E-mail Campaign Help

[adanzy]

I received this error message when I sent a test e-mail to a test group using the campaign module:
SUCCESS:
EmailMan: id = 7a6a5880-ee47-435e-e00d-43393f9693b3 ,user_id= 1 module = Contacts , module_id = 346e859f-b546-cfba-f1a0-4330567934ec ,list_id = c8307978-aac7-2b4e-0252-4330249d7950, send_date_time= 2005-09-26 21:30:00
FAILURE:
EmailMan: id = 9804074f-d352-59bd-ca73-43393fdcbd51 ,user_id= 1 module = Contacts , module_id = 1d700d9e-4e70-f243-e2af-432f216af8ab ,list_id = c8307978-aac7-2b4e-0252-4330249d7950, send_date_time= 2005-09-26 21:30:00

Also, it seems I can only send one outbound campaign each day. So since I sent this this morning, I won't be able to send another campiagn until tomorrow. Lastly, I can never get a scheduled campiagn to send. I always have to use the function to send it manually. Any ideas?

[sugarchris]

Hi Adanzy,

I helped debug many of the issues that have come up using Campaigns specifically with Emails. From the sound of your experience, I am guessing that you are on a version of Sugar prior to 3.5.1.

"it seems I can only send one outbound campaign each day. So since I sent this this morning, I won't be able to send another campiagn until tomorrow."

I think this may be a mail-server configuration issue. See my request for information below. We have not built-in any limit to the number of campaigns that can be triggered at a given time. They *are* however run in a queue, so the oldest, qualified campaign is run before newer ones. One way you can trick this is to add an email campaign set to start at a date/time in the past before your existing campaigns; this job will be run before any others in the queue

Lastly, I can never get a scheduled campiagn to send. I always have to use the function to send it manually.

Have you set up a cron job to run the emailmandelivery.php service? With 3.5.1, it will no longer be possible to trigger an email campaign delivery through your web-browser (this is assuming the .htaccess updates are working, and your webserver is configured to AllowOverride certain settings). If you do not have a cron job running on the webserver, you must trigger the delivery manually. I can advise you how to do this either way.

Would you be willing to add some detail to your original post? The items I need more information are:
- Operating system and version
- Sugar Suite version
- using sendmail or SMTP for outbound emails
- and if possible, the hardware specs for the Sugar Suite server

[PeterGutniak]

Hi Adanzy,

With 3.5.1, it will no longer be possible to trigger an email campaign delivery through your web-browser (this is assuming the .htaccess updates are working, and your webserver is configured to AllowOverride certain settings). If you do not have a cron job running on the webserver, you must trigger the delivery manually. I can advise you how to do this either way.


Would you be willing to add some detail to your original post? The items I need more information are:
- Operating system and version
- Sugar Suite version
- using sendmail or SMTP for outbound emails
- and if possible, the hardware specs for the Sugar Suite server

Chris, the (very simple) solution in regards to trigger manual deliveries is to be released today or tomorrow as per http://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15727

It will perhaps not cure all of Adanzy´s problems, but at least one of them...

[sugarchris]

Hi Peter,

That's a very clever work-around! However, being employed by Sugar, my goal is to make all the functionality available and not compromise the security envelope of our application (not that I assume you haven't thought about that, but our policy is to lock-down the files that should be run by cron). OOB, the emailmandelivery.php file should not be accesible to anyone outside the web server. Right now, we rely on .htaccess files and AllowOverrides to help secure potential entry points into your systems.

For your solution, I would recommend using the .htaccess files, but to allow 127.0.0.1/localhost to access the emailmandelivery.php file. Your portal solution sounds like it does a similar thing to manually running the job through a webbrowser, but would fake localhost access. Is this correct? It should be safe enough if you copy the security envelope items from other modules.

May I propose an alternate solution? If you have shell access, you can chdir to your sugarcrm directory and (assuming your host provides it) do a "php -f emailmandelivery.php" to manually kick off any campaigns that have a start time in the past. You can even do a "php -f emailmandelivery.php?verbose=true" to view the output that will find its way into your log file. This is what we do internally to test bug fixes and enhancements.

If your customization helps some folks here, great! I would like them to know that there are other options that don't involve installing extra stuff they may not want around.

Thanks for your contributions!

[adanzy]

We just installed the upgrade version 3.5.1 and now I am not getting that original error and I can send more than one campaign per day, but the scheduled campaign function still does not work. Also, I am end user and did not install the application, which is to say I am not terrible technically leiterate when it comes to this stuff. I am hoping to get an answer from the Sugar Support.

Thanks

[sugarchris]

Hi adanzy,

The email campaign's scheduler depends on an external scheduling mechanism to work. Just setting the execution time without arranging for the external scheduler (cron on linux, System Scheduler on windows) to trigger emailmandelivery.php will not send the campaigns automatically.

If you don't have access to the cron manager on your host, then you'll have to trigger all campaigns manually for right now. It's definitely not the best solution, but unless your marketing campaigns must absolutely be triggered at a certain time, it's not a show-stopper.

I'm in the middle of developing a solution that removes the dependency on an external timing mechanism, but this may not see release for quite some time. I believe it will fix this issue for you and others like you who are hosted on a webserver with little control over external systems.

I'm glad the upgrade got rid of those errors for you!

[manoj]

Hi,

Scheduled send feature will be available in 4.0.

Thanks
Manoj
Product management , SugarCRM

[rosslindell]

This post was very helpful, however I tried the:

"php -f emailmandelivery.php?verbose=true"

and I get back:

"No input file specified."

I am using SugarCRM 3.5.1c on Solaris w/PHP5. I tried the same command with the path explicitly set and same error. I am not sure where this is looking but I have four campaign mail items all dated in the past which are queued according to the mass email queu manager, but that are not being sent.

Any advice appreciated, since I am not very familar with PHP I am not able to debug this further.

[rosslindell]

Solved my own problem, it looks like a path problem with the emailmandelivery.php. Seems to work now.

[dreammedia]

I have the exact same problem when trying to run this directly on solaris.

Could not open input file: emailmandelivery.php?verbose=true

Can you tell me what your path problem was, maybe your fix will fix mine?