CommBull (Community Bulletin)

vb3.5 Commbull
vb3.6 Commbull

Note:
The 3.6 version is a commercial product, any queries on it should be submitted to: vb3.6 Support Site

THIS THREAD IS FOR SUPPORT FOR 3.0 VERSIONS ONLY. PLEASE VISIT THE APPROPRIATE FORUMS (links above) FOR THEIR SUPPORT

[valid point]
it's been brought to my attention that not everyone knows what this is ... fair enough: This hack is considered a "weekly newsletter" by the fact that it will email members (only sent by an admin) who have opted to receive it new posts, hot threads, etc ... basically a summary of what has been going on since the last time the newsletter was sent out. However there is a vast number of options, and I won't go into detail of all of them ... you can view the the images that I've attached, but u will only get a full idea by installing it.
I would say that there is 0 risk of this installation doing any damage to your current install as these are the changes that it does (manually and automatically):
- change profile.php and admincp/index.php
- add a couple columns to user table (receivebulletin and receivebulletin_type)
- add some phrases to phrase table (receive_email_from_commbull, type_email_from_commbull, newsletterformat, commbul)
- add a row to datastore table (commbull)
- add some html to nav template for admin side
So, if you are unhappy with the install. you can just ignore that it's there and it'll never cause any problems ... your next upgrade will overwrite any changes to the index and profile pages and the extra columns in the DB won't be an issue

[mods that i've added from vB2 version]
- to change languages, comment/uncomment line 22 and 23 to switch from English to German
- save prefs (option)
- skip to page X in case of mailout freeze
- auto redirect to next page (option)
- adding personalized text to top of newsletter w/out searching through the two text & html fields ... u'll c what i mean :ermm:

[INSTALL]
drop the 3 files into the admincp directory and then go to admincp/commbull.php ... follow the instructions and you are good to go.
If you find that the option isn't showing up on the control panel after the install, then it's because you aren't using the default phrases. Go into phrase manager, search for 'commbull' and update the fields appropriately.

If something goes wrong, don't worry .. it checks for already completed updates to the database to avoid redundancy ... enjoy!!

[sfowler39]

You have it set to default apparently when a person installs this - that everyone is to get the newsletter - and if they dont want the newsletter then they have to opt out of it. Is there a way to do this in the opposite way - as to if they want the newsletter they can opt in - i looked at the table and I have appr 500 people and everyone is set to 1 - apparently meaning they get the letter sent via email to them - I have had people say it should be something that they would want to opt into as opting out of.

So my question to you is - is there a quick way to make everyone (500 people ) in my table a 0 instead of a 1 in the receivebulletin field. If there is a quick way to do this - is that the only field that needs to be changed? I would hate to have to go in and change it manually to every record - to a 0 - would take hours.

[memobug]

Hi sfolwer39,

Yes you can do it through phpMyadmin quite easily. I don't know your table prefixes and don't want to give you a bad query but it would take just a second or two to make a change like that across 500 users.

I don't know what type of forum you're running, but unless it is a real privacy concern, I would go ahead and send your first newsletter and test the water. Newsletters aren't sent to anyone who has Receive Admin Email disabled and your newsletter is an admin mailing, so it should be legit.

Be sure to include at the top of your newsletter an instruction similar to the following

This bulletin is emailed (monthly/weekly/whatever) to members of the whatever community. If you are receiving more than one copy it is possible that you have multiple registrations. Instructions at the bottom of this message detail how you can adjust your newsletter settings. If you are unable to do this, please forward a copy of the newsletter to newsletter@whatever.com and let us know if you want to unsubscribe or remove your registration entirely. We have a zero tolerance policy toward spam.

Regards,

Matt

[sfowler39]

Originally Posted by memobug

Hi sfolwer39,

Yes you can do it through phpMyadmin quite easily. I don't know your table prefixes and don't want to give you a bad query but it would take just a second or two to make a change like that across 500 users.

I don't know what type of forum you're running, but unless it is a real privacy concern, I would go ahead and send your first newsletter and test the water. Newsletters aren't sent to anyone who has Receive Admin Email disabled and your newsletter is an admin mailing, so it should be legit.

Be sure to include at the top of your newsletter an instruction similar to the following



Regards,

Matt

Thanks memobug for your input. I did manage to get all users to be a 0 using phpmyadmin. I have also posted on the homepage that if they want a newsletter emailled to put a checkmark in the box of there cp and then they will get it. I had a lot of users complaining that they didnt want it.

We are on a intranet, and no one really actually went thru the process of signing up to the bb. I imported all the users to a text file from the primary domain controller user manager and then hacked it up for the import along with email addresses and stuff.

So that why all the employees here were confused as to why they are getting this newsletter along with there daily email. Now they can opt in as to opt out.

Thanks again

[joeychgo]

Is this going to be updated?

A few things I would like to see:

1. Send Test Newsletter (or display test newsletter)
2. Ability to send automatically (like every monday or first of the month)

[interfx]

This works great! Installed it, and it worked just perfectly...

One question, how do I modify the html template so that it shows the header logo *.gif file... I can manually edit it in the html preview page - but would like to have this automatically inserted?

Any ideas out there?

interFX

[Pseudomizer]

Originally Posted by interfx

This works great! Installed it, and it worked just perfectly...

One question, how do I modify the html template so that it shows the header logo *.gif file... I can manually edit it in the html preview page - but would like to have this automatically inserted?

Any ideas out there?

interFX

This is easy. You have the ability to enter additional HTML code at the bottom of your config page. Just enter your logo in there and it will show up at the top. And you do not have to enter this code every time because you save the settings.

Cheers,

[interfx]

Thanks... Now I know what "extra text" means...

Missed that...

[interfx]

One more question, and I try to customize some of the output for this great module...

How would I change the background color for the HTML email beign sent? I found the <body> tage in the commbull.php - add the bgcolor=#FF88FF" - but no background color showing?

Any ideas?

interFX

[Pseudomizer]

Originally Posted by interfx

One more question, and I try to customize some of the output for this great module...

How would I change the background color for the HTML email beign sent? I found the <body> tage in the commbull.php - add the bgcolor=#FF88FF" - but no background color showing?

Any ideas?

interFX

Grandeur implemented the CSS style. The newsletter should take your CSS style of your vbulletin.

Cheers,

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Pseudomizer

Grandeur implemented the CSS style. The newsletter should take your CSS style of your vbulletin.

Cheers,

HHhhhmm..... I'm having the same problem. Does it have an impact if we're saving our CSS as files instead of in the DB?