Installing Mailtrain on Ubuntu Bionic

• compute
• mail
• newsletter
• mailtrain

Mailtrain is a self hosted open-source newsletter application built in Node.js and using MariaDB as datastore.

Preparing the Server

1. Connect yourself to your server via SSH.

2. Install sudo on the server, if it is not yet installed:

   apt install sudoCopy code

3. Create a regular user account with sudo access and switch into it. Replace my_new_user with your user name.

   adduser my_new_user --gecos "My New User"usermod -aG sudo my_new_usersu - my_new_userCopy code

4. Update the already installed software on the system to the latest version:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -yCopy code

5. Install the required tools:

   sudo apt install -y build-essential unzipCopy code

6. Install Node.js and NPM:

   curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -sudo apt install -y nodejsCopy code

Installing Postfix

To send Mail from your server, a SMTP server is required.

1. Install Postfix via apt:

   sudo apt install -y postfixCopy code

2. When asked choose Internet Site in the list of options:

   

3. Enter the mail name for your instance and confirm. The mail name should be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) resolving to your instances IP address:

   

Installing MariaDB

1. Install MariaDB, an open source MySQL fork:

   sudo apt install -y mariadb-serverCopy code

2. Initialize the MariaDB server:

   sudo mysql_secure_installationCopy code

3. Connect to the database server as root user with the password you have set previously:

   sudo mysql -u root -pCopy code

4. Create an empty database and remember the credentials for later:

   CREATE DATABASE mailtraindb;GRANT ALL ON mailtraindb.* TO 'mailtrain' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';FLUSH PRIVILEGES;EXIT;Copy code

Installing Nginx

1. Install nginx via apt:

   sudo apt install -y nginxCopy code

2. Create a configuration file for nginx:

   sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mailtrain.example.com.confCopy code

   and put the following content into it:

     server {
         listen [::]:80;      listen 80;
         server_name mailtrain.example.com;
         charset utf-8;      client_max_body_size 50M;      location / {          proxy_set_header Host $http_host;          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;          proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;          proxy_http_version 1.1;          proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;          proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";          proxy_next_upstream error timeout http_502 http_503 http_504;      }
     }Copy code

3. Activate the configuration by linking the file in the sites-enabled directory:

   sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mailtrain.example.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/Copy code

4. Reload the nginx configuration to enable the new virtual host:

   sudo systemctl reload nginx.serviceCopy code

Installing Mailtrain

1. Create an empty directory for the Mailtrain application:

   sudo mkdir -p /var/www/mailtrainCopy code

2. Change the ownership of the directory to your user:

   sudo chown -R my_new_user:my_new_user /var/www/mailtrainCopy code

3. Enter the directory:

   cd /var/www/mailtrainCopy code

4. Download and unzip Mailtrain:

   wget https://github.com/Mailtrain-org/mailtrain/archive/master.zipunzip master.ziprm master.zipmv mailtrain-master/* . && mv mailtrain-master/.* .rmdir mailtrain-masterCopy code

5. Install the required dependencies:

   npm install --productionCopy code

6. Copy the file config/default.toml as config/production.toml:

   cp config/default.toml config/production.tomlCopy code

7. Open the newly created file and edit the settings for the MariaDB database, then save it:

   nano config/production.tomlCopy code

8. Run the server:

   NODE_ENV=production npm startCopy code

Accessing the Mailtrain Webinterface

1. Open your web browser and type the domain name of your Mailtrain instance.

2. Click Login in the top bar to connect to Mailtrain.

   

3. Login with the username admin and password test. Don’t forget to change the password after your first login.

4. To send mails from Mailtrain, you have to specify the SMTP server configuration like following:

   

You have now specify other parameters like your company name, service URL etc. before starting your first e-marketing campaign. For more information how to plan your campaigns, refer to the official documentation.