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Ravens PHP Scripts FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

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Question
· How can I throttle my large email list? · Uploading a file only produces a blank document with no file size · Mini-FAQ on Favicons

Answer

· How can I throttle my large email list?

If you have a php list that has more members in it than the available number of emails that can be sent per hour, there is a solution for you.

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Please Note:
If you have more than 1000 list members we ask you to schedule your lists in "off peak" hours. Off peak is considered to start at 10 PM PST(1 AM EST) Your list should be completed by 5 AM PST (8 AM EST)

Please Note:
If you have more than 5000 list members, you will need a dedicated server. Please open a support ticket with us to check on availability.
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Configuring your List for email throttling:
You need to find the configuration file for your PHP List installation. For example, if you installed your PHP List at [URL]http://yourdomain.com/list[/URL] your configuration file would be located (as of this writing) at:

/public_html/list/config/config.php

Open up your file manager in cPanel or download the file via FTP. In cPanel click the file name and choose the "edit" option. If you FTP the file to your local computer, just open the file with notepad or whatever you use for text editing.

Search for:

MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE
and
MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD

MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE is the configuration option that will "batch" or group a certain number of emails together for a sending.

MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD is the frequency in which your batches will be sent.

For example, if you have a 500 email, per hour limit, and you have a list with 1500 members, you might want to make settings like this:

CODE:


    define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE",450);



    define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD",3600);

What this does is split your list into 4 batches.
Batch one: 450
Batch two: 450
Batch three: 450
Batch four: 150

This equals 1500 list members.

Each batch will be sent started every 3600 seconds. (1 hour)

Notice we recommend 450 emails per batch instead of 500 emails per batch. the reason for this is it allows you to send 50 other emails from your account in that hour. Meaning regular emails that you are actually typing and sending off to people. If you set the batch at 500 emails, you probably would have problems trying to email people using your mail program like outlook or thundered.

Once you decide which settings will work best for you, save the file in the cPanel file manager with your new settings, or, if you edited the file locally, upload it in ASCII mode in your FTP program.

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· Uploading a file only produces a blank document with no file size

There are several things that might cause this.
- You may have run out of space on your server. Check with your host if you don't know.
- Permissions on your server may be read only. Using you FTP client, check that your permissions are set correctly.
- Your FTP client may not be working correctly. If the problem is not the first two above, try another FTP client.

If none of the above work then you will probably need to get your host involved.

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· Mini-FAQ on Favicons

Copied from Jeff's WebLog
Q: How do I make a favicon appear for my site in IE7?
A: There are two ways. The first is to put a file in the root of your domain called favicon.ico. The second is to use a tag with the rel="shortcut icon" value and the href value set to the URL for the Icon you wish to display.

Q: How often does IE download the favicon?
A: IE will download the icon when a user first visits the site. The icon is stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder on the client machine. Additional metadata about the favicon is stored in the user's Url History database. If either store is cleared, or items relating to the favicon have naturally expired, then the icon will be downloaded again on the next visit. If more than one page (or site) shares the same favicon, it is only downloaded once. IE takes great pains to download the icon as few times as possible to reduce load on the server.

Q: I see the wrong favicon for some sites I visit. How do I fix this?
A: If the history database has become corrupted in some way, this can happen. The simplest solution is just to use Delete Browsing History (on the Tools menu) to clear the cache and the history store.

Q: I put a favicon.ico on my site as you described, but it still doesn't appear.
A: It must actually be a .ico (an Icon) file. Bitmaps, pngs, gifs, etc, will not work. IE7 will download your favicon to the Temporary Internet Files folder and call ExtractIcon() on the file. If this fails, we will show the default icon instead of your favicon.

Q: I verified that my favicon really is an icon, but it still doesn't appear.
A: Since IE loads your icon out of the Temporary Internet Files folder, it must be able to actually store it there. If you are setting the no-cache directive for the icon file, then IE will not be able to display your icon and will display the default icon instead. You can use Fiddler to verify.

Q: How do I create a different favicon for every page on my site?
A: Put a different tag on each page, pointing to a different icon.

Q: I changed my site's favicon to a different icon, but the old one still shows in IE. How do I force IE to update?
A: If you just put the favicon.ico file in the root of your domain, IE doesn't have any way of knowing if it changed. To force an update, you need to use a tag and point to a different filename than you previously used. The current filename is compared against the known filename stored in the Url History database. When IE sees the filename has changed, it will download your new icon. Alternatively, you can ask your users to clear their history and cache (Tools->Internet Options->Delete Browsing History), which will also force IE to download the new file.

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