Miscellaneous Hacks - [DBTech] DragonByte Newsletter v1 (vB4)

DragonByte Newsletter is the latest in the lineup of DragonByte Technologies modifications, enabling you to send an automated newsletter to your members.

Uses
DragonByte Newsletter lets you send an automated digest to users, containing the most popular threads from the last week. Users have powerful 1-click solutions for either reducing or increasing the frequency of your newsletter (Weekly, Bi-Monthly, Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-Yearly, Yearly), as well as an 1-click unsubscribe button.

The newsletter itself can be styled and re-coloured based on your forum's preferences by editing the simple HTML templates. By default, it styles itself to look like the Default Style included in every vBulletin installation.

The scheduled task ensures a limited amount of users are processed at a time, reducing server load and increasing the delivery rate of your newsletter.

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Other addons available @ www.DragonByte-Tech.com/forum
Support posted at our forum is generally answered much quicker.

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If you like this mod please hit the button to the right ---->

Please remember to click the, button to the right if you installed the mod ---->

What does 'Marking As Installed' do ?

* It helps you to stay on top of updates - members who have installed modifications will be notified by us whenever new updates are available.

* For security issues - vbulletin.org will contact all members who have installed a modification whenever a security issue is brought to their attention.

* Marking a modification as installed also helps us know how many people are using our work, giving us extra incentive to provide more features and new modifications.

We appreciate the support!

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Major Features

Automatically Chosen: Threads are chosen and ordered based on an advanced algorithm to display the most popular threads first.

Automatically Sent: Newsletters are sent automatically based on the user's preferences, no admin interaction required!

Performance Oriented: By limiting how many users are processed per batch cycle, the performance of your forum will not be impacted.


Major Features (Pro)

Forum Exclusion: Have a spam section where members can post as much as they want? You are able to fine-tune what source forums the newsletter pulls its threads from.

Introduction Section: Want to write a custom introduction blurb for your newsletter, e.g. sponsorship links or similar? You can define a custom block of text to appear above the thread list.


Complete Feature List (Lite)

vBulletin Options

• Display Version Number
• (Optional) Affiliate ID
• Enable/Disable Modification

1-Click Management

• Reduce Frequency
• Increase Frequency
• Unsubscribe

Manage Newsletters

• Title
• Optionally only include publicly accessible forums
• Choose entry cost & currency from list of created currencies
• Enable Advanced Sorting algorithm
• Limit how many threads appear in the newsletter

Scheduled Task: Send Newsletter

• Automatically sends newsletters based on the users' preferences
• Sends them in batch to improve performance
• Runs every 10 minutes

Complete Feature List (Pro)

Manage Newsletters

• Introduction to be displayed above newsletters
• Thread Sort Order (if not using Advanced Sorting)

UserCP

• Subscribed/Unsubscribed
• Frequency
  • Weekly (default)
  • Bi-Monthly
  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
  • Bi-Yearly
  • Yearly

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This mod displays a copyright notification in the footer of emails generated by this mod which includes:

• 1 Link to DragonByte Technologies homepage
• 1 Link to Product Description page of this modification

[moonclamp]

Originally Posted by DragonByte Tech

It processes them in batches, some users will be skipped (e.g. they have opted out of receiving admin emails).


Fillip

Thank you

I assumed that was the case - I have a good few thousand members and most of them receive admin emails. I will keep my eyes open to see if people are getting them.

Also, and not that important as I can edit the language file, but I cannot see the option to edit my newsletter text ...

[DragonByte Tech]

Did you remember to assign yourself as Super Administrator? People who reference options usually are missing the left-side bar due to missing admin permissions.

Fillip

[moonclamp]

Originally Posted by DragonByte Tech

Did you remember to assign yourself as Super Administrator? People who reference options usually are missing the left-side bar due to missing admin permissions.


Fillip

I'm definitely a superadmin ... maybe that's a screenshot of the pro-version?

[concepts]

Is it possible this could pull the PREFIX as well in plain text? My sites content is prefix drive, so that would be a great benefit.

[moonclamp]

Quite a few of my members are reporting blank emails arriving.

I'm going to try to find out what providers they are using and whether it's because they're using webmail ... but it's not looking great.

[moonclamp]

Originally Posted by moonclamp

Quite a few of my members are reporting blank emails arriving.

I'm going to try to find out what providers they are using and whether it's because they're using webmail ... but it's not looking great.

Nope, nothing to do with webmail - some users are reporting this in Outlook too.

[DragonByte Tech]

Originally Posted by moonclamp

I'm definitely a superadmin ... maybe that's a screenshot of the pro-version?

Ah, yeah sorry about that, the "Introduction" text box is indeed a Pro-only feature.

Originally Posted by concepts

Is it possible this could pull the PREFIX as well in plain text? My sites content is prefix drive, so that would be a great benefit.

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean, could you clarify please?

Originally Posted by moonclamp

Quite a few of my members are reporting blank emails arriving.

I'm going to try to find out what providers they are using and whether it's because they're using webmail ... but it's not looking great.

Are you using vBSecurity? There's a bug in the current version that causes it to send blank emails, it will be fixed in Monday's update.


Fillip

[moonclamp]

Originally Posted by DragonByte Tech

Are you using vBSecurity? There's a bug in the current version that causes it to send blank emails, it will be fixed in Monday's update.

No I'm not, but I'll see what happens with the update.

Thank you

[moonclamp]

Originally Posted by DragonByte Tech

Are you using vBSecurity? There's a bug in the current version that causes it to send blank emails, it will be fixed in Monday's update.

Was this an update for vbsecurity or an update for this?

Not using vbsecurity here but members are still getting blank emails.

Strangely some of the recipients who received blank email first time received the newsletter this time ... and vice-versa!

[DragonByte Tech]

Originally Posted by moonclamp

Was this an update for vbsecurity or an update for this?

Not using vbsecurity here but members are still getting blank emails.

Strangely some of the recipients who received blank email first time received the newsletter this time ... and vice-versa!

vBSec, I've not heard any reports of blank emails from this mod as this mod does not use phrases to send emails like vBSec does.


Fillip