Apache::Mailtrack - keep track of views of HTML newsletters
In your local httpd.conf:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule /Mailtrack/([^/]*)/(.*) /Mailtrack/?userdata=$1&target=$2 [P]
<Location "/Mailtrack">
PerlSetVar db_dsn dbi:Pg:dbname=mydatabase
PerlSetVar db_user myuser
PerlSetVar db_pass mypass
PerlSetVar db_table mytable
PerlSetVar db_target mytarget
PerlSetVar serializer YAML
PerlSetVar secret "A top secret secret that is."
PerlSetVar path /images
PerlSetVar defaultfile mod_newsletter_default.jpg
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::Mailtrack
</Location>
In the body of the HTML newsletter:
<img src="http://www.site.at/Mailtrack/[% userdata %]/some.gif"> <a href="http://www.site.at/Mailtrack/[% userdata %]/url|use.perl.org">X</a>
Apache::Mailtrack assists you in keeping track of the response generated by an HTML newsletter (supposedly - or shall I say, hopefully - NOT SPAM), by logging all views of the newsletter (via an embedded image, which is served by this module) and logging all clicks on an URL (which gets also "served" by this module via redirect) into a database capable of SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and such).
The data to be logged must be provided in a serialized string, generated by Data::Serializer, representing a hashref. Every entry of this hash is written into the database, using the key as fieldname and writing the value into that field.
The implementation of a script to generate such userdata and embed it into an HTML mail is left as exercise to the reader.
The handler can be triggered either using an images embedded in the newsletter, or by recipients clicking on a link that points to a location handled by Apache::Mailtrack.
Using the file approach, you should get a log entry every time a recipient views the mail in an HTML capable mail client. Example:
<img src="http://www.site.at/Mailtrack/[% userdata %]/some.gif">
Using the link approach, you should get a log entry every time a recipient clicks on a link pointing to an URL handled by Apache::Mailtrack. Example:
<a href="http://www.site.at/Mailtrack/[% userdata %]/url|use.perl.org">X</a>
NOTE: the URL must not contain the protocol (http://). In this release it is only possible to link to HTTP resources.
Follow these steps to set up Apache::Mailtrack:
For example:
CREATE TABLE log
(
subscriberid INTEGER NOT NULL,
newsletterid INTEGER NOT NULL,
target TEXT,
view TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);
For example:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule /Mailtrack/(.*)/(.*) /Mailtrack/?userdata=$1&target=$2 [P]
Replace Mailtrack with the location you use.
You have to set up at least the following variables in your httpd.conf in the location you want to use Apache::Mailtrack using PerlSetVar:
complete DBI connect string
database user
password to be used
name of table we should log to
Additionally you can define the following options:
name of the field in the defined table (see db_table) we should write the redirection target to [default: undef]
name of the serializer Data::Serializer should use [default: Storable]
specify secret for use with encryption [default: undef]
default path to the served file [default: /images]
file we should serve in case of emergency [default: mailtrack_default.jpg]
Florian Helmberger <fh@laudatio.com>
mod_perl, Apache::Request, Apache::Constants, Data::Serializer, YAML, DBI
$Id: Mailtrack.pm,v 1.3 2003/02/03 12:14:57 florian Exp $
Copyright (C) 2002 - 2003 Florian Helmberger. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the Perl Artistic License (see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html).
