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
***

[XXP]

Originally Posted by towermatt

You can test the outbound message by activating it, then setting up a user and changing their "last active" date to something that would trigger it.

ALSO this is NG because "...Reminder" code works by putting mail in the VB mail queue. That means you either have to change its settings also or you have to wait for it to come around.

Not a good idea to change it's settings becaues at this point we're already 2 or 3 levels deep in changes for testing (that you have to remember to change back afterward), and with all this changing... something is going to get lost.

So, how about a test set up. A button to push that sends one copy of mail to specified address? That would be cool.

Thanks for your suggestions though; very much!

[quasan]

Originally Posted by Datc

No its not a bounceback. I had an inactive user. I received it just like everybody else received it.

Yes the part about the mail server email is right. It was like forumname<forumname@sub.servername.com> whereas is should have been webmaster@forumdomain.com .

yop got the same problem too

[Zia]

hi..
we just got it installed - after install...i check schedule task log...there i found error..
see the SS bellow



plz note that- the mentioned user name have 50+ post, after they confirm there email activation mail, they started the post, so theres no chance -that there mail id is invalid.

confused...why the error msg & is it working?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by XXP

Please explain; why would that make a difference?

Thanks very much.

Version 1.09 was a stable version for most people that did not use the built-in vBulletin email system.

Version 1.11 converted to send all emails through the vBulletin mail queue. This caused problems on some installations. I recommend that people install version 1.09 and consider 1.11 to be a beta.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Zia

hi..
we just got it installed - after install...i check schedule task log...there i found error..
see the SS bellow



plz note that- the mentioned user name have 50+ post, after they confirm there email activation mail, they started the post, so theres no chance -that there mail id is invalid.

confused...why the error msg & is it working?

The fact that the email address was once valid doesn't mean that it's still valid. People change email addresses and abandon email addresses all the time. Also, last time I checked, if you didn't log in to Hotmail or Yahoo every 3 months, you lost that email address. Also, some times members will log in and change their email addresses to something invalid if they decide they no longer want to receive email from a forum.

What exactly WERE the addresses? Were they constructed properly?

[Zia]

logicaly ur point is okay.
but note that- kirbyx - still on my msn using the same id he registerd with.

fyr- msn/yahoo - non logged for 3months wont be lost/mite be inactive..yahoo duration is not 3months... its more...//

[redtailboa]

I am still having issues with this mod on 2 different servers.

Both servers use the SMTP option instead of a local sendmail server. Here is what the log says:

Emails sent to:test_account ILoveMyBoa4209 Brandon480 catesncboas . We tried to email the following users, but their email address was invalid:

I setup a test account and verified that the email did not send out. I also have confirmed that my SMTP server is working, my members are receiving emails from the board for new account setups, password resets etc.

Any clue what to do? I really want to use this mod

[djbaxter]

1. Is the account identified as invalid actually operational? Did it have the correct syntax?

2. what version are you using?

[redtailboa]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

1. Is the account identified as invalid actually operational? Did it have the correct syntax?

2. what version are you using?

1) All the accounts it sends to it does this to. The first time I ran it it said this for over 3,000 members. In the example I showed, the account was valid.

2) Latest version. 1.1.1

[djbaxter]

As I have said many times, I personally consider version 1.11 to be a beta version. I know Chris was trying to work on this but my guess is real life got in the way to delay it.

Uninstall version 1.11 and install version 1.09.