Presale - {latest-articles ref="any-code-here" ...} question

Hi Christopher,
I'm just discovering your component.
I've been an Acymailing user for several years now and have to migrate as I don(t want to work with this more and more expensive tool anymore.

I'm really not far to choose NS Pro and have just a question before doing it...

I'm looking for a way to get the Acymaling Automatic Newsletter grabbing the last articles and sending it each week.
If no articles created, the Newsletter is not sent...

In your Demo web site, I created a Newsletter to test your tool.
I found the {latest-articles} tag which look really intersting.

But I do not really understand how the 'ref="any-code-here" ' work there.
As written it is Required in this tag.

So if I'm understanding well, that means I can do a Regular newsletter (sent every 7 days).
Articles sent in the first week won't be sent again in the second week, right ?
But to do that de REF variable has to be dynamic so articles  are assigned to this code.
Is there a way to make this variable dynamic : e.g. : 'ref="{date}" ' so the REF is unique and articles never repeated from a Newsletter to another ?

And what happen if i add "max="5" but no new articles has been added to the website ? 
Will NS Pro take in older articles to fill the "Max="5" variable ?

Hello Stéphan and thank you for posting!
This is a relatively new feature and I haven't been able to document it as much as I want, because we are still working on adding some more features.
I plan to make a Youtube video about it, so when I do, I'll also post it here.

Until then, here's some information.

The reference code, abbreviated as "ref", is a custom text that you write in your newsletter so that NS Pro doesn't include duplicate content when you utilize the same code in the future.
When a newsletter is sent for the first time, NS Pro determines the articles to be included, based on (1) your filters and (2) previously used articles.

Next time you use the same ref code, NS Pro will only include articles created after the last one used. (determined by the article ID)
This way, it will:
1. not include the same articles.
2. only include newer articles.

So, the ref code you use must be the same, not different. NS Pro will not fill out the max value with older articles.
You may write as many reference codes as you wish. Each time you use a new one, previously used articles may be included again, always based on your other filters.

If you use the same reference code and no articles are found, the content will be empty. We currently don't have a feature to cancel the newsletter sending altogether.
If you have any further questions, feel free to write them!
We are also open to suggestions.
Thanks again.

Hi Christopher,
thank you very much for your ( fast ) reply and so clear explanations
I perfectly understand now how to use it!

Great, I see your still working on new features, and your component looks solid.
See you back on this forum for sure haha.

About your feedback : "We currently don't have a feature to cancel the newsletter sending altogether."

I can understand adding this feature can be tricky
But maybe something like "If {latest-articles} is empty, put this content html block" ?

What if you have two {latest-articles ref="..."} codes in your newsletter?
The only solution I can think of, is adding a very specific tag, like {latest-articles ref="..." cancel-sending-on-empty="1"}.
What do you think? This way, we could possibly cancel the newsletter sending.
There are many parameters as to what would happen on that case. For example, does the newsletter remain scheduled or does it switch to manual sending instead? Should it automatically re-schedule for the next time, as if it was sent?
Your feedback will be appreciated.

Hi Christopher,
not a bad idea!
I take my own needs into consideration, but you have a broader vision and I find the "cancel-sending-on-empty="1"" solution quite interesting for me.
So until now I always needed a case where the Newsletter was simply canceled and postponed to the next session. But I admit to not knowing the needs for a wider community.
I did not image the different use of that "REF" variable and with your observation, I can now imagine a lot of great cases

Example : I imagine using it to collect articles from a specific category :
{latest-articles ref="mycode2024" catids="1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8" cancel-sending-on-empty="1"}
Great!

But what if I want to collect article by category with an header ?
Example : {latest-articles ref="mycodethiscat" catids="1" cancel-header-on-empty="<h2>MY CATEGORY HEADER (or any HTML code here)</h2>"}
Not sure of the syntaxe, but you see what I mean ? This is just an idea...

For your information, this discussion make me take a decision : I will buy your component for my website and instal it next week