The Quickr Blog

I've recently had an issue where newsletters (summary emails detailing recent changes) weren't being sent regularly to users of our Lotus Quickr places.  After much problem determination and experimentation,  it seems that we've fixed the issue... (See if you can guess what the problem was!)

The customisation of the Quickr newsletter on the Domino platform doesn't seem to be terribly well documented right now, so I thought it would be good to have some details on this blog.

So, some tips:
1.        Sender Address Domain - this is set using the $h_MailDomain parameter in the Quickr server's notes.ini.   e.g. $h_MailDomain=quickrblog.com
2.        Sender Address Name - this is set using the h_UndelivMail parameter, again in the Quickr server's notes.ini. e.g. h_UndelivMail=quickr.news (when added to the line above you would get emails going out with a sender address of "quickr.news@quickrblog.com"). 
3.        However, the Display Name of the sender is set to the identity of the Quickr place, e.g. "quickrplacename" .
4.        Make sure that the email address you set using the steps above is allowed to post emails through your mail server ;-)
5.        The newsletters can be sent daily or as a summary email weekly. 
6.        Daily newsletters are posted by default at 1am.  This is set in the "ServerTasksAt1" parameter in the notes.ini.  e.g. ServerTasksAt1=Catalog,Design,qptool newsletter -daily -a . Obviously, the "qptool newsletter -daily -a" part is the bit that does the newsletter processing, and this could be moved to another time of your choosing, or run manually (type "load qptool newsletter -daily -a" into your server console).
7.        Weekly newsletters are enabled by default.  To enable them, you will need to create a Program document in the Domino Directory with the command "qptool newsletter -weekly -a" and set a time and day for the server to collect and send weekly newsletters.
8.        It is also possible to send newsletters just for particular Quickr places by using the -p flag rather than -a. e.g. "[load] qptool newsletter -daily -p quickrplacename".  This is really useful for testing purposes.
9.        To receive newsletters, the individual users must be subscribed to receive them.  To receive a newsletter, a member must subscribe to newsletters in the member information page and must have a valid e-mail address. Groups cannot receive newsletters.
10.        In addition, newsletters must be enabled in the place itself, in Customize/Basics:

You will need to enable "Send a regular email news update to members" and then also click "Customize News...":

Then select what you would like to be in the Newsletter and when it should be sent.
11.        That should be it! Our users really appreciate the regular update, and it often serves as a nudge to remind folks that they should be adding content themselves.
Let me know if I've missed anything, and hope this proves useful!

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