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]

Yes. The default installation places a small credit to Chris, the author, in your forum footer. There are other add-ons that also do this (I have two of them running on my forum).

However, some people seemed to take in ordinate offense to this and Chris was kind enough to give the whiners an easy way to delete that footer link.

[axi]

so if someone that hasnt been on in the set 'x' amount of days and then they visit back after this thing sends out an email it puts chris's name in my footer?

does it put the credit if they post up , or if they only visit and not post? when does the credit exactly go there coz i dont see one yet..well i just installed it :P

[chkdgate]

Originally Posted by axi

niec hack.!

whats this 'credit' thing all about in the settings?? i dont get it can someone explain??

It's a credit to the developer of the mod. Like the vbulletin credits on your footer.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by axi

so if someone that hasnt been on in the set 'x' amount of days and then they visit back after this thing sends out an email it puts chris's name in my footer?

does it put the credit if they post up , or if they only visit and not post? when does the credit exactly go there coz i dont see one yet..well i just installed it :P

I can't recall for certain but I'd guess that it is not set by default, although in my opinion it should be.

In Admin CP | vBulletin Options | Inactive User Reminder Emails, find:

Show footer link?
If set to yes, the plugin will add a credit to the author to the footer of the forum. Yes No

Add credit to emails sent
If set to yes, will append a credit to the author to the footer of each email sent out Yes No

Choose the option you prefer and set it to "Yes". Or set both to "No" and thanks to Chris you can use the add-on with no credit whatsoever.

[txspaderz]

I'm getting this error after upgrading to 3.6.7

Inactive User Reminder Emails
Found 0 Inactive Users.


Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/{removed}/public_html/forum/includes/class_mail.php(266) : eval()'d code on line 13

I'm getting this while running it manually.

[djbaxter]

1. Which version are you using? If 1.11, uninstall and install 1.09.

2. If you're using 1.09, try reinstalling it.

It's working fine on 3.6.7 for me.

[txspaderz]

Awesome. I was using 1.11. I downgraded to 1.09 and it's working again.

Much Thanks!

Edit: And MUCH thanks for the ultra-quick response.

[djbaxter]

You're welcome.

[Masiello]

Hi, it's possible to integrate other two options?

1) Set the deley for sending users email, for example:
an email every 60 seconds, some servers block if there is not a certain delay between the send of an email and the other.

2) The possibility for check inactive users and to send the memorandum with the delay above cited.

3) Take it full compatible with vB 3.6.7 PL1

Thanks in advance for any contribution.

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by Masiello

Hi, it's possible to integrate other two options?

1) Set the deley for sending users email, for example:
an email every 60 seconds, some servers block if there is not a certain delay between the send of an email and the other.

change the cron to 1 min, and the quantity to 1

sorry dont have an answer for the other 2