License, credits, requirements, bugs, history, etc.

NewsLetter is freeware. Use it at your own risk. Also, currently it is a beta version, so use it carefully and make some tests before adoptate it as your favorite-tool-of-the-year.

The alma mater of NewsLetter is "XMail", a very powerful and flexible scripting addition wrote by
Jean-Baptiste Le Stang, which is the thing which talks to the servers and sends the messages: magic! You can take a look to this and other works from J-B at http://www.atilla.org/~macfan/.

NewsLetter uses "contacts" 1.0 to grab email addresses from the Address Book (without filters). I chose this command-line utility so I didn't need launch the Address Book to retrieve the data (which will be launched if you request, eg, email addresses of people of group "x"). It's speedy and very robust. Credits go to Shane Celis at http://gnufoo.org/.

Version 1.0 also includes the WebKit framework, so you don't need switch to a web browser to read this documentation and preview your messages. This also requires a Panther installation.


- Requirements

NewsLetter requires a valid email address to send the messages, and a Mac OS X 10.3 installation.

NewsLetter has been tested only under Panther 10.3.5. According to some reports, versions of NewsLetter after 1.0 will not work under 10.2.x and lower OS versions (because of the implementation of the webkit framework).

It does exist an untested version for Jaguar, here. It does not implement any change since version 2.0b1. It won't be updated anymore.


- Bugs

Do you wanna report a bug? Read first the known issues part of these docs.

"This doesn't work please help" is not a report. First, read the entire documentation and the FAQ; make sure your system meets the requirements to run NewsLetter. If this doesn't help, send me a detailed report describing your problem: operative system, some sample files if needed, etc.


- History

NewsLetter 2.0b3, September 17, 2004
- Fixed the "check images" function.
- Added an option to create a verbose log.
- Now you can import smart-tags for both body and subject from FileMaker.
- Added compatibility with FileMaker 7 and Entourage 2004 in all functions.
- Added options to send messages through Entourage or place the composed messages at Entourage's Outbox folder.

NewsLetter 2.0b2, September 13, 2004
- Fixed issue with messages not showing properly in Mail.
- New icons! (thanks to Michael Pietrocarlo)
- Added an option to save a list of invalid/duplicate addresses when the "Validate recipients" preference is checked and invalid or duplicate addresses are found in the recipients list. (request)
- Added an option to save messages in MBOX format, so you can preview them in Mail or Entourage/Outlook (or any other MBOX-compatible email client).

NewsLetter 2.0b1, August 27, 2004
- Switch to XMail.osax as mail agent: now NewsLetter will work for any smtp server, since it does support most known methods of authentication.
- Added support for multipart emails: you can now send a mix of plain-text and html, plus inline attachments in html emails.
- "Single message, multiple BCC" moved to main window, now is part of a "saved newsletter".
- Reworked part of the code, optimized, reniced and better error handling.
- Reworked interface: now the "Recipients" field is editable and the main window resizable (more lines to edit your message!). Added menu items and shortcuts for "Preview" and "Add attachments...".
- Updated documentation. Added new examples.

NewsLetter 1.1, January 29, 2004
- Added the capability to export and import "newsletters".
- Now you can import addresses from the Address Book selectivelly.
- Now you can filter current email addresses based on filters.
- NewsLetter no longer requires "encdec" to encode login data.
- Little GUI and code renices.

NewsLetter 1.0, January 12, 2004
- Added the capability to preview messages in NewsLetter (no more switching to a browser).
- Added the capability to grab email addresses from FileMaker, Address Book and Entourage.
- Added the capability to export email addresses at any time.

NewsLetter 1.0b2, January 6, 2004
- Fixed ocassional issues with the help system and the preview function in systems without a user-defined default browser.
- Added the option to check for invalid image urls in HTML messages.
- Added the option to check for invalid and duplicate email addresses in recipients.
- NewsLetter supports now multiple attachments.
- Better handling of possible user errors using smart tags.
- Rework of documentation. Added a quick guide to create HTML messages.

NewsLetter 1.0b1, January 1, 2004
- First public release.