MaxSponder User Manual

This manual describes the MaxSponder Version 5.2 product. It is broken up into the following sections:

• License Agreement
• New Features in Version 5.2
• Modules included in the software zip file
• Upgrading from a Version 4.1 Installation
• Installation Instructions
• Capabilities/Capacities
• Backing Up The Database
• Restoring from a Database Backup
• MaxSponder Administrator manual
• Opt-In for the Administrator
• Methods for Customers to Sign-Up for Autoresponder Accounts
• PayPal
• Paypal Subscriptions
• WorldPay
• iBill
• MaxSponder Autoresponder Owner manual
• Opt-in for the Autoresponder Owner
• Methods for Customers to Sign-Up for an Autoresponder Sequence.
• URL Tracking
• Support

License agreement

Please see Software License.doc for the license agreement. By purchasing this code, you are agreeing to abide by the terms and conditions of the license agreement.

New Features In Version 5.2

Version 5.2 has some significant enhancements over prior versions of MaxSponder. They are explained below (in no particular order):

• Added Admin Newsletter function...where Admin can send to All active subscribers in the system a newsletter.
  The newsletter will look like it is coming from the subscriber's autoresponder owner when using the owner personalization tags. Admin can also test, save, see what is queue,delete, and cancel newsletters.
• Added Preview HTML capability. for all HTML messages. An autoresponder owner can now
  just check a checkbox and preview their html on the screen.

• When editing messages a user can now choose from a dropdown of understandable words instead of remembering tag names
  

Modules included in the Zip File

• .forwardfile – an example of the structure that needs to exist in the .forward file on your account to configure the E-Mail signup/remove functionality to work.
• MaxSponder User Manual.doc – This document.
• Software License.doc – License agreement for the MaxSponder software package.
• help.gif – The gif file that displays the help icon associated with maxadmin.cgi and maxuseradmin.cgi.
• adminhelp.html - This is the online help file associated with maxadmin.cgi.
• adminlogin.html – This html file is used to allow the MaxSponder administrator login access to the administration system. Feel free to edit this file as desired. Just do not change any of the form field names.
• footer.html – This file contains the footer information for the display of the administration pages. It helps you customize the look and feel of MaxSponder.
• formx.html – These html files are a variety of sample forms that can be used to allow autoresponder customers to sign up for a particular autoresponder sequence from a web page. These forms are not really needed as the tool provides a means of generating these forms in any permutation desired but are good to look at for examples.
• getpassword.html – This page gives autoresponder owners a method to retrieve their login information in case they forgot it. The details will be emailed to the owner.
• globalremove.html – This page is a template for the global remove function. It can be integrated into your web site to allow autoresponder subscribers the ability to get put on the master remove list automatically.
• gmmmmmaaa.hmf – This is a sample webgood page for use with iBill payment processing. It is discussed further in the section on iBill below.
• header.html - This file contains the header information for the display of the administration pages. It helps you customize the look and feel of MaxSponder.
• userhelp.html – This is the online help file associated with maxuseradmin.cgi.
• userlogin.html – This html file is used to allow the MaxSponder Autoresponder Owners login access to the "user" system. Feel free to edit this file as desired. Just do not change any of the form field names. This page also includes a link to getpassword.html to help autoresponder owners retrieve their forgotten passwords.
• usersignupx.html – These html files can be used as enrollment forms for people who wish to acquire autoresponders from the autoresponder administrator. These forms can be set up to accept credit card details and if you wish to use it as part of an automated pay system, please be sure to read the section on secure server utilization and set up below. Feel free to edit this files as desired. Just do not change any of the form field names. There are several example forms provided for your use. This also includes an example of a signup form using PayPal and a signup form using iBill.
• dbsetup.cgi – This is an initialization program that will be run one time to set up some initial data tables for your system. It should be deleted from your server after it has been run to prevent other people from resetting your database.
• maxadmin.cgi – This is the cgi script that handles all the administration management for MaxSponder.
• maxcron.cgi – This is the cgi script that runs as a daily cron job. Its function is to process and send out all the autoresponse E-Mails that need to be delivered based on the user defined parameters and current list of active E-Mails for each autoresponder owner.
• maxcronload.txt – This is a convenient file to help you to load the maxcron.cgi, maxsend.cgi, and pendingdeletes.cgi programs into the system so that they run daily.
• maxemail.cgi– This is the cgi program that scans all incoming E-Mails to your domain and determines whether or not to either load the E-Mail into an autoresponder owner’s database or delete it from the database or just send it through to the E-Mail box transparently. Please note that all E-Mails sent to your domain will end up in your E-Mail in box regardless of whether or not they were processed by this script.
• maxheader.cgi – This is a header file that contains a variety of common defaults used by all the cgi programs.
• maxsend.cgi – This is a cgi script that runs in the background as a daily cron task to process emails sent via the "manual send and demographic send" features of the user accounts.
• maxuseradmin.cgi – This is the cgi script that handles all the administration of the individual autoresponder accounts on an account by account basis.
• pendingdeletes.cgi – This is a cgi script that runs in the background as a daily cron task to handle deletions of returned undeliverable emails and also handles purging the database of any opt-in customer emails that have not been activated.
• pendingdeletes.txt – This is a blank file but needs to be put in the same folder as pendingdelets.cgi with write permissions for the user chmod 774 or chmod 777 ..
• newsletter.cgi - for Admin newsetter processing.
• readtracker.cgi - for Processing Message tracking..chmod 755
• uploadfile.cgi – This is a cgi script that handles the file subscribers from the Admin Menu Option Upload Subscribers to List.
• notify.cgi – This is a cgi script that the backend processing for recurring payments with paypal.

worldpaynotify.cgi – This is a cgi script that the backend processing for automatic payments with WorldPay.

• t.cgi – This is the cgi script that handles all the ad tracking data collection and forwarding stats.
• admintemplatepage.html - This file is supplied as a default template file to be used for displaying the contents of the Admin home page if the option to use template files for output is chosen.
• usertemplatepage.html - This file is supplied as a default template file to be used for displaying the contents of the User home page if the option to use template files for output is chosen.
• Library files – all the subroutines used by MaxSponder are in a library directory and are not individually spelled out here.

Upgrading from a Version 5.1 Installation

IMPORTANT: It is highly recommended that you perform a backup of your database before upgrading just in case an error occurs during processing of your database changes.

Upgrading from a version 5.1 installation is very simple. There are just 6steps to perform.

1) Unzip the files to your local computer.
2) Edit the files as described in "Installation Instructions" below.
3) Please review maxheader.cgi to be certain all your variables are correct. Some things have changed in this module. Please be careful to make the correct adjustments.
4) Upload all the other files to the appropriate directories as described below (after being sure paths are correct.) The files will replace the ones currently on the system.
5) If you will be using the Admin newsletter function. Please setup the cron job for it once a day. Set the permissions to 755, as wel as configure within it the path for $cgidir.
Configure $cgidir in updatedb.cgi and Run updatedb.cgi to process database table structure
.

3. Installation Instructions

Prerequisites

There are a few required prerequisites to operate MaxSponder on your Unix account and a few prerequisites that are needed to use the more advanced E-Mail based signup/delete features of the system.

General prerequisites

1. Your domain must be hosted on a Unix system (which can include Unix, BSD Unix, Linux, etc) not on a Windows NT based server. This product does not work on Windows based server platforms.
2. You must have MySQL available on your host machine and a MySQL database set up for your domain.
3. Your domain must use Perl version 5.004 or higher. Please note that some hosting companies have both Perl versions 4.0 and 5.004 so if you are uncertain, please ask before purchasing a domain there.
4. You must have the appropriate perl modules installed to access MySQL (these include DBD.pm and DBI.pm for MySQL which are available for download/installation at http://www.mysql.com/downloads/api-dbi.html in case your support people need to know where to find the appropriate installation files for these Perl modules.)
5. You must have a cgi-bin directory in your domain
6. You must have the ability to run CRON jobs. Cron jobs are background scheduled tasks that run once per day (or more) to do certain tasks automatically
7. You must have telnet access or some web interface access that lets you schedule your Cron job.

NOTE: If you have your own dedicated server and you ask your support people to install MySQL on it for you, chances are that they will neglect to install DBI.pm and DBD.pm for MySQL. If you are getting them to install MySQL for you, please be sure to ask them to also install those two Perl modules. MaxSponder needs both to operate properly.

Desired prerequisites to get the most out of MaxSponder

8. To get maximum use of the system, and to use the E-Mail based sign-up feature, you must have the ability to specify multiple e-mail addresses for your domain all going to a single pop account. This means that you can send E-Mail to john@yourdomain.com, alice@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, etc
   
9. For the E-Mail based customer sign-up feature to work, you must have telnet access and the ability to set up a '.forward' file in your login directory that can execute cgi programs (or a similar functional method to allow for analysis of incoming emails by a cgi program . One such method is a procmail script.) If you do not have this on your account, you can still use the package but you must subscribe everyone manually through a signup form.

Explanation on how to setup the contents of the forward file

Here is an example and I will explain.
\zybisco,"|/usr/local/bin/perl /home/zybisco/www/cgi-bin/maxemail.cgi"

the zybisco should be replaced with your account name then a comma nd quotes ,
then the pipe sign and path to perl.  Then a space , then path to
maxemail.cgi.  Of course use the quotes too.  So the format is

\accountname,"|pathtoperl pathofmaxemail.cgi"

We do not consider it a failure on the part of the software if the hosting company does not support items 7 and 8. You will still be able to run the full functionality of the package except that all subscriptions and unsubscribes will need to be form based as opposed to E-Mail based signups and removes.

Configuration of files

There are 5 required cgi files that must be configured for MaxSponder to work. They are maxheader.cgi, maxcron.cgi, maxemail.cgi, maxsend.cgi and pendingdeletes.cgi.There is another file maxsponder.properties in the lib directory that is used in case the option to use template files for output is chosen.Each is discussed below.

maxheader.cgi – This file has all the configuration parameters that are used by all the programs for common variables. Open this file in a text editor to make changes according to the documentation in the file. You will be setting all the parameters for accessing MySQL, your mail program, defining your base web address, cgi location, flag to indicate whether to use templates for output etc.

maxcron.cgi – As this file is executed by the system for your behalf, it is necessary to use absolute paths to access the maxheader.cgi program. The easiest way to get the absolute path is to log into your domain via telnet, go to the cgi-bin directory and type the command pwd. That will give you the absolute path to use. You can also get the information from the screen of ftp in most cases.

maxemail.cgi– As this file is executed by the system for your behalf, it is necessary to use absolute paths to access the maxheader.cgi program. The easiest way to get the absolute path is to log into your domain via telnet, go to the cgi-bin directory and type the command pwd. That will give you the absolute path to use. You can also get the information from the screen of ftp in most cases.

maxsend.cgi– As this file is executed by the system for your behalf, it is necessary to use absolute paths to access the maxheader.cgi program. The easiest way to get the absolute path is to log into your domain via telnet, go to the cgi-bin directory and type the command pwd. That will give you the absolute path to use. You can also get the information from the screen of ftp in most cases.

maxsponder.properties-This file is used when the user sets the option to use template files for output to 1.In this case the values A_ADMINPAGETEMPLATEPATH, U_USERTEMPLATEFILEPATH should be set to correctly point to a physical location on the system.Two default default template files adminpagetemplate.html, userpagetemplate.html are already provided as default template files.The links are dynamically updated as per the replace rules defined in the file.In speacial cases involving conditional links ,the same are either shown or removed completely as per the user rights,instead of merely updating the href attribute.Please refer to the notes in maxsponder.properties file for further information.

pendingdeletes.cgi– As this file is executed by the system for your behalf, it is necessary to use absolute paths to access the maxheader.cgi program. The easiest way to get the absolute path is to log into your domain via telnet, go to the cgi-bin directory and type the command pwd. That will give you the absolute path to use. You can also get the information from the screen of ftp in most cases.

notify.cgi– This file is the file that paypal will call with Instant Payment Notifications ONLY if you are using the Paypal subscription service for your autoresponder. See the example file paypalsub.html.

pendingdeletes.txt – This is used by the system internally to track bounces instead of putting them into the database and breatly improves the performance. Place this again in the same folder as pendingdeletes.cgi with write permissions for the user 774 or 777.

.forward – This is a file that resides in your login directory. The included .forwardfile gives instructions on how to configure the paths for that file and what to install in your system .forward file. This file (which actually has a dot before its name), controls what happens to E-Mails that come in to your system. The dot makes it invisible so to see if you have one in your login directory, you would telnet into your domain and the first command you would execute is ls –a which basically shows all files in your login directory.

Additionally, the following cgi programs will need to be edited to reflect the proper path to Perl 5 on your domain and maxheader.cgi. The files are dbsetup.cgi, maxadmin.cgi, maxcron.cgi, maxemail.cgi, maxuseradmin..cgi, notify.cgi,and t.cgi. In the maxsponder.com domain, the line reads #!/usr/local/bin/perl5. In other domains, it may read #!/usr/bin/perl, #!/usr/local/bin/perl or something similar. Note that it is the first line in each of the cgi files.

There are no edits required for any of the files in the Lib directory. They just need to be uploaded in the proper location (as defined in maxheader.cgi) as ascii files.

Also, all the html files must be updated to point to the location of the particular cgi program that is associated with that file. They are all configured to find the associated files in the root cgi location so if you do not change locations of files, these files should not need any modification.

Additional work for the HTML files that would probably be performed is any customizations you wish to the look and feel of these files to match the look and feel of your site. All the files can be edited to match the look and feel of your site and specifically header.html and footer.html can be edited to propagate that look and feel throughout all the screens of the various MaxSponder administrative functions in maxadmin.cgi and maxuseradmin.cgi.

Lastly, you must modify the file maxcronload.txt with the absolute directory path to perl5 in your system and the absolute directory path to maxcron.cgi, maxsend.cgi and pendingdeletes.cgi. Note: This step is unnecessary if your web hosting company provides you with a way to schedule cron jobs through a web based interface.

How To Configure the Fonts in The System

To Configure the Fonts for the whole system. Use a Cascading Style Sheet and put it in the HEADER area of the header.html. Ensure you call the name of the CSS font.

Installation of files

Step 1: Configure files (as described above)

Step 2: Upload files to server via FTP

HTML Files – All html files (adminlogin.html, maxhelp.html, userlogin.html and usersignup.html, etc.) should be stored in a subdirectory of your html root directory called "maxsponder".

GIF files – The gif file, help.gif, must also be located in the maxsponder directory with the html files

CGI files – The cgi programs (dbsetup.cgi, maxadmin.cgi, maxcron.cgi, maxemail.cgi, maxheader.cgi, maxuseradmin.cgi and t.cgi) must all be loaded into the root cgi directory. (Note: They can be loaded into a subdirectory of the cgi directory called maxsponder if desired for cleanliness but you must change the path to the cgi programs in the respective html files so that the login and signup forms can find the associated scripts.) All cgi files must have their permissions set via chmod to 755. They must be uploaded in ascii mode.

LIB Files – The Lib files are helper files for the cgi files. They should be loaded in a directory below the CGI files and it should be called Lib. They must be uploaded in ascii mode. Nothing more needs to be done with these files.

OTHER files – There are two other files you will want to load to the root directory of your domain. The root directory is the directory you are in when you first log into your domain via telnet or FTP (if you did not hard code default directories). These files are .forwardfile and maxcronload.txt. They must be uploaded in ascii mode.

The directory structure described above looks something like this:

ROOT

|---- .forwardfile (and later .forward)

|---- maxlib.js - Maxsponder Javascript library

|---- maxcronload.txt

HTMLROOT

|-------- MAXSPONDER

|---- adminhelp.html

CGIROOT File Permission Settings

|---- dbsetup.cgi (755)

|---- maxadmin.cgi (755)

|---- maxcron.cgi (755)

|---- maxemail.cgi (755)

|---- maxheader.cgi (755)

|---- maxsend.cgi (755)

|---- maxuseradmin.cgi (755)

|---- pendingdeletes.cgi (755)

|---- newsletter.cgi (755)

|---- readtracker.cgi (755)

|---- pendingdeletes.txt (774) write permissions for the user executing scripts.

|---- uploadfile.cgi (755)

|---- notify.cgi (755)

|---- worldpaynotify.cgi (755)

|---- t.cgi (755)

|---- Lib (directory) – all library files must be copied to this directory as well as the maxsponder.properties file . The default file permissions assigned by the FTP program are fine.

Step 3: Initialize the database

To initialize the database, you need to run dbsetup.cgi. This program can either be run through a telnet session or directly through the browser. If you run it through the browser, it will be accessible from the following url if everything is set up properly: http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/dbsetup.cgi where yourdomain.com is edited to be the name of the domain where you are running.

If there are any configuration errors in your maxheader.cgi file or if you do not have the proper mode set to mark the file executable, appropriate error messages will be displayed.

Important: If dbsetup.cgi runs successfully, never run it again or it could damage your setup. In fact, it would be best to delete it from your server after running it to be sure there are no accidents.

Note: If you are doing an upgrade from Version 2.5, you must also run dbsetup.cgi as it will figure out your current database configuration and make some changes to it so that it is compatible with the code changes in Version 3.0. Please note that this process could take a while to finish if you have a large database and you may be better served to run this script via a telnet session to be sure it doesn’t time out while processing.

Step 4: Remove dbsetup.cgi from your domain

Once you have successfully initialized your database, use ftp or telnet to delete this file. If you do not delete it and you or another person executes it at a later time, you will lose all your data.

Step 5: Set up cron tasks

To load the cron tasks and get them started, you will telnet into your domain in its default directory (where you uploaded maxcronload.txt) and type the following command "crontab maxcronload.txt". This will load the cron file into your system and get it operational. You may verify this by typing the command "crontab –l" (the letter l). This will give you a listing of current cron jobs. The last line of the listing will reflect the information contained in maxcronload.txt.

Note 1: If you already have cron jobs loaded and running on your system, this process may delete those cron jobs. The easiest way to deal with this scenario is to modify the maxcronload.txt file to contain the other cron jobs and then just load all your cron jobs with the above command.

Note 2: If your domain comes with a user interface to load your cron job, it may be easier for you to use that process. As this method and interface can vary greatly in use and function from one software package to another, we cannot advise you on how to use this system if it is available on your domain.

Note 3: When you verify your process loaded into the cron process (i.e. with the "crontab –l" command), be sure that it loaded properly. On some unix systems, if you run this command and see the unix prompt on the same line as the cron process instead of on the next line, the process may not run. To fix this situation, it is necessary for you to insert a blank line after the cron task definition line in maxcronload.txt and reload it into crontab as described above.

Note 4: When editing the values of your daily start times in the cron processes, you may want to stagger their running time, having one run at midnight, one at 2 am and one at 4 am as an example.

Step 6: Create/Modify .forward file

As stated above, to allow customers to signup for autoresponder responses or remove themselves via E-Mail, a .forward file must be created or modified. If a .forward file does not exist in your home directory (check by typing "ls –a"), you can just rename the .forwardfile to .forward after the information in it was modified as described above. If a .forward file already exists, you will need to edit it and add the line in the .forwardfile to it. We recommend that it be the first line in your .forward file.

As previous stated, not all versions/flavors of Unix support .forward files or allow execution of cgi programs from .forward files where they are supported. There may be other mechanisms available to do the same function on your web domain. Some of these methods/workarounds are described in our support forum at http://www.maxsponder.com. If there are any questions on what methodology would work best on your domain, these questions should be addressed to your isp’s technical support.

Note: We do not consider it a failure on the part of the software if the hosting company does not support this feature. You can access and use all functions of this system without this functionality. The only added benefit to this feature is that it allows the autoresponder customers the ability to do subscribe functions via E-Mail (i.e. "Please send an E-Mail to xyz@yourdomain.com for more information" to subscribe as opposed to having to go to predefined forms to perform the same task.)

After all these steps are completed, you are ready to begin configuring your system as described in the Administrator and Owner manuals below.

Step 7 Set permissions on pendingdeletes.txt and ensure its in the same folder as pendingdeletes.cgi.

Secure server discussion

If you are looking to use MaxSponder to sell autoresponder services, you need a way to collect payment information from customers. This discussion will detail a few ways this process can work.

The first way is for you to integrate the autoresponder service in a current mix of products you are already selling, using existing order form, etc. to gather the information. If you use this approach, you would use the "Add New Autoresponder Manually" function of the maxadmin.cgi script to set up and activate the account after payment is received and verified.

A second way is to use one of the usersignup forms as a way to collect the payment details and interact with the system in ther manner defined by its hidden variables. To operate MaxSponder in this manner, it is necessary to have secure server access on your domain and make a few small changes to the way the usersignup form is accessed and and the way it calls "maxadmin.cgi". The basic change is to make sure you access both the form and the script in a secure manner (i.e. using "https" instead of "http") and using the proper paths for secure server space as defined by your web hosting company. This is an issue that cannot be answered specifically here as different domains handle secure server technologies in different ways. If there is a question on this manner of set up, please direct these questions to your isp’s technical support department.

There is of course a third way to sign up customers that does not involve secure processing or any other complex issues. If you are giving away free autoresponders, use a version of the usersignup web page with no credit card information and have the customers use that form as is to sign up for their free autoresponders.

Note 1: This system does not store credit card details. When someone signs up with a usersignup form and supplies credit card details, the details are E-Mailed to you at the E-Mail address you set up with the "Change Master Contact E-Mail" function of maxadmin.cgi. This information does not exist anywhere else.

Note 2: If you use the PayPal or iBill modules, you do not need to have a secure server as you will be using their secure servers when it comes time to process credit cards. For a full discussion of PayPal and iBill, see the appropriate sections below.

Capabilities/Capacities

MaxSponder is a database enabled application. This particular program uses MySQL as the backend database engine as it is freely available on many Unix web accounts. This section discusses some issues that will help you determine whether you can use a shared account (the ones that are typically $30-$70/mo) or if you need a dedicated server.

There are two areas to examine. The first is storage space and the second is processor time.

Storage space – MaxSponder utilizes disk space very efficiently and you can literally grow to hundreds of reasonably active accounts on a typical shared hosting account. It is also designed for fast access, with the most active parts of the database broken into very small, rapid access data tables. This structure lets you grow quite a bit on a shared server. And if you ever outgrow the shared server environment, MySQL databases can actually be copied verbatim from the old machine to the new one with no special tools required so migrating to a more powerful machine is relatively easy if that is needed.

In general, you will not need to worry about storage space for a very long time with any type of account that you set up, especially as many of the accounts nowadays give you 100+ MB of storage. To help this become less of a worry, figure out how you intend to use the system as you choose a hosting company. If you are using it for internal business and expect to have only a handful of autoresponder accounts, you can get by with almost any size account. If you are looking to create 100’s or 1000’s of autoresponders that will be fairly active, get the biggest account you can justify with your current budget.

Processor time – This is the area that is the most sensitive. When you have a shared web account, you could be on a machine that is shared with 100-200 or more other domains, each using some precious processor time on the machine. For most MaxSponder operations, this will never be an issue but when you are running maxcron.cgi every day to send out E-Mails, it could cause an issue. In an effort to conserve processor resources, some web hosting companies put a physical time limit on how long a background task can run before it will automatically be stopped by the operating system. In some instances, this can be as short as 15 minutes and in that environment, you may only be able to process 10,000 or so E-Mails on a daily basis in an automated manner. Others are more generous and don’t really care, allowing you to process 10 times as much.

In general, if you see yourself sending out huge numbers of E-Mails per day, you should consider investing in a dedicated server. It would certainly be justified if you had hundreds of very active autoresponder accounts (which in reality could be a several thousand accounts as many will not be too active.)

If there are questions in this regard, please describe your situation to us and we will do the best we can to advise you properly about this issue.

Backing up the Database

There is a MySQL utility called mysqldump that will generate an ascii dump of your entire database for archival purposes. The command string is:

mysqldump –hhostname –uuserid –ppassword databasename > filetooutput.

Here is an example:

./mysqldump -usendthis -pronron maxspon > backup

This example dump the contents of the database maxspon with the userid sendthis and password of ronron to the file named backup. In this instance, the –h option is not used as the database is located on the same machine as this person’s user account.

This next example uses the –h option as the database resides on a machine which is different than the machine where the domain is hosted.

./mysqldump -hdb10.pair.com -umaxspond -pQkLZdE maxspond_maxspon > poo

This backup is good to do on a periodic basis as it will allow you to restore your database in case something catastrophic happens and wipes out your server. If possible, it would be good to store the backups on a different machine.

Alternatively, especially if you have a dedicated server, it is a good idea to have the hosting company perform periodic backups of the entire machine so that it can be restored if anything catastrophic happens to your machine while being hosted at that location.

In other words, backups of critical data on a frequent basis is always a good idea.

Restoring from a Database Backup

If you ever need to restore your database for any reason, this is the easiest way to do so.

1. Make sure you have a good backup to restore from.
2. Delete the database. This would be done from the telnet command line or with help from your servers support team. Full documentation can be found at http://www.mysql.com. It documents the variety of ways to accomplish this task.
3. Recreate this database. If you make a database with a different name or password, be sure to update your maxheader.cgi file to match the new parameters. This would be done from the telnet command line or with help from your servers support team. Full documentation can be found at http://www.mysql.com. It documents the variety of ways to accomplish this task.
4. Import your data into the new database. This would be done from the telnet command line with the mysql program mysql. The command format for performing this is below:

mysql –uDBUSERNAME –pDBPASSWORD DBNAME < BACKUPFILENAME

or

mysql –uDBUSERNAME –pDBPASSWORD –hDBHOSTNAME DBNAME < BACKUPFILENAME

where

DBUSERNAME = the username you use for logging into your database

DBPASSWORD = the password you use for logging into your database

DBHOSTNAME = the computer host name where the database resides if not on the local server

DBNAME = the name of the database

BACKUPFILENAME = the name of the file that contains the backup of the database.

MaxSponder Administrator manual

After successfully following the installation steps, you are ready to start configuring your Administration system and start using MaxSponder for your business. This section of the manual describes all the features of the Administration system, how to use them and the benefits of using them. It will begin with logging you into the system and suggesting that you immediately handle certain configuration aspects. It will then walk you through several recommended configuration activities and then discuss the additional functions available in the Administration system.

First, it is necessary to log on to the MaxSponder Administration system. You will type the url of the ‘adminlogin.html’ web page into your browser. (In the demo at maxsponder.com, this address is http://www.maxsponder.com/adminlogin.html.) You will be presented with a screen asking you for your password. As this is the first time you are running "maxadmin.cgi", you must enter the default password, which is "test" (all in lower case as all passwords are case sensitive.)

Once you hit the "Log In" button, it will bring you to the MaxSponder main Administration screen which will highlight all the functions available for you.

Now that you are in the administration section, there are a few things you need to be aware of. First is that this is a timed session. The default session length is 60 minutes which you change to be shorter or longer depending on your security concerns and the length of time of your typical online session with the administration function. A description of this function and its effect on the system is described later in this section.

To continue, there are now three Administration functions you will want to address immediately and two others that are recommended before you begin using the actual autoresponders. They are described below:

It is strongly recommended you immediately address the following two functions:

Change Password – The very first action that is recommend is to change your login password from "test" to any other password you desire. You need to do this so others cannot log into your system and cause damage to your configuration or to your autoresponder accounts. When changing your password, please use just letters and numbers and you may want to mix both lower and upper case letters and numbers in your password but please choose a password which you will remember as there is no built-in retrieval function for a lost administration password. This is for security. Note: Passwords are case sensitive.

Change Master Contact E-Mail – Right now, if you were to use the MaxSponder system to contact someone, there would be no E-Mail address represented in the "From:" field of the E-Mail. You need to install one. This is a feature that will probably only be used one time but it is very important.

This E-Mail address can be any valid E-Mail you wish. It should be one that you review on a periodic basis as it is where autoresponder owners would contact you with questions, etc. This E-Mail is used for every communication the system generates on your behalf. For instance, if you use the Contact Autoresponder Owners feature of the system, it will structure the E-Mail so that if an owner wishes to reply to that E-Mail, all the owner has to do is hit reply in the E-Mail program and it will be properly structured to contact you at the E-Mail address you entered via this function.

Another feature is the ability to set up an "X-1:" header in all outgoing emails to offer some message in the header of the email that you consider important. This can be used as an anti-spam feature (delivering an anti-spam message) or any other message you may want included in the header. If you set a value for this feature, every email that is generated on behalf of all your autoresponder owners will have this header inserted in their emails.

It is recommended you address the following two functions before setting up autoresponder accounts:

Set-Up Autoresponder Purchase Confirmation Letter- This function allows you to set up the purchase confirmation letter that automatically gets sent to potential autoresponder owners who fill out the automatic enrollment form that is going to set up a "pending" account. This letter is sent out when an autoresponder purchaser fills out a usersignup form and submits it to you. The system automatically gives basic details about the signup process. It tells the purchaser that the account is in a pending state, awaiting activation. It also supplies the autoresponder name, password and link to access the user administration system.

Your letter at this point should be a welcome aboard type of letter and give some basic details of what will happen next. It should explain that the account will remain pending until you process all the account details at which time that person will get an additional E-Mail telling of account activation.

Set-Up Autoresponder Activation Confirmation Letter - This function allows you to set up the activation confirmation letter. This letter automatically gets sent out every time you or the system activates an autoresponder account. The system automatically gives basic details about the signup process. It tells the purchaser that the account is now active. It also supplies the autoresponder name, password and link to access the user administration system.

Your letter at this point should be similar to the letter described above, except it should discuss your contact policy for questions/support and any other information you feel would be useful for them to know at this time, perhaps some relevant links on your site or something similar.

Additional administrative functions:

Import Autoresponders – Allows the import of a list of people you want to generate an autoresponder for whithout having to add them manually one by one.. The process of importing an autoresponder owner is very easy. All you do is import a comma separated list ...oner per line with only 3 mandatory fields; first name, last name, email, . The rest of the fields are optional but are nice to have in case you need to contact the autoresponder owner.Ensure you choose the options you want above the text area where you import the list of autoresponders...such as the number of accounts each...number of messages per atutoresponder and more.

Once you have pasted the list in the import text area , click the import autoresponders button "Import Autoresponders" button, the system will do all the necessary background tasks to prepare and activate the account including sending an E-Mail to the autoresponder owners to tell of the account being activated, the password details and other relevant information about the account. Additionally, it will also send the contents of the activation confirmation letter (if any) to that person.

An example of an import is below:

list@maxsponder.com,john,renna

Please note that you can change many of the configuration parameters for any autoresponder account any time you wish by selecting the "Customize Autoresponder" function.

Add New Autoresponder Manually - Although the Administration system supports automatic sign-up for an autoresponder purchaser, there may be times when you need/want to add a new customer manually. The process of adding an autoresponder owner is very easy. All you do is fill out the form that is presented when you click on this link. There are only 3 mandatory fields; autoresponder name, autoresponder password and E-Mail address. The rest of the fields are optional but are nice to have in case you need to contact the autoresponder owner.

Activate Autoresponder - When a potential autoresponder owner signs up through the automated system where the account state is set to pending a few things happen. First, you get an E-Mail (at the address you set up with the "Change Master Contact E-Mail" function) with all the account details, including credit card/payment details if included on the particular form. Second, all the account files are set up. Third, the autoresponder owner gets an E-Mail to confirm the purchase (including any purchase confirmation message you may have created) and to inform that person that upon activation a message will be sent supplying all the activation/use details.

You, as the master administrator, use this feature to actually activate the account. You will choose the autoresponder name you wish to activate and click on the "Activate Autoresponder" button. This process

will make the account live and send all the account details to the customer just like in the "Add New Autoresponder Manually" process.

One other function you may want to perform immediately before or after this operation is to "Customize Autoresponder" to set the number of replies and E-Mail details for that specific account if they are different than the default values set by the system.

Delete Autoresponder - This function allows you to delete one or more autoresponders. You would use it to delete accounts that didn't renew with you or to remove an account that was not obeying any anti-spam policies that you have enacted. Delete is a permanent function. Once you delete an autoresponder, it and all its E-Mail addresses, etc. are gone. It cannot be restored.

Rename Autoresponder - This function allows you to rename one autoresponder at a time.

Customize Autoresponder – This function allows you to review/edit the number of sequence messages the autoresponder owner gets (from 1 to 16777215) and whether or not the master header/footer you define will appear on each of the autoresponder owner's sent messages or not. This allows you to offer different service types/levels on a per customer basis. For instance, you can give free autoresponders that can send 5 follow-ups with your ad(s) appearing on each message sent out and also give full access accounts with unlmited follow-ups and no advertising messages by you. This can be customized on a per autoresponder basis. It also allows you to enable/disable import functionality and Opt-In functionality for an autoresponder.

You can also set up the number of subscribers allowed for this account (where 0 subscribers means an unlimited amount of subscribers and any positive number means no more subscribers than that limit.)

This function can be used any time after an account is set up and will override any settings that are already in existence.

You may also alter the permission to a given user to create Campaigns.

Freeze Autoresponder Account - This function is used to freeze (or unfreeze) activity on one or more autoresponder accounts. It would be used if an account owner didn't pay his periodic subscription fee but you didn't want to delete that person's database yet or if someone was apparently disobeying your anti-spam policy and you wanted to freeze the account until you completed your investigation.

Freezing an account prevents new E-Mails from being added to the system and prevents owner from accessing the Autoresponder Owner System. It also freezes the ability of sending the remainder of a sequence to people who are already enrolled in that particular autoresponder's sequence.

Contact Autoresponder Owners - This function allows you to send an E-Mail to all the current autoresponder owners. Simply fill out the subject line, the message body inputs, whether or not it is an HTML or text message and hit the submit button and the system will do the rest.

Retrieve Autoresponder Owner Password - This function allows you to retrieve the password for a particular autoresponder. It is useful for fetching a password from an account when the autoresponder owner forgot it. However, if you use the getpassword.html script and integrate it into your user signup page, this function should be mostly redundant.

Edit Autoresponder Owner Record – This function allows you to edit an autoresponder owner’s record including the custom fields that they cannot see or edit about themselves.

Autoresponder Statistics - This function allows you to print out All the bandwidth usage (Emails sent, Bytes sent) per account, and even email the owner their usage.

Search Autoresponders Owners – By entering a value and shoosing a dropdown for the field to search , this function will return a list of all matching autoresponders with their information in CSV format.

Generate Report - This function allows you to generate reports about your autoresponder owners. It supplies you with the relevant account and contact details of each autoresponder. There are four reports that can be generated:

• Report of all Autoresponder Owners in Alphabetic order – This report generates a complete report on all your customers in Alphabetic order.
• Report of all Autoresponder Owners in Sign-up Order – This report generates a complete report on all your customers in Sign-up Order with the oldest account being first.
• Summary Report of all Autoresponder Owners in Alphabetic order - This report generates a summary subscriber report, supplying account name, registration date, number of active emails, number of archived emails and last subscriber date, one per line, ordered via alphabetic order.
• Summary Report of all Autoresponder Owners in Sign-up Order – This report generates a summary subscriber report, supplying account name, registration date, number of active emails, number of archived emails and last subscriber date, one per line, ordered via sign-up order with the oldest account being first.
• Export owner email addresses – this gives you an export list of your account holders for integration with other programs.

Set-Up Master Header/Footer - This feature allows you to set up a master header and footer that can be added to each and every E-Mail sent out to the autoresponder owner's customer lists. It can be used as advertising by you if you are giving away autoresponders or selling them at a reduced price. It can also be used as generic information or any other message that you wish to supply. This is a part of a customizable feature set on a per autoresponder basis and is used in conjunction with the "Customize Autoresponder" function described above.

Since the system allows sending of both text and HTML emails, the global master header and master footer can have both text and html formatted messages to be included when emails are sent out.

This works as follows. If your customer sends out a text message and is configured to have messages sent out with the master header and master footer, that email will be generated with the text version of the global header and the global footer. If the customer sends out an HTML message, the HTML version will be used. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you include both in your configuration of this function.

Note: When writing an HTML style message fragment, you must use html tags to make the message look correct. It is advisable to set up a test account and experiment to be sure your messages are coming out the way you desire.

Global Remove – You now have the ability to maintain a global remove database. This allows you to remove a customer from ALL autoresponder accounts with a click of a button and prevent that customer from being able to sign up on any autoresponder account in your domain as long as that person remains on the global remove list. Additionally, a form, globalremove.html, is included for your customer’s use so that they can add and remove themselves without your intervention. This is a great anti-spam feature as it ensures that you can absolutely remove someone’s ability to interact with your domain.

Change Master Logout Time - This function allows you to modify the amount of time your master administration account stays logged in before being disabled. It is a safety feature to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the system if you walk away from your computer for a long period of time. Additionally, this same value becomes the default value used when autoresponder owner accounts are initialized. We recommend that it always be set to at least 60 minutes.

Export Entire System List Data – This function allows the admin to export all emails from all lists in the system with the same options as a autoresponder owner’s export as well.

Copy Master Message Files- Allows the admin to copy one autoresponder message sequence to a selected group or all of the autoresponders in the system such as a template. This is done at any time. Don’t forget this can be automatically setup from your signup page so the admin doesn’t have to copy first time signups a message template.

Set-up Words To Ignore Allows the admin to specify a list of words, that if the word is anywhere in the first name, last name, or email, it is rejected from incoming leads form submissions whether a web pages signup, import, or Manually added it will be not allowed and complained to the user..

DO NOT RUN THE CLEAN ALL AUTORESPONDERS THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE BACKED UP YOUR DATABASE!

Edit Autoresponder Owner Record- Allows the admin to edit an autoresponder owner record including the custom1-5 fields the autoresponder owner cannot see or edit.

Upload Subscribers to List - Allows the admin to upload a list of subscribers into any list from a file on their local pc.

Set PreMenu Screen – This function allows the Admin to have the user see a page before they can access their account and they have to click on a link to go to their account. Like an announcement page but it is interactive so the user has to click, not a popup.

Find Unused Accounts – This function allows the Admin to either Freeze or Delete Accounts that have not been logged into for a specified number of months…It steps you through asking what you would like to do and finally shows a list which you must confirm again before the Freeze or Delete happens.

Configure Lead Rotaation – This is a fantastic optional feature the Admin can turn on if he/she desires to distribute leads coming in via signup forms to a group of accounts he/she can configure on this screen.

Even with the lead Rotation on Users can still run their own campaigns by simply opting out to not join in this when they create their signup forms. When First coming into this Menu Option it tells you

In Red who is due Next a Lead.

Logout – This function will reset the logout time for the session, in effect shutting down access to the session, and logs you out. If you do not perform this operation, you will be leaving a potential security access hole in your system until the time actually expires.

Opt-In for the Administrator

As administrator, you have two Opt-In decisions you can make on a per autoresponder basis. Both of them are controlled by the sign-up form for an autoresponder account and one can be modified at a later time by the ‘Customize Autoresponder" function.

The first decision (controlled by the opt_in form variable) is whether or not you wish to require a double Opt-In for the actual signup of an autoresponder account. This can be useful if you are offering free accounts as it prevents someone from signing up with a fake E-Mail address. The system will also record where the customer signed up (i.e. from what URL) and it will also record the IP address the customer was using at the time of signup. This information can be viewed by the "Generate Reports" function.

When a customer signs up using Opt-In, the customer will receive an email with all the account details and a link that must be clicked to activate the account. Until that link is clicked (or you as administrator switch account status from Pending to Active), the account will remain unusable.

The second decision (controlled by the require_opt_in form variable) is whether or not you wish all the emails entered into the customer’s autoresponder account via a form based method will be processed in an Opt-In type of methodology. This methodology works as follows:

1. A customer signs up either via form, you enter the customer manually or you import a list of email addresses.
2. An E-Mail is sent out informing the customer about the subscription event an activation link in the email. The subscriber must click on the activation link to begin receiving the autoresponder sequence. If the customer does not click on this link, the customer will not be subscribed to the autoresponder sequence.
3. If the customer does not click on the link within the time specified by the MaxSponder Administrator, this name will automatically be purged from that autoresponder account holders "pending activation" list.

This option can be changed by the administrator on an account by account basis using the "Customize Autoresponder" function.

Newsletter

The newsletter function is designed so the Admin can send a one time message to all active subscribers of the autoresponders the Admin chooses. The admin can choose which autoresponders to send to …all or a selected few. At night usually when the cron job is scheduled the message will e sent to the active subscribers in the list.

• The Admin can careate an unlimited amount of Newsletter messages and store them for later use.
  
• To create a new newsletter click the Create Newsletter button
  
• After Saving you are brought back to the screen where Now you can Edit, Delete or Send the Newsletter
  
• If you click Delete it will delete the Newsletter permanently.
  
• If you click Send Newsletter, It puts it in the queue to be sent when the cron job is scheduled. When you click Send it will also ask you for the accounts to be sent to. Until the Newsletter is sent the Date Sent will say NOT YET.
  - Once sent the date Sent will have the actual date the newsletter was sent out to all the selected accounts subscribers.
  - At anytime you can go into the Schedule of Newsletters section and edit the accounts or cancel the newsletter to be sent.
  

Methods for Customers to Sign-Up for Autoresponder Accounts

There are a variety of templates that are provided for you to use and customize to your needs that allow for customers to create their own autoresponder. They and their special features will be explained below. But before that, we will explain the list of form variable names that can be used in creating your own autoresponder signup forms to allow customers to create their own autoresponder accounts.

• autorespondername – This field is used for the person who is signing up to define the actual name of the autoresponder account that will we configured by the system. For example, if the person wanted an autoresponder account with the name marketing, the system would set up as an example marketing@mydomain.com as the autoresponder account. This field is required and as it is used as part of the login for the user account, it is case sensitive.
• password – This field defines the password that they autoresponder owner will use to log into the administration system for the autoresponder account named above. This field is required and as it is used as part of the login for the user account, it is case sensitive.
• firstname – The customer’s first name.
• lastname – The customer’s last name.
• email – The E-Mail address of the customer. This field is required.
• address1 – First line of address details.
• address2 – Second line of address details.
• city – The customer’s city.
• state – The customer’s state.
• zipcode – The customer’s zip code.
• country – The customer’s country.
• phone – The customer’s phone number.
• fax – The customer’s fax number.
• cardnum – The credit card number being used by the customer to purchase an account.
• ccname – The name on the credit card.
• ccmonth – The expiration month of the credit card.
• ccyear – The expiration year of the credit card.
• cctype – The type of credit card (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, etc.)
• tos – see the description below in the hidden variables section.

• activeflag – This flag can either be set to A or P (these are both capital letters and they stand for Active and Pending.) This flag allows you to control when people’s accounts become live. For instance, if you are giving away free accounts, you may wish to set the flag to A so that all accounts automatically become active whereas if you are accepting credit card orders, you may choose to set the flag to P so that the account is put in a pending state to give you time to process the credit card before you activate it through the "Activate Autoresponder" function of the administration menu. If this flag is not explicitly set in the HTML form, it has a default value of A and will automatically activate the account.
• ismasteraccount– This variable allows you to specify whether this autoresponder is allowed to create acampaigns, thus subresponder accounts controllable by them.
• maxnumberofsubaccounts – This variable allows you to specify the maximum number of campaigns a master autoresponder account is allowed to have at anyone time, 0 being unlimited.
• numberofresponders – This variable allows you to define the number of messages that will be configured for this autoresponder account.
• maxsubscribers – You have the ability to limit the number of subscribers on any given list. The allowed values are from 0 to any positive number you wish (1000, 5000, 10000, 100000, etc.) If you set the parameter to 0, that is the same as saying an unlimited number of subscribers The definition of a subscriber in the MaxSponder system is as follows: everyone that is Active,Archived, or tried to join the list and has not confirmed(in an opt_in enabled list).
• masterheader – This flag which can be set to either Y or N (these are both capital letters) tells the system whether or not to include a Master Header and Master footer in all emails sent out by this autoresponder account. You may set it to Y when you give away free accounts as a means of sending out piggy-backed advertising or similar message and you would generally be setting it to N when you are selling accounts to other people. The default setting for this variable is Y (i.e. use the system defined Master Header and Master Footer.)
• copy – This variable allows you to copy the message sequence from one autoresponder account to another. Its value is the name of the autoresponder account to copy from. For instance, lets assume you set up an autoresponder account called "mastermessage" and you wanted to have the system automatically copy that message set to all other autoresponder signups that used a particular signup form. The variable copy would be set to the value "mastermessage" and when someone signed up with that form, the message sequence would be copied to that new account. Note: When you use the copy variable, you have a few additional options related to the variable numberofresponders to consider. If you set numberofresponders to 0 (the number 0), you will be setting up autoresponder accounts that give your autoresponder owners full access to the administration system but NO ABILITY to edit the message sequence. If you se the variable to a number greater than the number of messages being copied, the account owner will be able to add additional messages to the sequence, if desired. Note that any number other than 0 for this variable will allow for editing of the copied message sequence so if you do not want to allow editing of the message sequence, you must set this variable to 0.
• allow_imports – This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, the import function for autoresponder owners is activated. If it is set to N, it is deactivated. This function can be desirable to allow for upgrades to more functionality or as protection against bulk mailers (for instance if giving away free accounts.)
• importmax– Set the value of this to the number of subscribers allowed to be imported every 24 hours. If set to 0 it is unlimited.
• weeklyviewable– This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account owner access to the weekly messages area. Set to N the menu option does not show up.
• importviewable– This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account to see the import menu option , set to N the option does not appear on the min menu.
• exporttviewable– This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account to see the export menu option , set to N the option does not appear on the min menu.
• specialviewable– This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account to see the special message menu option , set to N the option does not appear on the min menu.
• massviewable– This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account to see the mass notify message menu option , set to N the option does not appear on the min menu.
• allow_manualsends – This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account to do manual sends to their list.
• allow_demosends – This is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, this allows the account to do demographic sends to their list.
• manualsendsmax – This value needs to be set to the maximum subscribers that are allowed to be contacted by a manual send for this account. For example, If they have 101 subscribers and you set to 100 It won’t let them send otherwise it will.
• cancopy – This value set to Y or N specifies if thisautoresponder owner can copy any available autoresponders which are copyable.
• copyable – This value set to Y or N specifies is copyable which other autoresponders can see which have canopy set to Y.
• bounceflag – This causes the software, if set to Y to return all bounced emails to the From Email of the autoresponder owner instead of coming back to the domain for autocleaning by the nightly cron/scheduled job pendingdeletes.cgi
• mtypes – Specified message types allowed in the autoresponder . T for text only, H for html only, or B for both types allowed.
• demosendsmax – This value needs to be set to the maximum subscribers that are allowed to be demographically contacted for the account. For example, If they have 101 subscribers and you set to 100 and the demographic contact matches 101 subscribers It won’t let them send otherwise it
• opt_in – This flag is a Y or N flag. If it is set to Y, opt in messages are sent out which will require that the person signing up for an autoresponder will get a message that must be clicked on to activate the autoresponder. If it is set to N, the autoresponder will be activated according to the setting of the activeflag as described above. Setting the flag to Y is very similar to setting the activateflag to P except that a slightly different message is sent out and the person who signed up can activate the account without operator intervention, which is required when the activateflag is set to P. The default setting is Y.
• require_opt_in – This flag is a Y or N flag. It is used to tell the system if the autoresponder owner account must be run in an opt-in fashion or not. If the flag is set to Y, all emails flowing through the system will operate in an opt_in scheme (i.e. every initial E-Mail coming into the system will have to be confirmed by the email owner.) If it is set to N, no E-Mail will be processed through an opt_in methodology. The default setting is N.
• function – This is always set to addresponder2. It tells the computer program where to go to process the form.
• tos – This variable will tell the system whether or not the person signing up for an autoresponder account acknowledges the reading of the terms of service for the autoresponder account. It can have a value of Y for indication that the terms have been read and a value of N to indicate the terms have not been read. If you use any usersignup form that does not ask about terms of service, this variable must be a hidden variable and set to Y to allow for proper processing of the form.
• sub_var – This variable is used to define an existing autoresponder that the new account owner will be subscribed to. For instance, if you have a training sequence on how to use MaxSponder and you put it an autoresponder account called "training", this variable would be set equal to "training" on your signup form and when the new autoresponder owner signs up, this variable will handle subscribing that person for you.

• is_subscr – This flag is a Y or N flag. It is used to tell the system if if this is an subscription when set to Y. This works hand in hand with the notify.cgi that must be installed on the system of Instant Paypal Notifcations to automate your auotoresponder signups/removals.
• opt_in methodology. The default setting is N.

• custom1 following custom fields are hidden from them the autoresponder owners, only Admin sees this in Reporting option 1 or editng an autoresponder owner record.
• custom1_req – Specifies custom 1 as required or not Y for Yes N for no.
• custom1_realname – Name specified for custom1 to user if an error message of what field they left blank.
• custom2
• custom2_req – Specifies custom 2 as required or not Y for Yes N for no.
• custom2_realname – Name specified for custom2 to user if an error message of what field they left blank.
• custom3_req – Specifies custom 3 as required or not Y for Yes N for no.
• custom3_realname – Name specified to user if an error message of what field they left blank.
• custom4
• custom4_req – Specifies custom 4 as required or not Y for Yes N for no.
• custom4_realname – Name specified to user if an error message of what field they left blank.
• custom5
• custom5_req – Specifies custom 5 as required or not Y for Yes N for no.
• custom5_realname – Name specified to user if an error message of what field they left blank.

• price – This is the price you are charging for the service when someone fills out this form. This is a variable as you may have many different priced services that you wish to implement.
• paypalemail – This is the email address you have registered with you PayPal account.
• description – This is the description of the item being bought. It is used during PayPal processing for the receipt it generates and it is used in the email that gets sent to you by the system when the account is fully set up.

• account – This is your iBill account and sub account. The sub account is what defines the price point. This service can handle recurring monthly billing or other combinations. Your iBill consultant can help you make choices and set up sub accounts based on your needs
• description – This is the description of the item being bought. It is sent to you in the email the system generates when the customer finished the signup process. It is not used by iBill.

• usersignup1.html – This form accepts credit card details, sets the account state to pending, sets the number of autoresponders to 20, sets the masterheader flag to N (i.e. no master headers in email), copies the message set from the autoresponder named "template" and has a terms of service pull down menu to indicate whether or not terms of service was agreed to.
• usersignup2.html - This form does not accept credit card details, sets the account state to active, sets the number of autoresponders to 7, sets the masterheader flag to Y (i.e. use master headers in email), copies the message set from the autoresponder named "template" and has a terms of service pull down menu to indicate whether or not terms of service was agreed to.
• usersignup3.html - This form does not accept credit card details, sets the account state to active, sets the number of autoresponders to 7, sets the masterheader flag to Y (i.e. use master headers in email and has a terms of service pull down menu to indicate whether or not terms of service was agreed to.
• usersignup4.html This form accepts credit card details, sets the account state to pending, sets the number of autoresponders to 20, sets the masterheader flag to N (i.e. no master headers in email) and has a terms of service pull down menu to indicate whether or not terms of service was agreed to.
• usersignup5.html – This is usersignup4.html with the additional fields for PayPal. In this instance, it is creating a PayPal charge of $1.00 for account webmaster@maxsponder.com.
• usersignup6.html – This is usersignup4.html with the additional fields for iBill. In this case, it is using account 12345678 (obviously a made up account.)
• usersignup7.html – This form is a functional copy of usersignup1.html with the addition of the sub_var variable included to subscribe the new account holder to autoresponder account "training."

• paypalsub.html – This form is an example of paypal subscriptions for selling autoresponders. Please see the Paypal Subscriptions section for details.

• worldpay.html – This form is an example of Worldpay purchase for selling autoresponders. Please see the WorldPay section for details.

PayPal

PayPal, located at http://www.paypal.com, is a way of taking credit cards for your system. To use PayPal, you will need to go there to set up an account. You must set up either a Premier account or a Business account to use their web accept feature fully described at http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/hlp/help_global-outside#webaccept. PayPal has some good and some bad features. The god feature is that it is a very inexpensive service to use, on par with having your own merchant account. The bad parts are that they do not take credit cards from the entire world (just selected countries), it is a multistep process to get a payment processed and they accept one-time payments only. That means that you cannot do a monthly recurring billing for your service. In other words, it is great for one shot sales, annual subscriptions, etc. but will not serve you for offering month to month billing. If you need that type of service, you should use iBill (below). It costs a bit more but you more than make up for the cost in the additional business being able to offer monthly billing will afford you.

To use Paypal, we have set up a sample signup form. It is called usersignup5.html and it already has the hidden variables in it that are required for operating with PayPal. They would of course have to be modified to work with your particular PayPal account and the form would have to be edited to reflect the data you wish to collect on your customer as well as to look proper for your web site.

A full discussion of how to create signup forms as well as the meaning and use of the PayPal variables is described in Methods for Customers to Sign-Up for Autoresponder Accounts above.

PayPal Subscriptions

Setting up Paypal subscriptions is not trivial. You will need only to edit the HTML file called

paypalsub.html and ensure the notify.cgi file is configured properly.

First Lets explain the tags you can edit.

1. The standard Signup tags explained above are in between sections labeled "MaxSponder Basic Hidden Start and MaxSponder Basic Hidden End comments in the HTML source.

Tags An example is below.

<!--MaxSponder Basic Hidden Tags Start -->

<input type=hidden name=activeflag value=P>

<input type=hidden name=numberofresponders value=7>

<input type=hidden name=masterheader value=Y>

<INPUT name=function type=hidden value=addresponder2>

<input type="hidden" name="is_subscr" value="Y">

<!--MaxSponder Basic Hidden Tags End -->

 

You will need to create a subscription button inside your Paypal ac