Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBMQN - Moderation Queue Notifications + Desktop App

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THE VB3 VERSION IS LOCATED HERE !

Introduction
There are many scenarios where this mod would come in handy for administrators. There are too many for me to cover them all, so I will give you the scenario this mod was developed for...

If you have a hand full of moderating staff and a large number of forums, adding each moderator to each forum can be quite a pain, however doing it that way would give you notifications for those moderators when something dose need their attention from within those said forums...

Another option would be to setup staff to be Global Moderators, this removes the need to add them to specific forums but it also removes queue notifications because moderators wouldn?t be assigned to individual forums...

We require new members to be moderated and/or that their first submissions to the forum require moderating, this can become quite a pain because again staff would need to continually check the moderation queue for new items...

The Solution and Requirements
What we need is moderation queue notifications via email and possibly a desktop app for those staff that would rather not use their email/inbox.

Features:
- Email Notifications for multiple users/addresses
- Notifications for every item type (posts, threads, attachments etc.)
- Email sending using the vB mail method/system (plain text emails)
- Email generation should use the vB Phrase system (multi-language support)
- Automated checking of the moderation queue (vB Cron system)
- Should support the Scheduled Task log system (debugging, report actions taken)
- Support for external applications and their development (xml based status)

All of the above are present in the first release of this mod (v1), please see the screen shots.

This mod is setup as a vB Cron task; I could not see/find a better way to make this an automated system working with anything else from within the vB system. By default the Cron task is setup to run every 30 minutes, if you would like to adjust this, simply go in and adjust the Cron job as you wish.

Desktop App
At the moment I am still developing a windows (.net) desktop app to work with this, right now we don?t have a big need for this so it?s not a priority for me to develop this and get it out to you any time soon, when the moderation queue is checked regardless of its current state the included xml file is updated to reflect this. So all your own app would need to do is read in this xml file and take the action you require.

If there is a massive interest in the desktop app for this I could be persuaded to push it to the top of my job list, for now though it is work in progress and with no planned deadline or release date.

Support
We have been using this mod in a production environment for almost 12 months now with no problems at all, it is really quite a simple mod and I?m surprised it hasn?t been done already, given the number of requests I have seen.

I will support this as best I can, I am a busy guy so you will need to understand this if you do run into any problems and request support.

Install/Upgrade
Installing this mod is much like any other, upload the files in the download to the same locations on your server, import the product xml file, go to the Admin > Settings > Options > vBMQN: General Options page and configure as you wish. If you are upgrading from an older version simply follow the same steps as installing for the first time.

Change Log
v1.0 - 11 Feb 2013
- First version

v2.0 - 12 Feb 2013
- Added support for table prefix's ( config.php > $config['Database']['tableprefix'] = ''; )
- Rewrite of the database query code, now uses the vB Database Class ( $vbulletin->db->query_first )
- Changed from the use of the php "number_format" function to the vB function "vb_number_format"
- Added instant email notification rather than sending emails to the vB mail queue ( $notsubscription = true )

Enjoy!
This has helped us allot and I hope those of you who have requested this before find it to be ?just the job? as well.

Regards,
Lee Roberts

[Lee Roberts]

** Reserved **

Dont forget to mark as Installed, Nominate and Rate/Vote for it !

.Me

[Bluemax712]

Installed on a vB4.20 test forum with only this mod installed
but no luck so far getting it to send email notifications

The Scheduled Task Log viewer shows vBMQN "Queue Checked"evertime it is run
but never shows a "Notification Sent" even though there are messages waiting in the mod queue.
The Sendmail log shows no activity or errors.

Have also tried manually running the Process E-Mail Queue and then vBMQN scheduled tasks with same results.

[Lee Roberts]

Hi,

Humm that is a strange one, i've used the "$notsubscription = true" in my code and this means "do not use the mail queue and send immediately" so i dont think its that.

How is the test forum setup to send mail? my test forum is setup to use SMTP for sending mail, however your cron log is telling you "Queue Checked" not "Notification Sent"...

What settings have you used for the Admin > Settings > Options > vBMQN: General Options page?

.Me

[Bluemax712]

for vBMQN General Options:
- Moderator Control Panel (tried leaving blank and using modcp)
- Email Notification: Yes
- Notification Recipients: testmod@server.al.home
(this email works when sending a test message via VBulletin CP)
-Desktop Notification: Yes (but also tried No)

I've tried setting to SMTP too
and enabling/disabling the Email Queue system
and trying with and without the -f parameter

test messages from the CP -send test email to all users - work fine.

[Lee Roberts]

Have you got another email address you can test with, i am wondering if there is an issue with the "dots" in that address?

Will see if i can replicate this now...

I just used that email address on my test forum and i got "Notification Sent".

The email was also recived by my mail server.

What items do you have in your mod que at the momment?

.Me

[Bluemax712]

I've just been creating new "threads" everytime for testing -
it shows the awaiting messages count increase in the the admin control front status page under Threads to Moderate

I've then been running the vBMQN cron script manually

Don't have any other emails to try yet
only user@server.al.home type of emails addreses work for now with my setup
- vBulletin gives me "invalid email address" if I try to set a user's address to : user@localhost
though it does work if I mail from the command line

EDIT:
Installed on another server 4.1.12 (production) which has a few other plugins installed
inc Glowhost Spam-O-Matic + FractalizeR and a few others.

I get this error when running the vBMQN cron script manually

================================================== ================================================== ===============================

vBMQN

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/vbmqn.php on line 23

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/vbmqn.php on line 26

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/vbmqn.php on line 29

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/vbmqn.php on line 32

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/vbmqn.php on line 35

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/vbmqn.php on line 38
Queue Checked
Done
================================================== ================================================== ===============================

Edit 3: Also tried installing it on a test vB 3.8.7 with FractilezeR installed - got no errors when running the vBMQN script
but same results as the test vB4 server receive no emails
- Scheduled Task log only shows "vBMQN Queue Checked" (never says Emails Sent)

Edit4 : noticed if I purposely set the "modcp" setting to the wrong name - nothing changes - no errors shown
everything functions same

[Jeromedia603]

This could be a great mod! Spot Reserved for when I have time to take a better look!

[Bluemax712]

Originally Posted by Jeromedia603

This could be a great mod! Spot Reserved for when I have time to take a better look!

I know- can only pray will be able to get this to work
thanks much Lee

[Bluemax712]

Not sure if I'm the only one having trouble and only know basics of programming but ...
Since it's only version 1.0 - it would be cool if could add a debug function to print out all the variables on a separate page while it's running