NATS4 Email Configuration

The NATS4 e-mail function allows clients to have complete control over any automated e-mails that are sent out to members, affiliates, owners, account reps, and site partners by NATS.

This works in conjunction with the mailing admin, as under NATS4 all outgoing e-mails are now required to go through a queue in the mailing admin before they are sent out.

Through the NATS E-Mail function, you will be able to control features such as what address the mail is sent from, what address to respond to, the method through which it is sent, when the e-mail is sent, the subject of the e-mail, and what actions triggered the sending of the e-mail.

Creating E-Mails

To take advantage of these features, you must first create mailers to go out in the Mailing Admin. To do so, go to the Mailing Admin and fill out the forms next to New Mailer:

First enter a freeform date for when the mail is to be sent out. Next, choose whether you want to send the e-mail to Affiliates or Members under the Send To options from the drop-down box, and fill in the e-mail Subject then click the Add button.

You will then be able to create Plain Text and HTML versions of the e-mail you wish to send out, choosing which will be sent out under the Configuration Admin. This can be further edited by clicking the edit mail button under the "Active Mailings" section once the mailer has been completed.

All outgoing mails are now required to go through a queue in the Mailing Admin before they are sent out. If the e-mails are not being sent properly, it may be due to an issue with your Cron settings.

In order for Automated E-mails to be sent from NATS, you must first set up at least one rule under the Mailing Admin section.

Modifying Skins and Templates

You can edit the body text of automated e-mails through the Skins & Templates Admin in NATS. To access the e-mail templates, go to Skins & Templates Admin, then click the Special Templates tab to get a list of available templates you can customize.

Templates for e-mails will be specified by their title beginning with "mail," such as mail_affiliate_on_member_cancelled. Conversely you can choose to only view mail templates by clicking the drop-down menu marked Manage Special Templates and selecting the "mail" option.

If you want to customize a certain template, click the "Edit Template" icon and you will be able to customize the e-mail's header, footer, and body text. The NATS Mailing Function uses Smarty scripts in order to automatically personalize e-mails and specify why the e-mail has been sent for members, affiliates, etc. Once you are done editing the e-mail Template to your liking, click the Save Template button to make your changes take effect.

Modifying Configuration Admin Settings

NATS4 allows you to configure automated e-mails beyond the standard Mailing Admin. Through the conifguration admin, you can edit to whom, to where, when, and under what conditions an e-mail will be sent. To modify NATS e-mail function settings, first go to the Configuration Admin, select Emails from the Current Section drop-down menu, and click Change Section.

General Settings

From the Emails Configuration section you can edit custom settings for automated e-mails to members, affiliates, site owners, account representatives, and site partners. General Settings allows you to set basic options on outgoing e-mails from NATS. The first set of options work in conjunction with options set in the Mailing admin:

• MAIL_SINGLE_LINE_ENDINGS - This option is not currently in use and will not affect anything.
• MAIL_QUEUE_PROCESSING_TIME - This designates how many minutes at a time the mail queue will run for.
• MAIL_QUEUE_WAIT_SECONDS - This sets how many seconds the Mailing Admin should wait between checking new mails.
• MAIL_QUEUE_BUFFER_MICRO_SECONDS - This sets how many micro seconds the Mailing Admin should wait between sending e-mails.
• HTML_ONLY_WARNING - This allows you to set an automated plain text message when an e-mail is HTML only.

The next set of fields under General Settings allows you to configure what e-mail addresses the mails are sent from, as well as sending methods and security options:

• EMAIL_FROM_DEFAULT - Designates a default e-mail address to send mails from.
• EMAIL_FROM_NICE_DEFAULT - This field specifies what particular name is displayed next to the e-mail address.
• EMAIL_REPLY_DEFAULT - Designates a default e-mail address to reply to mails to.
• EMAIL_REPLY_NICE_DEFAULT - This field specifies what particular name is displayed next to the reply-to address.
• EMAIL_SEND_METHOD_DEFAULT - Use the drop-down menu to choose between mails being sent from the default PHP method and the Custom SMTP method
  • PHP vs. SMTP - SMTP is generally recommended over PHP Mail for mass emails, as SMTP tends to be quicker and bogs down a server less than PHP mails. This is because PHP Mail opens and closes an SMTP socket for each email, while SMTP acts as its own mail server. However, the SMTP option requires that you have an SMTP server to use.
  • We do not provide SMTP servers, you must have your own SMTP server set up in order to use our Custom SMTP email option.
• EMAIL_SMTP_SERVER_DEFAULT - Sets the default server to be used for SMTP mails
• EMAIL_SMTP_PORT_DEFAULT - Sets the default port to be used for SMTP mails
• EMAIL_SMTP_USERNAME_DEFAULT - Sets the default username to log in for SMTP mails
• EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD_DEFAULT - Sets the default password to log in for SMTP mails
• EMAIL_BCC_TO_DEFAULT - You can use this to automatically send a blind carbon copy of an e-mail to a certain e-mail address.

These settings can further be refined through the options and fields below.

"Sending To" Settings

Under the individual Sending to Settings, fields will be the same for members, affiliates, etc. with the exception of who the mail is sent to. The description of these fields is the same as those under general settings, except that these settings can be individually designated for:

1. Sending to Members
2. Sending to Affiliates
3. Sending to Owners
4. Sending to Account Representatives
5. Sending to Site Partners

This allows for a great deal of flexibility in creating different settings for e-mails sent to different types of people associated with your site.

E-Mail Affiliate Subjects

The NATS Mailing Function allows you to set the subject of any automatically-generated e-mail through the Email section of the Configuration Admin. You can do this under the options entitled EMAIL_AFFILIATE_SIGNUP or the options beginning with EMAIL_AFFILIATE_ON_MEMBER.

Additionally NATS4 allows you to designate only certain E-Mails to be sent to affiliates automatically, such as when a member initiates a cancellation or a chargeback. To configure this, use the drop-down menus next to configuration options starting with AFFILIATE_EMAIL_ON_MEMBER, such as AFFILIATE_EMAIL_ON_MEMBER_JOINED. Once you click the drop-down menu, you will see three choices that are universal across the Mailing Function:

1. No E-Mails - E-Mails will not be sent for this particular topic when this choice is selected.
2. Always E-Mail - E-Mails will always be sent for this particular topic when this choice is selected.
3. Affiliate's Choice - Affiliates will be able to select whether or not they receive e-mails on this topic.

If you leave these fields blank, the mails will not be sent.

At the bottom of the E-Mail Affiliate Subjects section, there are categories to set affiliate e-mail subjects using Smarty scripts in order to automatically designate what project or website the e-mail is sent from. These include EMAIL_AFFILIATE_FORGOT_PASSWORD, EMAIL_AFFILIATE_NOTIFY and the fields under those topics.

Remember: These fields only affect the subject line of an e-mail. To change the body text of automated e-mails, you must edit the e-mail templates under the Skins & Templates Admin.

E-Mail Owner Subjects

E-Mail Owner Subjects allows you to set specific e-mail subjects based on certain member and affiliate action, such as when a member joins or cancels, or when an affiliate signs up. When these conditions are triggered, an e-mail will be automatically composed to the site owner based on these settings.

Each setting is specified by the last word or phrase in each field, such as EMAIL_OWNER_JOINED or EMAIL_OWNER_REBILLED, so by using these fields you can create e-mail topics for specific events and conditions.

If you leave these fields blank, no mails will be sent.

Remember: These fields only affect the subject line of an e-mail. To change the body text of automated e-mails, you must edit the e-mail templates under the Skins & Templates Admin.

Send To Address

This section allows you to set what e-mail address incoming mails from NATS will be sent to.

• EMAIL_TO_OWNER - designates an e-mail address for mails sent to the site owner.