
Readme for PHPlist 1.5.x,/1.6.x July 2002

Sorry, this file is a little old. I will update it soon. For more information
go to http://tincan.co.uk/phplist

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PHPlist, Mailinglist system using PHP and Mysql
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Michiel Dethmers, tincan ltd

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.


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What is PHPlist
PHPlist is a set of PHP pages that implement a simple mailinglist system. 
It uses Mysql for storing the information. 

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Particular aspects of the system are: 

= Posting to the mailinglist is via a webpage. It is therefore more a kind of "announcements" 
list system than an actual email mailinglist.
= It is designed to be able to deal with a very large amount of email addresses. 
= Users can sign up to multiple lists. If a message is sent to multiple lists, 
they will only receive one copy of the email and not as many as the number of lists they
are subscribed to. 
= Geographical information. If people sign up, they can identify the geographical 
location they're in and when sending an email you can determine which
locations need to receive the message. 
= Personalised emails. You can specify "variables" in your emails, which will at send time 
be replaced by the appropriate values for the person who receives the email.

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Requirements
To use PHPlist you need a webserver which supports PHP version 4, a Mysql database and possibly 
Perl with the Mysql modules installed.

Installation
- See file: INSTALLATION

Upgrade
- See file: UPGRADE

Languages
- In the directory "phplists/lists/texts" you will find existing translations of the public
pages of PHPlist. You can use them in your config file to make the frontend of the system
appear in the language of your choice.

Some important notes:

* I think you will need one of the latest versions of Mysql, but I'm not entirely sure. I use 3.23.xx, 
so that one is most likely to work.
* PHP 3 is not supported any more. Upgrade to PHP4 if you're still using 3.
* I've made the DB calls and the User interface (not the admin) "abstract" in Database calls and language.

You receive this software free of charge. The only thing that I would ask is to keep the copyright
on the files intact and to keep the link and the image to PHPlist.com in your pages. That's not too much to 
ask is it? Thanks.

Any contributions in other Database calls and translations are very welcome. Send your contribution to
michiel@kipu.co.uk.

Comments, questions and suggestions: michiel@kipu.co.uk
