Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Cron Based E-Mail Sending

This modification is no longer available or supported.

In default vBulletin if you send a large number of e-mails, vbulletin either puts them in it's queue and then attempts to send them as each user visits a page, or just simply tries to send them straight away (This is the case when you use the Administrators email users inteface).

As a result of this your server can become seriously overloaded very quickly - so sending several thousand e-mails (like a newsletter) can become very difficult (hours spent clicking 'next' in the ACP) - as a result of these problems, this very simple modification was born.

This modification does two things ;

1. E-mails from the ACP inteface are sent to the mail queue, not straight to the mail system.

2. The processing of the mail queue is set-up as a vb cron item.

Obviously for this to work, you must turn on e-mail queuing in the ACP options - set 'Use Mailqueue System' to 'Yes', and 'Number of Emails to Send Per Batch' to a realistic value (based on the cron setting, as below).

There are two realisitc options for the cron job, you can either set it to run every minute, and set the items to be processed to something small (like 10), or you can do what this modification does by default and set it to run every 10 minutes, and set the items to be processed to something larger (like 100).

Remember, 10 per minute = 600 per hour, 100 per 10 minutes is also 600 per hour. The numbers really depend on how quick you want large queues processed, and how much your mail server can handle in one go.

Once working, when using the ACP mail users inteface, remember you can set it to process 9999 at once (not 500 or whatever) as the mails will now go into the queue, not be sent directly.

Note: This modification will affect any queued e-mails such as subscription e-mails. It will not affect registration e-mails as they bypass queuing anyway.

This modification includes the code by Antivirus that displays the current size of the mail queue (v3.7.002 onwards).

Version 3.7.003 has the option to add a small delay before each e-mail is sent (between 1 and 9 seconds). Use this option carefully.



History:

v3.7.001 : First Release for vB 3.7
v3.7.002 : Added mail queue size display code.
v3.7.003 : Added option for a delay between the sending of each e-mail.

[webgeek247]

Well I sent 167 on one of my other sites which is hosted on the djpassion account as a addon domain and they all sent successfully so I don’t think its a mysql problem. I did change the schedule times around a little invbulletin which I think fixed it though. It didn’t seem to work when set to send all emails everyday. But once I figured out how to change it to 1 hour I think it sorted it. I also took the limit down from 250 to 100 and they all seem to be sending ok. Like when I check back every hour 100 more have sent so I guess its working ok now...? If so thanks to you so much for this hack and to Antivirus for his little addition….makes life much easier.

cheers chris

[F.nk]

Thank you, it works beautifully
I also see that my server is faster ^_^
thanks.

[TCB]

Thanks for this product. I have some questions though:

I have in the ACP under email options:

Email Flood Check: 0
Number of Emails to Send Per Batch: 25

Then the cron is setup to run every 10 minutes.

What does the floodcheck do? Does it interfere with this addon?

Where can I see the number of unsent messages in the cron queue (antivirus addon)?

On the end of your first post you say:

Once working, when using the ACP mail users inteface, remember you can set it to process 9999 at once (not 500 or whatever) as the mails will now go into the queue, not be sent directly.

.
I don't understand this part. First we have to set a number in the 'email'-option in the ACP (like 25), and then (when?) it can be safely set to a high number?

[Paul M]

Flood check is not part of this mod.

The ACP mail inteface is when you mass email users via the ACP, not the Emails per batch option, totally different thing.

[TCB]

so this current setting is right? If so, when can this '25' be changed to '9999'?

[Paul M]

It cant, like I said, its nothing to do with that.

Its the ACP > Users > Send Email to Users.

[wii]

My host has this limit:

Run cron entries with intervals of less than 15 minutes

1. Would that be a problem ? Since I´m allowed to send 500 mails an hour

2. Mailqueue Quick Stats should be the total number of mails, right ?

3. How do I set the time interval - how many mails to send out a minute ?

4. Can I delete a Mailqueue once it started ?

Thanks

[Jase2]

Thanks Paul! Will come handy when I start sending a newsletter, but works great for subscriptions in the mean time.

[coberr]

Hello,
I installed the plugin.
I turn on e-mail queuing in the ACP options - set 'Use Mailqueue System' to 'Yes', and 'Number of Emails set to 10.

How to send now mails to all normal users.
Thank you.
Regards,
Manuel

[Paul M]

ACP > Users > Send Email to Users.