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AWeber Super Simple

At Burning Man, work resumes Sept 9 2009.

Making AWeber Super Simple work for you is easy: activate the plugin, get your AWeber list settings correct, it will work!

If you don’t want to use it, simply deactivate it.

Very easy.

>>>NOTE: AWeber Super Simple plugin is under current development, and has been released for examination and testing by experienced coders. If you are a total beginner, this plugin is not yet for you. Please bookmark this page and check back later. Or, go ahead and install the plugin, and watch the summary description. When it’s ready, the summary description will say so. PLUGIN USER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL USE OF THIS PLUGIN

NO WARRANTY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED

All that being said, it’s working sweetly for me.

There are a couple of bugs, which occur with the plugin installed and activated. If the AWeber settings are correct, the user will be signed up for AWeber regardless of the options settings:

  1. If the Newsletter box is visible and unchecked, user preference is ignored. Bug.
  2. If the Newsletter box is not visible, the user will still be signed up anyway. Bug. Definitely.

>>>UPDATE 8/28/2009: Work on AWeber Super Simple will resume after I get back from Burning Man on Sept 9, 2009.

>>>UPDATE 8/22/2009: More cleanup in the back end. Cases for registration worked out:

  1. Has Aweber, has blog: send to Already subscribed page.
  2. (Done) Has Aweber, no blog: send to Already subscribed page, register for blog.
  3. No Aweber, has blog: register for AWeber.
  4. (Done) No Aweber, no blog: register for both.

Plugin database table may be necessary for reimplementing AWeber comment registration. Not sure yet.

Lee Binder hacked a personal patch to disable opt-in check box while still registering for AWeber list. This will be implemented in the future as an “Automatic” or “Blind” signup. Will probably require explanatory text, set by administrator, informing users they will be getting signed up and to expect a confirmation email.

The Already Subscribed option works well, it would be nice to split the redirect to send the registrant to that page (or a new subscriber page) along with the login page. Suggestions welcome.

The current behavior of “blind” is to register for AWeber. This is a bug.

The next frontier is handling cases where the user opts out of registering. This currently a bug, user is signed up whether newsletter box is checked or not.

>>>UPDATE 6/29/2009: Version 0.1.2 now implements meta_onlist (i.e., already subscribed users). If user option isn’t set, list reverts to blog login redirect.

>>>UPDATE 6/21/2009:

Please test according carefully to instructions below before deploying to production use!

  1. Version 0.1.1 tagged and uploaded to WordPress.org.
  2. More code cleanup.
  3. Tested to work agreeably with ST Captcha and Login LockDown (LL has a probably harmless redirection bug).

>>>UPDATE 6/16/2009:

  1. Version 0.1 tagged and uploaded to WordPress.org.
  2. More code cleanup, redundant password functions removed.

>>>UPDATE 6/15/2009:

  1. Massive clean up and code reorganization is underway. At least 300 lines of bogus/useless code has been removed.
  2. Behavior issues are close to being dealt with.
  3. Next uploadable version will be hosted at wordpress.org. The repository is named and ready to go, still want to fix a few more issues before committing the initial public version.

Get AWeber signups on blog registration

AWeber opt-in option

AWeber opt-in option

AWeber Super Simple allows a person to sign up for your AWeber autoresponder at the same time they register for your WordPress blog. The code is derived from an existing plugin that didn’t work in a way useful for me.

NOTE: AWeber Super Simple is working well for me, but is an alpha version! I’m releasing into the wild for feedback. Use it at your own risk. Let me know what does and doesn’t work. Version 0.2 should be ready for prime time.

Download

AWeber Super Simple has just been uploaded to wordpress.org.

You can also install from your plugin browser through the administration interface.

How it works

Aweber Super Simple administration options page

Aweber Super Simple administration options page

Once the coding is finished (it’s pretty close now), the Aweber Super Simple plugin will work as follows:

  • Blog administrator has the option of displaying an opt-in checkbox on the blog registration form.
  • If the opt-in checkbox is displayed, the administration can choose the default values, checked or unchecked.
  • On user registration:
    • If the checkbox is checked when the user registers, the user will receive an opt-in invitation from AWeber.
    • If the checkbox is unchecked, the user doesn’t get an opt-in email.
  • If the user is already registered, and the checkbox is checked, user gets an opt-in email.
  • If the user is NOT already registered on the blog, but IS on the opt-in list, the user is registered, then redirected to an “Already Subscribed” page instead of the login page.

Testing

>>>NOTE: This section is not called “Using.” There is no “Using” section yet, not until Version 0.2. If you are a total beginner, this plugin is not yet for you. Please bookmark this page and check back later. Or, go ahead and install the plugin but don’t use it. Just watch the summary description. When it’s ready, the summary description will say so.

The current testing process is not difficult, but it is a bit tedious. Three browsers are involved:

  • Chrome: Logged in to a locally hosted WordPress site. NOTE: If you run your testing on localhost, you may need to install and configure an SMTP server as well. This is not difficult, there is plenty of information on the web. Handles WordPress user and plugin management.
  • Firefox: Logged in at AWeber, use for checking subscription information.
  • Safari: Represents a user registering for your website.

The test cycle runs about like this:

  1. (Chrome) Install and activate plugin.
  2. (Chrome) Add your list information on the options page (screenshot coming). Make sure to check the box allowing the user to sign up as well.
  3. (Safari) Register a new user for your blog. Make sure the sign up check is checked.
  4. Check your admin email to see whether the user got signed up.
  5. Check the email address for the user, who should be getting two emails:
    1. WordPress email: Check to make sure the log in works.
    2. AWeber email: click on the confirmation link. NOTE: It may take up to 3-4 minutes to process the registration email at AWeber. There isn’t anything you can do about this. Pay attention, sit and wait until it’s done. If it’s been longer than a few minutes, you can assume something didn’t work correctly.
  6. (Firefox) Check AWeber to make sure the new user is added to the list.
  7. At this point, you are done, but you will need to “clean up” a little bit to test again.
    1. (Chrome) Delete the new user using the WordPress administration panel.
    2. Unsubscribe the news user either by deleting from the subscription list on the AWeber site (Firefox, surest way), or by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the first followup email. If you click the unsubscribe link, make sure to actually unsubscribe from the list when AWeber opens your subscription web page.
    3. IMPORTANT: (Chrome) Deactivate, then reactivate the AWeber Super Simple plugin using the Plugin -> Installed web page interface. This is a mis-implementation left over from the original code, and is high on the priority list for fixing.
    4. Now you should be ready to continue testing from Step 3 above.

Roadmap

  • Version 0.4:
    1. Smart deactivation
    2. i18n? Let me know…
  • Version 0.3: More style for registration box, check into conflict with more captcha boxes and other registration tools.
  • Version 0.2:
    1. Get rid of database table. It should not be necessary.
    2. Rewrite plugin class in better style using B2Template for initialization structure.
    3. Massive code cleanup to bring plugin up to WordPress 2.8 standards.
  • Version 0.1: Initial functionality

ChangeLog

  • Version 0.1.2 [6/29/2009] meta_onlist user option implemented for “Already Subscribed.”
  • Version 0.1: All initial functionality should be in.

Known issues

  • The options are not deleted when the plugin is uninstalled. This may be a feature for some people. It is very helpful during testing to retain options while cycling activation and deactivation.
  • Known fail if someone is removed from the blog, then re-registers. This is going to be tedious to deal with, but it mostly affects testing. The work-around for testing is to deactivate, then reactivate the plugin. Deactivation drops the plugin’s table, reactivation creates a new, empty table.
  • Possible double registration, but this might be an issue with how I set up my SMTP server and php.ini on localhost. What it looks like: the registrant gets two registration emails. The first has the valid password, the second has a different, invalid password.

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