Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1b

Community Bulletin:

This mod grabs all the latest information in your forum (posts, threads, events, birthdays, etc) and puts them into a newsletter to be sent to all your members that subscribe.

This mod has been around a long time and gone through many versions. It has been a paid version for a number of years with great success, but it's time to pass on the reigns.

[edit Feb 03, 2011]
Attempted fix for sending to users that are part of multiple user groups

[installation]
- upload some files
- upload the product.xml
- make 1 mod to the usercp options template
- FULL DETAILS in the README.txt

[note] many people ask why all the images, etc don't show up in the HTML version of what is in your forum. This is because most mail clients strip out the CSS and vbulletin is 99% CSS. I have created an HTML version that is nice and clean, but is forum independent. If you know what you are doing, you can edit this HTML file and build your own newsletter.

[diola]

Hi, the version 5.1a work fine with vbulletin 4.0.1 ?

thanks.

[]

[djbaxter]

I have the previous version, 4.5f, which does run successfully via a cron job, running on 4.01. It required some modification of the installation instructions but it does work. I expect you should be able to get this version running as well, although as the coder noted the cron capability doesn't work.

1. Edit product-Commbull.xml and find the following line:

PHP Code:

        <dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.6.0" maxversion="3.8.99" /> 


Change to:

PHP Code:

        <dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.6.0" maxversion="4.99" /> 


2. Upload the files and import the product.

3. Now you need to do the template edits so that members can opt-in or opt-out of your newsletter. The current instructions are as follows:

4. Template modifications
--------------------------------------

Template: "Modify User Option" -> "modifyoptions"

After:

PHP Code:

                    <tr>
                        <td><label for="cb_adminemail"><input type="checkbox" name="options[adminemail]" value="1" id="cb_adminemail" $checked[adminemail] />$vbphrase[receive_email_from_bulletin_board_staff]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[adminemail]" value="1" /></td>
                    </tr> 


Add:

PHP Code:

                    <tr>
                        <td><label for="commbull"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull" value="1" id="commbull" $checked[receivebulletin] />$vbphrase[receive_email_from_commbull]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" /></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                        <td><br />$vbphrase[newsletterformat]<br /><label for="commbull_type"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull_type" value="1" id="commbull_type" $checked[receivebulletin_type] />$vbphrase[type_email_from_commbull]</label>
<input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" /></td>
                    </tr> 


Now, obviously this won't work in 4.x. These need to be modified as follows:

1. Edit Template: "Modify User Option" -> "modifyoptions"

FIND:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$show['friend_email_request']">
                    <li>
                        <label for="cb_receivefriendemailrequest"><input type="checkbox" name="options[receivefriendemailrequest]" value="1" id="cb_receivefriendemailrequest" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivefriendemailrequest} /> {vb:rawphrase receive_friendship_req_email}</label>
                        <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivefriendemailrequest]" value="1" />
                    </li>
                </vb:if> 


ADD AFTER:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$show['receiveemail']">
<li>
    <label for="commbull"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull" value="1" id="commbull" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin} />{vb:rawphrase receive_email_from_commbull}</label>
    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" />
</li>
</vb:if> 


That first part (above) is the option to receive or not receive the newsletters.

Next would be the option for HTML or plain text emails, which should be:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$show['receiveemail']">
<li>
    <label for="commbull_type"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull_type" value="1" id="commbull_type" tabindex="1" (vb:raw checked.receivebulletin_type} />{vb:rawphrase type_email_from_commbull}</label>
    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" />
</li>
</vb:if> 


However, I was unable to get that second option to stick, for reasons which escape me. I could check the box to specify HTML, which is far superior, but the next time I enterd my settings page, it was always unchecked again.

What I did instead was omit that second entry entirely. That means that everyone who gets the newsletter will receive the HTML version (the default option), but frankly on my forum it was extremely rare that anyone did not opt for HTML, since it has live links.

[grandeur_69]

thx djbaxter. I hope to look at updated 5.1 to work with vbulletin next week. What you have provided should help that greatly.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by grandeur_69

thx djbaxter. I hope to look at updated 5.1 to work with vbulletin next week. What you have provided should help that greatly.

Oh, Sean - I sent you an email or PM about this.

I am aware that you've been busy and wasn't expecting you to be able to develop this any further. I therefore took the liberty of posting this for the attention of other vBulletin 4.x owners at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=1962857 - my earlier message to you was to bring this to your attention.

I'm happy to withdraw that thread if you are in fact going to be working on further development. Let me know.

[grandeur_69]

i am not actively able to keep users happy with constant updates and fixes, so it is not fair to continue to charge people for this mod. However, there are things that I will need accomplished for my forums, so will still be required to do work here and there, but if someone beats me to fixes / additions, then who am I to not accept it

[cnczone]

this version does not work, sends blank emails how can I go back to the last version that worked????

[grandeur_69]

i'm guessing all versions will produce the same results, as there are 85 that have "click-installed" plus 200 that had paid for it prior to be released openly and no one has had this problem.

[jeremyalyea]

Are all of the images folders in the "html_newsletter_images.zip" folder supposed to be empty?

[Dabbi]

Originally Posted by jeremyalyea

Are all of the images folders in the "html_newsletter_images.zip" folder supposed to be empty?

FWIW... not all are in the one I DLd. The "Commbull" one seems to have all the images that are needed for the newsletter. I don't know why the others are there if they're all empty but I'm not a developer so I just uploaded the whole kit-n-kaboodle as instructed.

I've now customized it a bit so it better reflects my board and am rather pleased with not only how it works and but now how it looks.

[grandeur_69]

Originally Posted by jeremyalyea

Are all of the images folders in the "html_newsletter_images.zip" folder supposed to be empty?

hmm. that's interesting. when i look at the zip file, i only see images/commbull ... i never noticed all the other folders until i extracted it. i actually thought you were a bit crazy

i've fixed it to only have the relevant folders