Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Cron Based E-Mail Sending

This modification is no longer available or supported.

This is a 3.6 specific port of the 3.5 Modification.

In default vBulletin if you send a large number of e-mails, vbulletin either puts them in it's queue and then attempts to send them as each user visits a page, or just simply tries to send them straight away (This is the case when you use the Administrators email users inteface).

As a result of this your server can become seriously overloaded very quickly - so sending several thousand e-mails (like a newsletter) can become very difficult (hours spent clicking 'next' in the ACP) - as a result of these problems, this very simple modification was born.

This modification does two things ;

1. E-mails from the ACP inteface are sent to the mail queue, not straight to the mail system.

2. The processing of the mail queue is set-up as a vb cron item.

Obviously for this to work, you must turn on e-mail queuing in the ACP options - set 'Use Mailqueue System' to 'Yes', and 'Number of Emails to Send Per Batch' to a realistic value (based on the cron setting, as below).

There are two realisitc options for the cron job, you can either set it to run every minute, and set the items to be processed to something small (like 10), or you can do what this modification does by default and set it to run every 10 minutes, and set the items to be processed to something larger (like 100).

Remember, 10 per minute = 600 per hour, 100 per 10 minutes is also 600 per hour. The numbers really depend on how quick you want large queues processed, and how much your mail server can handle in one go.

Once working, when using the ACP mail users inteface, remember you can set it to process 9999 at once (not 500 or whatever) as the mails will now go into the queue, not be sent directly.

Note: This modification will affect any queued e-mails such as subscription e-mails. It will not affect registration e-mails as they bypass queuing anyway.


Upgrading from the 3.5 version.
If you have the 3.5 version installed then you don't need to upgrade - however if you decide to upgrade then you need to delete the current cron job in the Scheduled Tasks Manager and then import the product xml via the ACP Product Manager. The file edits do not need to be changed.


Queue Size

Antivirus has posted a nifty little addon that displays the current size of the mail queue here.



History:

v1.12 : First Release for vB 3.6.

[kylek]

Our host requires emails to be spaced 6 seconds between each one and only 200 per hour, is this something that could be set up with this if at all possible?

[Paul M]

200 per hour would be easy to set-up (with the default 10 minutes between batches, just set each batch to 32 max). I don't know of any system that would put a six second delay between e-mails.

You could also set the cron to run once a minute, processing 3 e-mails each time.

[kylek]

Right now we have only found phplist which so far I cant get working at all. They say you can adjust the seconds between messages.

"The MAILQUEUE_THROTTLE setting inserts a pause (in seconds) between each message, i.e. it will space messages apart by a number of seconds."

Example:
# batch processing disabled:
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE",0);

# Batch_period is not effective when batch processing is disabled:
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD",3600);

# Pause between messages (in seconds) to send no more than 360 messages per hour:
define('MAILQUEUE_THROTTLE',10);

[Paul M]

Sorry, I cannot help you with phplist, only this modification.

If you choose the once per minute option then I really don't see what the problem is, there is no good reason to send the three e-mails 6 seconds apart , that's just nonsense.

In fact, there isn't really much reason to do it at all, if your host really insists on such stupid rules then tbh, you should start looking for another.

[kylek]

Sorry wasn't expecting help with phplist, only answering your comment on systems that would give 6 second delays.

Hostgator is the one who has these guidelines for shared servers.

I will set it for one a minute and give it a try, this way they cant say we are breaking the rules and we defiantly wont go over their 200 per hour policy.

[FReeSTER]

Originally Posted by m-tuning

I've installed this product, but is it possible to see how much e-mails have been send?

I've mailed to around 16.000 members yesterday, and i don't think they received mails.

I've set Number of Emails to Send Per Batch to 200 and the cron is unmodified (every 10 minutes)

I have the same problem, it works great but no email sends..... I have follow every single instructions but now the email dont work at all.

Anyhelp please

[Paul M]

This does not alter how your sever sends e-mails, if you have followed the instructions then the e-mails are passed by vb to your server just the same as always (just in batches every 10 minutes, not straight away). Are you sure you did this (below)

Obviously for this to work, you must turn on e-mail queuing in the ACP options - set 'Use Mailqueue System' to 'Yes', and 'Number of Emails to Send Per Batch' to a realistic value (based on the cron setting, as below).

[kollam003]

thanks Paul for the hack

[axi]

so according to the instructions above, if i want to send 450 emails per hour. once installed i turn on the use mailqueue system in email options?

and then for 'Number of Emails to Send Per Batch' i put in 75 ? As it sends emails every 10 minutes is that right? That will be 450 emails per hour??

Nothing else needs to be mofified right???

[Paul M]

75 * 6 = 450, correct.