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.
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Subscribe2 version 2.1.6 is now available!

This version fixes some more mail header issues, introduces one new feature, and slightly changes the way that mail is delivered.

If you have selected to send excerpts instead of full posts in the update notification, and there is no excerpt, subscribe2 will take any text before a <!--more--> tag and use that as an excerpt. If there is no <!--more--> tag then subscribe2 will send nothing, assuming that if you wanted to send the whole post that you should bloody well select that in the options. ;)

Remember that the excerpt that subscribe2 uses is not automatically generated. You must manually compose the excerpt if you want to use one.

Version 2.1.6 also switches mail delivery from PHP's mail() function to the WordPress wrapper function wp_mail(). For most people, this will not result in any change whatsoever to the functioning of my plugin. But for those struggling with mail delivery issues, they can use Scott Reilly's excellent wpPHPmailer plugin, which allows WordPress to speak SMTP directly to a mail server, instead of using the server's sendmail command-line utility for mail delivery. I have tested subscribe2 with wpPHPmailer, and can confirm that it works quite well (at least for me!).

I'm pleased to announce the release of subscribe2 version 2.1.5!

This version should correctly work around a subtle bug in the way WordPress handles posts published from drafts, which means that the permalinks in the notification emails should obey your rewrite rules. This fix also ensures that exceprts work properly.

Thanks to Mr. Brown, there's now an Italian translation available! Translations are also available for German, Polish, and Spanish:
http://dev.wp-plugins.org/browser/subscribe2/i18n/

Announcing subscribe2!

This plugin provides a comprehensive subscription management system for WordPress blogs. Visitors can subscribe and unsubscribe through a convenient web-based form. All requests require confirmation by email.
Administators can configure the email template used for new post notifications, as well the messages used for (un)subscription requests. Admins can also subscribe or unsubscribe users, as well as send out an email to all confirmed subscribers.

Download subscribe2-2.1.4.tar.gz
Download subscribe2-2.1.4.zip

This version integrates with the new WordPress 1.5 admin bar, while preserving backward-compatibility with WordPress 1.2.
This plugin now requires WordPress 1.5 or above. You will also want to make sure you resolve bug 902!

Notable changes:

• A README!
• Automatic installation!
• More customizable!
• Theme support!
• Web-based administration for almost everything!

Once you extract the files and activate the plugin, you'll need to create a link somewhere pointing toward subscribe.php. You can manually edit your index.php (or sidebar.php or footer.php), or you could use the WordPress Links manager.

All user requests require a reponse to a confirmation email, to thwart hooligans trying to (un)subscribe people against their wishes. Those darned hooligans...

Thanks to aalex and BigJibby from #wordpress on irc.freenode.net for their troubleshooting assistance. Thanks also to everyone who's contributed to the development of WordPress.

UPDATE: I realized I had forgotten to update the permalink in the plugin's description field to point to this entry. While fixing that, I realized that I had also made a rather serious mistake in how I handle 1.2 users. I've fixed that as well, and am releasing version 1.5.1 to correct it. If you downloaded 1.5, please re-download 1.5.1!

UPDATE: Thanks to some great feedback, I've released version 1.5.2. The new features include: admin notification upon successful (un)subscribe confirmation, support for a comma-seperated list of categories that should not trigger an email announcement, and some general clean-up. The download links were moved up to the top of this post, and all updates will be appended down here at the bottom. Thanks for the feedback, and please keep it coming!

UPDATE: Version 1.5.3 fixes a minor oversight with the application of the CSS in the admin section. Prior versions applied the CSS to all admin pages, when they should have only included it on the Subscribers management page. subscribe.php is now theme-aware, too, for WordPress 1.5 users. It should pick up your header and footer, allowing you to better integrate the subscription page with your site.

UPDATE: Version 1.5.4 fixes a stupid mistake in 1.5.3 which would break WordPress 1.2 blogs. Sorry about that.

UPDATE: Thanks to Morgan for spotting a problem with the name and address used to send notification emails. Fixed. Also fixed is proper handling of blank or invalid data being submitted to subscribe.php.

Update Version 2.0.3: This is the long-awaited update! All messages are now controllable through the plugin's Manage screen. I've also tidied up options storage in the database, along with a few minor tweaks. Finally, this version includes a subscribe2.po file if you want to translate the administration screens to your native language.

If you're upgrading, you will probably want to RESET your options to the defaults, and then re-define them according to your tastes.

Update Version 2.0.4: Thanks to MarcoB for spotting a typo which broke sending excerpt-only messages. Fixed!

Update Version 2.0.5: Added strip_tags to plaintext email delivery, to remove HTML from post content included in the mail. Also added a check against the post's date to suppress notification of future-dated posts.

UPDATE Version 2.0.6: added Content-Type text/plain for plaintext mail delivery -- thanks Toto. Added manual override for batch delivery on Dreamhost (or other hosting providers). See the README for additional details about the new batching functionality. Many thanks to Wade Emmert and Joe Mezzanini for their patience and their assistance in testing this new functionality.

UPDATE Version 2.0.7: I incorrectly entered a comment in the 2.0.6 source (/ instead of //) which broke version 2.0.6 -- version 2.0.7 fixes this. Sorry about that.

UPDATE Version 2.0.8: Version 2.0.7 had two major mistakes. First, batch mode was incorrectly set to be the default mode of operation. Second, if less than one batch (30 subscribers) of recipients was present, nothing happened. Version 2.0.8 correctly sets the default mode of operation to non-batched mode; and it also correctly handles batching mode with less than 30 subscribers.

UPDATE Version 2.0.9: I've added the ability to supply a subject line for emails delivered to all subscribers through the Manage interface. If you don't care about this feature, there's no need to upgrade.

UPDATE Version 2.1.1: I finally figured out localization, and have modified both subscribe2.php and subscribe.php to support gettext translations. If you translate this plugin, please send me the .po and .mo files for your locale, and I'll make them available in the Subversion repository for others to download!

UPDATE Version 2.1.2: very minor tweak, to allow for translatable text on the HTML form buttons. You only need to download this if you plan on making a translation file.

UPDATE Version 2.1.4: This version (finally) gets right the use of the author's or admin's display name when sending update notifications. Also included are additional translation tweaks. German and Spanish translations are available! Thank you Michael and maira, respectively.

UPDATE Version 2.1.5: I am closing comments on this post. Please see the subscribe2 2.1.5 announcement for details. From now on, new releases will get new posts -- 260 comments is too many! ;)