Setting Preferences

Display the Preferences window from any Contact window by selecting Contact->Preferences. For example, the preferences window updates the SMTP host (the server responsible for sending email), and the return email address to use (the return address used when individuals respond to emails). The following list represents the preferences that are set in the Java Contactor.

Reply Address (From)

This is the email account that you use. This should user account is provided by your Internet service provider. Make sure use the name provided by your Internet service provider. Although some Internet service providers allow users to put in an arbitrary email address in the 'From' email header, it is not good practice to do so, and can often be interpreted as SPAM. If you would like to have the replies to your email go to another email account than the one that your Internet service provider has provided you to send email, then put that email address in the 'Reply-to Address' field as described below.

Reply-to Address (Reply-to)

Users that respond to email marketing material sent via the Java Contactor will have the responses sent to this address.

SMTP Host

Your Internet service provider will provide you with the address of the host machine that you use to set up your email system. If you can't remember this, then send email to the mail administrator at your Internet service provider or look at the settings in your regular email client such as Microsoft Outlook.

Send Email type

Choose to send email marketing material to the whole group of recipients individually or in one big group. An anonymous mailing sends all email so that each recipient isn't aware of the other people that the email was sent to. The main drawback to an anonymous mailing is that some users will interpret the email as SPAM. Choose the option 'Group Mailing' to send an email where everyone on the list is aware of everybody else. In this option, a recipient can choose to reply-all and can reply to everyone on the list. For example, this might a great option for a mailing to a company event. The last option is to email 'Individual Mailing' which sends an individual copy of email to every recipient. For example, this option is the best for emailing a large group of opt-in customers.

Send email with salutation

If the 'Individual Mailing' is selected, then there is an option to preface each email with a salutation and optionally followed by the recipient's first name or email address. For example, if the campaign was to start with 'Hello,' then select the 'Send email with salutation' checkbox and the enter 'Don't use a title' in the title combo box. To preface each email with 'Dear Mike,' or 'Dear mcoble,' then select the 'Send email with salutation' checkbox and enter 'First name or email' from the title combo box. When using the 'First name or email' choice, the Java Contactor first looks to see if the contact has a first name defined and uses it if it is. If the contact's first name is not defined, then it uses the email address on the left-hand side of the address symbol, i.e. the email address mcoble@smilingdogapps.com would yield 'Dear mcoble.'

Batch email delay (seconds)

This option allows users to delay the specified number of seconds before sending a new batch of email. This option only works for emails being sent with the 'Individual Mailing' checked. For example, use this option when sending out a large number of emails to opt-in customers in order to avoid having your email misinterpreted as being SPAM.

Emails per iteration

This option allows users to send a specified number of emails at a time and then wait the specified number of seconds as defined in the 'Batch email delay' preference. This option only works for emails being sent with the 'Individual Mailing' checked. For example, use this option when sending out a large number of emails to opt-in customers in order to avoid having your email misinterpreted as being SPAM.

Email logging type

Choose whether to log the output of the email to the screen, file, or not at all. At least in the beginning, it is highly recommended that the option 'Print to logfile' is chosen in order to troubleshoot any problems that might arise in the email delivery process. This option will create a logfile in the 'database' folder of the Java Contactor distribution called SMTPmailer.log. After sending an email distribution, the list of recipients that were successfully sent to as show in the following example

Sent emails to these email addresses:

Test email 1<test1@test.com>

Test Email 2 <test2@test.com>

Test Email 3 <test3@test.com>

Test Email 4 <tes4@test.com>

Use SMTP Auth

Some Internet service providers require email to be sent in authenticated mode, i.e. you have to login with a password with each email. Select this option accordingly and enter your email user name and email password in the fields provided. If you can't remember this, then send email to the mail administrator at your Internet service provider or look at the settings in your regular email client such as Microsoft Outlook.

Send Email in HTML Format

Email can be sent as plain text or HTML. Note: When sending email in HTML mode, all images need to be accessible to the email recipients. So, if you design an HTML email that includes images, and those images are on your computer, you'll need to upload those images to your company or personal website so that the images will be viewable to the email recipients.

Email User

Enter your email user name that was provided to you by your Internet service provider.

Email Password

Enter your email password. Note: the password letters are hidden from view and are encrypted when saved to protect your password information.

Include advertisement in email

This option allows users to turn off the Java Contactor advertisement sent in each email.

Spreadsheet Display options

These checkboxes allows users to display the specified columns in the Tools->Contact Spreadsheet menu choice. The spreadsheet display can be printed from the Java Contactor or copy-pasted into Microsoft Excel on Windows in order to create contact distribution lists, for example to create a printed company contact list.

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UNIX Startup Issues

In order for the launchers to work, it is necessary that the Java virtual machine is on the Path environment variable. If the procedure above doesn't work for you, then read the section below for help information.

If the Java Contactor doesn't launch, then it is most likely because Java is either not installed, or the Java executable is not available to the host operating system. The launchers listed above launch the Java Contactor in each operating system listed, although the Java Contactor can be launched manually to troubleshoot an installation. First, make sure that the Java application is on the path by checking the following:

Make sure that the java/bin directory is on the path by checking your shell initialization script, usually ~/.bashrc for bash and ~/.cshrc for csh. This can optionally be checked from a shell window by executing the command 'echo $PATH'

Probably the easiest way to make sure that Java is installed and available is to execute the command "java" from a shell and look at the output . If the shell returns something like ''java' is not recognized as an internal or external command ," then Java is either not installed or is not on the path. If the output returns something like "Usage: Java [-options] class [args...]...," then Java is installed and is on the path. If the Java Contactor still doesn't start, then another problem is occurring. Try verifying that another Java program works, and that your Java installation is at least version 1.3.1 or higher (issue a 'java -version' command from a shell to find out the version installed).

If you have verified that Java is available on the system and at least one other Java application works, then try to launch the Java Contactor from the command line and verify that the Java Contactor files are intact and where they are supposed to be. The main components of the Java Contactor are a Java archive file called "Contact.jar," and 4 files in the database folder: fields.txt, properties.txt, phonelist.txt and todolist.txt." The Java jar file contains all the Java classes and image files necessary to perform the application logic. The properties.txt file contains configuration information for a personalized setup. The phonelist.txt file contains contact information. Issue the following command from the Java Contactor root directory to manually launch the application:

java -jar Contact.jar

After getting the Java Contactor to start up successfully, it will make it easier to subsequently launch the Java Contactor by adding a shortcut or alias to the startup script in a familiar place. UNIX users can use the /bin/sh script provided by adding the database directory in this distribution to the Contact distribution, and making the Contact.sh shell script executable, for example by executing "chmod +x Contact.sh." After verifying that the Contact.sh works, add the directory to your path environment variable to make it easier to launch the application.

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