Major Additions - vBMS : vBulletin Mail System

vBulletin Mail System

Finally, for vBulletin 3.6, there is a port from filburt1's original hack. For those of you who aren't aware, he essentially declared it open source, and it's been a bit of a wait for someone to fix it up... I've wanted it for my site, too, so I finally sat down and just did it.

What is this?
The vBulletin Mail System is a way to give your users webmail access from your site. They can have a name@yourwebsite.com address, send and receive emails and attachments, etc. Options such as mailbox quotas, limits on numbers/types of attachments, a message trailer ("Free mail at yourwebsite.com!") at the end of each message, etc. are all available as well.

Please note: this is a pre-final version. As far as I have seen, it is working so far for me, but I have not tested it completely and thoroughly and it's very likely there'll be a number of bugs popping up. However, I have successfully been able to install this on a clean board, exchange emails regularly (including attachments), go through all the basic options/etc. without any errors popping up, so it should be fine. Still, make sure you back up your database before installing this, just due to the nature of its "beta"-ness.

To install: upload all files from the "upload" directory to your server in the proper directories. Then, navigate to admincp/vbms_install.php on your server and run the installer. It will make several template additions. If your navbar or header templates hav been modified, it will not be able to do it automatically, and you'll have to add these edits yourself.

In template navbar, find:

<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="usercp.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[user_cp]</a></td>

Add after:

			<if condition="$show['popups']">
				<td class="vbmenu_control" id="navbar_vbms">
					<a href="vbms.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[email]</a>
			
					<if condition="$vbms_newmessages['newcount'] > 0">
						<span style="font-weight: normal; padding: 1px 1px 1px 2px; margin: 0px 3px 0px 2px; border: 1px inset" class="alt1">
							<phrase 1="$vbms_newmessages[newcount]">$vbphrase[x_new]</phrase>
						</span>
					</if>
				
					<script type="text/javascript">
						<!--
							vbmenu_register("navbar_vbms");
						// -->
					</script>
				</td>
			<else />
				<td class="vbmenu_control" id="navbar_vbms">
					<a href="vbms.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[email]</a>
				
					<if condition="$vbms_newmessages['newcount'] > 0">
						<span style="font-weight: normal; padding: 1px 1px 1px 2px; margin: 0px 3px 0px 2px; border: 1px inset" class="alt1">
							<phrase 1="$vbms_newmessages[newcount]">$vbphrase[x_new]</phrase>
						</span>
					</if>
				</td>
			</if>

Find:

<!-- / header quick search form -->
	</if>

	<if condition="$show['member']">

Add after:

		<div class="vbmenu_popup" id="navbar_vbms_menu" style="display: none">
			<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0">
				<tr><td class="thead">vBulletin Mail System</td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="vbms.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[navbar_inbox]</a></td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="vbms_new.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[navbar_write_message]</a></td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="vbms_ab.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[navbar_address_book]</a></td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="vbms_folders.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[navbar_folders]</a></td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="vbms_filters.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[navbar_filters]</a></td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="vbms_options.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[navbar_options]</a></td></tr>
				<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="faq.php?$session[sessionurl]faq=faq_vbms">$vbphrase[navbar_help]</a></td></tr>
			</table>
		</div>

In your ACP, there should be a new set of options in a "vBulletin Mail System" category. That set of options is your main set of management stuff, and is pretty straightforward.

Feel free to post with any bugs or questions you find, etc. I'm trying to get this working again thoroughly, for all of us.

FAQ

• Is POP support available for my users?
  No, this is similar to a webmail system.
• What is a catch-all email address, and how do I set it up?
  A catch-all address is an email address that any mail sent to your server that isn't picked up by another account will go to. For example, if someone sends an email to randomgibberish@yoursite.com and you do not have a "randomgibberish" account defined, it would forward to your catch-all account that you have set up, such as all@yoursite.com.
• Can I run this if my server doesn't let me have a catch-all mail account?
  Yes, but it's not recommended. As has been suggested by a few members, you can set up one mail account to the be "catch-all" and have vBMS connect to that, then set up mail accounts for each member who wants one and have it forward to the catch-all. All this has to be set up manually with your web host, and takes a great deal of willpower and availability from the website administrator, and is thus not recommended.
• I'm receiving the following error:
  

  Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imap_open()...

  If you're getting an error similar to this, you do not have IMAP functionality available in PHP. Find your php.ini file on your server (usually /usr/local/lib/php.ini on Linux, C:\Windows\php.ini on Windows), and find the extensions section. Uncomment the line ";extension=php_imap.dll" (that is, remove the semicolon at the beginning) and restart your web server. If you don't have access to your web server to do this, contact your web host about installing IMAP support for PHP. If they won't do it, then this hack is not for you.
• I can't connect to the mail server, with this error:
  

  Warning: imap_open() [function.imap-open]: Couldn't open stream {localhost:110/pop3}INBOX in /includes/vbms_class_installer.php on line 791

  First, make sure that your port number and server information are right. Some mail servers are on non-default ports (this is common), and some you may have to connect to a different host besides localhost (this is very rare). Also, try using the "Force no-TLS connection" option in the vBMS Options in the ACP.
• I can connect to the server just fine, but it won't get any email!
  Check the "Mail checking logs" in your ACP (under the vBulletin Mail System area). If there are no logs, then the cronjob probably isn't running. If there are logs, see if there are any errors in there. If it's checking the mail account fine and simply says there are no messages, check with a webmail to see if the catch-all account is even receiving mails. If the webmail shows that the account has mail stuck in it and vBMS isn't picking them up, but vBMS is saying it's checking the account alright and finding 0 messages, then you're likely connecting to the wrong account. By doing these steps, you should at least be able to figure out where the problem is occurring.

Install clicks, donations and HotM nominations are always welcome.

[Kingzor]

Originally Posted by meissenation

I installed it on my live forum, have not made it available to members yet, and so far so good. 0 errors, 0 bugs found. I haven't read through all 19 pages, but I plan to go through all of the pages and read bugs and fixes so I can be proactive about any bugs that I personally haven't found yet.

Edit: After trying some extensive tests, the only real bug I've found on my live forum *THUS FAR* are attachments not showing up in the emails when I try sending a test attachment to my alias address. When I reply and attach an image, that does work. I did try removing the single quotations from each instance of the $bbuserinfo['vbms_permissions'] which made the quota show up, but alas it doesn't show the received attachment images yet.

Hrm I havn't had that bug, can you explain what you mean by "reply and attach an image"?
Are you having problems receiving attachments or sending them?

And what kind of files are you trying to attach?

[LCN2007]

Originally Posted by kall

Technically, it only uses one of your cPanel email accounts, it won't deliver mail to addresses that actually exist as cPanel POP3 mail accounts.

So.. your server receives an email addressed to joebloggs@domain. It checks to see if joebloggs exists as an email account. If it doesn't, the email is sent to the default responder, which is set to send the email to the vBMS Processing script. vBMS then delivers it to your user within vBMS.

(If the account does exist as a cPanel Account, vBMS wont get it.)

*edit* This is all from memory. My aplogies if I got some of that wrong.

So if i just set this up in Vbms dont make any email accounts in mt Cpanel just let users make email addresses? will they be able to send emai?

[raiderlax]

This is really cool how long till its out of beta!

[lewisbee]

I'm not able to receive any emails :@

[meissenation]

Originally Posted by LCN2007

Im using AN Hosting i have unlimited emal accounts how can i give them to my users on my forum? i dont want to have to input every email account by hand.
AN says they support STMP accounts how can i set this up?

Do you have CPanel for your hosting? What you want to do, these instructions are for CPanel, would be to log in to your backend ( http://www.yoursite.com:2082 ) and then go to Mail and then click Default Address. A Catch-All / Default Address basically says "Any email that is sent to @yoursite.com, if it doesn't match existing email accounts set up in CPanel, I will forward it to the default/catch-all address." For example, I have my catchall as catchall@mifbody.com -- if someone sends an email to sadlklkjsfdakljfdsakjlfsdakjlfdsalkj...@mifbody .com, since the email address obviously doesn't exist, it goes to the default/catch-all address.

[meissenation]

Originally Posted by Kingzor

Hrm I havn't had that bug, can you explain what you mean by "reply and attach an image"?
Are you having problems receiving attachments or sending them?

And what kind of files are you trying to attach?

My alias address for vBMS is administrator@mysite.com, if I go in to Thunderbird and try inserting an image inline or attaching an image to the email, then send it to the administrator@mifbody.com. When I switch over to vBMS I noticed 1) there's a column with no title and is only about 10px wide, I'm *guessing* this is where the attachment column is? When I view the image, it's just the text, no images.

Edit: Added screenshots to make it more precise. When I sent the email in Thunderbird, it prompted whether I wanted to send it in Plaintext & HTML, Plaintext Only, or HTML Only. I selected HTML only and hit send. Note in the 2nd screenshot that the column is blank.

[Techno05]

Great system I have installed it and am using it all the time.

http://sigrequest.com

Thanks!

[Kingzor]

It seems to be a problem with your mail server(not the websites mail server but the one used by thunderbird),not processing attachments correctly. Also thats rather strange the way the [img] tag is not being displayed correctly....
Try this fix I whipped up:
vbms_read.php
Line 85ish

PHP Code:

$message['message'] = convert_url_to_bbcode($message['message']); 


Replace it with

PHP Code:

require_once(DIR . "/includes/functions_wysiwyg.php")
$message['message'] = convert_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($message['message']); 


That should convert any <img> tags in the message into correct [img] tags.

Oh and that empty slot is for when a message does have an attachment, a small paperclip image will be there.

[LCN2007]

Originally Posted by meissenation

Do you have CPanel for your hosting? What you want to do, these instructions are for CPanel, would be to log in to your backend ( http://www.yoursite.com:2082 ) and then go to Mail and then click Default Address. A Catch-All / Default Address basically says "Any email that is sent to @yoursite.com, if it doesn't match existing email accounts set up in CPanel, I will forward it to the default/catch-all address." For example, I have my catchall as catchall@mifbody.com -- if someone sends an email to sadlklkjsfdakljfdsakjlfsdakjlfdsalkj...@mifbody .com, since the email address obviously doesn't exist, it goes to the default/catch-all address.

Im looking to utilize the free email accounts from my host i do have cpanel is there a way to add a feature to my site that when a user registrates he gets a real email that is fully functional and can be checked from my site?

[RYoBiOS]

I have installed Cyrus IMAP,how can work vBulletin Mail System?