Okay, at the moment, I am using the
Mass email HTML mod created by ksar. But the issues with this mod is, (1) Its been abandoned as the mod author havent updated this mod for years (2) It has a few bugs that are unresolved (3) This will definitely will not work for 3.1 unless someone else rewrites this mod. But there are certain aspects of this MOD that I like and I would love to see these ideas included in phpbb. Here are my suggestions:
First, let me add a screen dump on how this mod works atm so I can explain the features I like in it.
Mass HTML Email Section in ACP:
Email Editor Box:
HTML Source Editor Pop-up:
Ideas we can adapt from this mod will be:
1) Having a separate section for Mass HTML email in ACP. I like this since it separates the text based mass emails from html emails. Also in the future, if we were to add more features for this HTML email, we can group them together easily. (This is optional. If the same feature can be combined into one Mass email where we can choose between text or html should be fine too)
2) Editor: The editor used in the above mod is a bit more than what is really necessary. We can cut down on the options in that editor and have a much simpler one. For instance, I never used any options in that editor since I always create the HTML email first in a text editor and I only copy and paste the source code in it.
3) Ability to paste HTML Source and Preview HTML Email inside Editor: What I do like about the editor is, it has an HTML button and when its clicked it opens a HTML Source editor as a pop-up where we can paste the HTML code in it. Once its pasted, it then shows the live view of the html email inside the editor. I like that and also serves purpose.
4) Newsletter Page: This is optional and this can be added in the later version too. But it will be handy when sent emails are actually stored in the database which can be accessed via Newsletter.php page or something like that. If that is possible, then another setting can be added in the ACP where admin can choose which emails to be listed in that page and which not to.
Other than the above ideas, we can use a lot of features that are already available in phpbb since it already has the ability to send mass emails to users. Some of things we can use will be:
a) Able to select specific groups to email. Default will be all users if none is selected.
b) Since its sending emails directly from the board, I am assuming that emails will not be delivered to the users who have unchecked the option to receive email notifications in their UCP. This UCP setting is handy since I always mention it in my emails so users can unsubscribe by changing this setting in their UCP. That is also the benefit of setting email directly from board as it will respect this setting when sending mass email.
These are some ideas from the MOD that I think we can use if we are adding it to the core. I am not a coder so would love to hear your views on the possibilities.
And the second article only says about fixed security bug in 2007. That is your proof that html emails are insecure?