Mini Mods - Email reminder for inactive users

Inactive reminder emails. This mod was designed to send out a reminder to inactive members to try and win them back.

***1.2.7 Update***
This update includes built in support for bouncing emails. The script will automatically detect the bounced mail, mark it as bounced so the user is not to be contacted again so as to avoid spam, and then move that user into a seperate usergroup. This plugin is still in it's testing stages, but I have addressed the bugs mentioned previously regarding the emailing side of things.

This is important so keep reading
To install this plugin and take advantage of the bounced email features you are going to need to follow these instructions very carefully. I can not gaurentee that they will work to the letter as this will be based on each persons individual hosting settings.

Step 1: Pre Install
Before you touch this product you need to do the following

• Create an "inactive" usergroup
• Set up a "bounce to" email address
  Pick an email address that you want to use as your bounced email address. Im using "bounce@icora.co.uk". feel free to use whatever you wish.
• Add a email message filter
  This is the hard part. You need to set up a filter that will 'pipe' an email sent to the above email address.
  I am using Cpanel 11 and this is how i have mine set up:
  Rules: 'To' 'Equals' 'bounce@icora.co.uk'
  Actions: 'Pipe to program' with the setting: |/usr/local/bin/php /home/icora/public_html/forum/bounce.php
  This will depend entirely on your settings and structure so you may have to do a little research. It would be very helfull if people who have to use diferent configurations would post them on here.
• Go into vBulletin options, and find the options for 'Emails'. there is a setting asking you if you want to use '-f'. set this to yes.
• While still inn the email options set the 'Bounce Email Address' to your above address.

Step 2: Install
Remove all previous trace of this modification, and upload all the files in the "upload" folder to your base directory of the server.
Go into your product management section and add a new product. upload the XML file with overwrite selected.
Refresh your admin CP to load the new menu items. Just under the "users" group you will find an "Inactive Reminders" group. open that up and click on settings.
Play with these settings and options to suit for the most part. when you come down to the bounce settings you MUST use the same email address as the one you created above.
Set to active and save.

I must re-iterate that this version has not been widely tested, but the simulations i have ran have worked. I look forward to your feedback!

Features:

• Select the period of time before a user is considered inactive.
• Select how many emails to send to each inactive user per inactivity period
• Choose weather inactivity is based on members "Last Post" or their "Last Visit"
• Specify how often followup emails are sent
• Specify alternative emails to send to reduce repetition
• Keep a log of all inactive users contacted

Planned Updates:

• More detail in reports
• ...such as
• Which useres returned
• Effectivness stats
• Email validity

**1.2.1 Update***
Added more detail to the reports section. You can now see the email address, and quickly indicate which emails were invalid. You can link directly to that user to edit as you wish.
I have fixed some errors which have been crashing people's database. Please post any problems if you can.

**1.2.3 Update***
Fixed several problems with escaping strings
Stopped database errors locking up site
***

**1.2.4 Update***
Added a "From Email" so you can specify your own email address to send the reminders from.
Fixed potential bug for people who do not use the mail queue.

Anyone having problems with sending emails out too fast, and multiple emails being sent need to consider changing their email settings in vbulletin options.
People with emails going out too fast - edit Number of Emails to Send Per Batch to a lower amount
People with multiple emails sending - edit Use Mailqueue System to "Yes, with locking"
***

**1.2.5 Update***
Added more stats in the reports page, also added a "Send test email" option so users can test the functionality of the mod
***

[Leo Brazil]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

this is what i cant understand- it should use the webmaster email, and it uses the vbulliten mailqueue. mine are sent out fine with no issues and from the correct email address .... maybe try the email specified in the config file? that is the only other thing i can think of...

Funny is everyday I receive an e-mail at admin account (same as Vb admin account) informing about users were notified. This e-mail is sent correctly only the riminder ones.

Originally Posted by Osama11

even in cofiq.php. my webmaster email adress is same which is in vbulletin option ['webmasteremail'] ..

Same here.

Just one point I forgot to mention, I'm not using mailque (disable).

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

Funny is everyday I receive an e-mail at admin account (same as Vb admin account) informing about users were notified. This e-mail is sent correctly only the riminder ones.




Same here.

Just one point I forgot to mention, I'm not using mailque (disable).

as you are getting an email report mean that oyu are using an earlier version. please update. and also thankyou for alerting me to a potential issue.

[Leo Brazil]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

as you are getting an email report mean that oyu are using an earlier version. please update. and also thankyou for alerting me to a potential issue.

Yes, I didn't upgrad yet but I told that before in my first post when I reported this issue.

Anyway, did you remove the report e-mail on the new version, why ? It was pretty useful for me.

Tks

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

Yes, I didn't upgrad yet but I told that before in my first post when I reported this issue.

Anyway, did you remove the report e-mail on the new version, why ? It was pretty useful for me.

Tks

Ive just removed the report for the moment - but you can still access the report on the website. I will add an email report at a later stage.

[iogames]

you are a genius man! cool dude! awesome! :up:

p.s. But you also forget to change the versions

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by iogames

you are a genius man! cool dude! awesome! :up:

p.s. But you also forget to change the versions

cheers .. yer lol someone else pointed that out also.

[Osama11]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

I will add a "From Email Address" option tonight.

is it done dude? help me plzzz

[Leo Brazil]

I've just upgraded to the new 1.2.4 and got a little confused.

First, the new version still shows 1.2.2 on products list on Vb.

Second, as we don't have the report e-mail any more and you don't use cron as well, there's no way to check if the product is working fine, correct ? I mean, on the previous version (the late one) we could use scheduled tasks to run this mod manually and now we don't this option.

Third, checking Admin CP -> Inactive Reminders -> Reports
I can't see nothing but only a list of inactive users where is showed their e-mails and informing if those e-mails are valid or not. It doesn't give me information like for who reminders was really sent.

Fourth, I can't see any difference between previows version for this one, I mean on your mod log you said the option "From Email" was added but in Admin CP -> Inactive Reminders -> Settings but there's different in it.

Sorry for all the questions but this mod is one of my favorites installed and had been working great a helping us a lot.

Tks.

[Chris11987]

Does this work on 3.7.1?

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by Osama11

is it done dude? help me plzzz

Yes i have added it

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

I've just upgraded to the new 1.2.4 and got a little confused.

First, the new version still shows 1.2.2 on products list on Vb.

I fudged up. lol ignore that- it really is 1.2.4.

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

Second, as we don't have the report e-mail any more and you don't use cron as well, there's no way to check if the product is working fine, correct ? I mean, on the previous version (the late one) we could use scheduled tasks to run this mod manually and now we don't this option.

checking the reports page should show inactive users almost instantly - unless you have zero inactive users. but this is almost never the case. would it make it easier for you if i were to make the data displayed more organised? ?in all honesty i dont think there are many bugs in the code and you should assume it is working properly. I could add a devdebug message to show you what is happening each page but that would mean you have to enable debug mode (which isnt the best idea for a live board). Im open up to suggestions as to what information you wish to be displayed?

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

Third, checking Admin CP -> Inactive Reminders -> Reports
I can't see nothing but only a list of inactive users where is showed their e-mails and informing if those e-mails are valid or not. It doesn't give me information like for who reminders was really sent.

is it only showing their userrname? you need to update the php files and it will show you id, username, email and valid address.

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

Fourth, I can't see any difference between previows version for this one, I mean on your mod log you said the option "From Email" was added but in Admin CP -> Inactive Reminders -> Settings but there's different in it.

are you sure you have updated the product with overwrite selected? it;s deffinately been added..

Originally Posted by Leo Brazil

Sorry for all the questions but this mod is one of my favorites installed and had been working great a helping us a lot.
Tks.

The more problems people come up against the better and quicker i can overcome the problems. Im glad you like this mod.

Originally Posted by Chris11987

Does this work on 3.7.1?

no - but https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=188383 does.