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
***

[djbaxter]

Okay, if I understand your somewhat laconic reply, you caqn send out HTML emails from your server AND you can receive HTML emails from your server and/or ISP.

What about the version? Are you using version 1.09 of this add-on? If not, uninstall version 1.10 or 1.11 and download and install version 1.09.

[induslady]

Originally Posted by induslady

Wanted to know whether this mod works with vB 3.6.3?

Does version1.0.9 work with vB 3.6.3?

Please let me know. I am interested in this mod.

[djbaxter]

It was developed when 3.6.4 was out, if I recall correctly, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work with 3.6.3 - give it a try.

[MotMann]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Are you using version 1.09 of this add-on? If not, uninstall version 1.10 or 1.11 and download and install version 1.09.

I test it...

[vertigo jones]

Originally Posted by cubenz

Hi,

Great mod :installed:. (1.0.9)

I have modified it slightly to allow the addition of a few 'teasers' from recent, active threads from within the forum. As this is my first vB mod, I'm not sure what to do next with my changes.

What is the protocol here for offering my changes back to the community - do I send them to CB, and he can incorporate them in to the next release, or do I start a new mod?

Thanks

Quentin

Could you PM this to me? I'd love it. Thanks.

[Fungsten]

Originally Posted by vertigo jones

Could you PM this to me? I'd love it. Thanks.

Me too!

[cubenz]

Originally Posted by Fungsten

Me too!

Will do - I'll need a couple of days to update the documentation

A number of the recipients of the e-mails have commented that the HTML tags are visible, even using 1.0.9.

My testing does not show this, using Outlook Express, Outlook 2000, Gmail and Yahoo clients.

Of the ones that have been highlighted to me, the common thread seems to be that the message has been forwarded from the address to which it was sent to another address. Has anyone else experienced this, and is there anyway of making the headers robust enough to preserve the formatting even on forwarding.

Note that I have NOT been able to reproduce this problem, so it will need an e-mail guru to diagnose, IMO.

Thanks

Quentin

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by cubenz

Hi,

Great mod :installed:. (1.0.9)

I have modified it slightly to allow the addition of a few 'teasers' from recent, active threads from within the forum. As this is my first vB mod, I'm not sure what to do next with my changes.

What is the protocol here for offering my changes back to the community - do I send them to CB, and he can incorporate them in to the next release, or do I start a new mod?

Thanks

Quentin

Originally Posted by Delphiprogrammi

ask the original author to include it within a next release.Do not start a new mod that's against the rules unless you have the original author permission

Originally Posted by vertigo jones

Could you PM this to me? I'd love it. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Fungsten

Me too!

Originally Posted by cubenz

Will do - I'll need a couple of days to update the documentation

Nothing wrong with customizing a mod for your own use or even passing along information about how it was done to others.

However, as has been noted, it's not good form to publish the changes as a new add-on, except where attempts to contact the original author have failed for some reason, and that6 doesn't apply in this case.

As a courtesy, I would suggest you also pass the information along to Chris in case it might be helpful to him in developing future versions.

[raiderlax]

Originally Posted by raiderlax

When I run it I get:

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /includes/cron/remindermail.php on line 29

Please how do I fix this?

anyone know the reason of this?

[cubenz]

Originally Posted by raiderlax

anyone know the reason of this?

Hi,

It means that your query has failed for some reason, and no 'handle' to the query result has been returned.

If you haven't made any changes, then the most likely reasons are:

MySQL DB connection is not being made correctly (in which case, nothing would work)

Mod has not been installed correctly, and a new field emaildate is not present on the user table.

Quentin