Setting up the tracking function

The tracking function makes possible to determine how often HTML newsletters opened and how often Hyperlinks in the newsletter where clicked.

Conditions of using the tracking function

Own Web space or own Web server with support for PHP 4/5/7, MySQL 3.2x and newer or MSSQL Server 2005 and newer. The login data to the SQL data base and for the access by FTP must be present.
The newsletter must be in HTML format. Only if the recipient opens the newsletter in HTML format the tracking function works.
MySQL database should be created with charset utf8_unicode_ci, otherwise unicode characters are not stored correctly.

References to the tracking function

As soon as the tracking function was set up, before the sending of the emails the necessary scripts are transferred to your Web space / server and the necessary tables are created, if these does not exist yet. For each email sending new tracking IDs are produced, so that you can create a statistic for each email campaign afterwards. It is not possible to use the IDs of an old campaign.

The tracking function is only available starting from the SuperMailer Professional Limited version.

Prepare the project for tracking function

Click in the menu Project on Tracking to open the assistant for setup the tracking function parameters.

In the showed window you must select "Set/modify this project, so that the tracking function is possible" and click on "Next".

Select the transfer mode, which SuperMailer should use to upload the tracking scripts. Select FTP in order to let the data directly transferred by FTP. This is the recommended variant. In firms it is often not possible to set up a direct FTP connection, in this case you should select the transmission with help of the upload script by HTTP. See also: setting up the upload script Click "Next" to fill in the needed data.

If you have selected the type of the transmission over FTP. Select Connection type, change port only when you web space provider requires this. Enter FTP server, FTP user name and FTP password. The option "Use passive mode" should be selected for (A)DSL connection or if problems occur while uploading the scripts. Enter the FTP upload folder or create/select the folder by clicking on the button. It is recommended to create a sub folder. In the sub folder SuperMailer should place the tracking scripts. At the end you must enter the HTTP request inclusive sub directory, so that SuperMailer must add only the name of the scripts for the request by HTTP. Click "Next" to enter the data for the MySQL Server connection.

If you have decided to use the variant to transmit the scripts per upload script. See also setting up the upload script Enter the HTTP request inclusive name of the upload script. At the end you must enter the HTTP request inclusive sub directory, so that SuperMailer must add only the name of the scripts for the request by HTTP. Click "Next" to enter the data for the MySQL Server connection.

Select the database type. I most cases it should be a MySQL database. Enter to the name of the SQL database server, this can be the name of the SQL server itself or an IP address. By using Microsoft SQL Server you must enter the complete server name with \ e.g. my-server\sqlexpress. Enter to the name of the SQL database, into the installation script can create the necessary tables. If a user name and a password is necessary for the access to the SQL database, then enter these data. Hint The password is saved encoded in the SuperMailer project. Click "Next" to select tracking options for this campaign.

Input a name for the campaign and enter a password for the campaign. Hint: The indication of the password is not necessary, however a password should be entered, so that the statistics data cannot be called up by externals persons. The IP blocking option IP blocking can be used for correct counting of email opening rate. If the recipient opens your email more then once and he has the same IP address it will be counted only once a time. Select which statistics are to be produced. Available are Opening statistics without date / time, only the sum of the openings of email is counted Opening statistics with date / time, it is logged the sum of the openings after date and time. In the evaluation you can see thereby, on which days and to which time your email was opened. Counting of the clicks on hyperlinks without storage of date / time, produced is a sum of the clicks Counting of the clicks on hyperlinks with storage of date / time, every click is logged with date and time. In the evaluation you can see thereby, on which days and to which time hyperlinks where clicked. Click on "Define picture" to select an own picture from your email text. This picture will be used instead of the 1x1 counting pixel to make the opening statistic possible. Click "Next" to select hyperlinks, which are to be included in the tracking statistic.

URGENT INFORMATION: The usage of recipient tracking can be contradict against privacy terms of your country. You must inform yourself about legal regulations in your country and you are responsible for all legal measures. Activate the option "Use recipient tracking" and select an unique field identifier. The field must contain a unique string for each recipient. Click "Next" to select hyperlinks, which are to be included in the tracking statistic.

SuperMailer will select and show all hyperlinks of your HTML document. Hyperlinks with a hyperlink symbol and with checkmark are used in the tracking statistic. Hint: Hyperlinks, which are provided with a red cross, does not exists in the document. This is only the case, if you call the assistant a second time.

Click "Next" and "Finish"

setting up the upload script

You can use our upload script upload.php as substitute for FTP transfers. This script can be found in your SuperMailer directory. You have to upload this script once via FTP to your web space, after that you can upload files without FTP. This script should be reconfigured before uploading it, so that your upload files are copied into the right directory.

hint
You should change the filename of this script, because that not everyone can put files on your web space.

You can also use this script for file uploading purposes.

changing the script configuration

open this script with an text editor (not Word or WordPad!)
search for:

# Upload directory with / at the end of path
# the upload directory is the complete directory from the root directory
# the directory can be differ from ftp upload directory
# under linux you should chmod the directory with rights 777

$UPLOADDIR="/home/www/tracking/";

Change the value of $UPLOADDIR from /home/www/tracking to your directory.
Save this script and upload it on your server/webspace.

If you don't know the correct directory, then ask your web space provider