Announcement list variables

#1

Hi all,

I’m writing a PHP app that will get triggered by a chron job to send out a reminder email to my Announcement List subscribers once a week. For some reason I can’t find some answers to very basic questions in the documentation:

  1. Does anyone know where you can find a complete list of variables (e.g., --their_email–, etc.) that DreamHost’s Announcement List function will recognize?

  2. Is there any way to expand the list of variables to include information I’m collecting on the user on my end?

OR

  1. Is there a way to add custom variables to those the Announcement List uses? It looked like the answer was “yes” to this in the “new features” — but as I read into it, it looked more like the answer was “no”.

Thanks!

Bill

#2

  1. The variables we handle appear to be “–their_email–” (or simply “–email–”), which both expand to the subscriber’s email address, and “–name–”, which expands to their real name (or their email address if a name isn’t available).

  2. No. It’s a fixed list of substitutions on our end.

  3. No. You can gather additional information when a user signs up for the list, but they are not recorded — they are only sent to you in the subscription notification.

#3

I’m assuming that this hasn’t been updated in a while, but would like to repose the question. Is there a full list of variables available?

Currently some defaults do appear, so here is the list so far I have derived from that in addition to the above post:

(Name of the list)

(Submitter’s IP Address)

(URL they subscribed at)

(URL to confirm registration)

If such a list does not exist…

I think it would be beneficial to have the same variables available from the API that are used in the form, for easier access available to customers for things like unsubscribing.

I hope these suggestions aren’t asking too much, but would greatly appreciate the DH Teams efforts in implementing them.

In theory, clicking link in email would send: _Remove previous notification_&--listname--&--email--
If http://UnsubscribedURL was PHP I’m sure it could be done with the link in the email:

Also, due to the Can Of Spam act, I really think it would be great to have an extra field for senders to input their address/po box that would appear at the end of the email.

Additionally this could be added to the e-mail itself for emails wishing to show directions or address included in the bulk of it.

Thanks!