About Direct Mailer

  • Article

Direct Mailer is a Windows 2000 service that is installed with Commerce Server as part of a complete installation, or optionally installed in a custom installation. There can be only one instance of Direct Mailer per server. However, you can have more than one Direct Mailer resource at the global resource level.

Direct Mailer performs the following tasks:

  • Manages Direct Mailer jobs.

  • Constructs personalized and non-personalized message bodies.

  • Formats e-mail message headers.

  • Sets the code-page value (language) and converts message bodies to the correct message type (MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML Documents (MHTML), Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), or text).

  • Sends e-mail messages to recipients.

You can supply a list of recipients to Direct Mailer by using the List Manager module in Commerce Server Business Desk or, when running Direct Mailer in stand-alone mode from the command line, you can specify a list to use (by file name or SQL Server query). For any given list of recipients, Direct Mailer performs the same processing steps through the List Manager objects.

Direct Mailer can construct message bodies from either Web pages or static files. It can also be extended to construct messages using other sources, such as SQL Server templates, by adding custom components to the Direct Mailer pipeline. For more information about adding custom components to the Direct Mailer pipeline, see Using the Direct Mailer Pipeline.

Direct Mailer can send personalized e-mail messages from a Web page, or non-personalized mailings from a flat text file, to large groups of recipients.

Direct Mailer Requirements

Direct Mailer Databases

Direct Mailer Pipeline

Opt Out Lists

Direct Mailer Requirements

Direct Mailer has the following requirements:

  • Software Requirements and Dependencies

  • Mailing List Formats

  • Message Formats

  • Message Sources

Software Requirements and Dependencies

Direct Mailer uses SQL Server 7.0 or SQL Server 2000 as its database. It requires SQL Server Agent to be installed and running in order to start recurring mailings. Direct Mailer must be installed on the same computer as the Direct Mailer database. SQL Server must be running in order for Direct Mailer to start.

For more information about SQL Server, see SQL Server Books Online.

Microsoft Windows 2000 includes the following components, which Direct Mailer is dependent on:

  • Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). ADO enables Direct Mailer to access and manipulate data in its database. To access data on one or more SQL Servers, it uses OLE DB Provider for Microsoft SQL Server.

  • Microsoft Windows Collaboration Data Objects (CDO). CDO provides a set of COM interfaces through which Direct Mailer operates. Direct Mailer primarily employs two major interfaces: IMessage and IConfiguration, which allow composing, formatting, and sending Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) messages over the network, as well as local delivery.

Mailing List Formats

Direct Mailer supports the following mailing list sources:

  • Text file, such as a comma-separated value (.csv) file

  • SQL Server query

  • Analysis report

  • Segment list

A direct mail list contains one or more rows of recipients. Each row in the list contains a single recipient and is comprised of the following elements in comma-delimited format:

Parameter Description
Email address Required. Name or <name@domain>.
GUID Optional. The unique user ID that will be used to provide content in a personalized mail message.
Message format Optional. Controls the message format type that CDO translates the results into. For example, text, MHTML or MIME.
Language Optional. The code-page value for the mail message.
URL Optional. Provides the ability to pass individual URLs per user to CDO.

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  • If an optional parameter is omitted, you must supply the delimiter in order to line up the subsequent optional parameters.

Message Formats

Direct Mailer supports the following message formats:

  • Plain text

  • Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

  • MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML Documents (MHTML)

Message Sources

Direct Mailer can use a URL or a file path as a message source. If you use a file, you must verify that it resides in a directory that Direct Mailer can access.

For performance reasons, Direct Mailer pre-loads the file content into memory, limiting the file size in memory. The file can be any size, but only the first two million ASCII characters or one million Unicode characters are loaded into memory.

Direct Mailer Databases

Direct Mailer uses SQL Server 7.0 or SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server Agent extensively. The Direct Mailer database is created automatically in SQL Server when you install Commerce Server. You use SQL Server Agent, which runs continually, to view details about your Direct Mailer jobs. You can check status, the date and time the Direct Mailer jobs were last run, and the next scheduled run time.

Direct Mailer uses the following databases when it is run as an integrated component of Commerce Server:

  • Direct Mailer database. Contains the details and information associated with the Direct Mailer job.

  • Campaigns database. Contains the details and information associated with the direct mail campaign item.

The following figure shows Direct Mailer jobs and their details listed in SQL Server Agent.

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To start a Direct Mailer job in SQL Server Agent

  1. Expand the nodes to the following path: \Microsoft SQL Servers\SQL Server Group\<SQL Server Name>\Management\SQL Server Agent.

  2. Click Jobs. The Direct Mailer jobs appear in the right pane of the SQL Server Enterprise Manager.

  3. Right click the Direct Mailer job and select Start Job.

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  • To reschedule a Direct Mailer job, you use the Campaigns Manager module in Commerce Server Business Desk. For information about scheduling a Direct Mailer job, see Scheduling a Direct Mail Campaign.

See Also

Direct Mailer Pipeline

Direct Mailer Pipeline

The Direct Mailer pipeline is used to process lists of recipients. You can add new components to the pipeline, integrate the components with line-of-business systems, or replace them with components supplied by third parties.

The following table lists the stages of the Direct Mailer pipeline that are provided by Commerce Server. Each stage contains zero or more components.

Stage Description
Throttle Limits the speed in messages-per-hour at which Direct Mailer runs. This is useful to avoid flooding mail servers.
Preprocess Recipient Verifies the data of the recipient.
Filter Recipient Use as a model to further add/write custom components for this stage to extend the existing pipeline. For example, opting out a recipient.
Create Cookies Creates the necessary cookies to impersonate a site user and get personalized content from the Web server.
Compose E-mail Composes and formats the message body. The Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) for Microsoft Windows 2000 creates the e-mail message.
Send E-mail Sends the previously created e-mail message.
Postprocess Recipient Use as a model to further add/write custom components for this stage to extend the existing pipeline. For example, updating the Direct Mailer database to mark the messages that were sent, and writing the appropriate error codes if needed.

The following diagram shows the Direct Mailer pipeline and the components included in each pipeline stage.

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For more information about adding and removing components from the Direct Mailer pipeline, see Using the Direct Mailer Pipeline.

See Also

Direct Mailer Requirements

Direct Mailer Databases

Setting Up a Direct Mail Campaign

Using the Direct Mailer Pipeline

Opt Out Lists

Direct Mailer supports opting out or "filtering" a direct mail list against an opt-out list. For Direct Mailer jobs running as part of a campaign item, the platform supports the ability for the individual recipients to opt-out of a direct mail campaign item. This is done by using an opt-out Active Server Page (ASP) page, which is shipped as part of the Solution Sites.

The developer that authors the ASP page for the Direct Mailer jobs from the Web server can provide links to an Opt-out.asp page, which enables the recipient to either opt-out from the site or the direct mail campaign item by clicking the appropriate link. When a Direct Mailer job running as part of a campaign item is executed, Direct Mailer checks for the presence of the site level opt-out list and the campaign item level opt-out list. If either list exists, they are subtracted from the original direct mail list and the resulting list acts as the new direct mail list.

To support opt-out lists from the command line interface, you use the OptoutListType, OptoutListLocation, and the OptoutListSQL parameters in a job file compatible with the Windows.ini file format. For more information about opting out using the command line interface, see the Job Data Section.

See Also

Job Data Section


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