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
***

[LegolasTheElf]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Which version did you install? If it was 1.11, uninstall and install 1.09.

I was getting an error like: member function query_first().. I fixed it by disabling EZ Bounce.

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by chrisbr

is there anyway that I can just get it to run on a ccertain date? like every 30 days or whatever? Its pretty annpying to have an email every day saying this product is working properly bleh blah blah

either install 1.09 or edit the file removing the mail command that sends out the emails to yourself.

setting the thing to run once a month would not be a good idea, as it would increase server load unforgivably, and wouldn't send out emails accurately.

[MotMann]

I try to set the days, but its not working.

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by MotMann

I try to set the days, but its not working.

please list all of your settings, and ill tell you what you are doing wrong.
also - what gives you the i ndication that it's not working?

[racingsolution]

I've installed it on 3.6.8 and its working fantastic... I've combined it with EZ Bounce and its definately helping to clean up the email stuff .. Thanks for the product!

[MotMann]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

also - what gives you the i ndication that it's not working?

I have a testacount

here my settings:

[ChrisTech]

Originally Posted by tekguru

Nice Mod, just installed it and ran it - it took a while but ended up sending out 7312 emails!

So far as well over 300 bounced emails back from addresses that no longer exist! I know there is a Mod which can take care of this but I beleive it is a manual operation. What we really need is a Mod which will read bounced emails and move the user into a 'bounced' usergroup.

I guess we have way too many inactive users! Heres hoping it makes a difference!

That is what has me right now. With over 4k users signed up, 4k emails would go out. I'm on a reseller account. That will more than likely get my account suspended. lol! Cool mod, I installed it, now just scared to use it.

[redtailboa]

I installed this mod yesterday. When the cron actually runs does it send out any report to the admin of the site? So far I have got nothing.

Does it use vbulletins mail system? I have my email options set to SMTP email because I do not run a local smtp server....could this be the problem?

[redtailboa]

I installed this on another server and confirmed that it will not work if you have SMTP Email set to yes in Vbulletin options.

Is there anyway to get around this for people who use the SMTP Email option in Vbulletin?

[Head Roller]

Fantastic Mod. THanks.