1. Not Just for the Web:
Cascade and Mass Email Messages
Cascade User Conference
September 17, 2013

2. UCO Configuration Overview
WCMS
(Cascade Server)
Staging
(blasts-preview.uco.local)
Production
(blasts.uco.edu)

3. Our Challenge
Distribution of Daily News
 Daily newsletter
 Stories submitted by the UCO community
 Compiled by University Relations
 Emailed to the UCO community

4. Original Solution
Centralities Mark I
 Born in 2001
 Hand typed daily in Outlook
 Archives in a shared Outlook folder
 Had to be sent before the close of business

5. Centralities - 2001

6. Original Solution
Centralities Mark II
 Created in MS Word
 Sent as HTML from Word
 Added branding
 Repeated typos due to Word->HTML translation
 Still archived in Outlook folder
 Still sent before close of business

7. Centralities - 2005

8. Centralities - 2008

9. Centralities - 2009

10. Plan for a New Version
Centralities Mark III
 User friendly creation and editing of messages
 Queue for sending at any time
 University branded
 Automatically go out to multiple mailing lists
 Online version and online archive

11. User-Friendly Editing

12. The Solution
Email Message Asset – The Message
 Simple two-column HTML page
 Left column for a block of upcoming events
 Right column for content
 Base URL set
 Simple workflow:
Edit -> Publish Preview -> Publish Production
 “View on Website” link

13. Workflow

14. Centralities - 2013

15. The Metafile
Email Message Asset – The Metafile
 Uses the asset ID as a unique identifier
 Contains:
 Send Date and Time
 Path to the HTML file
 All information for email headers
 XML-based

16. The Metafile

17. The Archive
 Published nightly
 Simple jQuery-based script to filter the links

18. The Solution
Production Server-Side Script
 Rewrite URLs for hostname change
 Extract email information from the Metafile
 Check if already processed
 Send the email
 Final cleanup

19. Lessons Learned
 Timing
HTML and XML files are not published
instantaneously or simultaneously
 Protect People from Themselves
More automation equals less chance of user error

20. Future Plans
 Revise the edit form
 Publish the archive from the Workflow
 Add logging
 Errors emailed to our Service Desk
 Expand solution to other areas of campus
 President’s Office
 Cabinet Notes

21. David J. Lodge
405-974-2691
http://technology.uco.edu
dlodge@uco.edu