##Subscribe plugin It turns out, sending an email to a group of subscribers is actually quite a hairy problem. One would think storing a set of emails, looping over each one of them and sending out emails is all that needs to be done. But this solution only works for a very small subscriber base(5-10 max). Any more, and you could be invoking the wrath of the email Gods - your emails could be classified as spam or worse, your domain could potentially be flagged as a spammer! (Tag v1.0 of this project uses the naive approach.. Feel free to take a look if you are interested).

The solution is to use the services of a third-party provider like MailChimp that specializes in safe email transmission, and handles all the myriad requirements of bulk mailing.

This OctoberCMS plugin allows you to easily add a "Subscribe" button on your website. These subscribers get added to a "list" on Mailchimp. The plugin also hooks into Rainlab Blog events, and allows subscribers to receive emails when a blog gets published (via Mailchimp Campaigns - Each blog publish event results in the creation of a campaign)

###Main features

• Uses Mailchimp api V2.0
• Clean way to send subscribers an email using MailChimp
• unsubscription is easily handled by Mailchimp
• Emails are sent out only when the status of the blog is set to published (on create or update)

###Components

• Signup form - This allows users to enter their email address and click on the "Subscribe" button.

###Dependencies

• RainLab Blog

###Installation

1. Go to Settings > "Updates & Plugins" page in the Backend.
2. Click on the "Install plugins" option.
3. Type Subscribe text in the search field, and pick the appropriate plugin.
4. Make sure you enter your sender name and sender email under Settings->Mail Configuration
5. To add the component on your front-end page/layout :

{% component 'Signup' %}

6. After logging into Mailchimp, create a list for holding subscriber emails.
7. On your backend -> Settings, under the "Blog" category, an option for "Mailchimp Subscription" becomes available. Please enter your Mailchimp API key and List ID in the spaces provided.

##NOTE: if you want to use the component on a partial, drag the component onto your layout and move the code {% component 'Signup' %} onto the partial. This way, the ajax framework will be able to find the required handlers.