Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 4.01

This not the CommBull product itself. This is simply instructions for adapting it to work with vBulletin 4.x.

Download CommBull from: Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 3.8x

grandeur_69 has released his latest version of CommBull as a free add-on, indicating that he no longer has time to continue developing it. I am posting this here for the benefit of other vBulletin 4.x who don't want to lose the newsletter feature (grandeur_69 has approved this).

At https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....6&postcount=71 a member asks:

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

My response is posted at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....5&postcount=72 and reproduced here...

I have the previous (commercial) 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 won'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> 


Update:

This now works. I had a ( instead of a { on the previous code. Thanks to grandeur_69 for pointing this out!

Notes:

1. The product is not mine so I can't offer any support for CommBull itself. However, I have been using the paid versions of this mod for some time and I'm happy to offer what support I can for making the changes necessary to get it running on 4.x.
   
   
2. I have been in communication with grandeur_69. He has indicated that he has no objections to this thread and that as he gets time he will be trying to develop this add-on further as a free product.

Update July 12, 2010: Product XML file provided by grandeur_69 for vBulletin 4.x.

NOTE:

1. If you have already done the manual edits, do NOT use the XML file. And if you import the XML file, you should not need to do the manual edits.
   
2. Some people are encountering problems using the XML file. If you are one of them, uninstall the product and use the manual edits. Those seem to work just fine.

Update July 14, 2010: Error in XML file corrected.

[Dr.osamA]

thanxx

nstalled

but dont use
________
WWW.VAPORIZER.ORG

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

At one point, I was successful in integrating the EZ Bounce add-on with CommBull but then I upgraded CommBull and couldn't recall how I'd done it previously.

EZ bounce is great, as its the only option to counter bounced emails. But it still implies handling thousands of bounces, one by one, after each mailing.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

EZ bounce is great, as its the only option to counter bounced emails. But it still implies handling thousands of bounces, one by one, after each mailing.

When you first implement a bounceback strategy, yes... but it needs to be a strategy where members with bouncebacks due to invalid email addresses are moved to a separate member group (I call mine Inactive). Then, when the newsletter goes out, the Inactive group is not included in the mailing list.

Once you have that set up and working, the effort to maintain it is minimal. Now I get a few bouncebacks each week and I change the usergroups for those members to Inactive if the bounceback reason is "no such address" or "no account for that user". This takes perhaps 5 minutes at most.

[fourat]

thank you
if i uninstall the mod is DB Changes stay in my forum's DB ?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by fourat

thank you
if i uninstall the mod is DB Changes stay in my forum's DB ?

It should, yes. Support for the original mod is at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=230359

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

When you first implement a bounceback strategy, yes... but it needs to be a strategy where members with bouncebacks due to invalid email addresses are moved to a separate emmber group (I call mine Inactive). Then, when the newsletter goes out, the Inactive group is not included in the mailing list.

Once you have that set up and working, the effort to maintain it is minimal. Now I get a few bouncebacks each week and I change the usergroups for those members to Inactive if the bounceback reason is "no such address" or "no account for that user". This takes perhaps 5 minutes at most.

Not on a high traffic site. I have manually processed 20.000 bounced addresses. THat indeed took care of a lot of problems. But after that, there are still valid email accounts that turn into invalid ones and each mailing results in a large number of bounced mails to process.

Please read the article in my signature: How to keep your board from getting blacklisted as a spammer
It covers this issue.

It turns out that this is a huge issue as many vbulletin boards have been banned by large email providers, without even knowing it. More and more webmasters are discovering this.
I am starting to suspect that large email providers are actively reacting to vbulletins flaws in this respect. vbulletin as a whole is generating a massive amount of emails to invalid email addresses. Its a serious spam issue.

[djbaxter]

As I get time, I'll look into seeing if I can re-integrate EZ Bounce.

Thanks for the link to your article. I have already implemented all the things you discuss there. I'm not sending out 20K newsletters at a time and if I were I'd get one of the mailing list managers. CommBull really is intended for the average forum that doesn't require the big guns.

[javivi0]

hello, thank you for update of combull. Some yeras ago, I bought commbull, and now I?ve installed in my vb4 with you modifications.

But when sending a newsletter to my users, I have had this error when I went around 2.000 user aprox.

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.1:
Invalid SQL:
INSERT INTO mailqueue
(dateline, toemail, fromemail, subject, message, header)
VALUES

(1266880338,
xxxxxx@wanadoo.es',

MySQL Error : Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes
Error Number : 1153
Request Date : Tuesday, February 23rd 2010 @ 12:12:18 AM
Error Date : Tuesday, February 23rd 2010 @ 12:15:49 AM
Script : http://www.xxxx.com/foro/admincp/com...do=send&page=2
Referrer : http://www.xxxx.com/foro/admincp/commbull.php?do=send
IP Address : 77.228.0.3
Username : admin
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 4.1.22-standard

after having this error, my forum will get stuck, being necessary to empty the bbdd Mailqueue to return to normal

Can you help me?

Thank you very much
I?m sorry for my english

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by javivi0

hello, thank you for update of combull. Some yeras ago, I bought commbull, and now I?ve installed in my vb4 with you modifications.

But when sending a newsletter to my users, I have had this error when I went around 2.000 user aprox.



after having this error, my forum will get stuck, being necessary to empty the bbdd Mailqueue to return to normal

Can you help me?

Thank you very much
I?m sorry for my english

I'm guessing that you are using version 5.1? If you are a licensed CommBull owner and you still have a 4.x version available, I would advise you to use that instead. I'm personally running 4.5f which avoids many of the issues with 5.1.

[javivi0]

Thank djbaxter, I have 4.2 version, but this version works fine with vbulletin 4??ç