Free This module comes in the Free package and also in Pro.
Webal Newsletter is a sign-up box for your newsletter. It asks for an email address, and, if you wish, a first and last name. When a visitor signs up, your website asks Mailchimp to add the address to the audience you chose.
By default Mailchimp emails the person a link to confirm, which is called double opt-in. Mailchimp is the only service supported, and nothing the visitor types is stored on your website.
Use it in a footer, a sidebar or a band on the home page.
Tip. Mailchimp is an email marketing service, and an audience is your list of subscribers in Mailchimp. An API key is a long secret code that lets your site talk to Mailchimp.
Before you start: the Mailchimp key
The sign-up box shows nothing on your site until the Mailchimp key is saved. Do this first.
- In Mailchimp, create an API key. In Mailchimp this is under Profile, Extras, API keys.
- In the Joomla administrator, open Components, then Webal Blocks, then Options.
- Open the Newsletter tab, paste the key and save. Only a Super User sees this box.
After saving, the key is never shown again, not even in part, and the box stays empty and only says that a key is saved. To replace the key, type a new one, and to remove it, tick Remove the saved key.
For your web host. The key is stored scrambled (encrypted) in your database, using your site's secret from configuration.php. If that secret is ever changed, the saved key cannot be read, the sign-up box is hidden from visitors, and the Options screen asks a Super User to type the key again.
Add it to a page
These steps follow the order of the screens in Joomla, and nothing is saved until you press Save.
- Log in to the Joomla administrator, and in the menu on the left choose Content, then Site Modules.
- Press New, and a list of module types opens so that you can choose from it.
- Choose Webal Newsletter from the list of module types, which starts a new module of that kind.
- Type a Title for the module, using a name that tells you what the module is for.
- On the Module tab, optional: type an Introduction. Switch on Ask for a first name and Ask for a last name if you want them. Type the Button words.
- Open the Mailchimp tab and type your Audience ID, which in Mailchimp is under the audience, Settings, Audience name and defaults.
- Optional: type up to five Tags, one on each line, and leave Ask people to confirm by email on.
- Open the After sending tab and type the Thank-you message and the Error message.
- Choose a Captcha, for which powcaptcha is recommended.
- Switch on Ask for agreement and, straight after it, choose the Privacy policy page, because without a page Save is refused.
- Go back to the Module tab, then open the Position list in the right-hand column and choose a position. A position is a named place in your template where a module can go. For a wide block in Cassiopeia,
main-topandmain-bottomare good choices. - Under Title in the same column, choose Hide if you typed a heading in the Title group, and choose Show only if you want Joomla's module title above the box.
- Press Save, and wait until the message "Module saved." appears.
- Open the Menu Assignment tab. In Module Assignment, choose Only on the pages selected, so that the module appears only on the pages that you pick.
- Beside Assign to Menu Items, press None, because every page stays ticked until you do this.
- Type the name of the page in the search box, then tick that page so that the module appears there.
- Press Save & Close, which saves the module once more and closes the editing screen.
- Open that page on your site and look for the module in the position that you chose.
Tip. Try the box with an email address of your own after you save. Put the box in main-top, main-bottom or a footer position. Cassiopeia's below-top places modules side by side and squeezes a form.
Accessibility. The box must be assigned to at least one page, and "No pages" switches it off. A box with no saved key, or with no valid Audience ID, is not shown to visitors, and a super user sees a message that says why.
Options
Module tab
The options of this module sit in the middle column of the Module tab, and the group is called Sign-up.
| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Title | An optional heading above the box. See the Title group. If you type one, set Show Title to Hide. | No title |
| Introduction | A few words above the box. You can use paragraphs, line breaks, bold, italic, lists and links. | Empty |
| Ask for a first name | Adds an optional First name box. The name goes to Mailchimp. | No |
| Ask for a last name | Adds an optional Last name box. | No |
| Button words | The words on the button. Empty uses "Subscribe". | Empty |
Mailchimp tab
| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Audience ID | Letters and digits only. The box is not shown until it is valid. | Empty |
| Tags | Up to five tags that Mailchimp puts on each new subscriber, one on each line. | Empty |
| Ask people to confirm by email | On (the recommendation): Mailchimp emails a confirmation link and adds the person only after they click it. Off: people are added at once. | Yes |
After sending tab
| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Thank-you message | What the visitor reads after signing up. | Empty |
| Error message | What the visitor reads when the sign-up could not be made. | Empty |
| Go to a page after signing up | Sends the visitor to a page of your site instead of showing the thank-you in place. | Empty |
| Captcha | Use global, Do not use, or an enabled captcha plugin. powcaptcha (Joomla 6.1 and later) contacts nobody outside your site. | Use global |
| Ask for agreement | Adds a tick box that the visitor must tick before signing up, with a link to your privacy policy. | No |
| Words beside the tick box | The words beside the tick box, for example "I agree to receive your newsletter by email." | Empty |
| Privacy policy page | The page, article or address of your privacy policy. The tick box needs it: without it, Save is refused. If you choose a page but leave the tick box off, the link still shows under the button as a plain sentence. See the Link group. | Nothing (no link) |
| Words of the privacy policy link | The words of the link. Empty uses "Read our privacy policy". | Empty |
Layout tab
This tab has the shared groups General, Spacing, Width, Colour scheme and Background. They work the same in many modules, so they are explained once: see General, Spacing, Width, Colour scheme and Background.
Animation tab
The shared Animation group, where everything is switched off for visitors who ask their device for less motion.
Advanced tab
This tab holds Joomla's own settings, such as Module Class and Caching. This module is never cached, whatever the Caching setting says. A page that holds the box is also never kept by Joomla's System - Page Cache plugin.
How your site talks to Mailchimp
The site asks Mailchimp over a secure connection. A request that takes more than ten seconds is given up. Every sign-up takes at least a second and a half to answer, whatever the result, so the speed of the answer says nothing about whether an address was already subscribed.
Result
Accessibility
- Every box has a visible label. The words "(required)" or "(optional)" are in the label itself, not only a colour or a star.
- Problems are shown under the box and listed in a summary at the top. The summary takes the keyboard focus, and each line is a link to its box.
- The box works with no scripts. With scripts, it signs up in the background and keeps what the visitor typed whenever something goes wrong, and nothing has a time limit.
- Boxes and buttons are 44 pixels tall. The focus ring is 3 pixels and keeps its contrast in light and dark mode and in high contrast mode.
Accessibility. Webal Newsletter was tested against WCAG 2.2 AA with automatic checks. A pass with a screen reader by a person is not done yet.
Other languages
The words you type, such as the introduction and the messages, stay as you typed them. The labels and button come from the language files, unless you type your own.
For a site with more than one language, make a copy of the module for each language and set its Language on the Module tab.
Tips
- Name Mailchimp in your privacy policy. Your website passes each address (and name) to Mailchimp. Mailchimp records the time and the internet address of the sign-up. Webal Blocks stores nothing itself.
- The thank-you message is the same for a new address and for one that is already on your list, so nobody can use the box to find out who is subscribed.
- Someone who unsubscribed earlier and signs up again is always sent a new confirmation email.
- If Mailchimp refuses the key or the Audience ID, a super user sees a note on the sign-up box. If you think the key has been seen, delete it in Mailchimp and save a new one in Options.
- The agreement tick box is off by default so that you can try the module at once, but turn it on before you go live.
- Never put this module inside another module that Joomla keeps in its cache (a Modal, Offcanvas, Tabs or Accordion with Caching on). The module is left out, and a super user is told. Choose No caching on the host module, or put the module on the page itself.