[AktiviX-discuss] Request for email address

[Alan Dawson]

Quoting ana <ana at aktivix.org>:

> so it would parse a text file of the form; subsciber topic_1 topic_7,
> subscriber_2 topic_1 topic_6 topic_9 or somesuch
> 
> In summary: we need some one who can script in either perl or python,
> otherwise, and/or in the meantime, the admin would need to do this for
> them, accessing their options page - for each of the 3000+ subscribers
> 
> so...
> 
> the workflow seems to go like this...
> 
> 1. set up list
> 2. define topics
> 3. mass subscibe
> 4. for each subscriber automate topic allocation using mechanize
> mentioned above


Thats the right idea .. but its not quite as complex.. you don't need any extra
perl or python modules..  Mailman provides a programming interface in python
that lets us manipulate list / member properties using the 'withlist' command

for example ..  i've just played with it here..
somme:/srv/lists.aktivix.org/mailman/Mailman# ../bin/withlist  co-test
Loading list co-test (unlocked)
The variable `m' is the co-test MailList instance
>>> m.Lock()
>>> m.topics
[('London news', 'London News', 'London News', False), ('Scotland News',
'Scotland News', 'Scotland News', False), ('Frontline Subscriber', 'Frontline
Subscriber', 'Frontline Subscriber', False), ('Campaign Member', 'Campaign
Member', 'Campaign Member', False), ('NEC', 'NEC', 'NEC', False)]
>>> m.getMemberTopics('aland at burngreave.net')
['NEC']
>>> m.setMemberTopics('aland at burngreave.net',['London news','Campaign Member'])
>>> m.Save()
>>> m.getMemberTopics('aland at burngreave.net')
['London news', 'Campaign Member']

So if you can set up your list with subscribers and topics, then provide a list
something like 

supporter1 at address.com,Topic_name1,Topic_name2 ..
supporter1 at address.com,Topic_name1,Topic_name2

etc ..

we should be able to do something without needing any hardcore coding.

. erm if we are going to use comma's as delimiters in the users-> topics list
it'd be better if there weren't commas in any of the topic names ?

Regards, 

Alan