Posted by rf on 08/22/07 10:06

<ginoplusio@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1187773290.163484.198530@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> On 22 Ago, 10:36, "rf" <r...@invalid.com> wrote:
>> <ginoplu...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:1187771079.379665.43150@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>
>>
>> > On 22 Ago, 10:14, "rf" <r...@invalid.com> wrote:
>> >> <ginoplu...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> >>news:1187769752.817265.74860@m37g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> >> > Hi,
>> >> > I'm developing a software to send newsletter to the users of my
>> >> > website. I have a problem on the stats, detecting the opening of the
>> >> > newsletter on the user's client.
>> >> > The method I've chosen uses an html img tag like this:
>>
>> >> > <img src="detectscript.php?email=1234"/>
>>
>> >> Which my email client will never open. It considers images a security
>> >> risk,
>> >> as loading them confirms that the email address they were sent to is a
>> >> valid
>> >> one. This is an Anti spam measure.
>>
>> >> > Do you have any suggestion to count the newsletter opening
>> >> > correctly?
>>
>> >> Why do you need to do this?
>>
>> > To make some statistics.
>> > I'd like to make statistics on the newsletter:
>> > - Total emails sent
>> > - Valid emails in the db
>> > - Emails that were full (over quota)
>> > - Opened emails
>> > - Clicked emails
>>
>> > I have problems only on detecting the opened emails.
>>
>> If the email recipient chooses to not download that image then there is
>> nothing at all that you can do to make it happen.
>>
>> You will just have to accept the fact that your stats are not reliable.
>>
>> --
>> Richard.
>
> are you sure?

<sigh> Yes. I am very sure.

If your email recipient has configured their email client to _not_ retrieve
images (as I have done) then there is absolutely nothing you can do about
it, short of going round to their house and changing their preferences for
them.

You can also do nothing at all about the fact that I have a cup of coffee to
the right of my keyboard. You can wish as much as you like for it to be on
the left of my keyboard, but it simply won't happen.

> i can't believe that there isn't a trick... professional newsletter
> software how do they do?

They don't. Nothing you or any professional newsletter software can do at
your end can suddenly make my email client do something I have specifically
told it _not_ to do. This is called: "security".

> using htaccess file is it possibile to make gif extension file
> processed as php...?

Irrelevant. The client is _not_ making a request on the server. If there is
no request then htaccess does not come into it.

> or is it possibile to use url rewriting to find a work around...?
> any suggestion?

See above.

--
Richard.

[Back to original message]