Poor Man's Bounced Email Handler

[rebelde]

This modification has been replaced by the full Bounced Email Handler (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=310072). Please use that one instead.


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What does the bounced email handler do?
It stops sending emails to addresses that are no longer valid. This helps keep your email from being marked as spam.

More technically:
It collects bounced emails, counts them and marks user accounts as "do not send email".
It stops sending "new post" notifications to those addresses.What it does not do:
It does not stop sending any other emails such as:
- forum subscription updates
- Happy birthday messages
- PM notifications
- other important emails

Why is it a "Poor Man's" bounce handler?
Because this is just a hack. It blocks a lot of emails, but not all that should be blocked. Also, it just leaches off of DBTech's hard work in building a bounce handler as part of his vBMail mod. Still, it is better than nothing, and that is what I had before.

I hope to encourage somebody (like you!) or vBulletin to code something better. I just don't have time to do it myself.


To install:
Install DBTech's vBMail (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=266142). This is required!
Set up an email address to handle bounces.
Set your vBMail options similar to the ones in poor-mans-reply-all-installation-instructions.txt
Install this plugin.Done!

Please, somebody, create a real bounce handler!
The steps:
0. Get DBTech's permission. If you can't get permission, rewrite their code.
1. Strip down and modify DBTech's excellent vBMail work to just what we need, see how it works and rewrite it. (Everything leading up to marking users in the user table as "do not email".)
2. Improve it to do a better job of deciding when to mark an email address as a bad. (With some types of responses, you don't need to wait for five bad emails.)
3. Find a way to stop sending other emails that shouldn't be sent such as forum subscription updates and birthday messages.
Can you do just one of these steps? Any help is appreciated.

Special thanks to DBTech for his work. What I did here is really very little. DBTech did the hard work.

[rebelde]

Do not install this mod until further notice.

I've discovered a problem that is leading to database errors, but I'm swamped with work and won't be able to investigate a solution for some time.

[nacaruncr]

easy man.... delete the attachment file ;)

[oddmud]

Do not install this mod until further notice.

I've discovered a problem that is leading to database errors, but I'm swamped with work and won't be able to investigate a solution for some time.

Please figure out how to remove the user from the database as well. :)

[webrats]

hope this comes back

[rebelde]

I'm sorry. I wish I had time to work on this, but I don't.

[hqarrse]

I also did some work on exactly this task, also using DBTech's vbmail. The results is a very simple cron task that unsubscribes people. It could easily be copied to handle PM notifications, post reporting and so on:

http://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/f99/thread-subscriptions-still-being-sent-even-though-bounce-flag-8819/#post50838

I'm not claiming a great mod, but rather a quick hack that has been working for me fine for quite a while now. It would be good to see someone taking it or this mod forward.

[David Copeland]

I also did some work on exactly this task, also using DBTech's vbmail. The results is a very simple cron task that unsubscribes people. It could easily be copied to handle PM notifications, post reporting and so on:

http://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/f99/thread-subscriptions-still-being-sent-even-though-bounce-flag-8819/#post50838

I'm not claiming a great mod, but rather a quick hack that has been working for me fine for quite a while now. It would be good to see someone taking it or this mod forward.

Any update on this?

David

[rebelde]

I've created a full bounced email handler that I've been using successfully on my site for a few months now. I have been meaning to release it as an add-on here but haven't gotten around to it. If you want it, I'll be happy to send you what we have.

[wolfe]

I've created a full bounced email handler that I've been using successfully on my site for a few months now. I have been meaning to release it as an add-on here but haven't gotten around to it. If you want it, I'll be happy to send you what we have.

hi mate would you send me this please. thanks

[rebelde]

Attached.

This has been working very well for me on my forums for a number of months.

Documentation?
The normal stuff:
- upload the file
- import the product
- edit the "Bounced Email Handler" configuration options
- -These are mine:
Alert PM Sender: 1
Bounce Count: 5
IMAP Host: imap.gmail.com
IMAP Port: 993
IMAP Mailbox: inbox
IMAP Second Mailbox: [Gmail]/Spam
IMAP Username: bounce@yourdomain.com
IMAP Password" ...
Use SSL: Yes
Max Fetched Messages: 25
- test it

The second email address is for Gmails SPAM folder, where a lot of these bounces end up.

Let me know if you have any questions or problems. I'd like to release it as a full mod. If you want to make improvements: cool, let me know. There are a few areas that could obviously be improved upon.

Cheers

[keyla31]

Attached.

This has been working very well for me on my forums for a number of months.

Documentation?
The normal stuff:
- upload the file
- import the product
- edit the "Bounced Email Handler" configuration options
- -These are mine: - test it

The second email address is for Gmails SPAM folder, where a lot of these bounces end up.

Let me know if you have any questions or problems. I'd like to release it as a full mod. If you want to make improvements: cool, let me know. There are a few areas that could obviously be improved upon.

Cheers

Is this working on 4.2.2?

[rebelde]

Is this working on 4.2.2?
Yes, no problems.

Please let me know your feedback.

[astdirect]

I'd be happy if you could send this to me also. Great idea for a mod.

[RichieBoy67]

I'd be happy if you could send this to me also. Great idea for a mod.

He already included it here.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2463635&postcount=11

[RichieBoy67]

Attached.

This has been working very well for me on my forums for a number of months.

Documentation?
The normal stuff:
- upload the file
- import the product
- edit the "Bounced Email Handler" configuration options
- -These are mine: - test it

The second email address is for Gmails SPAM folder, where a lot of these bounces end up.

Let me know if you have any questions or problems. I'd like to release it as a full mod. If you want to make improvements: cool, let me know. There are a few areas that could obviously be improved upon.

Cheers

Can you explain how this works?

[rebelde]

How does it work?

If I remember correctly:
1. Bounced emails are collected using a special email address.
2. Those emails are loaded into the database.
3. If there are more than 5(?) bounces from a certain email address, the user account is:
3a. no longer sent emails
3b. sent a PM explaining this and how to get the emails to get sent again.
4. There is a way for users to tell the system to still send the emails despite the number of bounces.

[RichieBoy67]

Thanks, I think i understand now. I was looking more to see how it does this, not what it does but I see now.

Is there any way to disable it from sending out private messages?

Thanks,
Rich

Some type of a log would be good also to see what it is actually doing. :)
Great though!

[rebelde]

Is there any way to disable it from sending out private messages?
Yes, edit the PHP code :D.

The PM notifications are actually quite useful. It is a bit annoying that it comes from the admin's account, but many people see the PM and change their email address to one that works.

I'll try to clean this up some and create a real add-on soon.

[RichieBoy67]

Yes, edit the PHP code :D.

The PM notifications are actually quite useful. It is a bit annoying that it comes from the admin's account, but many people see the PM and change their email address to one that works.

I'll try to clean this up some and create a real add-on soon.

No problem, I will remove the pm.

My concern isn't that it comes from the admin. I just have a ton of bounced e-mails going back years and I do not want thousands of private messages going out at the same time.

This is great though! Thanks

[rebelde]

I've just fixed it up and released it as its own add-on (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=310072). It is the same but I improved the phrase text quite a bit to make it more understandable.

Please test it if you can and suggest any improvements to the instructions.

[RichieBoy67]

I've just fixed it up and released it as its own add-on (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=310072). It is the same but I improved the phrase text quite a bit to make it more understandable.

Please test it if you can and suggest any improvements to the instructions.

Sure thing, Thanks :up:

[rebelde]

Some type of a log would be good also to see what it is actually doing.
Actually, if you click Run Now in Scheduled Tasks, it will show you the log of the current operation. I'm going to add that to my instructions now in the new mod.

Thanks for testing it!

[CharlieDelta]

So I kept this installed but just disabled assuming it would be updated. Would it be possible to get a copy of this old mod so I can confirm what files to delete and uninstall?

[rebelde]

Would it be possible to get a copy of this old mod so I can confirm what files to delete and uninstall?
I think this is the whole thing:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<plugins>
<plugin active="1" executionorder="5" product="vbulletin">
<title><![CDATA[Poor Man's Bounce Handler, requires vBMail (Lite)]]></title>
<hookname>newpost_notification_message</hookname>
<phpcode><![CDATA[if ($touser['dbtech_vbmail_bounceflag'])
{
continue;
}]]></phpcode>
</plugin>
</plugins>


No file uploads, database changes or anything.