At 5:33 PM -0400 2004-07-08, Ben M. Swihart wrote:
Mailman basically has a database of e-mail addresses and (optionally) names.
Actually, it's not a true database. This information is contained within a Python "pickle" structure on disk, for each mailing list.
All I am trying to accomplish is integrate the powerful functionality of mailman with a database of customers. When someone wishes to contact all of their customers by e-mail, then they should be using mailman IMHO because it's intelligent about headers, MTA's, logging, configuration, and much more. So... Since I can't expand mailman's database of customers, I have to use another database and middleware such as MySQL/PHP. Whenever I manage this database via admin tools, if I delete a customer or change their e-mail address, then I have to manage them in mailman as well. It makes no sense to have to have to do things twice every time you add/change a customer!
You can use the mailman command-line tools to synchronize against external databases. There are various people on the list who have described their work in doing so. I would encourage you to search the archives of the mailing list.
See <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.018.htp> to learn more about how to search the archives of the mailing list, and <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.009.htp> to learn more about the Mailman command-line programs.
This basic idea of using mailman in concert with more data about who is being e-mailed does not seem all that foreign or unusual to me, but reading through the mailman documents and posting to this list leaves me feeling like I am trying to use mailman to power my hobby spacecraft to 100km!
The problem is that Mailman is a mailing list manager. It is not a customer resources manager, nor does it have direct interfaces to real databases (real database interfaces are supposedly coming for Mailman3).
See <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.018.htp> and also <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.037.htp>.
I'd also encourage you to look at <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.022.htp>.
-- Brad Knowles, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755SAGE member since 1995. See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info. ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/
