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
***

[criscokid]

Originally Posted by carpefile

Really need to get the cron log working with this hack. It makes it impossible to really know who this hack is sending mail to and when

I'm not seeing any entries in the 'Scheduled Task Log Viewer' even though the mod is set as active - how can I be sure this mod is working?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by mollila

Does this mod check that the user has given permission to receive emails from Administrators?

If you had read the thread, you would already know that the answer is "no, not yet".

Originally Posted by mollila

And does it provide a link to the website where user can change that preference?

You can add such a link yourself by editing preference. At the bottom of the email text box, add something like the following:

<p>If you do not wish to receive further emails of this nature, please log into your UserCP at <a href="http://www.yourforum.com/profile.php?do=editoptions">http://www.yourforum.com/profile.php?do=editoptions</a> and uncheck the box next to Receive Email from Administrators.</p>

The problem is that, until the script is fixed to abide by the "admin email" setting, clicking on such a link won't actually work.

Originally Posted by criscokid

I'm not seeing any entries in the 'Scheduled Task Log Viewer' even though the mod is set as active - how can I be sure this mod is working?

1. see comment above to mollila - the cron job does not create or write to a log file in the present version of this add-on

2. run the cron job manually - it will either give you a list of emails sent or just say "Done."

[Smoothie]

I know for a fact if I were to use this now in it's present state, members who had selected to not receive emails would be pretty PO'ed.

[criscokid]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

run the cron job manually - it will either give you a list of emails sent or just say "Done."

I get a list that contains each user's email address:
mailing emailaddress@domain.com (failed)

What would be causing the 'failure'? What is it that's failed? caused 'failed' to be thrown up?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Smoothie

I know for a fact if I were to use this now in it's present state, members who had selected to not receive emails would be pretty PO'ed.

I agree. I was hoping Chris would return to update this but he hasn't apparently been back for a while. I'll see if I can figure it out when I get a moment.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by criscokid

I get a list that contains each user's email address:
mailing emailaddress@domain.com (failed)

What would be causing the 'failure'? What is it that's failed? caused 'failed' to be thrown up?

I'm not certain, to be honest. My first guess would be that there's something wrong with your email setup. Check with your host.

Alternatively, are those emails bouncing back to your admin address (or whatever address you use as the forum email address)?

What happens if you select one of those "failed" addresses and try to send a note directly from your email client?

[Smoothie]

When you get a bounced emails and I'm sure you will, is there a report that is generated to show you these failed addresses?

[djbaxter]

Generally, what you'll get is the original email returned to you, if the email is sent by your server. If not, you'll generally get at least a message from the destination indicating that your message could not be delivered.

[itsblack]

I get this error also:
mailing emailaddress@domain.com (failed)
But in fact, my email setup is correct, because the new member can receive the activation email.
My forum is set logging all of the mails, but for these "error" emails, they left even no mail-logs.
So there must be something wrong with this cron script, I think.

[ben_erhan]

I want to ask a question.

I have tried this lots of time but I could not get the e-mail.

I opened a new usergroup and I have send the e-mail to this group using scheduled task maneger ( Run Now), but I did not get any e-mail.

If it works or not how can we understand?