Joomla Unsubscribe page

Projects

I am really struggling with something that should be very simple. I have created the newsletter email and it has the UNSUBSCRIBE button on it, In tests, if a user clicks that button, they are directed to some block on my home page that I do not know how or where to edit it. What I want is for them to be sent to a Joomla article/page that acknowledges their OptOut decision and offers them to Subscribe if it was a mistake/they changed their mind etc. But no matter where i look I cannot find that anyone has found a way to do this. It always seems to want to take me to the ACY module or some sort of notice on the hoe page and that is not what I want. I just want a simple SUBSCRIBE button to include on a Joomla article.
Has anyone done this that can point me in the right direction?

jvstratum

Hi,

That "some block" you refer to is the Joomla System Message Container. It's a place where Joomla shows you any messages. By default Acymailing is configured to use this to notify the user about subscriptions and unsubscriptions.

What you're looking for is an unsubscribe page. You can enable this in Acymailing->Configuration->Subscription and it's documented here: https://docs.acymailing.com/setup/configuration/subscription#unsubscribe-page

Projects

I have setup that section to direct to a page on the site. But it does not work! This is a screen shot of the settings in the Configuration settings. This should be the page on my site where I want the user to go when they click an UNSUBSCRIBE link

Here is a screenshot of where they actually are taken. THIS is the Joomla message block you describe:

So, my question is still, how can I get this to work? It appears that I have done what you have recommended and it does not go to MY landing page. I have spent many hours and researched this before I posted in hopes of not having to ask for asistance. But I NEED to get this working as I have a deadline approaching!

Projects

Does anyone have a way to do this? Here is my workflow - We send subscribers a newsletter with an UNSUBSCRIBE button (or link). If they want to opt out, they click that button/link. Then we want them to go to a Joomla page where we say something like :" we are sorry to see you go/it was great serving you etc". We have all been to that kind of page. Then there is a link or button that they click to confirm they want to unsubscribe.
All I seem to get is this cold "you have been unsubscribed" sort of banner on the home page (the Joomla System Message Container), or if I try using the ACYMailing module, it is a just box on the page that asks for their name and email and has a SUBSCRIBE button and an unsubscribe sort of link. It is not very friendly and since this would be an UNSUBSCRIBE page, the SUBSCRIBE button is not needed. If they wanted to keep the subscription, they would not have clicked the UNSUBSCRIBE in the email.
It would seem that is would be a very common way to manage those that want to opt out but I can't seem to find any way to do this. Please, any suggestions. I have a deadline to meet in a few days!

jvstratum

Hi,

When you install Acymailing for the first time the unsibscribe page is not activated. By default any messages are displayed by using the System Message Container. This container is shown by Joomla in case Joomla or an extension need to display a message. For example, when you save an Article in the backend a green bos displaying the Article has been saved succesfully appears. This is the System Message Container and this Joomla feature is available as well in the frontend as well.

The unsubscribe feature in the subscription module can not be used as an unsubscribe page for the unsubscribe links in your emails. The reason is that this unsubscribe button is only available for logged in users. Otherwise bad actors would be able to guess email addresses to unsubscribe.

Instead one can also use an unsubscribe page and this must be enabled in the Joomla configuration. Once activated you get a basic unsubscribe page, just like services as Mailchimp and others do. Then there is a second parameter you can enable, which will allow you to display the unsubscribe page using your website's template.

Th image with the blue background you've shared in your previous reply is the main content of the unsubscribe page. Considering the blue background I assume you have enabled the use of your template for the unsubscribe page.

The lay-out is basic because almost everyone using an unsubscribe page want to style it in a way so it perfectly fits in the website's desing and template. You have two options to change the design of the unsubscribe page.

The first option is CSS. All you need to do is to add your CSS to the custom style sheet that is part of your website's template.

The second option is to create a page override for the unsubscribe page, allowing you to make more rigorous changes like adding tekst, images, modules and more. We've published an article about page overrides here: https://docs.acymailing.com/developers/create-a-page-override

Projects

"Instead one can also use an unsubscribe page and this must be enabled in the Joomla configuration. Once activated you get a basic unsubscribe page, just like services as Mailchimp and others do. Then there is a second parameter you can enable, which will allow you to display the unsubscribe page using your website's template."
This is what I want to do so where is this page? How do I enable it? Where is the "second parameter" you mention?

"Th image with the blue background you've shared in your previous reply is the main content of the unsubscribe page. Considering the blue background I assume you have enabled the use of your template for the unsubscribe page."
That image wit the blue background is where a user goes when clicking an unsubscribe link. I have no idea where that comes from, so I have no idea how to style it. That dialog box comes from something in ACY. I see some of the things there and I have deliberately turned the "Why are You Unsubscribing" questions off in the configuration but it persists and nothing I do changes it..

"The lay-out is basic because almost everyone using an unsubscribe page want to style it in a way so it perfectly fits in the website's desing and template. You have two options to change the design of the unsubscribe page."
"The first option is CSS. All you need to do is to add your CSS to the custom style sheet that is part of your website's template."
Where do I do that? I have a Joomla articles created to be the unsubscribe page - You can view it here - https://tarda.web-worx.org/contact-us/opt-out-page. At the bottom is the Acymailing module. But this only works if the button in the email links to this page as a CALL TO ACTION. If it is set as UNSUBSCRIBE it only goes to the dialog box in the 2nd screen shot above. I have been working at this problem for days and days and cannot find out how you do any of what you describe above!

"The second option is to create a page override for the unsubscribe page, allowing you to make more rigorous changes like adding tekst, images, modules and more. We've published an article about page overrides here: https://docs.acymailing.com/developers/create-a-page-override"
I use Joomla 4 and here is what options I have for the "override":

Your article has no instructions on how to create this override! I have no idea what to do with this.
This should not be this hard! I am not a developer! I do not know CSS beyond a very rudimentary knowledge. All i want is to create an article in Joomla that I can direct a user to when they unsubscribe that is attractive to them and lets them con firm their email and Opt Out! Is there anyone that can take me through this step by step?? I will give superuser access to get this done. Please!

Projects

I do not have time to go back and forth on this. I don't have the skilles to do this. So I will hire someone to do it. Do you want the job?

jvstratum

Hi,

For your understanding Ill subscribe the whole process and tell you what to do to accomplish what you want as easy as possible.

1) You send out a mailing containing an unsubscribe link

2) The subscriber wants to unsubscribe and slicks on the unsubscribe link

3) The user is landing on you unsubscribe page that contains this form

4) As son as the subscriber has unselected one or more lists he wants to unsubscribe from and clicks "Save" OR when the subscribers clicks on "Unsibscribe from all" the user gets immediately unsubscribed in the databse and will nog longer receive emails from you.

5) You have setup a "Redirect after unsubscribe" to the page https://tarda.web-worx.org/contact-us/opt-out-page, hence your "Soryy to see you go page".

On this page you need to remove the text that they can unsubscribe, because they already have unsubscribed on the previous page. It's not possible to reconfirm the unsubscription.

Also add a normal subscription module to this "Sorry to see you go" page. You can encourige your user to suscribe again in case they unsubscribed unintentionally.
In this subscription module DO NOT enable the unsubscribe option. The unsubscribe option in the subscription form has nothing to do with the process of a user clicking on an unsubscribe link in your email. It's there for different purposes which are not relevant to what you want to accomplish.

Now you have your unsubscribe process complete, insluding offering a way to resubscribe again.

Regarding the styling of the unsubscribe form in step 3 you canuse css to modify colors, font-size, borders, field width or whatever you want to change.

The css code must be placed inside the custom style sheet that belongs to your website's template. If you can't find it, please ask your template provider

In case your css modifications do not work it's because one of these reasons:

a) You have made a typo in your code -> Check your code for typing errors

b) The frontend is cached and is still loading the old css. -> Reload the page by pressing SHFT-CTRL-R. This will load everything from your server again instead of using cached files.

c) You need to address your css with more specifity. To learn more about this please read this: https://css-tricks.com/specifics-on-css-specificity/.

Projects

I know you are trying to help, but you are missing the point. I do not want to see that "Opt Out Page, EVER!
When a user clicks on the link in the email, we want them to go straight to the Thank You/Sorry to see you go" page (article) we create in Joomla and on THAT page we have the Unsubscribe button/link and that unsubscribes them. Done!
Now, if we HAVE to have that dialog box shown above, without the "Why are you unsubscribing" question and the Update button, customized the way we want then that would be acceptable. But as you are explaining, there is no way to do that!
It is redundant to take them to that ugly dialog box, with no styling or text related to our organization, have them unsubscribe there and THEN take them to OUR pages with those things. That is a waste of their time and effort and they may already be upset about getting what they might consider SPAM! It should all be on one page! One easy click and they are done! They ONLY get that far because they clicked on the Unsubscribed link in the email because they WANTED to Unsubscribe! If they don't want to Opt Out, they would not have clicked the button!!
So it is ACY's thinking that to do that, we HAVE to utilize hacks and CSS styling etc to achieve the result we could easily do, without ANY of that by simply putting that module on the article page!. You have created dynamic text to use in the emails. Why can't that be used in the process of Unsubscribing a user?
You created this decent drag and drop editor to create email templates. Why not create a template we can use for the unsubscribe landing page and we can put that template on a Joomla article where we, the site owners, can actually use it? The people we send mailings to are NOT registered users of our site. We only have a few volunteers that are actual Joomla users because they do various tasks and administrative functions.
I am not new to this. I've been working websites with Joomla for 10-15 years and this is the first time I have found myself with an extension that I HAD to know how to hack a file and use custom CSS to actually make it work to my satisfaction. Our landing page for this does NOT have to be some great work of art. It just has reflect the logo of the organization and some text in the spirit of what we do. We do NOT want people who have contacted us in the first place to be upset that they have to jump through a bunch of unnecessary steps to Opt Out of our lists.
I have neither the time or the proficiency in the PHP and CSS to customize the files need for this. I have never really had to do any of that, other than a minor tweak once in a while. Now,I HAVE to pay someone to to this and as a nonprofit that is not really a good use of our funds when this is something that should be baked in to AcyMailing by default.
You appear to be knowledgeable in how to do this, so I ask again- DO YOU WANT TO DO IT? I will pay a fair price for it, Otherwise I will hire a freelancer to do.

Projects

I needed this done, hired a freelancer and got the changes made in a little over 2 hours. This is something that should have been baked into AcyMailing out of the box.

jvstratum

I'm glad to hear you have things configured the way you wanted them.