Integrating Sitekit CMS with MDaemon, allowing a Sitekit CMS form to subscribe members to MDaemon mailing lists
This document describes how to configure a Sitekit CMS based website to use MDaemon’s automated mailing list functionality. MDaemon is the mail server software that Sitekit Solutions Ltd. uses for public e-mail services. Any Sitekit CMS site can be integrated with MDaemon to provide access to its mailing list functionality. You can use Sitekit CMS forms to automate subscription and un-subscription to and from existing mailing lists within MDaemon. Administration of the mailing lists is carried out using MDaemon’s web based admin interface.
Below is a short list detailing some of the functionality available when using MDaemon’s mailing lists.
In addition there are a number of other features available. If you have a specific requirement please contact Sitekit Solutions Ltd. for more information.
Normally we would advise that you have your mailing lists located in a separate sub-domain of your main domain. This is not a requirement, but it is preferred. For example if you current domain is mydomain.com then we would recommend that your mailing list addresses be of the format mymailinglist@lists.mydomain.com.
In addition to this you will need to have a secondary mail domain created for you, using your desired domain; in the example above the secondary mail domain would be lists.mydomain.com. We would normally create the domain and add an Admin user to it. You can then create and manage all your mailing lists yourself using this web based admin interface and the admin user.
To have the DNS and Mail configured please speak with Sitekit Solutions technical support who will be able to help.
We provide a framework to allow any <sitekit> website to interface with MDaemon’s mailing list feature. This will allow subscription and un-subscription to and from existing mailing lists via a Sitekit CMS form.
Assuming a mailing list has already been created and configured in MDaemon first using the admin interface, a Sitekit CMS form can then be configured to use it. For example, we have created a mailing list already – mylist@lists.mydomain.com. Currently it has no members. We can now create a new form in our Sitekit CMS site to allow subscription to this list. The form only needs to collect the prospective members e-mail address – this is the only detail which will be stored within the list. The form is also configured to submit the details to a special e-mail address which is pre-existing and can not be changed. When the submit button is selected a pre-defined hidden field is also submitted within the generated e-mail. The details are then added to the mailing list automatically by MDaemon. If you have configured authentication the prospective member would receive a conformation e-mail which is automatically sent back to the e-mail address they specified in the form, this must then be replied to for the client to be added to the list. For each mailing list you will need separate Sitekit CMS forms for subscription and un-subscription.
To setup you site to use this functionality there are two stages that you must complete. The first stage is creating and configuring the new mailing list using the web based admin interface. Once you have created your new mailing list you can then create subscribe and unsubscribe forms within you Sitekit CMS website. You need to repeat this procedure for every list you require. You also need to have any DNS and secondary mail domains in place before this will work, as detailed in the section above.
First of all you need to create a new mailing list using the web based admin interface. To do this follow the steps detailed below.
Note: You should have already been given and admin username and password. If you don’t have these details already please call technical support for details.