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.

[aldamon]

Originally Posted by grandeur_69

PS. hopefully next week, my team and I will start working on the vb4 version. We will try to add the cron feature back in, but no guarantees as many users still have problems with server load and we haven't been able to find a reasonable solution.

Great news!

[inciarco]

Interesting Newsletter Mod.

I have 3 questions:

-1. Is there a way/option to Exclude Certain Usergroups from Getting the Newsletter?
(this is very important because even if the users are subscribed to threads, for some usergroups would be nice for them Not to receive Newsletters).

-2. How can I Massive Disable the Option "Receive Community Bulletin Newsletters"?
(I can see that is Enabled by Default but I need to disable it for Existing Users once this Mod Installed)

-3. How can I choose for the "Receive Community Bulletin Newsletters" to be Disabled by Default?
(I think is better to let the Users Choose if the want to be Included on the Newsletter and not to Force them to Receive the First One to Choose to be Excluded)

My Best Regards.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by inciarco

Interesting Newsletter Mod.

I have 3 questions:

-1. Is there a way/option to Exclude Certain Usergroups from Getting the Newsletter?
(this is very important because even if the users are subscribed to threads, for some usergroups would be nice for them Not to receive Newsletters).

Yes.

Originally Posted by inciarco

-2. How can I Massive Disable the Option "Receive Community Bulletin Newsletters"?
(I can see that is Enabled by Default but I need to disable it for Existing Users once this Mod Installed)

You can use a MySQL database query:

UPDATE {prefix-if-used}user SET receivebulletin = '0';

Originally Posted by inciarco

-3. How can I choose for the "Receive Community Bulletin Newsletters" to be Disabled by Default?
(I think is better to let the Users Choose if the want to be Included on the Newsletter and not to Force them to Receive the First One to Choose to be Excluded)

You can use phpMyAdmin to modify table user.receivebulletin to set default to 0. That way any new members will also have it set to default.

Or, if you haven't yet installed it,

1. edit product-Commbull.xml
2. at around line 22, find

if (!isset($user_cols['receivebulletin'])) $db->query_write("ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user ADD receivebulletin SMALLINT (5) UNSIGNED DEFAULT '1' not null");

3. change the '1' to '0'

if (!isset($user_cols['receivebulletin'])) $db->query_write("ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user ADD receivebulletin SMALLINT (5) UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' not null");

4. at around line 27, find

$db->query_write("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user SET receivebulletin=1");

5. change to

$db->query_write("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user SET receivebulletin=0");

[grandeur_69]

thanks DJ for responding ... I have absolutely nothing that I can add to that. I had already changed the mod for future updates to change the default settings to 0 to comply with SPAM policies.

[inciarco]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Yes.

You can use a MySQL database query:

UPDATE {prefix-if-used}user SET receivebulletin = '0';

You can use phpMyAdmin to modify table user.receivebulletin to set default to 0. That way any new members will also have it set to default.

Or, if you haven't yet installed it,

1. edit product-Commbull.xml
2. at around line 22, find

if (!isset($user_cols['receivebulletin'])) $db->query_write("ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user ADD receivebulletin SMALLINT (5) UNSIGNED DEFAULT '1' not null");

3. change the '1' to '0'

if (!isset($user_cols['receivebulletin'])) $db->query_write("ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user ADD receivebulletin SMALLINT (5) UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' not null");

4. at around line 27, find

$db->query_write("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user SET receivebulletin=1");

5. change to

$db->query_write("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user SET receivebulletin=0");

Originally Posted by grandeur_69

thanks DJ for responding ... I have absolutely nothing that I can add to that. I had already changed the mod for future updates to change the default settings to 0 to comply with SPAM policies.

Thank You Very Much For Your Reply and Guide. :up:

I Have One Final Question that Comes From My First Question:

-1A How Can I Exclude Certain Usergroups From Receiving the Newsletter?

- What is the Option I Should Set and Where is it Located (or the Process / Plugin Edits / File Edits I Should Modify) to Exclude Specific Usergroups From Getting the Newsletter?

I Tried to Find it but I Didn't Saw it.

I Appreciate Your Support, the Mod is Very Interesting and I'll be Testing it on my Test Forum.

My Best Regards.

[djbaxter]

It's in the setup for the newsletter itself:

Admin CP | Users | Send CommBull Newsletter (or words to that effect)

In there you can select which forums to include and how many of each type of thread/poll etc. to include as well as which usergroups will receive the newsletter.

[inciarco]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

It's in the setup for the newsletter itself:

Admin CP | Users | Send CommBull Newsletter (or words to that effect)

In there you can select which forums to include and how many of each type of thread/poll etc. to include as well as which usergroups will receive the newsletter.

Thank You Very Much For Your Reply. :up:

I Found the List of Usergroups at the End of

ACP > Community Bulletin > Settings

Below the "Include Info From Forums..." and under the Title "Mail users from the following usergroups...". :up:

I Appreciate Your Guide.

My Best Regards.

[Scalemotorcars]

Sure would like to see an example of an HTML email before using this. Can someone post a screenshot. Thanks... :up:

[khalled]

Originally Posted by grandeur_69

interesting. We have commbull running on 8 of our forums and on another 13 with a client and all the forums have different add-ons and we have not experienced any of these problems. We do have all our forums with vb mailqueue on, so maybe that'll be something we have to look into a bit further when we do the upgrade to vb4.

we wait grandeur_69; for Commbull (Community Bulletin) for vb 4.0.2

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by khalled

we wait grandeur_69; for Commbull (Community Bulletin) for vb 4.0.2

This commercial product has been released here as a free product because the author, grandeur_69, no longer has the time to keep up with the necessary upgrades. The hope, I believe, was that others would pick up the product and extend it for 4.x.