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
***

[Fungsten]

Originally Posted by Fungsten

I haven't read through all the posts but I have this question. I just got the Inactive users report, email, however it went straight to my junkmail folder. Upon clicking on the sender I noticed that there was and extra user name in the from field that shouldn't be there. The email said it was also sent from one of my members. Is anyone else having this where the email report is maybe getting sent to the junk mail folder or there is another address in the From field in the email?

Thank you.

On Edit: I might be having the same problem as the person in the above post.

Anyone?

[djbaxter]

What version are you using?

[Fungsten]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

What version are you using?

1.0.9

[Chadi]

I just got this email notification:

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.8:

Invalid SQL:

INSERT INTO cronlog
(varname, dateline, description, type)
VALUES
('emailreminder',
1198479746,
'Emails sent to:cinckid WordFan omoleye Perfection Knight-2-a-King hopper angie11 Vicente eniafe Tia_Jenn4 Lone Angel 1989 ez2talk244 Jesus\'s always michael Benedi pinkangel44 evangj Xariex Rickeo CorCat Dantron_Z gotime adjiemind katrice linda_75 pinkbible ma_tjc oneoftheflock mpiima CuriousLauren Tamen zionsdeciple dede aneena Ramosrich lennjoh One4Faith servantsheart manolo2020 sean Salvo211242 Souljha dkgunjuluri hendy khuram Teira apsalmist AliceChen amandajayne denise runner4 babujee kitchie_l Living Water Devin Castillorr BerthaAlicia Jamshed Peter sacrificiovivo michelin nduta Waiting jp_0507 anewspirit JoEn04 islandmystery ANGEL OF HEAVE ecross1308 SVS enthusiastic jowita sylpeter78 colombian84 gutejesus nyamuziwa victorash justavo32 manofgrace ren2x DANIEL K.A. pawpaw1956 Nicodemus Jennifer1127 Deanna1985 jonett L_theBaptist DR SARAH ASHIR neva flavia mightywoman Mely Lau Breesmomm AgainsTheNight kuminkoski ann odron Trail of Altar seta_soujiro Lovebird lsresuena Margaux Alec yonatans14 JesusFreak2650 brightdawn jozainne indolight canofre fatima Nicodk Gerado JPT AWorldApart absolutelypb dkennedy7 general77 angelyumi maleshaboo Rinkuta jasperjedi marryelvina . We tried to email the following users, but their email address was invalid:',
0);

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away Error Number : 2006
Date : Monday, December 24th 2007 @ 01:03:04 AM
Script : http://www.talkjesus.com/cron.php?rand=206857
Referrer : http://www.talkjesus.com/sendmessage.php
IP Address : 75.190.142.236
Username : Unregistered
Classname : vB_Database

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Fungsten

I haven't read through all the posts but I have this question. I just got the Inactive users report, email, however it went straight to my junkmail folder. Upon clicking on the sender I noticed that there was and extra user name in the from field that shouldn't be there. The email said it was also sent from one of my members. Is anyone else having this where the email report is maybe getting sent to the junk mail folder or there is another address in the From field in the email?

Originally Posted by djbaxter

What version are you using?

Originally Posted by Fungsten

1.0.9

1. See https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...36#post1385436 and https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=965

2. I do notice that some of the emails go out as To: member_email@something.com; member_name but it doesn't seem to affect delivery. No idea why this happens or why not all the time.

3. Chris may be able to address the From: problem. It is supposed to draw the sender email address from your forum configuration. Again, there are a few people who see other addresses there and I have no idea why or how this can happen. Sorry.

The From: line is constructed in line 45 of remindermail.php (version 1.09) -

$headers .= "From: " . $vbulletin->options['bbtitle'] . " Reminder Service <" . $vbulletin->options['webmasteremail'] . ">" . "\r\n";

How can this insert any email address other than the one specified in the vBulletin options?

Originally Posted by chadi

I just got this email notification:

1. version?

2. Try reinstalling - and if you do, install version 1.09. Make sure you upload the 1.09 file versions as well as importing the product xml file.

[vwdforum]

Having read the recent posts, all new users should use version 1.9

[Chadi]

" Instructions are included."

I do not see instructions. Where does reminderemail.php go?

I was already on 1.1.1 too. Should I still downgrade?

[sparky5693]

1.1.1 stopped working for me, with no reason that I can find.
Older version has been much more reliable for me.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by vwdforum

Having read the recent posts, all new users should use version 1.9

That's my recommendation too.

You should consider versions 1.10, 1.11, and the alternate version titled "1.2" as beta versions - try at your own risk. But I'd suggest you get version 1.09 working first so you can go back to it if you encounter problems.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by chadi

" Instructions are included."

I do not see instructions. Where does reminderemail.php go?

I was already on 1.1.1 too. Should I still downgrade?

See install.txt in the download:

To install, upload remindermail.php to your ./includes/cron/ dir, and import the product xml

Options are in admincp options menu, where you should edit the settings.