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]

Originally Posted by vbuser99

Recently I have installed version 1.11.

I have 150K members, installing this add-on for the first time may put server on its knees as it may try to send lots of emails at once. This also may cause your site marked as email spammer (or something like that) due to high number of emails per batch.

That's one of the reasons I prefer v1.09.

Originally Posted by vbuser99

I figured I needed more options, like maximum number of emails per batch (cron) and maximum number of reminder emails per user, so users do not continue getting reminders after X number of reminders.

So I added said new options and optimized and corrected SQL code (there were some bugs) in the add-on, and now it is working great!

I would love to share this updated add-on but I do not really know where/how to post it.

Shall I post it as a new add-on on a new thread, or ...???

The author is Chris. Could you PM him and ask what his preference are? if you can't get an answer from him, I'd suggest uploading it here as an attachment, with a disclaimer that your version isn't currently supported - caveat emptor.

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I've stuck with v1.09 and it has been working fine, but your addtional options would be nice to add.

I'd love to see your fixes posted and tried by folks who couldn't get v1.11 to function. If it works, I might just upgrade to it with your mods.

Thanks for your work.... :up:

Indeed. But bear in mind that the author can only support official versions. If you encounter a problem with an unofficial update, uninstall that version and go back to 1.09.

[vbuser99]

This is the unsupported updated version of Email reminder for inactive users add-on.
You need to uninstall previous versions (1.09 or 1.11) before installing version 1.20
Both product-remindermail.xml and remindermail.php has been updated.

Version 1.20 is updated and is the working and improved version of 1.11

Updates:
- Renamed emailDate field to reminderDate (user table) because it was too generic.
- Added reminderCount field (user table)
- Added limitperbatch option to limit number of emails sent to inactive users per batch (per cron run).
- Added limitperuser option to limit number of reminder emails sent to a user.
- Updated email message
- Pull only required data via SQL for better performance.
- This version ensures that updates to user table are done correctly, by updating only processed rows. Previous version was bulk updating user table before process started.

I am in the process of adding requested changes, will upload the finished product soon...

[XXP]

Thanks for these updates (both of you). These look like they're going to be quite helpful.

We installed 1.11 and ran it successfully last week. Have delivered around 5K reminders since.

Because you call for the old Reminder to be removed and because you mention changes to the database mechanism, I need to ask, please:

Will 1.2 honor the reminders already sent -- and thus NOT resend reminders to users who've already been invited to return?

Also:
What do we need to do to preserve our customized message before installing 1.2? Will it be preserved for us or should we explicitly back it up and reinstall it?

Is there a test mechanism in this version -- to send out a test copy of the email message for proofing? (Such as: send a test copy to Admin group only, regardless of activity; OR send a test copy to user(s) in list.)

Thanks again. This is a supper tool.

[vbuser99]

Originally Posted by XXP

Thanks for these updates (both of you). These look like they're going to be quite helpful.

We installed 1.11 and ran it successfully last week. Have delivered around 5K reminders since.

Because you call for the old Reminder to be removed and because you mention changes to the database mechanism, I need to ask, please:

Will 1.2 honor the reminders already sent -- and thus NOT resend reminders to users who've already been invited to return?

Also:
What do we need to do to preserve our customized message before installing 1.2? Will it be preserved for us or should we explicitly back it up and reinstall it?

Is there a test mechanism in this version -- to send out a test copy of the email message for proofing? (Such as: send a test copy to Admin group only, regardless of activity; OR send a test copy to user(s) in list.)

Thanks again. This is a supper tool.

As I am quite new into code releasing, I did not think of this issue.
The attached version 1.20 will NOT preserve any data as UNINSTALL is required.

I will create a seperate upgrade version, which will keep your previous settings and will honor the reminders already sent.

I will also work on a test mechanism...

[frostyIntrepid]

I am sorry but did anyone get this to work on 3.6.8?

[Alibass]

Sure it works fine on 3.6.8 and PL1. I am using it and have been for quite awhile.

[lairnoc]

ok installed it. nou hope it will do its job :P

[pitzerwm]

First, Thanks for taking the time and energy to write this mod. It really provides a needed service.

I don't know if this is functioning right and/or I have it set up right.

I set it email people that hadn't been there in 15 days, 30 days between emails and 10 at a time. I set the schedule for Monday night at 1, looking at the log, on Monday night it started sending the emails and sent about 60 of them, 10 at a time, but then every minute or so, for hours it "cycled" and reported "no emails sent". Although a couple of times during that 22 hour time frame it would send 1 email out.

Is this the way it works? Is it working its way through the members 10 at a time, every minute or so? I have about 400 members.

Thanks

[Zia]

where to download v1.2 .

---
we are on v 1.11-- i just want to be sure its working-
in schedule task log its showing - No emails to send

any one can pls help me out

[jags2ooo]

I get a error when i attempt to run the task.

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /home2/ZZZZZ/public_html/XXXXXX/forums/includes/class_core.php on line 660

Overall Great mod i couldn't have gotten this in a better time.. 60k + users 13k active >.<