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DADA Mailing List Manager

May 12th, 2010

Have you heard of the DADA Mailing List Manager before? It’s a free, self-hosted option for running your own email campaigns. In this post, I’ll explain what DADA is and how to install it on your server.

Self-Hosted And Free

The basic version of the DADA mailing list manager is free. They also offer a PRO version, but the free version is all you need to get started. DADA is a self-hosted solution that you can run on your own server, saving you the cost of using expensive online mailing list services. Here are some of the features the list manager offers:

• Self-Hosted, runs on your own server.
• Web-based, run everything through your browser.
• Closed Loop Opt-in, which allows your subscribers to add themselves to your list(s) securely.
• Mass Mailings, for sending out messages to your subscribers.
• Message Archiving let’s you save your messages for later viewing.
• Sharing allows you to use rss/atom feeds, Twitter, and publicly accessible archives.
• Profiles allows subscribers to view/edit/update their various mailing list subscriptions.

If you’re looking for a HTML email template, ThemeForest.net has an excellent selection, starting from $8 each.

Setting Up DADA On Your Server

First things first, head over to dadamailproject.com and download the free version of the software. Unzip the package on your desktop, and navigate to dada > DADA > Config.pm. Open Config.pm in a text editor.

Configuring Config.pm

Configuring DADA requires you to edit four variables in the file.

$PROGRAM_ROOT_PASSWORD

Locate the $PROGRAM_ROOT_PASSWORD variable and change root_password to a new password. It should look like this:

$PROGRAM_ROOT_PASSWORD = 'your_password_here';

$FILES

Go to your server and navigate to your account directory. Most likely at /home/youraccount/. In that directory, create a new directory called dada_files. This directory will hold all your list account information. Next we need to set the variable that will point to this folder.

Go back to Config.pm, and locate the $FILES variable and change /home/youraccount/dada_files/ to your actual path to your dada_files directory on your server. Likely, you should only have to change youraccount to the actual name of your account.

$MAILPROG

Leave this variable as is, you shouldn’t need to change it. However, it’s important to point it out because it’s the sendmail utility used to pass emails to, for them to be sent.

$PROGRAM_URL

This variable is the path to where mail.cgi is located on your server. See below for uploading your files to the cgi-folder on your server. The variable, and your path should look something like this:

$PROGRAM_URL = 'http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi';

Make sure you don’t forget to include the www. in your $PROGRAM_URL – Even if your primary domain doesn’t use it, you need to include the www. That’s it, save the Config.pm file and get ready to upload your files.

Uploading Your Files

Once your done editing Config.pm, upload the files to the cgi-bin directory on your server. If you don’t have a cgi-bin folder on your server, you need to create it in the root directory of your website. Likely the path would look like this:

/home/youraccount/yourwebsite.com/cgi-bin

Important: Make sure the path matches the one you entered for the $PROGRAM_URL variable.

Setting Permissions

The last thing you need to do, before you test your installation, is to set the permissions for the mail.cgi file. Head to cgi-bin > dada > mail.cgi. Make sure the permissions for the file are set to 755.

Testing Your Install

The final step is to test your install by going to the same url you defined as your $PROGRAM_URL variable. If everything works, you should see a screen that looks like this:

Encrypting Your Password

If your install works and you see the above screen, you’ll notice a note about encrypting your list password. I highly recommend you do this for security reasons. To encrypt your password, do the following:

• Click on the Click Here link on the congratulations page.
• This will load a new page where you need to enter your mailing list root password and hit the encrypt button.
• This will load a new page with an encrypted password string.
• Copy the password and open up Config.pm again.
• Head down to the $PROGRAM_ROOT_PASSWORD variable and replace your password with the encrypted one.
• Save Config.pm and upload it to your server, overwriting the previous version.
• Make a note of your root password (unencrypted version), as this is the password you will use when you need to login with your root password.

Creating Your List

Once you have encrypted your password, head back to the congratulations page and refresh it. The message about encrypting your password should be gone. If it is, scroll down the page to the field for naming your first list. Check the box accepting the terms of using the software, enter a name for your first list and hit the Create a list button. Follow the onscreen instructions to setup your list and your done!

Conclusion

If you need further help, I’d suggest checking out the install instructions over at dadamailproject.com. If you’d like to join the Cardeo mailing list, there is a sign up form on the sidebar. Was this a useful post? Would you be interested in learning how to further configure DADA for sending email list messages? If so, please let me know in the comments.

Tags: cgi, dada, email, free, self-hosted