WordPress: Send Private Email plugin
By default, WordPress lacks the ability to send emails to registered users. This plugin was created to fill the gap by allowing you to send emails to your blog users.
More details are available on the Wordpress Send Private Email plugin page on my blog.
To prevent abuse this powerful mass mailing functionality is available only to users with Administrator role. This can be changed quite easily if need be, for instance to allow all Editors or greater to use the plugin. Just let me know if you need it, and I’ll modify it for you.
Once activated it adds a new submenu called Write Private Email under the Write menu in the blog management area.
Simple, powerful and very convenient to use.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
April 1st, 2006 at 6:03 pm
[…] WP Plugin: Send Private Email Lets you send emails to your blog users from your admin screen. I can see this being really useful for multi-author blogs (though there is a large possibility of abuse). Technorati Tags: wordpress plugin […]
April 1st, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Sounds useful, got link? TIA.
April 2nd, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Awesome plugin. Thx man.
April 3rd, 2006 at 4:23 am
Can I have a copy of this handy plugin?
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:29 am
This plugin is not available for direct download. If you’re interested to receive it please leave a comment here, or contact me. Just make sure your email address is valid and accepts ZIP attachments.
So far I’ve sent the plugin to all who requested it - and that was a lot of people. Tell you the truth, only this morning I’ve spent about two hours replying to your feedback and sending the plugin. Awesome!
I’d like to thank everyone who took a minute of their time and sent me feedback and ideas to make this Private Mail Wordpress plugin even more useful. Kudos to you all!
April 4th, 2006 at 12:13 am
I would love the plugin! Thanks
April 5th, 2006 at 4:28 am
This sounds really cool, I’d love to try it out. Thanks for putting so much work into helping others!
April 5th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Sounds like a good plugin that could be handy. Would love to try it out.
April 7th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Can I get this tool?
April 7th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Everyone who has requested the plugin should’ve received their copy. If you haven’t then please don’t get offended and re-send your request. I literally am swamped with requests for it, and it may be that unintentionally I missed sending it to someone.
I will have to find a way to automate this. Since I released the Send Private Email plugin, I spend approximately three hours each morning just to send it to everyone that requests it. This means three hours I cannot spend on improving it or coding other useful plugins.
Ideas? Suggestions?
April 7th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Can I have a copy?
April 8th, 2006 at 2:10 am
Sounds like a great plugin!
Can I have a copy?
thanks
Paul
April 9th, 2006 at 1:09 am
what is preventing you from making it available as a download ?
April 9th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Sadish,
This is a valid question, thanks for asking it.
The primary reason for not offering this plugin for direct download is that I’d like to evaluate the interest for it and track the distribution.
Second, since this plugin is still in beta phase - and very few have experienced some problems with it - it will also help me send new versions that fix those problems and simply let those who are interested in it that there’s a new version available.
Third, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and very valuable suggestions for improvements from WordPress users who have requested the plugin. Kudos to you all! You know who you are. The new features are also seeing light as new versions are finished, and I’d like the ability to send the new and improved version first to those who requested those features, and then to everyone else that is using the plugin.
Forth, initially I had in mind to offer a commercial version for this plugin, for a low fee of something like $9. This will help me offer better suppport - such as personalized versions, faster response to your questions and other benefits - for the Send Private Email plugin and at the same time produce other - hopefully useful - plugins.
As much as I’d like to offer all of them for free, programming is what I do for a living, and this is what puts food on our table. I haven’t yet decided if this will be turned into a commercial version, or if it will stay free forever.
Hope these answer your question, and probably everyone else’s who had it in their mind but didn’t took the time to ask.
April 12th, 2006 at 5:44 am
id really like to use this plugin
can you please email it to me?
thank you!
April 19th, 2006 at 3:49 am
i’d like to use this plugin. any chance i can get a copy?
regards,
ben
April 19th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Sounds like a great plugin!
Can you please email it to me?
Thank you!
April 20th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Hi, I’d love a copy if at all possible.
April 25th, 2006 at 1:47 am
Hi, I would greatly like to test your plugin, it seems it could be a real bonus for my site.
Thank you
Best regards,
Philippe Schmid
April 25th, 2006 at 7:10 am
I was wondering if I could get this plugin.
April 27th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Please note that download instructions have been added to the Wordpress Private Email Plugin page.
I will no longer be replying to download requests here. Hopefully the new setup will allow everyone to get the plugin instantly instead of waiting after my hectic schedule.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me feedback on how the plugin worked on their blog. It means a lot to me!
April 28th, 2006 at 12:35 am
When recieving emails (i did a test before making this production) everything seems ok except for the “from” line. If I put my name as it is from…”Drew Decker” (no quotes) it shows it on the email as: “DrewDecker” (no quotes).
Just to let you know…
April 29th, 2006 at 11:10 am
Drew,
Thank you for your feedback. It is much appreciated.
There’s a new version currently in beta testing that will allow more flexibility - and better error checking - as well as a ton of other cool features that were suggested by users.
In the meantime, please make sure you either type your email address only - such as some@email.com - either use something like “Drew Decker <some@email.com>” (without quotes). I can’t test this right now, but any of these should do the trick. The upcoming version shouldn’t have any of these problems anyway.
Everybody, stay tuned to the upcoming release. All subscribers will get to hear about it first - as a way to say thank you for your support - then a few days later I’ll update the website and a bunch of other places.
If you’d like to download this plugin, and be automatically notified when the new version comes up, go to Wordpress Private Email Plugin and use the form near the bottom of the page. Do it now.
April 30th, 2006 at 1:24 am
Sounds good. I registered, confirmed, and got nothing. Might I trouble you for the link or e-mail me the file?
Thanx
May 13th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Great plugin and one that I would love to have. Thank you
May 14th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
How can you download this plugin my friend? It mentions that is now available and that you should leave your details below… which I have done but so far…. nada! Can you assist please?
Thanx again.
May 14th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Mike,
Go to this URL: http://www.catalinionescu.com/wordpress-private-email-plugin/
Fill in your details. Press “Download now!”. Watch your email. You will receive a confirmation email shortly. Click on the confirmation link.
Next thing you know, you’ll receive another email with the link to download the plugin.
All in all, it shouldn’t take you more than one minute to do it. For the reasons of doing this, instead of putting the link directly on the page for direct download, please see my comments above.
P.S. It’s an AWeber powered list, and you can unsubscribe at any time if you want. The only email I’ve ever sent out from it was the one with the download link, so it’s more than low volume
If you’ve followed the steps above and you’re still having trouble, contact me and I’ll see what I can do to help.
Thank you.
May 21st, 2006 at 4:07 am
I have this error:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /path_blog/wp-content/plugins/private_email/private_email.php on line 136
—
The line 136:
foreach ($users as $u) {
—-
This sentence is ok, i don’t konw what happened.
I use:
FreeBSD 5.4
PHP 4.4.2
thanks
May 21st, 2006 at 10:16 pm
hello.
i keep getting this after i send the private email
“/home/blogrunn/public_html/wp/wp-content/plugins/private_email/private_email.php on line 136″
can u help with this?
thanks
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:22 am
Jose & runn,
Yes, I have some ideas to try.
Would you mind sending me a private email at the following link:
http://www.catalinionescu.com/contact-me/
Please include the WP version you have, and any additional plugins you may have installed.
Thank you.
May 24th, 2006 at 5:00 am
I love this plugin. I’ve had it installed for 2 days and already I’m finding it helpful for send emails to my web admin team. Thanks for makeing this.
I do have a future enhancement request. You have the option to send to each group or to all. It would be nice to send to multiple groups — And, maybe even just to an individual.
May 24th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Dara,
Glad you like it. I’ve added your requests to the TODO list.
Thank you.
May 28th, 2006 at 6:11 am
Hi Catalin,
I’m having the same trouble as Jose and Runn above:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/private_email.php on line 136
You asked them to send you an email so I’ll do that too, but I also wanted to add to your wish list:
(1) I use Red Alt’s Role Manager (http://redalt.com/wiki/Role+Manager) and I’ve renamed some roles (so not “Subscribers” but e.g. “Clients”) and I’d like to email to my custom groups. Not a big deal w/o it, but thought you’d like to know.
(2) OK, thought of another question. I have 100+ registered users. Will your system do any batch processing to get through the hosts that don’t allow more than XX number of emails sent per hour? Any options for sending (e.g. SMTP, PHP, etc.).
Great plugin, looking forward to seeing it work!
- Bradley
June 2nd, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Fantastic Plugin Catalin! For me it only worked to send to the user “Admin”. All other reported FAILED! in red text, even other administrators. Do you have any idea?
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Peter,
One reason this can happen is if they haven’t entered a valid email address when setting up their accounts.
Another reason may be that your hosting provider doesn’t allow outgoing emails from your web server.
Without knowing more details about your particular setup it’s really hard to tell.
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Okej Catalin, It must be something with my hosts in relation to the Word Press installation. Thanks….
June 3rd, 2006 at 10:37 pm
I’m getting the same error message as the others, with regards to line 136.
Here’s what it says:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /wp-content/plugins/private_email/private_email.php on line 136
Can you help me fix this?
June 9th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Hello. I just installed the plugin but when hitting Send Mail, I get an error that it cannot load the page:
Cannot load private_email/private_email.php..
The URL it gives looks like MYWEBSITE/wp-admin/post.php?page=private_email/private_email.php. Any ideas? Does the folder containing the plugin need to be dropped in the plugins folder?
June 13th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
hi Catalin, I downloaded and installed your plugin. Everything worked great until I decided to test try it. Unfortunately I got this error page:
Cannot load private_email/private_email.php.
I was wondering if you could help tell me what was the problem?
Thank you for your time in advance.
Green
June 18th, 2006 at 2:17 am
I’m wondering if it is possible (not asking you to do it, just if it’s possible) to amend the plugin to work with user levels instead of user roles? I have a user levels plugin on my blog tht restricts viewable access to posts. There are essentially three levels of viewing and it would be amazing if I could email them about new entries based on their user level (with a plugin rather than manually). I’m just curious. Thanks!
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:32 am
I like plugin sitemap,gallery,Photo Album, mailling list, sound,movie,poll,…and so on. but I don’t know get it where…
I try use wordpress on yerterday.
Please Help me, I think I love wordpress and plugin.
thanks.
Jom
baby boy for wordpress
July 31st, 2006 at 4:52 pm
hi, may i please get the plugin?
i was wondering if i had multiple blogs on my subdomains- would i be able to offer this to the blog “owners” and give them permission to do a mailout to their list and also have a copy myself of this list with mailing authority?
August 1st, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Curly,
Thank you for your feedback.
You can get the this Wordpress plugin for free from the dedicated Wordpress Private Email Plugin page.
I am unsure what you mean by “their list”. If you install this plugin on your blog, it will be available by default to all users who have administrator privileges on it and they will be automatically able to do a mass mailing.
Settings inside the plugin that control this behavior can be easily altered to match your particular needs.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Catalin Ionescu
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:13 pm
i got the plugin and will be testing it now. will tell u my experience and surely send u feedback and any developments required for future users.
August 5th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
i have installed the file in the wp-admin directory, but i don’t see private email doesn’t show up in my admin panel…
when i enter the url directly into the browser i get an error that says
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: add_action() in /usr/www/users/dree/zen/commun/wp-admin/private_email.php on line 204
any ideas??
thanks
shyam
August 29th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Buna ziua Catalin, great plugin, I’m about to implement it for a client’s site.
I was wondering if you have a way of sending HTML mails, using your plugin? That would be very useful, because these days plaintext emails are a bit boring
Regards,
Shameel
August 29th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Buna ziua Shameel
Vorbesti romaneste?
Thank you for the nice words.
You’ve got an excellent idea there to send HTML mails. Or at least give the users a choice when using this Wordpress plugin to send emails as text or as HTML.
But I’m afraid there’s a bit more to it than a simple switch. Next thing they’ll want a full fledged HTML editor with formatting and ability to insert images into the posts
I’ll think about it
August 29th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Shyam,
Sorry for the late reply. Summer, holidays and everything…
By any chance did you miss installing the plugin in it’s own folder? If you unzip the archive you received you’ll see the plugin is inside a folder. It needs to stay that way when you upload it to your blog.
Let me know if this helps.
October 5th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Thanks for the great plugin. However, any idea, how do I change the outgoing email id. The reciver of the mail recieves the email id as of the host server and not the if I’ve registered on the admin panel.
October 18th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Hello
As you can see I’m french who leave near Paris.
I have very spécifique question because I use Wordpress for intranet système. Actually I work with only 20 users so I woud like to have a page with the possbility to select 1 or more users to send to them an email.
Is it quite possible with your plugin.
Thank you
November 8th, 2006 at 12:29 am
Hey all,
I am currently running the 2.1alpha version of wordpress, yes i know its not supported, but I was wondering if anyone else here has gotten this plugin to work on it. I’m thinking of writing my own from scratch but looking at the php file for the plugin I can’t figure out why it doesn’t work.
After I click the “send email” button the Write Private Email page I get the following error:
“Fatal error: Cannot redeclare pe_add_pages() (previously declared in /home/epiphany/public_html/wp-content/plugins/private_email/private_email.php:15) in /home/epiphany/public_html/wp-content/plugins/private_email/private_email.php on line 17″
November 8th, 2006 at 1:00 am
Just FYI - I have seemed to get the plugin working. You must change two things:
Number One:
Change the pe_add_pages function to reflect:
function pe_add_pages() {
add_submenu_page(’post-new.php’, ‘Write Private Email’, ‘Write Private Email’, 8, __FILE__, ‘pe_send_email_display’);
}
Number Two:
Change the database call (around line 114) re reflect:
$users = $wpdb->get_results(”SELECT display_name, user_email FROM $wpdb->users, $wpdb->usermeta WHERE
(meta_key = ‘wp_user_level’) AND
((meta_value >= $lvl_lo) AND
(meta_value
November 8th, 2006 at 1:01 am
Didn’t finish copying the last change for some reason - Catalin if you could combine this all into one comment that be great, anyway around line 114 where it makes the database change it needs to reflect:
$users = $wpdb->get_results(”SELECT display_name, user_email FROM $wpdb->users, $wpdb->usermeta WHERE
(meta_key = ‘refresh1_user_level’) AND
((meta_value >= $lvl_lo) AND
(meta_value