vb.org Archive - Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 4.01

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Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 4.01

This not the CommBull product itself. This is simply instructions for adapting it to work with vBulletin 4.x.

Download CommBull from: Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 3.8x

grandeur_69 has released his latest version of CommBull as a free add-on, indicating that he no longer has time to continue developing it. I am posting this here for the benefit of other vBulletin 4.x who don't want to lose the newsletter feature (grandeur_69 has approved this).

At https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....6&postcount=71 a member asks:

Quote:

Hi, the version 5.1a work fine with vbulletin 4.0.1 ?

My response is posted at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....5&postcount=72 and reproduced here...

I have the previous (commercial) version, 4.5f, which does run successfully via a cron job, running on 4.01. It required some modification of the installation instructions but it does work. I expect you should be able to get this version running as well, although as the coder noted the cron capability won't work.

1. Edit product-Commbull.xml and find the following line:

PHP Code:


		
			
        <dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.6.0" maxversion="3.8.99" />

Change to:

PHP Code:


		
			
        <dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.6.0" maxversion="4.99" />

2. Upload the files and import the product.

3. Now you need to do the template edits so that members can opt-in or opt-out of your newsletter. The current instructions are as follows:

Quote:

4. Template modifications
--------------------------------------

Template: "Modify User Option" -> "modifyoptions"

After:

PHP Code:


		
			
                    <tr>

                        <td><label for="cb_adminemail"><input type="checkbox" name="options[adminemail]" value="1" id="cb_adminemail" $checked[adminemail] />$vbphrase[receive_email_from_bulletin_board_staff]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[adminemail]" value="1" /></td>

                    </tr>

Add:

PHP Code:


		
			
                    <tr>

                        <td><label for="commbull"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull" value="1" id="commbull" $checked[receivebulletin] />$vbphrase[receive_email_from_commbull]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" /></td>

                    </tr>

                    <tr>

                        <td><br />$vbphrase[newsletterformat]<br /><label for="commbull_type"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull_type" value="1" id="commbull_type" $checked[receivebulletin_type] />$vbphrase[type_email_from_commbull]</label>

<input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" /></td>

                    </tr>

Now, obviously this won't work in 4.x. These need to be modified as follows:

1. Edit Template: "Modify User Option" -> "modifyoptions"

FIND:

PHP Code:


		
			
<vb:if condition="$show['friend_email_request']">

                    <li>

                        <label for="cb_receivefriendemailrequest"><input type="checkbox" name="options[receivefriendemailrequest]" value="1" id="cb_receivefriendemailrequest" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivefriendemailrequest} /> {vb:rawphrase receive_friendship_req_email}</label>

                        <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivefriendemailrequest]" value="1" />

                    </li>

                </vb:if>

ADD AFTER:

PHP Code:


		
			
<vb:if condition="$show['receiveemail']">

<li>

    <label for="commbull"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull" value="1" id="commbull" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin} />{vb:rawphrase receive_email_from_commbull}</label>

    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" />

</li>

</vb:if>

That first part (above) is the option to receive or not receive the newsletters.

Next would be the option for HTML or plain text emails, which should be:

PHP Code:


		
			
<vb:if condition="$show['receiveemail']">

<li>

    <label for="commbull_type"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull_type" value="1" id="commbull_type" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin_type} />{vb:rawphrase type_email_from_commbull}</label>

    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" />

</li>

</vb:if>

Update:

This now works. I had a ( instead of a { on the previous code. Thanks to grandeur_69 for pointing this out!

Notes:

The product is not mine so I can't offer any support for CommBull itself. However, I have been using the paid versions of this mod for some time and I'm happy to offer what support I can for making the changes necessary to get it running on 4.x.
I have been in communication with grandeur_69. He has indicated that he has no objections to this thread and that as he gets time he will be trying to develop this add-on further as a free product.

Update July 12, 2010: Product XML file provided by grandeur_69 for vBulletin 4.x.

NOTE:

If you have already done the manual edits, do NOT use the XML file. And if you import the XML file, you should not need to do the manual edits.
Some people are encountering problems using the XML file. If you are one of them, uninstall the product and use the manual edits. Those seem to work just fine.

Update July 14, 2010: Error in XML file corrected.

Quote:

The product is not mine so I can't offer any support for CommBull itself. However, Ihave been using the paid versions of this mod for some time and I'm happy to offer what support I can for making the changes necessary to get it running on 4.x.

So does it or does it not work on 4.0??

And can you please describe a little more what exactly it does?

Thanks

Answered in the first post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbaxter

I have the previous (commercial) version, 4.5f, which does run successfully via a cron job, running on 4.01. It required some modification of the installation instructions but it does work. I expect you should be able to get this version running as well, although as the coder noted the cron capability won't work.

CommBull is a configurable newsletter for your forum, previously a commercial product but now released as a vBulletin.org add-on.

The changes from 4.5f to 5.1a are largely cosmetic, representing attempts by the original author to include the forum styling in the newsletter across a wide variety of email clients and configurations. I don't need that since for me the forum styling was already working.

I did install version 5.x at one point but reverted to 4.5f because of the absence of the capability to send the newsletters out via a cron job.

I believe the changes I made for 4.5f should allow you to install version 5.1a on vBulletin 4.x.

For more details about CommBull 5.1a, see the thread at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=230359

Does this work with group, blog, CMS content or does it solely handle forum content?

I've only recently upgraded to the vBulletin 4.01 Suite from the 3.84 forum only. At the moment, the blog is disabled because I'm still trying to figure out how to and how I want to configure the CMS... some real documentation would be nice!

So I can't tell you about the blog. However, the last newsletter sent out by my forum picked up articles from the CMS as well as forum threads, so I don't know of any reason it wouldn't also get the blog entries.

That sounds very interesting. I cant find anything about handling bounces. Does commbull do that?

No. You'll need another system to take care of that.

Ah too bad. Unfortunately there is no fully functional system for that.

At one point, I was successful in integrating the EZ Bounce add-on with CommBull but then I upgraded CommBull and couldn't recall how I'd done it previously. :o

Thats a bummer as I would have loved this if it had the bounced email functionality...

thanxx

nstalled

but dont use
________
WWW.VAPORIZER.ORG

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbaxter (Post 1963040)

At one point, I was successful in integrating the EZ Bounce add-on with CommBull but then I upgraded CommBull and couldn't recall how I'd done it previously. :o

EZ bounce is great, as its the only option to counter bounced emails. But it still implies handling thousands of bounces, one by one, after each mailing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfa1 (Post 1963415)

EZ bounce is great, as its the only option to counter bounced emails. But it still implies handling thousands of bounces, one by one, after each mailing.

When you first implement a bounceback strategy, yes... but it needs to be a strategy where members with bouncebacks due to invalid email addresses are moved to a separate member group (I call mine Inactive). Then, when the newsletter goes out, the Inactive group is not included in the mailing list.

Once you have that set up and working, the effort to maintain it is minimal. Now I get a few bouncebacks each week and I change the usergroups for those members to Inactive if the bounceback reason is "no such address" or "no account for that user". This takes perhaps 5 minutes at most.

thank you
if i uninstall the mod is DB Changes stay in my forum's DB ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by fourat (Post 1964325)

thank you
if i uninstall the mod is DB Changes stay in my forum's DB ?

It should, yes. Support for the original mod is at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=230359

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbaxter (Post 1963433)

When you first implement a bounceback strategy, yes... but it needs to be a strategy where members with bouncebacks due to invalid email addresses are moved to a separate emmber group (I call mine Inactive). Then, when the newsletter goes out, the Inactive group is not included in the mailing list.

Once you have that set up and working, the effort to maintain it is minimal. Now I get a few bouncebacks each week and I change the usergroups for those members to Inactive if the bounceback reason is "no such address" or "no account for that user". This takes perhaps 5 minutes at most.

Not on a high traffic site. I have manually processed 20.000 bounced addresses. THat indeed took care of a lot of problems. But after that, there are still valid email accounts that turn into invalid ones and each mailing results in a large number of bounced mails to process.

Please read the article in my signature: How to keep your board from getting blacklisted as a spammer
It covers this issue.

It turns out that this is a huge issue as many vbulletin boards have been banned by large email providers, without even knowing it. More and more webmasters are discovering this.
I am starting to suspect that large email providers are actively reacting to vbulletins flaws in this respect. vbulletin as a whole is generating a massive amount of emails to invalid email addresses. Its a serious spam issue.

As I get time, I'll look into seeing if I can re-integrate EZ Bounce.

Thanks for the link to your article. I have already implemented all the things you discuss there. I'm not sending out 20K newsletters at a time and if I were I'd get one of the mailing list managers. CommBull really is intended for the average forum that doesn't require the big guns.

Quote:

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.1:
Invalid SQL:
INSERT INTO mailqueue
(dateline, toemail, fromemail, subject, message, header)
VALUES

(1266880338,
xxxxxx@wanadoo.es',

MySQL Error : Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes
Error Number : 1153
Request Date : Tuesday, February 23rd 2010 @ 12:12:18 AM
Error Date : Tuesday, February 23rd 2010 @ 12:15:49 AM
Script : http://www.xxxx.com/foro/admincp/com...do=send&page=2
Referrer : http://www.xxxx.com/foro/admincp/commbull.php?do=send
IP Address : 77.228.0.3
Username : admin
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 4.1.22-standard

after having this error, my forum will get stuck, being necessary to empty the bbdd Mailqueue to return to normal

Can you help me?

Thank you very much
I?m sorry for my english

Quote:

Originally Posted by javivi0 (Post 1989591)

hello, thank you for update of combull. Some yeras ago, I bought commbull, and now I?ve installed in my vb4 with you modifications.

But when sending a newsletter to my users, I have had this error when I went around 2.000 user aprox.

after having this error, my forum will get stuck, being necessary to empty the bbdd Mailqueue to return to normal

Can you help me?

Thank you very much
I?m sorry for my english

I'm guessing that you are using version 5.1? If you are a licensed CommBull owner and you still have a 4.x version available, I would advise you to use that instead. I'm personally running 4.5f which avoids many of the issues with 5.1.

Thank djbaxter, I have 4.2 version, but this version works fine with vbulletin 4??ç

Email sending not working. What can be the problem ?
Newsletter creation in a forum works...

Quote:

Originally Posted by javivi0 (Post 1994446)

Thank djbaxter, I have 4.2 version, but this version works fine with vbulletin 4???

Try it. I have 4.5 working with vBulletin 4 so there's a reasonable chance it will work for you with the modifications in the first thread here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollosch (Post 2001134)

Email sending not working. What can be the problem ?
Newsletter creation in a forum works...

For problems with CommBull 5.1, please post at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=230359

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollosch (Post 2001134)

Email sending not working. What can be the problem ?
Newsletter creation in a forum works...

same problem here, I send 30 at a time and it rips right thru them.....but no mail goes out, not sure what's happening?

It seems from the comments here that CommBull v4.5f is much better that 5.1. Since CommBull as a whole is no longer a commercial product; is there any way for us to get CommBull v4.5f?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArchAngelz (Post 2038331)

It seems from the comments here that CommBull v4.5f is much better that 5.1. Since CommBull as a whole is no longer a commercial product; is there any way for us to get CommBull v4.5f?

You would have to contact the author, grandeur_69.

Does anyone have any idea what this error is?.

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [path]/admincp/commbull.php:35) in [path]/includes/functions.php on line 3781

I get it when i click on 'send' in admincp.

Quote:

I have the previous (commercial) version, 4.5f, which does run successfully via a cron job, running on 4.01. It required some modification of the installation instructions but it does work.

I guess that it is safe to assume that these directions above, will work with a 4.5f version of Commbull??? (I found mine!)

EDIT: Installed, but I get this error:

Quote:

Site error: the file /home/xxxxxx/public_html/forum/admincp/commbull.php requires the ionCube PHP Loader ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so to be installed by the site administrator.

The test.php shows that I have Ion Cube loader installed (I've used Commbull before with vb 3.8, 3.7, etc)

EDIT again: Installed commbull 5.1. Works well for me. Now if I can only figure out how to change the html colors of the email that is sent.... (It used to pick up the forum default)

Commbull 4.5f can be found here:
http://www.octanedev.com/commbull_4_5_f.zip

Quote:

Originally Posted by volarium (Post 2047954)

Can someone tell me the URL that is supposed to be hit when this link is clicked by the recipients of the email?

To unsubscribe from the community updates, click this link

I followed the instructions, but the URL for that link is http://mysite.com/admincp/$commbull_unsubscribe, which does not get resolved.

If this is a question for the main Commbull thread, I can ask over there, but since I'm using v5.1 and the modifications included in this thread, I thought it made more sense to ask here first.

Thanks.

In the template file, admin/commbull_template_html.php for HTML newsletters, look for that line and replace mysite.com with the URL for your forum.

If that doesn't work, try using:

PHP Code:


		
			
<a href=\"http://mysite.com/profile.php?do=editoptions\">{\$lang[unsubscribelink]}</a>

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Can you share how the installation instructions should be modified in order to get v4.5 working? It seems that v4.5 may be better than v5.1 and hence, installation instructions for that may be useful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArchAngelz (Post 2049092)

The modifications above are for 4.5f but shouild work with 5.1.

If you are asking how to install 4.5f, if you have a copy, those versions require either the Zend Optimizer or Ioncube installed on youjr server.

The installations instructions for 4.5f are as follows (from the ReadMe):

Quote:

ENCODED FILES
=============
The files in these packages are encrypted to protect the code. You will need to install Zend Optimizer (zend.com) or IonCube (ioncube.com) to make the files work.

INSTALL:
======

1. Add Commbull XML Product Plugin
----------------------------------------------

- Go to your ACP and select "Plugin System -> Manage Products".
- Click "[Add/Import Product]".
- Navagate to the "commbull-product.xml" file included with this installation file and click "Open".
- Then click "Import".

2. File Upload
-------------------------------------
- upload all the files in either the upload-IonCube or upload-Zend folders in Binary Mode, depending one which optimizer you have installed. Do not upload the folder itself, but only it's contents to the forum root. I did not make any changes to any of the vB files, so you don't have to worry about any of them being overwritten.

IN BINARY MODE:
---- if you do not upload the files in Binary mode, you will get something that looks like:
Fatal error: Unable to read 42220 bytes in /site/root/forums/admincp/commbull.php on line 0

3. Cronjob
-------------

- A default cron (Sunday at 4am) was added when you imported the Plugin, however it is disabled by default.
- Go into "Scheduled Tasks" -> "Scheduled Task Manager" and edit "commbull_newsletter_send_task" to the desired schedule.

**NOTE: before the cron can run properly, you must "save" the settings necessary to run it on it's own. To do that, you will need to partially start the first run. Go to ./admincp/commbull.php and change all the necessary settings that you wish to run and be sure to select "Save Preferances" near the bottom, otherwise it won't have anything
to run and the cron will fail. If you view the cronlog, and it failed, you will see "Commbull [No Settings Defined! - quitting]".

Getting back to this unsubscribe issue, the mailer points to an unsubscribe link of:

http://forum.russbo.com/admincp/$commbull_unsubscribe

$commbull_unsubscribe doesn't work. Any idea as to what to change that PHP line to, to make it work appropriately?

This seems to get you to the edit options page, but I wasn't sure if there was a commbull specific link

Code:

<a href="http://mysite.com/profile.php?do=editoptions\">\$vbphrase[tounsubscribe]</a>

No, that's it. If you've followed directions, that should take the member to options where s/he can uncheck the "receive commbull newsletters" option.

Update July 12, 2010: Product XML file provided by grandeur_69 for vBulletin 4.x.

When someone checks (or unchecks) the boxes in their Options, the settings are not saved in the DB. Everything else is working perfectly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragonsys (Post 2068734)

When someone checks (or unchecks) the boxes in their Options, the settings are not saved in the DB. Everything else is working perfectly.

It's working for me.

Make sure the member knows to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Save".

One other possibility is that if it's an admin who is configured as "unalterable" in config.php, I'm not sure whether that will be saved.

Added: Are you talking about the manual edits or the XML file?

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbaxter (Post 2068804)

The manual edits, to modifyoptions. I used the latest xml file you uploaded yesterday.
I was trying it in my settings. I have checked and I am an admin, but I am not unalterable, in config.php.

I changed my settings via a SQL cmd. then I went into my settings and unchecked the HTML Type. When I hit save, it blanked both boxes. The only way I can get it to set back to enabled, is by using a SQL cmd.

What vBulletin version are you using?

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbaxter (Post 2068827)

What vBulletin version are you using?

4.0.4 PL1

Looking at the xml file, I do see this:

Code:

        <templateedits>

                <templateedit template="modifyoptions" varname="modifyoptions_commbull" username="Commbull" version="5.3" dateline="1278487345" searchorder="5" active="1" product="Commbull">

                        <title><![CDATA[Community Bulletin]]></title>

                        <searchstr><![CDATA[                                                <input type="hidden" name="set_options[adminemail]" value="1" />

                                        </li>]]></searchstr>

                        <replacestr><![CDATA[                                                <input type="hidden" name="set_options[adminemail]" value="1" />

                                        </li>

<li>

    <label for="receivebulletin"><input type="checkbox" name="receivebulletin" value="1" id="receivebulletin" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin} /> {vb:rawphrase receive_email_from_commbull}</label>

    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" />

</li>



<li>

    <label for="receivebulletin_type"><input type="checkbox" name="receivebulletin_type" value="1" id="receivebulletin_type" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin_type} /> {vb:rawphrase type_email_from_commbull}</label>

    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" />

</li>

]]></replacestr>

      </templateedit>

        </templateedits>

I wonder if my manual edits are conflicting with the edits inside the xml file.

Phrase Groups Available:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.01580 seconds Memory Usage 1,934KB Queries Executed 10 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (2)bbcode_code_printable (8)bbcode_php_printable (23)bbcode_quote_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (2)pagenav_pagelink (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (40)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
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