Birthday Thread and PM generator

[AusPhotography]

<a href="http://www.AusPhotography.net.au" target="_blank">www.AusPhotography.net.au</a> Birthday Thread and PM generator

This product provides a simple way to create both an automatic Birthday greeting thread and forum member birthday PM.

Features:

1. Configurable greeting text with name, age (optional), and birthday
2. Excludable usergroups (eg. banned etc)
3. Creates a thread in selectable forum and sends a PM from selected user (admin or other)
4. Runs as a vBulletin scheduled task (vB cron job)
5. Honours forum members birthday profile settings
6. Only sends birthdays for members with recent forum activity (configurable)
7. Adjusts for forum members time-zone so the greeting will be on their birthday

Uses:

1. Creates a Database table to track birthday processed
2. One additional file vBulletin scheduled task (vB cron job)
3. Product installation file

Installation:

1. Copy ap_birthday.php to the forum ./includes/cron directory
2. Install the product file
3. Configure it via AdminCP/Settings/Options
4. Disable the vBulletin birthday emailer in AdminCP / Scheduled tasks
Done!

Enjoy! It will probably work on vB3.6+ as well.

Update 2013-04-12: Working with 4.2.0
Update 1.1.2 if zero active post use 'lastactivity' instead (bugfix)

Kym

[AusPhotography]

AdminCP Screen shot... (1.0.6)

130435

[RobbieZ]

Excellent, Hope this one posts correctly.. ;)

[AusPhotography]

Excellent, Hope this one posts correctly.. ;)

Our server is in Texas *(shared hosting so it has a TX timezone CDT), most of our members are in Australia (AEST etc).
That's a 15 hour time difference. This is close to the worst case.
The members get their birthday PM and Thread on the day of their birthday in their time zone (per what's in their profile). :up:

Kym

[Rckcrwlr]

Will install today...Looking forward to one that actually works.

Thanks

[Krusty1231]

Installed. Thanks.

[CharlieDelta]

Excellent!

[MrEyes]

If there are multiple members with a birthday on the same day will the mod create a single thread for all birthdays or multiple threads (one for each member)?

One of my larger forum can have 10+ birthdays in a single day, so it would be better if all these were on one thread.

[Mellow]

I was getting errors in the cron job until I changed this, comma to period:
$forumlist .= ', ',$forum['forumid'];
to this:
$forumlist .= ', '.$forum['forumid'];

[AusPhotography]

I was getting errors in the cron job until I changed this, comma to period:
$forumlist .= ', ',$forum['forumid'];
to this:
$forumlist .= ', '.$forum['forumid'];

Ooops, last minute change - thanks and fixed ;)

[AusPhotography]

If there are multiple members with a birthday on the same day will the mod create a single thread for all birthdays or multiple threads (one for each member)?

One of my larger forum can have 10+ birthdays in a single day, so it would be better if all these were on one thread.

It creates a thread per member, our feeling is that it keeps it a bit personal.

[RobbieZ]

Who is the thread starter for the birthday threads?

[AusPhotography]

Who is the thread starter for the birthday threads?

You nominate a userid in AdminCP settings. By default its 1 - admin.
We have it set to the site owner (Rick)

Kym

[Boofo]

I was getting errors in the cron job until I changed this, comma to period:
$forumlist .= ', ',$forum['forumid'];
to this:
$forumlist .= ', '.$forum['forumid'];

Tsk, Tsk, Kym. ;)

[Hornstar]

Is it possible to have this only post threads for members who have been active in the last x days? Because I can't imagine it working great with my 617000 members lol

[AusPhotography]

Is it possible to have this only post threads for members who have been active in the last x days? Because I can't imagine it working great with my 617000 members lol

It does that!

just set days at 21 or 30 and posts at 5, 10 or 50 (whatever) so only those with recent activity get a greeting

[kylek]

Thanks for this, going to give it a try.

Does the day period and post count work together or separate?

Say its set at 50 days and 5 posts, a members birthday is coming up and they have not been active since 2009 but has 20 posts. Does a thread get made because of the post amount or in this case does it not get made because of the set day time limit of 50 days?

[AusPhotography]

The day period and post count do work together.

Ie. set 2 posts in the last 10 days.
This allows you to set a basic activity level.

It also only counts posts to forums that count towards 'post count' - if that makes sense. ;)

[Markos]

will this detect all user groups i have on my forum if i only exclude user groups 8

[AusPhotography]

will this detect all user groups i have on my forum if i only exclude user groups 8

yes!

[cykelmyggen]

Will this work on 4.1.4? Had it on 3.7. and users loved it :)

[kylek]

The day period and post count do work together.

Ie. set 2 posts in the last 10 days.
This allows you to set a basic activity level.

It also only counts posts to forums that count towards 'post count' - if that makes sense. ;)

Thank you!

One last dumb question.

In your screenshot you have a smilie party5 and this is where we would like to link an image to show, just cant remember what to put for the code.

What coding is needed to link to an image to be displayed at the top of the post and pm?

[CK]

Installed, rated and nominated. :)

Could you explain this for me, I'm having a blonde day.

Happy Birthday Post Heading
Text for Heading post {xx} = 1st 2nd 3rd 4th etc, {username} {bdate}

Specifically "Text for Heading post" is that something I have to configure?

Also does this mod ignore people who have chosen not to display birthday? - Can see that it does from OP, thank you :)

[AusPhotography]

Installed, rated and nominated. :) ...

Thanks.

The {} syntax allows you to put markers in the heading and message that are then filled out with the specific details of that members birthday.

So Happy {xx} Birthday {username}! ({bdate})
becomes
Happy 54th Birthday ashey! (17th of June)

Eg:
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?86145-Happy-54th-Birthday-ashey!-%2817th-of-June%29
(On our site)

[AusPhotography]

Will this work on 4.1.4? Had it on 3.7. and users loved it :)

Yes. It works on our 4.1.4 test system.
I doubt any major future change to vB will affect this very much at all.

Thank you!
One last dumb question.
In your screenshot you have a smiley party5 and this is where we would like to link an image to show, just cant remember what to put for the code.
What coding is needed to link to an image to be displayed at the top of the post and pm?

Ah, party5 is a custom smiley face on our site. :eek:
Edit the text via AdminCP to put whatever you want.

[CK]

Thanks Snoopy!

[sweetpotato]

Thank you for the Mod. How can I use translated phrase on multilanguage site?

[whitey92lx]

Thanks! It was very easy to install.

************************************************** ************

Just got a few emails:

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.3:

Invalid SQL:

SELECT `forumid` FROM vbwsm_`forum`
WHERE (`forum`.`options` & 4096)
ORDER BY `forumid`;

MySQL Error : Table 'kevin_vbwsm.vbwsm_' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Request Date : Friday, June 24th 2011 @ 11:53:06 AM
Error Date : Friday, June 24th 2011 @ 11:53:06 AM
Script : http://www.westsidemustangs.com/cron.php?rand=1308934385
Referrer : http://www.westsidemustangs.com/search.php?searchid=398297
IP Address : 70.240.73.124
Username : Unregistered
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :



- I am not the original owner of my site, and some other person set the version of vbulletin up about 2 years ago. Maybe something has him listed where it should have me listed?

[AusPhotography]

Fixed! 1.0.3

[AusPhotography]

Thank you for the Mod. How can I use translated phrase on multilanguage site?

The birthday greeting text is single language. I'm not planning on changing that as it suites our site the way it is.

[whitey92lx]

I installed the update and then set it up, and got this email.

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.3:

Invalid SQL:

SELECT forumid FROM vbwsm_forum
WHERE (forum.options & 4096)
ORDER BY forumid;

MySQL Error : Unknown column 'forum.options' in 'where clause'
Error Number : 1054
Request Date : Saturday, June 25th 2011 @ 12:21:01 PM
Error Date : Saturday, June 25th 2011 @ 12:21:01 PM
Script : http://www.westsidemustangs.com/cron.php?rand=1309022460
Referrer : http://www.westsidemustangs.com/forum.php
IP Address : 99.153.185.197
Username : Unregistered
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

[AusPhotography]

Brain fart - fixed (again) :D

[whitey92lx]

I re installed, updated the settings and got this email.


************************************************** ****

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.3:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT userid, username, usergroupid, birthday, showbirthday, posts, timezoneoffset,
DATE_FORMAT(DATE_ADD(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL ((timezoneoffset - 4)*60) MINUTE), '%D of %M') AS BDisplay,
(DATE_FORMAT(DATE_SUB(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL (timezoneoffset - 4) HOUR), '%Y') - SUBSTRING(birthday,7,4)) AS UserAge
FROM vbwsm_user
WHERE birthday LIKE DATE_FORMAT(DATE_ADD(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL ((timezoneoffset - 4)*60) MINUTE), '%m-%d%%')
AND showbirthday > '1'
AND usergroupid NOT IN (1,3,4,8,45,51)
AND userid NOT IN (SELECT ap_birthday.userid FROM vbwsm_ap_birthday);

MySQL Error : Unknown column 'ap_birthday.userid' in 'field list'
Error Number : 1054
Request Date : Sunday, June 26th 2011 @ 12:00:30 AM
Error Date : Sunday, June 26th 2011 @ 12:00:30 AM
Script : http://www.westsidemustangs.com/cron.php?rand=1309064428
Referrer : http://www.westsidemustangs.com/search.php?searchid=400030
IP Address : 208.54.83.141
Username : Unregistered
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

[Markos]

seams to work fine for me on 4.1.4

[AusPhotography]

seams to work fine for me on 4.1.4

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! It databases with pre-fix table names - which i don't use. I only do that by eyeballing the code.


Mea culpa :(

[Markos]

do we need to update the xml file or just the ap_birthday.php file

[AusPhotography]

Just the ap_birthday.php, but the XML ups the version number so you can track it.

[Boofo]

Do this allow you to turn off the PM option while keeping the thread option open?

[whitey92lx]

Well 1.0.5 seems to be working fine now. I didn't receive any database error emails, but I also don't appear to have any birthdays today..

Thank you for all of your help!

[AusPhotography]

Do this allow you to turn off the PM option while keeping the thread option open?

No, but 1.0.6 will :D

[whitey92lx]

installed! Thanks!

[Boofo]

No, but 1.0.6 will :D

I should hope so. :p

[whitey92lx]

aaaaannd, IT WORKS!

[BadgerDog]

I think I'm going to have to un-install this as I can't figure out why it's not working ...

Perhaps I don't understand the wording of these options?

Days Active
Posts in this number of Days to get a Birthday Post (30)

Posts in days
Number of posts in days to get a Birthday Post (5)

I simply want any member who has been active in the last 180 days and whose post count is zero (0), to be able to receive a PM and post in the designated forum.

What should be the settings for these options above. :confused:

It won't accept a zero in the "Number of posts in days to get a Birthday Post" field and keeps defaulting back to one (1)...

Any feedback would be welcome .. :)

Regards,
Doug

[AusPhotography]

@Doug
The definition of 'active' for this plugin is posts; not just logging in.
I.e. 1 post in the last 180 days would work, but not zero.

I wrote it as a reward for people who actually interact on the forums.
On our forum we discourage lurking.

Feel free to modify the code to your needs.

[BadgerDog]

@Doug
The definition of 'active' for this plugin is posts; not just logging in.
I.e. 1 post in the last 180 days would work, but not zero.

I wrote it as a reward for people who actually interact on the forums.
On our forum we discourage lurking.

Feel free to modify the code to your needs.


Thanks ... :up:

Is there a line in the code (or plugin) somewhere that I could change it to permit 0 posts?

Regards,
Doug

[AusPhotography]

Thanks ... :up:
Is there a line in the code (or plugin) somewhere that I could change it to permit 0 posts?


Sure... you will need to modify the 2nd SQL select statement in ap_birthday.php.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/select.html

[AusPhotography]

I had a query by PM regarding when the greeting is posted...

The messages get posted ~4 hours after midnight of the person receiving the greetings timezone.
The idea being they get the greeting on the morning of their birthday.
Obviously subject to the vagaries of the cron job system.
As we have members across the planet this was an important idea.

The code that makes it happen is this...
// Get all possible birthdays today in members timezone after 4:00am members timezone
// vBulletin formats birthday as mm-dd-yyyy (yyyy = 0000 is year if supressed)
$birthdays_db = $vbulletin->db->query_read("SELECT userid, username, usergroupid, birthday, showbirthday, posts, timezoneoffset,
DATE_FORMAT(DATE_ADD(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL ((timezoneoffset - 4)*60) MINUTE), '%D of %M') AS BDisplay,
(DATE_FORMAT(DATE_SUB(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL (timezoneoffset - 4) HOUR), '%Y') - SUBSTRING(birthday,7,4)) AS UserAge
FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user
WHERE birthday LIKE DATE_FORMAT(DATE_ADD(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL ((timezoneoffset - 4)*60) MINUTE), '%m-%d%%')
AND showbirthday > '1'
AND usergroupid NOT IN (".$vbulletin->options['APbirthday_excludeug'].")
AND userid NOT IN (SELECT " . TABLE_PREFIX . "ap_birthday.userid FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "ap_birthday)
");

[BadgerDog]

Uninstalled ... for some reason, just stopped working .... switched back to Valter's mod for this purpose ...

Thanks to the developer his efforts .... :)

Regards,
Doug

[AusPhotography]

Uninstalled ... for some reason, just stopped working .... switched back to Valter's mod for this purpose ...

Thanks to the developer his efforts .... :)

Regards,
Doug

:confused: It works for us and other sites.
There is no reason it should just stop working.

Check that the cron job is working.

What changed on you site?
Remember it is based on forum activity.

What settings did you have?

[BadgerDog]

:confused: It works for us and other sites.
There is no reason it should just stop working.

Check that the cron job is working.

What changed on you site?
Remember it is based on forum activity.

What settings did you have?

Hi .. :)

Not sure why ... :confused:

As an example, had a member's birthday today. He had 3 posts and joined in the last week. He has his birthday options set to display on and the cron job is running.

No thread created or PM sent ... it was the 3rd example in the last week.

Anyway, no big deal and thanks for providing something other than Valter's which seems to run fine for us, which we had been using before.

Regards,
Doug

[AusPhotography]

A non obvious reason could be how he has his birthday display setting

I.e. it honours the vB: Edit Profile / Date of Birth: / privacy setting.

Ie. showbirthday > '1' in the code.

[BadgerDog]

A non obvious reason could be how he has his birthday display setting

I.e. it honours the vB: Edit Profile / Date of Birth: / privacy setting.

Ie. showbirthday > '1' in the code.

His setting in his user record indicates that it was ok to show "day and month of birth" publicly.

Should that have worked?

Regards,
Doug

[AusPhotography]

Yes, that should have worked and does on our site.

[Successfulsteps]

I installed this on 4.1.4 today and can't wait for someone's birthday to see it work!!

Do you have to disable the email too though? Or is there some reason that both can't work at the same time?

[AusPhotography]

His setting in his user record indicates that it was ok to show "day and month of birth" publicly.

Should that have worked?

Regards,
Doug


Yes that should work.

I just re-checked the SQL code in various scenarios - it works.
Without actually seeing the specific case I cannot determine why it appears not to work for you.

We have been using this mod for over a year ourselves - well before I productised it.

Thanks for the feedback.

[AusPhotography]

I installed this on 4.1.4 today and can't wait for someone's birthday to see it work!!

Do you have to disable the email too though? Or is there some reason that both can't work at the same time?

They can both work! Either a post or a PM or both. We use both.

[Successfulsteps]

They can both work! Either a post or a PM or both. We use both.

No, what I mean is that the instructions say to disable the email birthday one. I want to know if I can have the post, PM AND email; or if I have to disable to the email to insure the mod works correctly.

[AusPhotography]

The email is created by the vB standard scheduled job .
You do not have to disable it, I suggested that to avoid confusion.

This mod does not generate an email other than by side effect of the PM.

[Successfulsteps]

The email is created by the vB standard scheduled job .
You do not have to disable it, I suggested that to avoid confusion.

This mod does not generate an email other than by side effect of the PM.

Thanks for the clarification. I wanted to keep the email birthday just because you get some members who are not active, have not posted; and any chance to send them something is great! At the same time though, I don't want to post or send the PM to them. So, your answer is helpful so I can keep that email as well without conflicts.

[wampforum]

Sure... you will need to modify the 2nd SQL select statement in ap_birthday.php.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/select.html


Im after allowing threads created for all users regardless of posts but i am unsure what I need to change to allow this. Any chance you could give this newbie a clue?!!

[AusPhotography]

Im after allowing threads created for all users regardless of posts but i am unsure what I need to change to allow this. Any chance you could give this newbie a clue?!!

Don't need to, just set the post count to zero :)

[GeorgeB85]

This posted a birthday thread for me today exactly at midnight, but even though in my profile it says the 26th is my birthday, it posted that my birthday was the 25th.

[AusPhotography]

This posted a birthday thread for me today exactly at midnight, but even though in my profile it says the 26th is my birthday, it posted that my birthday was the 25th.

What timezone is your server?
What timezone is your user profile?
When it posted at midnight, was that in your timezone or the servers?

Did you change the job schedule at all? It should run hourly not on the exact hour.

Thanks

[sweetpotato]

It does not work for my site even I run AP Scheduled task mannually.
Please give me more instructions,
thanks

[AusPhotography]

What settings do you have ... posts etc?

[sweetpotato]

Thank you. It have worked like a charm now. But AP thread delayed after some hours them forum shows member birthday.

I think because off server time zone.

[cykelmyggen]

As I run a non-english forum I would like to know if it is possible to remove the "th" after the age and the english version of date (f.ex. 20th= 20 and "7th of August"=7. august) ?

[AusPhotography]

As I run a non-english forum I would like to know if it is possible to remove the "th" after the age and the english version of date (f.ex. 20th= 20 and "7th of August"=7. august) ?

Feel free to edit the source to suit your needs. :up:

[cykelmyggen]

Feel free to edit the source to suit your needs. :up:
Thanks for the generous offer, unfortunately I haven't got any coding skills ;-)

[AusPhotography]

Thanks for the generous offer, unfortunately I haven't got any coding skills ;-)

Time to learn? In this case it is very easy, a great way to pick up some skills

[boazor]

Is this support 4.1.12?

[AusPhotography]

Yes 4.1.12 - no problems! (We run 4.1.12 ourselves).

Kym

[JustAskJulie]

Can you please show what needs to be changed in php code to set posts to 0?

[JustAskJulie]

Don't need to, just set the post count to zero :)

it doesn't allow it from the admin panel, it defaults to 1. You addressed this in an earlier post stating that it had to be changed in the .php file. Can you post the code that needs changed?

[AusPhotography]

I've updated the product to allow zero active posts :)

Also, it works on our 4.2.0 system

Kym

[Greek Wizard]

Surprised no one has mentioned this, but the xml is hard coded to "yourforum" so when the cron runs and a thread is created the link in the post is wrong as it's something like yourforum.com/forum/member,......

Would be nice to see this take your path automatically, but an easy fix is to edit the product xml to your own correct path and reinstall/over write the xml.

[AusPhotography]

The 'hard' coded bit is not.
It is a default value in a parameter you are supposed to edit :D

<defaultvalue><![CDATA[Happy {xx} Birthday {username} (http://yourforum/forum/member.php?u={userid})!

Hope you have a wonderful day, and very best wishes from everyone here at the Forum.

({bdate})]]></defaultvalue>

[Janmaat]

As I run a non-english forum I would like to know if it is possible to remove the "th" after the age and the english version of date (f.ex. 20th= 20 and "7th of August"=7. august) ?

Me too!

How can I change this? Could 't find it.

[smirkley]

I am going to give this a try. Been using the other mod but it is always a day early and changes the birthdate to be a day early.

I know this is cron run, and as such if you have ten crons stacked up in the schedule and no visitors in the wee hours, it will take a pageview for each cron to run consecutively. That obviously will cause a delay, but better a tad late in the morning than a whole day early I think.

[smirkley]

OK, running vB4.2, and so far it posts and sends pm like it is supposed to.

I set the post number to 0, before I read the whole thread of course.
Set the number of days active to 60
And I set the excluded usergroups to exclude banned of course, and the awaiting email confirmation too.

Problem is, the very first birthday celebrated was for a uncomfirmed user account, one that specifically excluded.

Did I not configure it properly?

[elitecarders]

i got this error kindly check it

Database error in vBulletin 4.2.0:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT userid, username, usergroupid, birthday, showbirthday, posts, timezoneoffset,
DATE_FORMAT(DATE_ADD(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL ((timezoneoffset - 4)*60) MINUTE), '%D of %M') AS BDisplay,
(DATE_FORMAT(DATE_SUB(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL (timezoneoffset - 4) HOUR), '%Y') - SUBSTRING(birthday,7,4)) AS UserAge
FROM 1l_user
WHERE birthday LIKE DATE_FORMAT(DATE_ADD(UTC_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL ((timezoneoffset - 4)*60) MINUTE), '%m-%d%%')
AND showbirthday > '1'
AND usergroupid NOT IN ()
AND userid NOT IN (SELECT 1l_ap_birthday.userid FROM 1l_ap_birthday);

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ')
AND userid NOT IN (SELECT 1l_ap_birthday.userid FROM 1l_ap_birthday)' at line 7
Error Number : 1064
Request Date : Monday, April 8th 2013 @ 09:18:07 PM
Error Date : Monday, April 8th 2013 @ 09:18:08 PM
Script : http://www.XXXXXX.com/XXXXX/cronadmin.php?do=runcron&cronid=70
Referrer : http://www.XXXXXX.com/XXX/cronadmin.php?do=modify
IP Address : 103.22.201.159
Username : _Mike74
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.5.21-log

[AusPhotography]

i got this error kindly check it

Thanks for the report. I'll fix it in the next day or so.

As a work around set at least one user group in the Exclude User Groups setting e.g. 8 which is Banned Users :D

Kym

[AusPhotography]

OK, running vB4.2, and so far it posts and sends pm like it is supposed to.

I set the post number to 0, before I read the whole thread of course.
Set the number of days active to 60
And I set the excluded usergroups to exclude banned of course, and the awaiting email confirmation too.

Problem is, the very first birthday celebrated was for a uncomfirmed user account, one that specifically excluded.

Did I not configure it properly?

I'll check that as well.

[smirkley]

Thanks.

Quick question ricktas,..

If a member does not opt to show their birthyear?... it seems the mod doesnt report their birthday.

Still testing it out mind you, but that was something I noticed.

[AusPhotography]

If a member does not opt to show their birthyear?... it seems the mod doesn't report their birthday.

It should do its thing if either of these privacy settings are set:

Display Only Day and Month of Birth
Display Age and Full Date of Birth

otherwise nada, that maybe the issue?

[smirkley]

Thanks for the reply.

I am experimenting with a test account, just to see it work with the first setting you listed above.

Seems like it didnt work last time, but I will let you know here in a day or two of the results.

[AusPhotography]

It works in my test system without the year set - with either profile option set,.

[smirkley]

Verified,..thx.

[smirkley]

Just noticed this morning that since after I set for "number of posts=0", that this will now ignore "days active=60" and give birthdays to everyone even inactive.

edit to add, I think that the description in the acp settings for this confused me. I was thinking that the mod will only post for members active, with x number of posts as a minimum.

I think now it says that active, means number of posts exclusively, and if you set it to 0, all members now qualify even if they havent logged on in years.

[AusPhotography]

Just noticed this morning that since after I set for "number of posts=0", that this will now ignore "days active=60" and give birthdays to everyone even inactive.



edit to add, I think that the description in the acp settings for this confused me. I was thinking that the mod will only post for members active, with x number of posts as a minimum.

I think now it says that active, means number of posts exclusively, and if you set it to 0, all members now qualify even if they havent logged on in years.

You are correct. It's post activity based (in forums that have post count enabled).
We are attempting to limit greeting to people who have posted something in the last X days.

Posts = 0 does mean everyone.

So in that case I'll change it to apply the last activity date.

[smirkley]

Tried to 'like', but vborg wont let me.

Still 'like'.

[smirkley]

Using the latest update...

Had a birthday notice today for a member that hasnt been online active since 2004.

Have minimum posts set to 0.

[AusPhotography]

Using the latest update...
Had a birthday notice today for a member that hasn't been online active since 2004.
Have minimum posts set to 0.

I can't reproduce that.

Can you tell me the value of the field 'lastactivity' on that users record?
(Use phpmyadmin for that on cPanel)
or a query like
select lastactivity from user where userid=XXX
in the AdminCP -- you may need to change user to TABLE_PREFIXuser and XXX is the userid of the account.

Also, make sure you uploaded "ap_birthday.php" to the correct folder (i.e. the cron folder) and overwrote the old version.

[smirkley]

I did upload the file to the correct folders, checked to be sure.

And just had a member that hasnt logged on given a birthday thread even though not logged into since 2005 someodd.

I will do the cpanel query tomorrow,..its late atm.

[smirkley]

"ap_birthday.php" should have "Version: 1.1.1 2013-04-12" on line 5.

I verified this this morning as correct as well as the file location.

But then I noticed the 1.1.2, so I installed that version.

[stevieb]

is this confirmed as working, or dead then?

Looking to install in vB 4.2.0

Thanks :)

[AusPhotography]

Working fine and supported. Works on all 4.2 versions.

[stevieb]

Working fine and supported. Works on all 4.2 versions.

Installed - lets see if tomorrow birthdays work right :)

Thanks again, will update you soon. (vB 4.2.0)

[My Hattiesburg]

I just installed it on a 4.2.1 board and so far it works fine.

[ahobilam]

Installed but yet to check.
I have some idea for another mod basing on this mod, the author can try if possible and interested.
That is:
Fetching the events stored in the calendar and posting new thread in a forum for that to remind users about that event in advance say one week or one day.
Mostly people will search on current topics and the forums will get lot of hits to view the discussions going on about the current topic.

[stevieb]

Working fine and supported. Works on all 4.2 versions.

Installed - lets see if tomorrow birthdays work right :)

Thanks again, will update you soon. (vB 4.2.0)

Yep works sound on 4.2.0 although the pm, email & thread gets posted in bold font and the URL sent to pm doesn't hyperlink - it's in plain text.

Can we use HTML in the message text? Any ideas how to sort above issues please?

[stevieb]

Fetching the events stored in the calendar and posting new thread in a forum for that to remind users about that event in advance say one week or one day.
Mostly people will search on current topics and the forums will get lot of hits to view the discussions going on about the current topic.

Great idea :)

[AusPhotography]

Yep works sound on 4.2.0 although the pm, email & thread gets posted in bold font and the URL sent to pm doesn't hyperlink - it's in plain text.


The URL in the PM should hyperlink as it's wrapped in URL bbcode. What did you change the standard text to?

Can we use HTML in the message text? Any ideas how to sort above issues please?

No.

[CoZmicShReddeR]

I want it to show Birthdays no matter what how do I set it to always show Birthdays? I do not want it based on posts or active users...

[AusPhotography]

I want it to show Birthdays no matter what how do I set it to always show Birthdays? I do not want it based on posts or active users...

Set the Days Active and Posts in Days to zero.

[scottct1]

I keep setting both to 0 but when I save it, it sets Days Active to 1.

[AusPhotography]

I keep setting both to 0 but when I save it, it sets Days Active to 1.

I'll investigate that

[Jamey]

Thanks!

[Jamey]

How can I set it so I don't have to approve these new threads?

[Jamey]

How do we mark this mod as unsupported?

[ozzy47]

You don't the developer has to do that.

[AusPhotography]

How can I set it so I don't have to approve these new threads?

It is supported, it is also free.
I have a life as well :D So I may not respond within a day or week, but will eventually.

The thread approval is part of your vB setup, not this add-on.
The add-on does not set anything to do with thread approval.

You do via AdminCP and the Forum Manager - RTFM :eek:

Kym

[Jamey]

Thanks. I am the main Admin, so what setting should it be then? None of my other stuff is moderated obviously. All moderation options are not enabled on that forum. Maybe set the forum to allow HTML?

[smirkley]

No, you should never allow html in a forum unless only admins can post there, security risk.

I use the same mod, and I have never had to approve a thread with this. But I have it posting in my Lounge forum.

What member group is the post member set for?

[AusPhotography]

The following should be of in the Forum being posted to by this add-on...
via the Forum Manager

Moderate Posts (Require moderator validation before new posts are displayed)
Moderate Threads (Require moderator validation before new threads are displayed)

[AusPhotography]

I keep setting both to 0 but when I save it, it sets Days Active to 1.

Days Active should be set to a high number if you want everyone to get a greeting.
I just realised what you want to do with this.
Eg. 365 for one year (anyone active in the last year) or 99999999 for effectively infinite.

[Jamey]

No, you should never allow html in a forum unless only admins can post there, security risk.

I use the same mod, and I have never had to approve a thread with this. But I have it posting in my Lounge forum.

What member group is the post member set for?

I just took the 1 out of Exclude Usergroups. I am in usergroup 1 abd it did post for me. But I stiil had to moderate (approve the thread) it.

We'll see if that makes a difference...don't know why It would though. That's just for excluding their Birthdays if I am correct.

[Jamey]

Like I said. I had the permissions set for that forum already.

[Jamey]

same deal still

[AusPhotography]

same deal still

Very strange, I cannot reproduce the issue and I don't think anyone else is having the problem.
The code is not doing anything special in regard to the forum being posted to.

Just a thought, what is the user profile of the account being used to post the greetings?
Specifically what is the 'Automatic Thread Subscription Mode' setting for that account?

[zwylove]

I have get it version 1.1.2 ans install it accord the readme on my vbulletin 4.2.0 website .and it's OK。but much question for everyone help.

1.if member's birthday is just right on sunnday or saturday , i want to pre-days to post the birthday thread on forum ? how can get it ?

2. I have set "Email Addresses to Notify When there is a New Post" in the Forum , when the "Birthday Thread and PM generator" runing OK and have new a post in the Special forum,but I have not receive the Notify email ? why ?

3.if It hasworked witht "Birthday Thread and PM generator" today, when i want to run the cron job"AP Birthday Greetings" again in the same day at scheduled Task ,but the birthday Thread that have happened of somebody will not happen again ? is it OK？ why? i just want to post Birthday Thread again for somebody ?

4. because maybe his/her birthday is wrong ,i changed it for true , but the "AP Birthday Greetings" will not post thread for he/she again if happened before ? how can i get the issue?

Many Thanks!

[AusPhotography]

1. No it does not do anything special for Sat.Sun

2. Not sure why, I'll investigate

3. You can run multiple times per day, it remembers who has had a birthday greeting

4. Because the system has remembered the original greeting, it 'remembers' for 3 day, you need to delete the remember from the database to clear it (manually via phpMyAdmin)

[zwylove]

1. No it does not do anything special for Sat.Sun

2. Not sure why, I'll investigate

3. You can run multiple times per day, it remembers who has had a birthday greeting

4. Because the system has remembered the original greeting, it 'remembers' for 3 day, you need to delete the remember from the database to clear it (manually via phpMyAdmin)

More Question:
1.About the number 2 question please help to investigate ASAP if you can ,because we realy need the function .Manyt thanks !
2. About the 4 Question answer , how to manually delete from the database ? which table and field ? Could you tell me the details ?
3.How many and which Varname of all we can use ? i just know the {username} {bdate} {xx}. Moreover,Can i format the {bdate} value as chinese or other that i want in the "Happy Birthday Post" Content and how to format ?

[AusPhotography]

More Question:
1.About the number 2 question please help to investigate ASAP if you can ,because we realy need the function .Many thanks !
2. About the 4 Question answer , how to manually delete from the database ? which table and field ? Could you tell me the details ?
3.How many and which Varname of all we can use ? i just know the {username} {bdate} {xx}. Moreover,Can i format the {bdate} value as Chinese or other that i want in the "Happy Birthday Post" Content and how to format ?

1. I won't make that change as it does not suit my needs.

2. Table is in the product file, ap_birthday -- use phpMyAdmin to delete the affected user record

3. The fields are: {xx} = 1st 2nd 3rd 4th etc, {username}, {userid} {bdate}
{bdate} is formatted 'day of Month' and won't be changed.

This is a free mod, you can change it to suit you Chinese requirement as you wish.

This mod can post a thread and/or send a PM to the user.
As for the EMail issue, I think it might be the way vB_DataManager_Thread_FirstPost works.
So I'm not going to do anything about that.

[Duke49th]

I have a question please.

Why do I have to deactivatge the vBulletin birthday mailer?

Thanks :)

Oh..and..its a German language Forum. So where can I change the birthday age format? Now it says "1st, 2nd" and so on. But in german language its just "1. , 2. , 3. " and so on.

[Duke49th]

Oh..and..its a German language Forum. So where can I change the birthday age format? Now it says "1st, 2nd" and so on. But in german language its just "1. , 2. , 3. " and so on.


Ok this part I've found...I overseen it before...

just edited this part:

$userage = (string)$userage;
$suffix = "th";
$lastdigit = strlen($userage)-1;
if ($lastdigit == 0 || $userage[$lastdigit-1] != 1)
{
if ($userage[$lastdigit] == 1) $suffix = ".";
else if ($userage[$lastdigit] == 2) $suffix = ".";
else if ($userage[$lastdigit] == 3) $suffix = ".";

Im no programmer/coder..so I dont know how to delete anything without causing a problem...so I just changed everything to empty space or "."

[AusPhotography]

No problems!

[Gadget_Guy]

Hi,

I have had this installed on my site for a couple days now.

It is not generating accurate birthday threads.

The cron doesn't seem to be hitting all the users accurately.

I am on 4.2.2 Is there anything in particular I can investigate to diagnose what the issue might be?

D.

[Gadget_Guy]

FWIW

Here are screen shots of my cron and log

It only ran once according to my log.. but I have had it in place for days....

It posted a couple yesterday (incorrectly)

D.

[Gadget_Guy]

It just fired off now on my site.

If I am correct in what I just saw... the posts are a day late.

It sent birthday greetings to people who's b-day was yesterday not today.

I wonder if it is a time discrepancy with my server or something?

It's also still not adding anything to the log

D.

[AusPhotography]

What is your server timezone?

What is your forum timezone?

[Gadget_Guy]

What is your server timezone?

What is your forum timezone?

I believe I have them both set to be America/Toronto

D.

[AusPhotography]

There is a 4 hour delay, i.e. the thread/PM should go 4 hours after the members birthday in their timezone.

You server and forum TZ are ok if in sync

[Gadget_Guy]

It seems to be working fine, now that I understand the functionality a bit better.

Something my users requested was the ability to have all the birthday wishes go into one post per day rather than opening separate threads for each wish.

We have a lot of members on our site and on some days it will spawn pages of individual threads of birthdays which they find clutters the forums.

If we could get all the B-Day wishes for the day to go into a single daily thread that would be a great add-on to the mod.

Thanks,

D.

[AusPhotography]

I'm not going to change it at this stage.

I suggest you create a Birthday forum and have posts all go to one place; that might be easier

[Gadget_Guy]

I'm not going to change it at this stage.

I suggest you create a Birthday forum and have posts all go to one place; that might be easier

I have done this already.

The challenge is that in the morning when people log in and click "new posts" it's full of birthday announcements.

D.

[ozzy47]

I have done this already.

The challenge is that in the morning when people log in and click "new posts" it's full of birthday announcements.

D.

I suggest you use this mod along side this one then, [OzzModz] Exclude Forums From New Posts Search (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=305977)

[Gadget_Guy]

There appears to be an error in the PM that is sent to the users.

The message being sent is:

Dear Howard,

You have received a new private message at Toronto Subaru Club from Krusty The Clown, entitled "Happy 44th Birthday Howard!".

To read the original version, respond to, or delete this message, you must log in here:
http://www.toronto-subaru-club.com/forums/private.php

This is the message that was sent:
***************
*Happy 44th Birthday Howard (http://www.toronto-subaru-club.com/forums/members/howard/)!*

*Hope you have a wonderful day, and very best wishes from everyone here at the Toronto Subaru Club.




The link to the username is this: http://www.toronto-subaru-club.com/forums/members/howard/)!*


It includes the characters: ")!*" which make the url unresolvable

D.

[AusPhotography]

PM me you message template form the options for this plugin.
You may need to add a space somewhere

[Gadget_Guy]

PM me you message template form the options for this plugin.
You may need to add a space somewhere

It's not the Forum post that has the error, it is the PM that is sent to the user.

I only noticed it because it was my B-day the other day and I saw what got sent to users and I noticed the error.

Let me know what you need me to send you to correct the PM that is sent

D.

[AusPhotography]

In the options for the plugin, copy the text that makes up the message and PM that to me in [code] tags

[Gadget_Guy]

Hi,

Unfortunately I had to uninstall this from my site.

Too many complaints for all the individual threads created each day.

The consensus was that they wanted the daily birthdays combined into one post.

It's a great mod and I thought it would have been nice to publicly wish everyone a HB for everyone to see rather than just in PM like what the built in function does.

However, on my site, I guess some people just don't share the same sentiment.

D.

[pcoskat]

Can this be configured to only send a PM? I'd rather not have threads created.

[AusPhotography]

Can this be configured to only send a PM? I'd rather not have threads created.

Yes

Options
Birthday Post/Send options (at least one should be on)
Post Thread (Yes or No)

Send PM (Yes or No)

[4ngeluxpunk]

Yes

Options

vB 4.2.3 does not work with, do not believe the issue and send no message.

[WindVoice]

Any update for this to make it work with vB 4.2.x.

The cron does not work!