What’s New in LISTSERV® Maestro 3.0

LISTSERV is a powerful email list management software solution that sets the industry standard. It allows you to easily manage opt-in email lists, such as email newsletters, announcement lists, and discussion groups.

LISTSERV Maestro is a highly intuitive, advanced email communication solution. It allows you to manage and track sophisticated, database-driven opt-in email campaigns with a powerful, yet easy-to-use Web interface.

LISTSERV Maestro started out in version 1.0 as a user-friendly interface to LISTSERV’s DISTRIBUTE command, making it easy to take recipient data from nearly any source (databases, text files, and LISTSERV lists) and process targeted and personalized messages through LISTSERV’s powerful mail-merge engine.

In version 2.0, LISTSERV Maestro added a data warehouse to collect and store recipient data for itself and for LISTSERV lists. The Maestro data administration interface now included an easy to use Wizard for creating simple database-backed LISTSERV lists within Maestro.

Meanwhile, the LISTSERV 14.x series added some integration with LISTSERV Maestro. The List Wizard became aware of Maestro hosted LISTSERV lists, and LISTSERV Maestro’s powerful HTML message import applet became part of the LISTSERV Web Interface’s new message sending interface. The LISTSERV 14.x series also added important deliverability, anti-spam, and anti-virus features that benefited both products.

Now, in LISTSERV 15.0 and LISTSERV Maestro 3.0, the two interfaces have been completely redesigned, merging the best features of each into the other, and allowing free flow from one application to the other.

LISTSERV 15.0 can still function independently of Maestro, but the two products together offer the most comprehensive email communications package on the market. With the recent addition of HDMail, L-Soft’s new High Deliverability mail engine, the L-Soft software suite has become an email communications solution unmatched in deliverability, speed, and ease of use.

The following features are a result of this integration between LISTSERV 15.0 and LISTSERV Maestro 3.0, and they are described in the sections below.

LISTSERV Maestro now provides an option to map LISTSERV Maestro accounts or identities to email addresses and to trust LISTSERV’s login mechanism. Thus, once logged into the LISTSERV Web interface, a user can select a Maestro menu option and go directly into LISTSERV Maestro without having to login again. If a LISTSERV Maestro identity is mapped to an email address, then the user can select which account within that identity to use.

For more information, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0.

The Maestro data administrator (if given that right in HUB account management) may request that the subscriber pages for any datasets be made accessible from the Subscriber’s Corner in the LISTSERV Web interface. In that case, the Subscriber’s Corner menu option becomes a pull-down menu with links to each of the available datasets in LISTSERV Maestro. Single Sign-On can also be available to subscribers so that, having logged into LISTSERV, they can be automatically logged in to the LISTSERV Maestro subscriber pages that they visit.

For more information, see Section10.1.2 Accessing the LISTSERV Maestro Subscriber Pages from LISTSERV and Section 4.1.1.1 General Settings. For more information on the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro integration, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0.

For datasets containing HLLs with archives, the subscriber pages provide links to the lists’ home page and archives within the LISTSERV Web Interface.

For more information, see Section10.1.1 Accessing LISTSERV Archives and Section 4.1.1.1 General Settings. For more information on the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro integration, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0.

Several enhancements have been made to improve a user’s ability to easily maneuver through the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface and to quickly summarize the job, recipient, membership, and subscriber statistics. These enhancements are described in the following sections.

Navigation within LISTSERV Maestro now uses the same type of toolbar with pull-down menus as the LISTSERV 15.0 Web interface. The Toolbar for LISTSERV Maestro contains menus and icons that give you quick access to the different functions of LISTSERV Maestro. These menus adapt to context; for example, when working in a dataset, the Dataset menu becomes available for performing dataset operations.

For more information, see Section 1.2.1 The Toolbar.

The new Dashboard displayed upon logging in provides a quick summary of job status – what happened recently and what is due to happen in the future.

The Dashboard is divided into several sections, which can be rearranged or hidden so that the information most important to each user is shown at the top of the dashboard.

The Dashboard sections are:

•	Recently Visited provides shortcuts to the most recently used jobs, reports, etc. This lets you easily resume work in one area if you interrupted it to visit another area. These are also available in the Back To menu.

•	Jobs Due Next shows the jobs that are due soon or overdue for authorization. Each job may now be assigned an authorization due date so that Maestro can help you stay on schedule.

•	Current and Upcoming Deliveries shows a list of jobs that are currently being delivered and that are scheduled next for delivery.

For more information, see Section 1.2.2 The Dashboard.

Several new types of reports are available in the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface. These reports are interactive charts and let you drill down for details; simply hover the mouse over the chart to pick a particular day and get the stats for that day or drill down to get an hourly chart for that day. The job-based reports below, besides being available to individual accounts, are also available to the site admin over all groups and accounts.

•	Recipients Distribution over Time: A line chart that shows the distribution over time of the recipients that were processed in the defined period, sub-divided in delivered and bounced recipients.

•	Recipients Per Job in Period: A bar diagram that shows the successful delivered and bounced recipients of each job in the selected period.

•	Delivered Jobs Distribution over Time: This line chart shows the distribution over time of the jobs that were processed in the display period supplied above, sub-divided in delivered and failed jobs.

For more information on the Recipients Distribution over Time, Recipients Per Job in Period, and Delivered Jobs Distribution over Time reports, see the User’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0. For information on the Membership and Subscriber Statistics reports, see Section 9.5 Member and Subscriber Statistics.

Extensive improvements have been made to Maestro Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs), including advanced configuration features, a new list type, a LISTSERV list wizard for cloning or converting standard lists, and the ability to create links to traditional LISTSERV lists.

A new “user defined” list type is available for creating lists that do not fall neatly into the first three list types (announcement, moderated, and unmoderated). Creating user defined lists is an advanced feature that requires knowledge of LISTSERV list headers and keywords; therefore, this list type is most suited for those experienced LISTSERV users. The behavior of this list depends entirely on the value that is entered for the “Send” keyword.

For more information, see Section 7.4 Creating LISTSERV User Defined Lists.

The new Advanced Configuration tab makes it easy for the traditional LISTSERV experts to configure lists by setting the keywords they are familiar with, while the list creation Wizard makes it easy for people new to LISTSERV to create even the most complex lists without needing to know anything about LISTSERV’s list header syntax.

For more information, see Section 7.1.4.1 Advanced Configuration, Section 7.2.4.1 Advanced Configuration, Section 7.3.4.1 Advanced Configuration, and Section 7.4.4.1 Advanced Configuration.

A new wizard lets you convert a traditional LISTSERV list and turn it into an HLL. This allows you to add data fields and provide default values. The subscribe time from the LISTSERV list is imported as well; therefore, the interactive Subscriber Statistics report can be used effectively on lists that have existed for years. Alternatively, you can clone an existing LISTSERV list, creating a new list with the same configuration and importing its subscribers.

For more information, see Section 8.1.1 Converting or Cloning a Standard LISTSERV List.

Now you can create a "link" from your dataset to any existing traditional LISTSERV lists. Once linked, the list is integrated into the membership area so that the subscribers can perform the usual tasks from within the membership area, i.e. subscribe / unsubscribe / edit settings. As with all the Maestro subscriber pages, the list pages for linked LISTSERV lists are customizable.

With these linked LISTSERV lists and the ability to import traditional LISTSERV lists into HLLs, it is easy to transition from LISTSERV to LISTSERV Maestro. Existing lists can be kept exactly as they are or imported into HLLs, and new HLLs and HRLs can be added as well. Lists of all types can be presented to subscribers from a single subscriber interface or split among multiple subscriber datasets, each with its own set of subscriber pages.

Note: This feature is a result of the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro integration. Be sure to read the information on this integration before linking lists.

To establish the user’s right for this feature, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0. For more information on using this feature, see Section 8.3 Managing Linked LISTSERV Lists.

Several enhancements have been made to improve the data administrator’s ability to manage both data and subscriber information, including a setting that lets members’ signup without a password, a setting that lets members save their password for a quick login, and a new way for members to unsubscribe to a list. These enhancements, plus more, are described in the following sections.

If desired, it is now possible to request that the password field not be displayed on the automatically generated pages for joining a dataset or subscribing to a list. In that case, a password is automatically assigned and sent to the subscriber in the subscription confirmation email. Of course, for security and privacy, existing subscribers are still required to provide a password for making changes to their subscriptions and data.

For more information, see Section 4.1.1.1 General Settings.

An option is now available for saving the password in a cookie so that the subscriber is automatically logged on at each visit.

For more information, see Section 4.1.1.1 General Settings.

Previously, unsubscribing from a list required either logging in to the membership pages or clicking on an unsubscribe link in a message. New pages, which can be linked from any web page, have been added specifically for unsubscribing from lists without first logging into the membership pages.

For more information, see Section 11 Subscriber Access Web Page URLs and Customization.

The automatically generated subscriber pages now provide functions that allow subscribers to change their subscriber options, such as mail headers.

For more information, see Section 10.2.1 Subscribing from the Membership Area.

In addition, subscriber profiles now contain a section that lets the data administrator have access to these options, just as the subscriber would.

For more information, see Section 9.1.1 Editing Member and Subscriber Profiles.

In a LISTSERV condition (LISTSERV list target groups with the special list message defined), it is now possible to prefix the parameter name with the “text:” string. Because of this, a parameter that is immediately enclosed with quotes will be interpreted as a text-parameter, and a parameter that is not immediately enclosed with quotes will be interpreted as a number-parameter unless the parameter name starts with “text:”; in which case, it will also be interpreted as a text-parameter.

For more information, see Section 14.3.2 Special List Messages.

Numerous enhancements have been made to make job management easier to perform. These enhancements include:

•	A due date can now be assigned to each job. The Dashboard lists the jobs that are due next and the Open Jobs list shows the due date, making it easy to find the jobs that require attention.

•	Jobs can be automatically archived a set number of days after delivery. The administrator can provide a default setting for all users as well as for each group or single user. Job owners can change the auto-archive setting for individual jobs.

•	All three job lists – Open Jobs, Ongoing Jobs, and Completed Jobs – have a filter that can be used to narrow down the list of jobs displayed. This makes it easier to find jobs fitting certain characteristics.

•	In all three job lists (Open Jobs, Ongoing Jobs, and Completed Jobs), it is now possible to select several jobs at once to perform group actions such as deleting or archiving the jobs, or assigning them to a category.

Several enhancements have been made to improve the administrator’s ability to manage and protect a user’s accounts. These enhancements are described in the following sections.

The LISTSERV Maestro administrator may now define “identities” in the Administration Hub. An identity is a collection of several accounts, which may be single user accounts or group accounts, within the same group or in different groups. When logged in to an account that is a member of an identity, a user may switch to any of the other accounts in that identity without having to log out and log back in again.

For example, a university may have a group that handles admissions-related mailings, another group for faculty communications, and yet another group for alumni relations. Though the groups are distinct, they may share one technical staff member who handles the data administration for all three groups. An identity may be defined for the three data administrator accounts owned by this staff member to facilitate moving between the three accounts. Additionally, non-privileged accounts owned by the same staff member could also be assigned to that identity so that the data administrator can easily check what is available to the other accounts in the group.

For more information, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0. For information about switching to other accounts within an identity, see the documentation about the Logout menu option on the Toolbar (Section 1.2.1 The Toolbar).

The LISTERV Maestro administrator may now define the number of allowed unsuccessful login attempts a user can have before being locked out of the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface or for the Administration Hub. This additional security is a good way to protect against dictionary attacks, which is a technique used to gain illegal access to a system by automatically employing a list of words in a dictionary to determine the login password for a given user account. The effectiveness of such an attack can be reduced by only allowing a limited number of invalid login attempts and by locking access to the account for a certain period of time.

For more information, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0.

The three main LISTSERV Maestro components all write their own log files. These files can be found in the “logs” subfolder of each component’s home folder inside of the installation folder.

However, in some situations the administrator does not have access to these folders, but still wants to access the log files.

To solve this, LISTSERV Maestro offers remote log file access. The remote access allows an administrator to download the log files from the server, directly in the web-browser.

For more information, see the Administrator’s Manual for LISTSERV Maestro 3.0.

The LISTERV Maestro administrator can now define whether or not all datasets are closed for maintenance. This will globally close all datasets for maintenance (in preparation of a server upgrade, etc.). This setting overrides all individual dataset settings.