Farcaster's Event Attendance: Email Add-On
 

This modification is an enhancement for the "Farcaster's Event Attendance" modification. After you install this modification, you will be able to configure various notification and reminder messages to members who RSVP'd for events on your calendar. For instance, you could configure a message to be sent to a member who RSVP'd "Maybe" to prompt him to update his RSVP status a few days before the event started. You could configure an additional notification to be sent to members who RSVP'd "Yes" to remind them of the event one day, one week, or at any point before the event occurs.

Prerequisites:
Farcaster's Event Attendance 1.1.0 (or newer)

Installation
- 1 file upload
- 1 XML upload

1. Upload the file rsvp_notify.php to your forums includes\cron directory.
2. Use the Product Manager to import the product file product-rah_rsvp_email_1_0_0.xml.xml
3. Modify the RSVP email notification options as needed under "Farcaster's Event Attendance" in the options menu.
4. Modify the schedule of the "Send RSVP notifications" job as needed. By default, it is set to run at midnight each day.

Default Notifications
When you first install the product, it is configured to:

• Send an email to users who RSVP'd "Maybe" at 5 days before the event, and then again at 1 day before the event. The email template used will produce a letter like the following, with the subject line of "RSVP Status: [Event Title]":
  • Quote:

    Dear [username], An event you were interested in at [Board Name] is scheduled to begin soon. You previously RSVP'd "Maybe." If you will be able to attend, please take a moment to update your RSVP status. Attached below are the details of the event. Event: [Event Title] Scheduled Start Date: [Date of Event w/o Time] (# Days) ================================================== ========= [Event Description] ================================================== ========= To update your RSVP status or to view this event, visit: [Link to Event] All the best, [Board Name]

• Send an email to users who RSVP'd Yes at 5 days before the event with the subject line of "Reminder: [Event Title]" and the following letter:
  • Quote:

    Dear [username], This is a reminder that an event you RSVP'd for will be coming up within the next 5 days. If you are no longer able to attend, please update your RSVP status. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you there! Event: [Event Title] Scheduled Start Date: [Date of Event w/o Time] (# Days) ================================================== ========= [Event Description] ================================================== ========= To update your RSVP status or to view this event, visit: [Link to Event] All the best, [Board Name]

• Send an email to users who RSVP'd Yes at 1 day before the event with the subject line of "Reminder: [Event Title]" and the following letter:
  • Quote:

    Dear [username], This is a reminder that an event you RSVP'd for is scheduled to begin soon. If you are no longer able to attend, please update your RSVP status. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you there! Event: [Event Title] Scheduled Start Date: [Date of Event w/o Time] (# Days) ================================================== ========= [Event Description] ================================================== ========= To update your RSVP status or to view this event, visit: [Link to Event] All the best, [Board Name]

Revision Log
1.0.0 - Initial Release

Further documentation available in first post.

Setting up Notifications
The options are setup to give you a wide latitude of setting up all kinds of schedules with different email templates. Under the options for "Farcaster's Event Attendance" you will now have a text area for each of the RSVP statuses (Yes, No and Maybe). On each line you type in the number of days (or fraction thereof) in advance of the event the email should be sent, followed by a comma and then the email phrase to be used. To setup more than one, just add a new line. For instance, to send a notification 5 days in advance to members who RSVP'd "yes," I created a new email phrase called rsvp_yes_5 and then added the following line to the option box:

5,rsvp_yes_5

I decided that I also wanted to have a message sent 1 day in advance, so I added another email phrase called rsvp_yes_1 and added it just below the previous line, like this:

5,rsvp_yes_5
1,rsvp_yes_1

Adding a New Email Phrase
1. Under the Phrase Manager, click "Add New Phrase"
2. Change the Phrase Type to "Email Subject Text"
3. Set the varname. This will be the name you reference in the notification box described above.
4. Type the text you want to appear in the subject line in the "Text" box. You can use variables. A list of available variables will be described in the next section.
5. Save the phrase.
6. Add another phrase by clicking, "Add New Phrase" under the Phrase Manager.
7. Change the Phrase Type to "Email Body Text".
8. Set the varname to the exact same name as you used for the "Email Subject Text" above.
9. Type the text you want to appear in the "Text" box. You can use variables.

Available Variables:
$username = The user's forum name
$rsvp_day = The day the event occurs, formatted as Y-m-d, ie: 2007-01-01
$rsvp_day_formatted = The day the event occurs.
$when = Number of days to event or "Today" if the event occurs on the same day as the notice is going out, ie: 3 Days
$days_to_event = Number of days to event, without the word "Days" appended.
$rsvpd_on = The date the member RSVPd.
$guests = The number of guests the member said he'd be bringing.
$rsvp[title] = The event title.
$rsvp[event] = The event description.

It keeps on getting better ;)

Just when I was thinking that my site needed this and I would have to do it myself. Great addon, thank you!

Are the instructions easy enough to understand? I know it is a little complicated to setup your notifications, but I wanted to keep it as open ended and scalable as possible for everyone's individual needs.

Does this take account of the user's email seetins such as "Admins can email"?

No, it will send an email regardless of that setting, just as I'm pretty sure a reminder would, if they set one up.

Thanks. I'll just have to make a note in the RSVP form then.

awesome

Hum. That may be something worth adding to the next update? Technically if someone opts-out they shouldn't get any emails. Just my thoughts...

I can definitely add it as an option to "Respect Admin-Email opt-out." In a fashion, this works much like a reminder does, which is sent from the system and not from an admin. On my board at least, I want it to send out regardless, but I can understand where you're coming from and it's not very hard to add in, so you can expect it in the first revision.

Thanks!

Great mod. Will make the event system even better.

It would be great if you could email members whenever a new event is posted. Maybe a custom profile field for "Notify me of new events"

Locutus2999,

That's on my list of things to do, but I'm going to make it seperate from the RSVP system, since you may want it to run on calendars or for events that are not using the RSVP modification.

Thank you for the great hack!! I've already noticed an improvement on my roll calls - much less "maybe's" and people showing up for events when they said they would.

Is there any support for $customfields? I have an extensive list of them set up, and it would be great if they could be included in the email.

Thanks again!

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

Currently, it does not use custom fields. But that is a great idea for a future addition. I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have about 40 signups for an event and I wish to contact them ALL to give them some extra information...

How do you send a one-off bespoke email to all the RSVP 'Yes' members in one shot ??

I was just wondering if there was a quick way. it would save me time copying and pasting their username and doing a multiple PM...

Thanks!

That is not currently a feature, I'm afraid. You'd have to do it manually.

Is this mod compatible with your recent release of "Farcaster's Event Attendance" version 1.2.0? Just checking because I saw the post regarding "Farcaster’s Event Attendance & vB Event Forums Integration" version 1.0.1 is not compatible yet.

Thanks!

Yes, it is compatible. There are no version issues with this mod and version 1.2.0.

Thanks allot, and keep up the good work!

The VB Event Integration will create a post when you made an event on the calendar, correct me if I'm wrong Farcaster, this only work with the calendar, not the Forum post?

In the reminder email, the event description was sent with bbcode. I like to know how to turn the bbcode off or turn to html code when the system mail out.

Here is what I got in the email

Here is what the event description

Topic: My life as a Trader

About the speaker:

Does anyone know if I could incorporate this hack with the form hack here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126676

Instead of people being able to post whatever they wanted in the new event, I'd like to use a form instead so every event is uniform and allows people to search for certain characteristics within an event.

Chris

very coool sir

I have installed the mod, but it is not sending out the emails. The email system does work, as I get emails from my forum at different times. Any thoughts? Thanks! Can't wait for this to work!

I would also like some insight into this if possible. :D

I've been waiting for that answer a long time

No ideas? I would love to be able to use this! :)

A call to strip the BB code needs to be made before sending the email. This will need to be added to the hack.

Am I the only one experiencing difficulties with this mod? It'd be great to know if someone has already figured out the problem I am having. Here's me hoping I'll get to use this soon! :o

So is there any way to send out an email to all the "Yes" RSVPs, or to all "Yes" and "Maybe" RSVPs? Say, if the venue or time changes? From an earlier question I think the answer is no, but since it's a pretty basic and useful function, is there any way to do it?

Thanks. The mod looks great.

Same problem.

At first I thought it was my syntax: The instructions say to use this format (no space): "1,rsvp_yes_1" while the examples in the AdminCP for this mod use this format (space before "rsvp"): "1, rsvp_yes_1".

I tried both, neither has worked.

I have the job scheduled to run every half hour, and have tried running it manually too.

Please help... what could I be doing wrong?

Thanks!


Edited to Add: I've set reminders for 7 days and 30 days. Maybe something's off with the way it calculates? I ask because when I first installed I did a test of 2 days and it worked. Strange. Otherwise, some other setting has interfered, I assume?

Is this compatible with 3.6.8?

Yes.

Just installed and am getting the following error when running the event.

"Send RSVP notifications

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /includes/cron/rsvp_notify.php on line 84

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /includes/cron/rsvp_notify.php on line 84

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /includes/cron/rsvp_notify.php on line 84

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /includes/cron/rsvp_notify.php on line 84"

Have not made any modifications yet. I am running 3.6.8. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Bob

I am running this hack with vBulletin 3.7. beta 4 and I am getting the same error.
It would be nice if the author can take a look at this!

Mine has worked perfectly for weeks, but as of today I'm getting the same error...any thoughts? :confused:

I never did get it to work. How are things in VV? I lived in Apple Valley before moving to the east coast. I miss he desert. :(

Any news on the development of this modification?