[Mailman-Users] Integrating mailman with customer data

[Brad Knowles]

At 5:33 PM -0400 2004-07-08, Ben M. Swihart wrote:

>  Mailman basically has a database of e-mail addresses and (optionally)
>  names.

	Actually, it's not a true database.  This information is 
contained within a Python "pickle" structure on disk, for each 
mailing list.

>  All I am trying to accomplish is integrate the powerful functionality of
>  mailman with a database of customers.  When someone wishes to contact
>  all of their customers by e-mail, then they should be using mailman IMHO
>  because it's intelligent about headers, MTA's, logging, configuration,
>  and much more.  So... Since I can't expand mailman's database of
>  customers, I have to use another database and middleware such as
>  MySQL/PHP.  Whenever I manage this database via admin tools, if I delete
>  a customer or change their e-mail address, then I have to manage them in
>  mailman as well.  It makes no sense to have to have to do things twice
>  every time you add/change a customer!

	You can use the mailman command-line tools to synchronize against 
external databases.  There are various people on the list who have 
described their work in doing so.  I would encourage you to search 
the archives of the mailing list.

	See 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.018.htp> 
to learn more about how to search the archives of the mailing list, 
and 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.009.htp> 
to learn more about the Mailman command-line programs.

>  This basic idea of using mailman in concert with more data about who is
>  being e-mailed does not seem all that foreign or unusual to me, but
>  reading through the mailman documents and posting to this list leaves me
>  feeling like I am trying to use mailman to power my hobby spacecraft to
>  100km!

	The problem is that Mailman is a mailing list manager.  It is not 
a customer resources manager, nor does it have direct interfaces to 
real databases (real database interfaces are supposedly coming for 
Mailman3).

	See 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.018.htp> 
and also 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.037.htp>.


	I'd also encourage you to look at 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.022.htp>.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.