muletter v0.1.7

MULETTER cli

MULETTER cli is a Command Line Interface newsletter for SMTP server

Requirements

• Nodejs v6
• SMTP server

Install or Update

First of all, you must install muletter as a global module to create the muletter command on your system.

npm install -g muletter

or

npm install -g git+https://github.com/kimihub/muletter-cli

Configuration

You have to create a working directory and put inside a file named config.yml with your SMTP server and letter configuration.

Note that if already you use MULIST cli to manage your mailing list, the existing working directory can be the same for MuLetter. In that case, you just have to to fill your existing config.yml file.

Example of config.yml:

smtp_auth:
    user: username
    pass: password
smtp_host: smtp.hostname.com
smtp_ssl: true
letter_from: letter name <username@hostname.com>
letter_subject: subject letter

All parameters prefixed by smtp_ match SMTP transport options of nodemailer.

So you can also use a well-known provider included in nodemailer :

[...]
smtp_service: Godaddy
letter_from: letter name <username@hostname.com>
letter_subject: subject letter

Once config.yml is created you should be able to use the muletter command in your working directory.

SMTP Limitations

Using a SMTP server with a standard configuration is strongly advised to make sure that your letter to not be seen as a junk mail.

SMTP of free mailbox services are too limited to send such a number of mails in the same day. But some of them should be enough for a letter with a low frequency and a small mailing list.

Example of SMTP you can use freely :

• gmail.com (lower than 500 mails per day)
• gandi.net (5 mails per minute, the other ones are queued and sent later)
• godaddy.com (1000 mails per day)

Mailing List, Body, Attachments

The mailing list, body and attachments must be in the working directory named list.txt, body.txt (or body.html) and attachments/*.*.

For the body you can use html syntax with mail limitations. You have to put all attachments in the sub-directory attachments.

Example of list.txt:

user@host1.com
user2@host2.com
user3@host3.com
...

Commands usage help

$ muletter

Usage: muletter [options] [command] [argument]
Commands 
  init              Check config.yml list.txt body.txt attachments
  test   <email>    Send the letter to <email>
  send              Send the letter to list.txt
  tail              Display last logs
  help   [command]  Output usage information of [command]
  [...]

New letter => New list.txt

Note that after each sent, any address of list.txt will be removed where mail sending succeed. For every new letter, a new mailing list should be exported.

Exit process or failed sending

If the process exit by accident after run the command muletter send or if any mail sending failed caused by many reasons (SMTP or internet connection unreachable), just run again muletter send to continue or send again failed mail sending.

Power outages or freeze

This program does not writeStream list.txt, so you must protect your computer or laptop against sudden power outages or freeze to avoid several sending to a same address and your SMTP blacklisted.

If this happens, you might not run muletter send again. You just have to remove the file .muletter/lockfile.