Also, somehow I wound up with an earlier/buggy version just prior to this one and noticed that the admin pages allowed for a lot more customization of the different texts that a user might ever view (while signing up, confirming, etc etc.) but I don't see a lot of these in the newer version. Are they located elsewhere or removed as options?

  15. 3131 skippy 2006-03-30 12:34:40

    jgh: the latest version of subscribe2 is version 2.2.2. Use that version, and ask questions about it in the comments on that post.

  16. 3137 jgh 2006-03-30 19:14:36

    You mean the one that says you don't support it anymore and has comments closed? OK, thanks.

  17. 3138 skippy 2006-03-30 19:20:01

    jgh: yeah; bad timing. I've received one too many "it doesn't work" comments without sufficient details. I am not a mind reader, and I cannot guess at the specifics of each person's configuration. The WordPress Support Forums are probably your best place for help now.

  18. 3139 jgh 2006-03-30 20:12:38

    No prob, I understand. I'll dork around with it and it'll either work or it won't. You get what you pay for, right? :)

  19. 3279 jgh 2006-04-15 17:51:13

    well I spent more time than I should have, trying similar plugins and while they each have their own interesting features, I think this is definitely the best over-all so I went back to figure out wtf was causing my stupid problem and found it documented in the code. All I needed (for future folks who may have the same problem) is to modify the
    define('S2PAGE', 'N');
    to match whatever (otherwise, as documented, it chooses the 'first page from the database', which may be a bug in itself since it likes to choose them *all* at the same time, hence my original complaint/problem.)

  20. 3263 Adam 2006-04-22 10:59:28
  21. 3324 mike rheault 2006-05-26 01:12:58

    um i have a small problem with the plugin under the option page under categories to exclude it says:
    Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /www/m/micropressde/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/subscribe2.php on line 407

    than when i try hit the submit button it gives me:

    Fatal error: Call to undefined function: update_categories_cache() in /www/m/micropressde/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/subscribe2.php on line 704

  22. 2998 Nicholas 2006-05-31 16:01:06

    Looking forward to using your plugin however...

    Installed the plugin and activated it (the latest version).
    Created a page called "Keep Informed". Placed the into the body of the page.

    When I go to the page nothing displays.

    Am I missing something?

  23. 3107 Claudia 2006-06-20 19:00:50

    Hi,

    I'm completely new to working with WP and was wondering can this subscription form be used as an opt in form to receive my newletter as well as a subscribe to the blog? My blog will be website kind of all in one.
    Thanks

  24. 3122 Billy 2006-07-24 12:12:06

    Hi,
    I have the latest version of WordPress and the latest version of your Subscribe2 installed. I can NOT make any changes under options on your Subscribe2 options page. I want to make changes to the email and also send html but the bullets I change won't stay changed. How do you change the options and have them stay changed?

  25. 3123 skippy 2006-07-24 17:01:10

    Billy: you're not using the latest version of subscribe2. Download the latest version.

  26. 3025 natale 2006-07-25 15:01:29

    Nice plugin really. I cannot understand how the language file works? Can you hlelp me pls?

  27. 3594 ms.angel 2006-08-09 01:00:10

    Great plugin! Very easy to use and the management is awesome. I have no problem adding subscribers through the manage function and the updates are almost instantaneous. However, can people subscribe if they're not "registered" users of the blog? When I test it, nothing happens.

  28. 3595 francesco 2006-08-09 06:20:09

    hi everybody...
    i've installed the plugin....it works fine trough the admin page but when i try to sign the newsletter nothing happens...just a refresh of the page...while it shows a message when i leave blank the email field.....

    more, i can't localize the italian version: i have put the .mo and .po files in the plugin dir but nothing happens...

    i'm currently using subscribe2 2.2.2 on wordpress 2.0

    can anyone help me?

    thanks a lot,
    Francesco

  29. 3597 francesco 2006-08-09 08:46:35

    i found it: i have just translated the radio button value insted of the text value...now it works fine, thanks

  30. 3598 ms.angel 2006-08-09 22:09:01

    I'm having the same problem. I can subscribe people through the admin by entering their email address but when I try to subscribe using the form, nothing happens, no confirmation email, nothing. Did I miss a step during set up?

    There is no registration for my blog.

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