I still think that what I want to do is not a great departure from what many folks might like a mailing list system to do. I have a input text box on a web page where viewers can fill in their email address if they want to be notified when the page changes. My simple perl script appends their email address to a flat file that has one email address per line. I'd like to be able to use this file of email addresses as the distribution list for SmartList. However, I'd like SmartList to handle the bounces. I'd also like to be able to have users subscribe and unsubscribe directly to the -request address. My perl script wouldn't "care" if another program, such as SmartList, were also adding and deleting lines. I didn't realize that this was asking a lot. The dist file and my flat file are in the same format. I can give the flat file any permissions it needs. To make my simple "append this email address to the file" perl script into a full-functioned emailer is more programming than I want. Do other folks use SmartList to handle a task like this, or is there some other solution that is better suited? Thanks for your suggestions. -Kevin Zembower ----- E. Kevin Zembower Unix Administrator Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communications Programs 111 Market Place, Suite 310 Baltimore, MD 21202 410-659-6139
Charlie Summers <charlie@lofcom.com> 06/18/01 02:25PM >>> At 12:01 PM -0400 6/18/01, KEVIN ZEMBOWER is rumored to have typed:
It is with great trepidation that I send this message to the list again. Does no one use SmartList in the way that I want to?
I'd seriously doubt it, since you say you are not _using_ SmartList to manage your dist file, and yet you seem to want SmartList to handle your bounces. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me at all, which is why I think you're unlikely to get much help - kinda oxymoronic, eh?
I'm trying to do something unorthodox with SmartList. My distribution list is kept in a flat file by another program that I have to continue to use.
Then I'd suggest you redirect any bounce messages off to the program that is managing the "flat file" and write your own routines in the "flat file" manager (I am assuming you're refering to a flat-file database manager, but I could be wrong, and frankly it doesn't much matter) to handle the bounces. Either SmartList manages the distribution list, or your "flat file" program does. Seems to me that having both thumbs in the pie is a recipe for disaster...and trying to get SmartList to handle bounces when you admit it _doesn't_ manage the dist file is just silly. Charlie _______________________________________________ Smartlist mailing list Smartlist@lists.RWTH-Aachen.DE http://MailMan.RWTH-Aachen.DE/mailman/listinfo/smartlist