Kirby 3 Simple Newsletter 💌

A Toolkit for creating and sending minimal, GDPR-compliant newsletters via the Kirby panel.

⚠ Unfinished and Untested - WIP ⚠

Features

• send minimal HTML newsletters using markdown and KirbyText
• basic subscription management
• subscribe form generator (alpha; todo)
• schedule newsletters (planned)
• send mails via API (early stage)
• basic routes for subscribe / unsubscribe

Install

1. git clone or unzip into your plugins directory.
2. composer install.

Plugin Dependencies

• Custom add fields plugin (https://github.com/steirico/kirby-plugin-custom-add-fields)

This is a plugin for Kirby CMS (https://getkirby.com/). Kirby is not free software.

Setup

Content

Requires a Subscribers and a Newsletters page with the respective slug / template. (I think I have implemented the option to change the template names but you can never be too sure…)

Options

Transport configuration needs to be set in the main config file (for now) => https://getkirby.com/docs/guide/emails#transport-configuration.

Other options:

// set "From" Email address. Required
'scardoso.newsletter.from' => 'bruno@email.com',
// set slug of subscribers page. Default: 'subscribers'
'scardoso.newsletter.subscribers' => 'subscribers',

Routes

there's a route each to subscribe / confirm / unsubscribe a user, find their definitions in the index.php file.

There's an example snippet for how to implement a subscription form located at snippets/subscribe_form.php. Integration with the uniform plugin is planned.

Planned

• more logical class names (“List”, “Campaign”, “Mail/Mails”,…)
• Uniform plugin integration for dynamic subscription forms
• release via composer
• import subscribers (as json)
• multiple subscriber lists/Sections – choose which list to send newsletter to.
• use different possible Collections as subscriber list (subscribers/recipients should extend collection; possibility to send letter to all panel users)
• simple mailgun integration
• schedule sending of newsletters

TODO

• disable changing newsletter templates and status via panel, as this is handled programatically (panel view extended plugin?)
• allow setting custom blueprints/templates/locations/names for “newsletters” and “subscribers” pages in options
• prevent clicking the “send” button twice
• implement styling of the newsletter (option to define a stylesheet location?)
• apply required fields in panel “add” dialog (custom dialog component instead of plugin?)
• use uniform form to generate subscription form
• generate plaintext version of newsletter
• use plugin specific mail configuration, not the global one
• more panel translations
• improve handling of exceptions / success messages / redirects
• set status of subscriber to “draft” if error detected?

ideas

• a new name for the plugin to avoid confusion (is “Newsletter” the name of the plugin or the class name of “a single newsletter”?
• integrate pagetable plugin for subscriber lists
• merge newsletter field into a “newsletter-tools” section so that it can be imported on any page
• export subscribers as json
• allow different sources as subscriber pages (i.e all registered users, or an external tool)
• allow for setting different templates (plaintext, html)
• integration with matomo plugin for tracking? (:/ not sure)

Disclaimer

This plugin is provided "as is" with no guarantee. Use it at your own risk and always test it yourself before using it in a production environment. If you find any issues, please create a new issue.