[thelist] setting up a PHP based mailing list [offlist]

[Maximillian Schwanekamp]

Theodore Serbinski wrote:
> So my question is, how do I setup a mailing list? I'm looking
> primarily for a PHP based one with a simple admin for adding/deleting
> users and creating multiple lists. We are running Apache, PHP, MySQL
> on Windows 2003.

I'm assuming you mean the kind of mailing list like this one, Evolt's 
TheList, where users send to a common address and it goes out to 
everyone else.  This doesn't really answer your question, but many of 
the major (and not-so-major) mailing lists are running Mailman.  Mailman 
is open source & free in the best GNU tradition, but AFAIK it's for 
Linux/Unix/BSD servers only.  You might consider getting an inexpensive 
Linux/BSD box to use for only the mailing list or something.
http://mailman.sourceforge.net/

> Also, how does this email list handle actual email? Does it work like
> a simple mail server? Never really set one up so very new to this.

If you do mean simply a one-way list, like an email newsletter, there 
are lots of choices already available.  Search SourceForge for "php 
mailing list" and you'll get a bunch of good examples.  One that's not 
on SF is phpList, which is a broadcast mailer:
http://tincan.co.uk/phplist?cc=1
I've also done a similar app myself for HTML newsletters, using 
PHP/MySQL and Smarty templates.  Contact me if you want to take a look.

If you decide to code the app yourself, know that you can handle 
incoming mail by piping unrouted mail to a handler script.  Not sure how 
you do it in Windows, but in Linux you can set the path to your script 
file e.g. by setting a forwarder to |/path/to/my/handler/script.php.

A quick Googling also brought up this:
http://www.harrysufehmi.com/phpwiki/index.php/PhpMailman

It's in beta, but maybe it would be useful?

HTH!

-- 
Maximillian Von Schwanekamp
http://www.neptunewebworks.com/