Subscribe and unsubscribe block for Customer Dashboard Page

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the screenshot! I checked it and I’m not sure what is the issue here – could you please elaborate on that?

Hello again @graichura,

The dashboard is there for people who have already signed-up as a customer to the website. In the process of subscribing they need to add their email address.

Kindly take note that users registering on your website through the SureMEMBERS / sureCART plugin may not automatically be classified as “subscribers” on your MailPoet list. This will occur unless you’ve created a specific workflow for such a process.

Given that there’s currently no direct integration between the SureMembers plugin and MailPoet, I’m curious about your current process of adding subscribers into the MailPoet plugin. Can you elaborate on that?

Once they are in the dashboard as a customer, the shortcode is there to allow them to choose to update their subscription preferences to the newsletter in the dashboard. We do not use the MailPoet setting to automatically opt-in the user to the newsletter in the customer sign-up process. Therefore it’s vital to ensure that the opt-in to the newsletter for customers is explicit and therefore this shortcode should allow them to subscribe or unsubscribe to the newsletter accordingly according to their preferences.

In order to better understand your configuration, please share the URL of the form that visitors use to register on your website. This will allow us to analyze how it’s set up.

Additionally, it’s essential to remember that the “manage your subscription” shortcode in MailPoet is designed for customers who are already subscribed. Therefore, if a customer hasn’t been added to the MailPoet plugin, this shortcode won’t operate properly.

For those customers who haven’t subscribed yet, the form can act as an opt-in. Once they are subscribed, they can adjust their preferences or unsubscribe directly from their dashboard by using the “manage your subscription” link.

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Hi @geraltrivia,

As the site is based on subscription, in order for a user to subscribe to the website, they need to first sign-up as a purchase via the surecart checkout process. The checkout has pre-defined products that I have setup for subscription access that are integrated with suremembers, which enables content access rights accordingly by each access level.

During the checkout purchase process there is no option for the user to opt-in for newsletter as it is too early and would disrupt the checkout process.

When the user makes the purchase to a subscription (free or otherwise), they are redirected to a Customer Dashboard area that is enabled by checkout provider. This is the page where they provide a block for user to update their details such as first name, last name and email. There is no newsletter opt-in module provided in this dashboard.

Therefore, I have added the shortcode from MailPoet for this page, which is in-effect their personal page where they also can update other preferences and see content related to their subscription level.

The problem at the moment is that the shortcode added, along with instructions as per screenshot shared with you to update newsletter preferences, defaults to showing a drop-down status of Subscribed.

The only way the shortcode block works from mailpoet, is if the user follows the instructions I personally added, selects the newsletter checkbox, then selects subscribe, then selects update.

Since it does not work, I tested another way that could allow them to subscribe, which is to instead remove your shortcode and instead introduce a radio button to subscribe or unsusbcribe according to their preferences, only instead, we use sureTRIGGERS to either subscribe them or unsubscribe them from the newsletter and it will work.

BUT the problem with the hack mentioned above to use sureTRIGGERS, is that I do not have a way to show the user that right now when the user first lands on the Customer Dashboard page, that they are unsubscribed from the newsletter.

SO, I was asking if there is any way you can provide a new shortcode that I can use on this page that simply only shows their current subscriber status and nothing else.

THEN I can add the radio button with sureTRIGGERS to get them subscribed, since they will see straight away they are not yet subscribed.

Hope this makes sense.

Hi @graichura

I agree, the implementation does seem klunky, and our developers do have the shortcodes on their list of issues to address.

I found that using a bit of CSS to hide the select dropdown left the selections in the default “subscribed” setting, which meant that lists not subscribed to are off, while lists that are subscribed to are on.

.mailpoet-manage-subscription .mailpoet_select_label, .mailpoet-manage-subscription  .mailpoet_select{
	display:none;
}

This seemed to work well and allows an opportunity to reword the instructions, perhaps?

Hi @nicw

I actually tried using CSS before actually submitting the initial support request. Unfortunately, if we use CSS to remove that drop-down list and only have the checkbox available for selection, what happens is that the user does not actually get subscribed. Behind the scenes in MailPoet, the list shows the user as unconfirmed status.

Therefore, even if the checkbox shows as selected, it falsely leads a user to believe they are subscribed, and then for admin, they are shown as not verified.

One option for the shortcode if your team can make changes to it could be to remove the drop-down list and replace it with a radio button next top each list to include following options:

Opt-in
Opt-out

Then if the shortcode is includes logic so that any user who is ‘unconfirmed’ behind the scenes, then it shows as Opt-Out by default.

Alternatively, if your team can create a simple shortcode to show the current subscriber status only, with nothing else, I can use the alternative approach with suretriggers as previously mentioned.

Be great to hear what can be done.

Thanks

Hi, further to a recent change you have made to the subscriber management shortcode that forces the newsletter list to be checked, the subscriber management shortcode functionality no longer works.

Previously when the user could select their newsletter list and then choose to unsubscribe or subscribe again, it worked.

Now however, whatever change you have made means that when you change the subscriber status from Unsubscribed to Subscribed, it does not process the change in the wp mailpoet subscriber list in the admin areas to show that they are subscribed. They continue to be shown as Unsubscribed.

Hi, as an update to my previous message, the mailpoet_manage_subscription shortcode block seems to work now when the user selects either subscribe or unsubscribe from the drop-down menu.

There seem to be two bugs if you can help resolve:

1. From a display perspective, the newsletter is no longer selectable. It just shows the name of the newsletter with an empty white checkbox that cannot be selected.

The good news here however on point 1 is that the user does not need to seem to have to select the checkbox, so it makes it easier to update if they want to switch from subscribed to unsubscribed or vice versa. Furthermore, it correctly shows the status change on the backend admin panel on the MailPoet subscriber profile Status field box.

2. However, on the MailPoet admin backend, when you select a subscriber to review their subscriber history, the list incorrectly shows every update change from the subscriber as an ‘unsubscribe’ action in the history list of actions, even if their last action was to subscribe again.

Sorry, so after more testing… the block is not working after all. If the user isn’t able to follow this sequence, then it doesn’t process the subscriber preferences correctly:

1. User selects newsletter checkbox of list to unsubscribe or subscribe to
2. User selects unsubscribe or subscribe option
3. User hits save button

This is the only way the block works properly. At the moment, the checkbox is not selectable, which seems to be preventing the correct logging of the user and their respective choice.

Is there any way this can be fixed? Alternatively, could you provide a clearer set of instructions on your knowledge base as to how this can be achieved by using MailPoet API with an associated html form, so that users can choose to be opted-in or out to a newsletter list if they are an existing website member?

Many Thanks

Hello there @graichura,

Thank you for reaching out to us with these detailed observations. To help us understand and resolve your issues more effectively, we would like to clarify some points:

1. Unconfirmed status after CSS modification: Were you able to confirm that the unconfirmed status was directly related to the CSS modification, or might there be other factors at play?
2. Changes to the subscriber management shortcode: From your description, it seems there were some changes made that impacted the functionality of being able to switch between “Subscribed” and “Unsubscribed”. Are these changes recent, and do you recall any significant updates or modifications that might have led to this?
3. Issues with selectable checkbox: You’ve mentioned that the checkbox was not selectable, preventing the user from subscribing or unsubscribing from the list. Could you provide a screenshot of this issue?
4. Incorrect display of user action in history: We would appreciate it if you could share a screenshot or more details on this issue, where all actions in the history list are shown as ‘unsubscribe’ irrespective of the actual action taken by a user.
5. Block working requirements: Could you please provide us with more details or possibly a screenshot when it does not process the subscriber preferences without following the explicitly defined sequence.

Additionally, thank you for your suggestion on providing clearer instructions on our knowledge base. We strive to improve our user experience and your feedback is valuable to us.

Once you get back to us with these clarifications, we’ll be better positioned to identify the issue(s).

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Hi (@geraltrivia),

See my responses below:

1. Unconfirmed status after CSS modification: Were you able to confirm that the unconfirmed status was directly related to the CSS modification, or might there be other factors at play?
   
   The unconfirmed status remains present on the backend if the user does not follow the steps outlined below
   
   1.1 Ensure ‘newsletter list’ checkbox is first selected
   
   1.2. Select ‘Subscribed’ or ‘Unsubscribed’ from the ‘Status’ drop-down select field. This field should include a default ‘Select’ option label but it doesn’t. With a ‘Select’ default label, it will make more sense and stop people thinking they are always ‘Subscribed’ which is the default label at moment.
   
   1.3. Finally, click save to confirm (at which point automated message appears saying updated has been saved). 
   
   
2. Changes to the subscriber management shortcode: From your description, it seems there were some changes made that impacted the functionality of being able to switch between “Subscribed” and “Unsubscribed”. Are these changes recent, and do you recall any significant updates or modifications that might have led to this?
   
   I was mistaken, your shortcode still seems to be functioning with the same issues.
   
   
3. Issues with selectable checkbox: You’ve mentioned that the checkbox was not selectable, preventing the user from subscribing or unsubscribing from the list. Could you provide a screenshot of this issue?
   
   The checkbox is selectable, but the default state seems to be selected.  I think it was a CSS issue that prevented it from being selected before.
   
   
4. Incorrect display of user action in history: We would appreciate it if you could share a screenshot or more details on this issue, where all actions in the history list are shown as ‘unsubscribe’ irrespective of the actual action taken by a user.
   
   Yes, the MailPoet Subscribers list when looking at user profile does not show the correct Status changes when a user selects Subscribe. It always show the archive log as an unsubscribe update, even it was a switch to subscribe again.
   
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W-tdSVE-XkFX2GQ1He0HyiOP26WG1p3L/view?usp=sharing
   
5. Block working requirements: Could you please provide us with more details or possibly a screenshot when it does not process the subscriber preferences without following the explicitly defined sequence.

As per screenshot here, when followed, the MailPoet Lists ‘View Subcribers’ shows the correct status. However, the MailPoet ’Subscriber Lists’ section still shows the archive of updates list as Unsubscribed each time. It should log if the user changes preference from Unsubscribed to Subscribed there and vice versa but it doesn’t. Please note however, in the actual MailPoet list ‘subscribers’, the status reflects correctly, so there is a disconnect somewhere.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZUMna14SW8yCdVWGvbtQmeY3KMDuvXr8/view?usp=sharing

As an idea, I am using WooCommerce now. If you are able to integrate the subscriber preferences options to subscribe and unsubscribe into the WooCommerce My Account page within the ‘edit-account’ endpoint, this could help enable for a smoother personal dashboard experience. Considering MailPoet i is part of Woo, if I’m not mistaken this could be a great move to improve the customer experience for the end-user.

• This reply was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by graichura.
• This reply was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by graichura.

Hi there @graichura,

I’ve read through this entire thread and I think there might be a misunderstanding here with how the MailPoet Manage Subscription page / shortcode works.

On that page – whether you use the default generated one, or create your own and manually add the shortcode – there are two field areas. One is a dropdown to set Subscribed / Unsubscribed. This marks the user as allowing contact from you via email *in a generic sense*. It is not tied to one specific newsletter or list. It’s a generalized granting of permissions.

The other area is the checkboxes, these control which lists you wish to receive content from as a subscriber. If your status is Unsubscribed, you’re unsubscribed from all lists. If your status is Subscribed, you can then check off the lists you’d like to receive (or uncheck them, if you’d like to leave them).

As you only have one list, the Newsletter list, it sounds as though you have been seeing these two options as being one and the same, i.e. “subscribed” means subscribed to the newsletter list. But that’s not quite how it works. If you subscribe via the page / shortcode, you would still have to check off the Newsletter list to actually receive that email.

In addition, this page is meant to work **with a specific user**. Usually, customers / subscribers would not be able to access this page via, say, a direct link or a menu item. They would enter this page by clicking the “Manage my subscription” link in an email that they received. This link contains a code that maps to their specific subscriber account. Thus, the fields we’re talking about here – Subscribe / Unsubscribe, as well as the list checkboxes – are pre-marked to **match the user that clicked the link.**

This is likely why you are seeing a variety of behaviours on these settings, depending on if you are logged in or not, and how you are accessing the page. If you are just going directly to the page – say via a menu item – then it’s unpredictable *which* user the form is loading for. The URL should have an appended code that pertains to that specific subscriber (which should already be in MailPoet) and there’s no easy way, from an outside application, for you to create these codes or generate these codes.

Hope that all made sense!

So, long story short, this form can’t be used in a generic way to subscribe / unsubscribe people or add them or remove them from lists.

What I would recommend here is looking into MailPoet Automations:
https://kb.mailpoet.com/article/397-how-to-set-up-an-automation

Since your future subscribers are being pulled from your Woo Customer pool, you could set up an automation that triggers on when a new Woo Customer is added. You could then send out an email asking them if they’d like to subscribe. From there, they can use an embedded link – now that they are clicking it from a specific email as a specific subscriber – to sign up to your newsletter and thus provide consent. The automation can be used to add them to your newsletter and ensure they are now subscribed.

Please take a look at that as an option. I do not think that the implementation you are working on with the Manage My Subscription form will work as you would like.