Gmail & Phplist

[Threeboy]

Scrubbing these forums I've figured out how to use gmail (or google apps hosted domain emails) with phplist to process bounces.

PROCESSING BOUNCES (incoming)

In config/config.php:

Code: Select all

$bounce_mailbox_host = 'pop.gmail.com';
$bounce_mailbox_user = 'username@gmail.com';
$bounce_mailbox_password = '********';
$bounce_mailbox_port = "995/pop3/ssl";

and in admin/processbounces.php:

find this:

Code: Select all

  if (!$port) {
    $port = '110/pop3/notls';
  }

and replace it with this:

Code: Select all

#if (!$port) {
  $port = '995/pop3/ssl';
  #}

works for me.

---

SENDING MAIL (outgoing)

Now I can't seem to figure out how to configure php to use SMTP and to be compatible with gmail.

The google mail info is quite straightforward:

SMTP: smtp.gmail.com
USER: username@gmail.com
PORT: 465 (SSL)

It needs to be SSL - that's the main hang-up, any idea how to get that working in phplist? What file do I edit? the FAQ says to change the port you use $phpmailer_smtpport = 'xxx'; but that doesn't take care of the SSL.

Help?

[H2B2]

I don't think phpmailer supports SSL.
Ref:
- http://mantis.phplist.com/view.php?id=9160
- http://news.hping.org/comp.lang.php.archive/15252.html

You might search the web for possible fixes, though I don't know whether you'll find any.

[Threeboy]

Hmm.

Think anyone can explain to me how to use this then?

http://www.vulgarisoip.com/?p=17

[momotiki]

I was in a rush and so happy that I got gmail working that I didn't post more detailed instructions. Here they are.

The settings below are what you need to edit in config.php

I have it set up for google apps for your domain. If you were just using gmail I'm not sure if your username would just be username or username@gmail.com

NOTE: I haven't tried especially large mailings with this yet, so I have no idea what gmail's limits are for sending. I would try it out on a low throttle first. My list is under six hundred so I'm just going to try 100 an hour at first. But so far I have just tested this on 20 users or so, and it worked fine.

Code: Select all

define("PHPMAILER",1);
# To use a SMTP please give your server hostname here, leave it blank to use the standard
# PHP mail() command.
define("PHPMAILERHOST",'ssl://smtp.gmail.com');
# if you want to use smtp authentication when sending the email uncomment the following
# two lines and set the username and password to be the correct ones
$phpmailer_smtpuser = 'username@yourdomain.org';
$phpmailer_smtppassword = 'yourpassword';
$phpmailer_smtpport = '465'

[benjibot]

Yay! You are my current hero! I had just about given up on being able to set up a mailing list while keeping my email with Google Apps!

One question, does this solution require the modified classes from http://www.vulgarisoip.com/index.php?s=gmail?

[momotiki]

The answer is, I'm not sure. It shouldn't, because I think these are all the settings that those custom files included. However I was really sloppy when I was setting mine up, and so I first used the files he provided, realized that there were some settings that didn't work with how phplist expects to call phpmailer, fixed those, and then it started working.

So basically, it is possible that I am using some weird hybrid setup, but I think I managed to change everything back accidentally so I was using a normal phpmailer class.

Go ahead and try it just with my recommended settings from the previous post and then if that doesn't work, PM me and I'll send you my mangled files from the vulgar blog.

[momotiki]

One more point. I recently discovered that if you wanted you could use google groups, and mask the fact that you are doing so using google apps for your domain.

In google apps, create an alias, like newsletter@yourdomain.com and then have that send to the post email of a google group (say, yourcompany-newsletter@googlegroups.com). If you do your group settings right, people will never realize that their emails are being sent through google groups. It provides bounce processing, but not much else in terms of what you would want out of newsletter management, although it does let you create custom pages, so maybe you jury rig something together.

It's nowhere near as powerful as phplist, but you're much less likely to get a sector 5 error from google. Just some thoughts on google and newsletters.

[benjibot]

One more point. I recently discovered that if you wanted you could use google groups, and mask the fact that you are doing so using google apps for your domain.

You know, that was my alternative idea but I having no experience with Google Groups I didn't know if it would work. That was my biggest concern. I thought it might look "cheap" if the mailing list were routed through some sort of group system. I'd been searching for just this answer all morning but not finding anything on account of the Google Apps themselves being so popular with blogs that I just found reviews.

I think, if I can't get phplist to work, that the Groups solution would be just fine with my friend. I'm setting this up as a mailing list for his record label. That's why I signed up for Google Apps in the first place. He won't use the @domain address he has because he's so used to gmail. I want him to use his own domain to make email look more official.

[Fawess]

Hi There!

I'm using Phplist 2.10.2 (I know it's getting old, but it works great still! Although minor modifications were made to patch PHP's vulnerabilities with registerglobals)

Now to my problem at hand :
I've followed your precious advices on how to setup Gmail POP and SMTP but only the SMTP is working!

SMTP : - WORKS FINE - NO NEED FOR EXTRA LIBRARIES!

Code: Select all

define("PHPMAILER",1);
# To use a SMTP please give your server hostname here, leave it blank to use the standard
# PHP mail() command.
define("PHPMAILERHOST",'ssl://smtp.gmail.com');
# if you want to use smtp authentication when sending the email uncomment the following
# two lines and set the username and password to be the correct ones
$phpmailer_smtpuser = 'username@yourdomain.org';
$phpmailer_smtppassword = 'yourpassword';
$phpmailer_smtpport = '465';


Now POP using these settings : - GIVES ME CERTIFICATE ERRORS -

Code: Select all

$bounce_mailbox_host = 'pop.gmail.com';
$bounce_mailbox_user = 'username@gmail.com';
$bounce_mailbox_password = '********';
$bounce_mailbox_port = "995/pop3/ssl";


And in admin/processbounces.php , I changed this :

Code: Select all

  if (!$port) {
    $port = '110/pop3/notls';
  }


By this :

Code: Select all

  if (!$port) {
    $port = '995/pop3/ssl';
  }


Now the error I get when fetching bounces is :

Code: Select all

Cannot create POP3 connection to pop.gmail.com: Certificate failure for pop.gmail.com: unable to get local issuer certificate: /C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc./CN=pop.gmail.com
Identifying consecutive bounces
Nothing to do
Identifying consecutive bounces
0 users processed


Can someone tell what else needs to be done to make this puppy work?

[Fawess]

Finally, something that works for fetching POP3 through Gmail :

- All we need to do is to bypass certificate validation (I know this seems a bit unsecure but Hey! We were using plain text all this time!

Code: Select all

$bounce_mailbox_host = 'pop.gmail.com';
$bounce_mailbox_user = 'username@gmail.com';
$bounce_mailbox_password = '********';
$bounce_mailbox_port = "995/pop3/ssl/novalidate-cert" ;

and obviously, change this suspicious piece of code :

Code: Select all

  if (!$port) {
    $port = '110/pop3/notls';
  }

By this one :

Code: Select all

  if (!$port) {
    $port = '995/pop3/ssl/novalidate-cert';
  }

[ctomasi]

Thank you for all the great info in this forum. I'm new to PHPlist. My website is hosted through GoDaddy, but my mail is hosted on Gmail.

Despite all my efforts at modifying config/config.php and admin/processbounces.php per this thread, I haven't been able to send a decent test message. All I get is "failed". Can I get more detailed info somewhere? Even the event log is vague.

Somewhere I'm still missing something. My config.php and processbounces.php mirror the previous message (save proper login/password info.)

Thanks.

[jalvarez]

I also got the blank page and I solved it adding a semicolon after:

$phpmailer_smtpport = '465'

So it looks like this:

$phpmailer_smtpport = '465';

I still can't solve my bounce process probem though:

Cannot create POP3 connection to popDOTgmailDOTcom: Can't open mailbox {popDOTgmailDOTcom:995/pop3/ssl}INBOX: invalid remote specification
Identifying consecutive bounces
Nothing to do
Identifying consecutive bounces
0 users processed


Any ideas, anyone?

Regards

Jaime

PS: The DOTs are necessary in order to avoid the URL posting ban on new users...

[josephlindley]

I also had the missing semi-colon... I think it gets missed if you copy and paste out of the forum......

Anyway, it cheered me up to see someone else was that silly )

I've also had this error message;

Mailer Error: Could not instantiate mail function.

in the eventlog when I try to send messages.

I've tracked this down to a comment on line 552 of admin/sendemaillib.php. Uncomment this line:

Code: Select all


    #$mail->IsSMTP();



I'm moving on to bounce processing now.....

Joe

[jalvarez]

I also had the missing semi-colon... I think it gets missed if you copy and paste out of the forum......

Anyway, it cheered me up to see someone else was that silly )

As I guess we are the majority in this planet, that's the correct way to see this...

It makes you happy all the time!!

Cheers

Jaime

[kev@num]

i guess your own server won't be clogged up trying to send 1000's of emails, instead it will be down to gmail servers! I might give this method a go