Mautic Integration

Overview

PermaplanT uses Mautic, an open-source marketing automation platform, for managing newsletter subscriptions and email campaigns. The Mautic instance is hosted at https://mautic.perma.health/s/dashboard and handles all newsletter-related functionality for the PermaplanT initiative.

Why Mautic?

  • Open Source: Aligns with PermaplanT's commitment to open-source software
  • Self-Hosted: Complete control over subscriber data and privacy
  • Marketing Automation: Supports campaigns, segments, and contact management
  • Double Opt-In: Built-in support for GDPR-compliant subscription workflows
  • Multi-Source Tracking: Can handle newsletter subscriptions from multiple websites (PermaplanT, Libelektra, etc.)

Newsletter Subscription Workflow

1. Form Submission

Users submit their name and email through a form on the PermaplanT website. The form POSTs to:

https://mautic.perma.health/form/submit?formId=4

Required Fields:

  • mauticform[first_name] - User's name
  • mauticform[email] - User's email address
  • mauticform[formId] - Set to 4
  • mauticform[formName] - Set to permaplantnewslettersubscription
  • mauticform[return] - Empty string
  • mauticform[submit] - Set to 1
  • mauticform[subscription_source] - Website URL (e.g., https://permaplant.net)

The subscription_source field is critical as it:

  • Tracks where the subscription originated
  • Determines which tags are applied to the contact
  • Controls where users are redirected after confirmation

2. Double Opt-In Process

Mautic implements a GDPR-compliant double opt-in workflow:

Note: The user should get a information popup when submitting the form with information about needing to confirm the subscription within the next 3 days.

  1. Immediate Response: User receives a confirmation email after form submission
  2. 3-Day Window: User has 3 days to click the confirmation link
  3. Confirmation Action:
    • ✅ Confirmed: Contact is tagged and redirected to their subscription_source URL
    • ❌ Not Confirmed: Contact is automatically deleted after 3 days

3. Contact Tagging

After confirmation, contacts are automatically tagged based on their subscription_source:

  • subscription_source = "https://permaplant.net" → Tagged with "Permaplant_Newsletter"
  • subscription_source = "https://libelektra.org" → Tagged with "Libelektra" specific tags

This allows for:

  • Source-specific newsletters
  • Targeted campaigns
  • Analytics by subscription source

Infrastructure

Hosting Details

  • Platform: LXC container on Proxmox
  • Domain: mautic.perma.health
  • SSL/TLS: Handled by reverse proxy on markus-raab.org
  • Automation: Ansible-managed deployment

Backups

  • Automated Daily Backups: Database and files
  • Retention: 365 days

For More Information

  • Infrastructure Documentation: Complete setup and maintenance guide
  • Mautic Documentation: https://docs.mautic.org/