Tracking email opens

You must have a web site in order for this to work.

The internet email protocol used everyday does not contain support for open tracking. In order to track email open, a reference to a small 1x1 pixel image is inserted into the email sent. Once the email is opened, and thus the pixel image is accessed, the web site that hosts the image knows the email open.

The pixel image is usually called "pixel tag". It is so small and usually is not visible.

Here are the steps:

1. BroadcastByEmail inserts an unique reference to the pixel tag in each email it sends
2. The email is opened, and the pixel tag is accessed
3. The web site hosts the image insert the access count to its database
4. BroadcastByEmail checks the website database to see which email is opened

Setup website for email open tracking

Select Broadcast > Enable Open Tracking... from the program main menu.

Please replace mywebsite.com to your real web site name.

Pixel Tag URL

This URL is automatically inserted into each email. The inserted line is the following:

    <img src="http://mywebsite.com/getimage.php?eid=unique_email_id">

Each email sent by BroadcastByEmail contains a unique id automatically generated for later tracking.

Statistics Query URL

This is the URL used to query email open. BroadcastByEmail calls the following to query the email open.

    http://mywebsite.com/getopen.php?eid=list_of_comma_separated_eids

Steps to setup your website and script

The following is an example for setting up your website for email open tracking. It assumes you have a relational database and PHP scripting support.

1. Copy or create the pixel tag image to your website
   
   You can use the sample image under: C:\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByEmail\bin\onebyoneimage.jpg, or you can use any image editing tool to create your own image.
    
2. Setup your database
   
   You web site must support database. Most hosting companies have mysql database. You basically needs to create a table to contain the eid. But you can also include access time and access host IP address. The following SQL statement creates a table named "opentracking":
   
   CREATE TABLE `opentracking` (
       `eid` varchar(64) NOT NULL default '',
       `ipaddr` varchar(16) NOT NULL default '',
       `atime` timestamp(14) NOT NULL
   ) TYPE=MyISAM;
    
3. Copy or create the image access script to your website

   For following is a simple example PHP script for the get image operation. You can use it directly if your website supports PHP scripting.

   <?php
   
   header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
   header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");
   
   $eid = $_GET['eid'];
   $ip = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['REMOTE_ADDR'];
   
   $db_conn = mysql_connect('hostname', 'user', 'passwd') or die ("Database CONNECT Error (line 11)");
   
   $insert_st = "INSERT INTO opentracking values ('".$eid."', '".$ip."', now())";
   mysql_db_query('databasename', $insert_st) or die ("Database failed to insert");
   
   header("Location: onebyoneimage.jpg");
   return;
   
   ?>

   Please replace hostname, user, passwd, and databasename with the actual name you have.

   What this script does is whenever it is called, it gets the unique email id (eid) from the HTTP request, then insert the access to the database. After that, it returns an image named onebyoneimage.jpg.
    

4. Copy or create the query open script to your website
   
   The following is a simple example PHP script for query operation.
   
   <?php
   
   header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
   header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");
   
   // list of eids separated by comma
   $eidstr = $_GET['eid'];
   $eids = explode(",", $eidstr);
   if (sizeof($eids) == 0)
       return;
   
   $db_conn = mysql_connect('hostname', 'user', 'passwd') or die ("Database CONNECT Error (line 11)");
   
   $retstr = '';
   foreach ($eids as $eid) {
       $query_st = "SELECT COUNT(*) from opentracking where eid = '" . $eid . "'";
       $result = mysql_db_query('databasename', $query_st) or die ("Database failed to select");
   
       $count = '0';
   
       if (mysql_num_rows($result)) {
           $qry = mysql_fetch_array($result);
           $count = $qry[0];
       }
   
       if ($retstr != '')
           $retstr .= ',';
           $retstr .= $count;
       }
   
       echo $retstr;
       return;
   ?>

   Please replace hostname, user, passwd, and databasename with the actual name you have.

   What this script does is whenever it is called, it returns the total access count for the eids provided. The eids are provided as a comma separated list. The return count is also returned as a comma separated list.

Check email open

If email open tracking is enabled, and your website database and scripts are set, then for any sent email list, you can check the open statistics.

Select Broadcast > Update Open Statistics... from the program main menu.