[Zope] using zope for broadcast e-mail messages...

[chas]

Zope's dtml-sendmail tag is excellent - it makes sending
e-mail a breeze. It reminds me of a similar tag that
Cold Fusion added and which I've noticed many sites use
for sending out customized newsletters (the "Allaire 
ColdFusion Application Server" header being the giveaway).


Now, doing the same in Zope, I can loop over the user 
profiles in our database to extract name, e-mail, and
even customize the content of the newsletter as follows :


<dtml-in ZSQL_Select_User_Profiles>

<!--#sendmail mailhost="ZMailHost"--> 
To: <dtml-var firstname> <<dtml-var email>> 
From: robot <robot@ourdomain.com> 
Subject: <dtml-var random_inanity>

Dear <dtml-var firstname>,

blah blah content (also dependent on his/her likes/preferences)

<!--#/sendmail--> 

</dtml-in>


Nothing groundbreaking so far. But the question then is : how
is this going to work if the user database numbers 200,000+ ?
It will take almost half a day to complete and this can't be
done in one form-submission or page load !

At the moment, I use Python scripts to do the above using 
a special Reply-to address and a From field so that bounces
are kept. Also, messages are delayed by just long enough (0.2 secs)
so as not to overload my mailserver. But it would be nice to
move this to Zope somehow. Or is it asking too much ?

Yes, I know that there are mailing list software like ezmlm (for
Qmail), majordomo and listserv. But I'm looking to customize the
e-mail headers, and content so that it appears as personalized
as possible, which those apps don't do.

Perhaps I'll go off and see if mailman can be hacked to do the
above, at least it's written in Python.

Thoughts welcomed.

chas