Efficient and affordable software for Macintosh - Maker of MaxBulk Mailer, eMail extractor, eMail Checker, e-Mail Bounce Handler

Mailing List manager (MLM)



Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Are there tutorials available?  

Yes, we are currently creating tutorials about MLM. All tutorials are available here. New ones will be added regularly.
The automatic install has failed, what can I do?  

When you get errors during the installation the best will be to install MLM manually. You can do that with a FTP software like Transmit, Fetch, CoreFTP… It is explained here, at the end of the page, below 'Installation Errors'.
When I run a MLM command with my browser all I get is an empty page.  

You will need to use very last version of MLM. It is available here. Only recent versions (v 2.1 and higher) offer support for mySQL v3, v4 in addtion to v5.
When I run a MLM command with my browser I get an 'Internal Server Error'.  

That means your server doesn't like you to set the folder 'lm' access permissions to 777. Just CHMOD the 'lm' folder to 775 and try again. If it still fail CHMOD the 'lm' folder to 755. If it still fail CHMOD the 'lm' folder to 705. It should then work. You can CHMOD a folder with your FTP software.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in .../html/lm/lm.php on line xxx  

That error means the lm.php file has been partially uploaded. Indeed, you uploaded the first xxx lines. The complete file has more than a thousand lines. Try to upload the file again with your FTP client software (Fetch, Transmit, FileZilla, CoreFTP). Note that there are chances other files are not complete either so try to upload all the contents from the 'lm' folder. The 'lm' folder is included with the MaxBulk Mailer package.
When I run a MLM command with my browser I get a 'Page Not Found' error.  

Never install MLM into your home root folder if you have a specific folder for public html documents like 'public', 'html', 'public_html', 'web', 'www', 'httpdocs'. Just open that folder and any subfolder first!
When I run MLM I get a 'Impossible to create the database or the table.' error.  

Make sure:

- The mySQL server address you have entered in lm_settings.php is correct. You may have to use 'localhost' if mySQL is located in the same server as Apache and PHP.
- You are using the right User ID and Password with full access. Indeed you need an account with full privileges, including for table creation.
The MaxBulk Mailer 'Recipients > Upload to MLM' function doesn't work  

That can be caused by a mod_security Access denied error. Just create a '.htaccess' file in the script directory with the following text:

<IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</IfModule>

or just:

SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off

More information on this here: What is mod security and how does it affect me.

Another possible solution is to create your own 'php.ini' file, inside the 'lm' folder, that will override certain php important variables. Add the following to that file:

upload_max_filesize = 20M;
post_max_size = 20M;
register_globals = On;
allow_url_fopen = On;
memory_limit = 24M;
max_execution_time = 1800;
max_input_time = 1800;
'Warning: cannot yet handle MBCS in html_entity_decode()!' error.  

If you are using PHP 4 the error message “Warning: cannot yet handle MBCS in html_entity_decode” will get displayed on your page. This is not a bug in MLM but a bug in PHP 4 itself. Our recommendation would definitely be asking you to upgrade to PHP 5. PHP group has announced the end of life for PHP 4 on the 13th July 2007. The other solution is to use very last MLM version. It is available here. That version hides the warnings. This is definitely not an elegant solution but at least it will work.
What user ID and password should I use in MaxBulk Mailer preferences?  

In the MaxBulk Mailer preferences, second panel 'General', there are several fields below 'Remote Lists'. The first one 'URL' contains the full URL of the 'lm.php' file on your site, the second and third ones, ID and Password should contain the same User ID and Password you have set during the installation or in case you did it manually, the same User ID and Password that the ones you have set in the lm_settings.php file labeled $admin_id and $admin_password.
I don't see any data in the MaxBulk Mailer Statistics window  

First make sure you have entered the full URL of lm.php in your MaxBulk Mailer preferences. It is a field labeled 'URL', below 'Remote Lists', in the second panel 'General'. Then, on the Statistics window make sure you check the right Delivery on the left side list. Indeed MaxBulk Mailer will only show the statisctics of the checked deliveries. You can check as many as you want. Selecting/highliting a delivery is useless, you have check it!
The script is ran with PHP 4 despite PHP 5 is available on my server  

With given hosting packages you have the choice between using PHP 4 or PHP 5. By default Apache uses PHP 4 for the '.php' extension. To distinguish a script as PHP 5, you can simply name it with the file extension '.php5' however if you don't want to rename all your scripts to '.php5' you can create an '.htaccess' file and place the following line inside: 'AddType x-mapp-php5 .php' without quotes. This will tell Apache to use PHP 5 instead of PHP 4 for the extension '.php' in the directory the '.htaccess' is placed and all sub-directories under it. Note that you can also use 'AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php' without quotes as an alternative for or instead of 'AddType x-mapp-php5 .php'.
The 'lm' folder has the wrong Owner and Group settings  

It is possible that your server has set the 'lm' folder to a wrong Owner and Group during the upload. As a result the script will not run at all. Very few FTP servers let you edit the Owner and Group settings so either you contact your server support to correct the problem or do it yourself with a SSH session. This is how to proceed:

Using the Terminal application on Mac OS X or a SSH client on Windows, use the following command to create a SSH session:

    ssh your_server_address_here

Your server will ask you to enter your password. Once logged in, enter the following command:

    chown -R apache:apache path_to_the_lm_folder_here

If you don't get any error, the change should have been successful. Try to run MLM again to see if the script now works properly.





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