synchronisation questions

Loved the webinar today, some synchro questions:
- If i manually update the interest groups in joomla community builder backend, when will mailchimp data be updated?

- If a user updates group info in mailchimp, will it be sent to joomla community builder and when will it be sent (what action?)

- If a user updates subscription info in mailchimp, will it be sent to cb and when exactly will it be sent?

Hi,

Glad you liked the webinar and I'm sure Alexis will also be pleased to hear this!

- If i manually update the interest groups in joomla community builder backend, when will mailchimp data be updated?

Do you mean manually update user's profiles? Currrently, the data is only sent to mailchimp from the 'registration' and 'update profile' in the front-end. This means that if you manually update a user's interests from the community builder back end then the updates will not be sent to mailchimp. This is something we will look into for a future release.

- If a user updates group info in mailchimp, will it be sent to joomla community builder and when will it be sent (what action?)

If a user updates group info in mailchimp, like adding an extra option to some checkboxes, then that extra option will have to be added manually to the community builder group. If the extra option is added from community builder then the action to take would be to delete the group, from within Joomailer, and add it again as there is currently no editing for interest groups. The editing of groups is another feature we hope to fit in to a future release.

If a user updates subscription info in mailchimp, will it be sent to cb and when exactly will it be sent?

If a user updates their subscription using the preferences centre at Mailchimp then this data will not be reflected in Community Builder.

In general, changes made from Mailchimp will not be reflected in Community Builder. The idea is to get the users to manage their subscriptions entirely from your website with the use of their "User Profile". However, I can see the importance of back-end CB user updates being synchronised.

Please let us know if you have any further queries or suggestions.

Cheers,

Chris

chris wrote: n general, changes made from Mailchimp will not be reflected in Community Builder.

Mailchimp requires that in each mailing there is a unsubscribe link, that unsubscribes the user immediately. Will this work with joomailer? The subscriber can unsubscribe in mailchimp and the info will not be sent to cb.


Certainly for my case the lack of synchronisation procedures is a blocking point. Lemme explain why:
-Our mailchimp subscribers list contains both registered users and not registered users. E.g. we also have a facebook page and modules where unregistered visitors can subscribe without registration. So both mailchimp and joomla/cb procedures for (un)subscribing and changing interest groups are needed for us.

The reason for the above is that we want users to subscribe to our mailings in many ways. If users can only subscribe after registration and by modifying their profile, the influx into the subscriber list is strongly limited. That is not what we want. So we have modules all over our site to let people subscribe, we have a facebook page, we have cb profiles that can be updated, ...

I'm trying to convince you that if you are serious about joomailer, you will need to do more about synchronisation. Because joomla registration is not the only entry point into a mailchimp list. If needed please contact me directly, so I can explain how we have set up our site&list.

Mailchimp requires that in each mailing there is a unsubscribe link, that unsubscribes the user immediately. Will this work with joomailer

Yes. They can resubscribe by going to their CB profile and reselecting the checkbox.

Our mailchimp subscribers list contains both registered users and not registered users

This is totally fine. This way the non-registered users can go and update their subscription in the Mailchimp preferences area. It will have no effect on your site. What I would say to do is keep your subscription modules and other subscription methods and simply add the functionality of Joomailer as well.

Here's an example.

Let's say you have a list of 10,000 emails. 5,000 of those subscribed on your site during the registration process and are, therefore, joomla site users.

5,000 subscribe using just their email through some other method, like the module or the facebook page.

When it comes to sending a campaign to this list you can still send to all 10,000 users from inside Joomailer and you can still segment by the groupings you created. The only difference is that your Joomla users can update their groupings from your site without having to go to the Mailchimp preferences centre and you can include your site content directly into your mailings.

The subscription status of a users is not stored in CB, only in Mailchimp, so this will never be out of sync.

The only steps that will not synchronise are as follows:

1) You have a grouping with 3 options in CB. You create a grouping from within Joomailer that replicates this CB grouping in Mailchimp. You add an extra option the grouping from within CB. This is not reflected in Mailchimp. You must recreate the grouping from within Joomailer or add the extra option from within Mailchimp.

2) A user who is registered on your site has selected an option within a CB grouping that is related to a Mailchimp one. This user then, for some unexplained reason, goes to the Mailchimp preferences centre and updates their grouping selection from there. This change will not be reflected in CB.

Please let me know if you can think of any others or send an email to contact_at_joomailer.com if you want to let us know your specific setup.

The subscription status of a users is not stored in CB, only in Mailchimp, so this will never be out of sync.

ok, that is good news.
But why not do the same principle for the groupings? Why handle these differently? Because the groupings are just as important as subscriptions in the mailchimp way of thinking.

Secondly: how can we add a link in the email to change interest groups? The link will be different for the subscribed users (to cb profile) compared to vistors (to mailchmp).

You should take a look at the allchimp way, how they synchronise the groupings. It's not that hard, and it gives more flexibility to the user of joomailer.

I have discovered another scenario that I would like to discuss:

A subscriber to our mailchimp mailing list that is not yet registered to joomla. The subscriber now wants to register on our joomla site.

If, after registration, he modifies his group or subscription settings in mailchimp and not through his joomla cb. What will happen when we send him emailing through joomail? Will his mailchimp modifications be lost?