Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Cron based e-mail sending

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This modification has been withdrawn.
vBulletin 4.0.x and 4.1.x are no longer supported.

The feature is already built into the core vBulletin 4.2.x code.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In default vBulletin, if you send a large number of e-mails, vbulletin either puts them in it's queue and attempts to send them as each user visits a page, or just simply tries to send them straight away (as is the case when you use the Administrators email users inteface).

The result of this can be that your server can gets seriously overloaded very quickly - or on many hosts, you get banned for exceeding their e-mail sending limits. This can make sending several thousand e-mails (like a newsletter) very difficult.

This modification helps in three ways ;

1. The processing of the mail queue is set-up as a vbulletin cron item.

2. You can add a small delay before each e-mail is sent (0,1,2 or 5 seconds).

3. E-mails from the ACP inteface are sent to the mail queue, not straight to the mail system.

Use option 2 carefully, otherwise you will slow your e-mail system right down.

For this to work, you must use e-mail queuing (ACP Options - Use Mailqueue System = Yes) and also the 'Number of Emails to Send Per Batch' needs to be a realistic value (see below). The installation process will attempt to set these options for you. This modification also requires two file edits to work correctly.

There are two options for the cron job, you can either set it to run every minute, and set the items to be processed to something small (like 10), or you can do what this modification does by default and set it to run every 10 minutes, and set the items to be processed to something larger (like 80, which is the default).

Remember, 10 e-mails per minute = 600 per hour while 80 e-mails every 10 minutes is 480 per hour. The numbers you set really depend on how quick you want large queues processed, and how much your mail server can handle in one go. The default settings are fine for most people.

Once working, when using the ACP mail users inteface, remember you can set it to process 9999 at once (not 500) as the mails will now go into the queue, not be sent directly.

Note: This modification will only affect queued e-mails such as subscription e-mails. It will not affect registration e-mails as they always bypass queuing.

This modification also displays the size of the e-mail queue in the ACP homepage, based on code supplied by Antivirus.

To install, download and uzip the files, then follow the instructions in the text file.


History:

v4.0.1 : 30-Dec-2009 : Initial release for vb 4.0.0 Gold.

v4.1.0 : 04-Dec-2010 : Updated for vBulletin 4.1.

v4.1.7.0 : 16-Oct-2011 : Updated for vBulletin 4.1.7.

[ip-ip]

Hi,

Thanks for this goog Hook,

I have "50.000 users" with "35.000 able emails" for mail sending & I need to send mail to all 35.000 able emails every week,

my "Server Rules" for send mail system is "20 send per 1 minute + 3 minutes stop",

so Please help me for best setting in mail option,

Notice: I Installed your Hook
Notice: my vBulletin version is 4.1.4

Thanks.

[Paul M]

There isnt any way you can do a "send 20 and then wait 3 minutes".

The closest you can get is use the current default of every 10 minutes, and set the limit to 20.

Since this will send 120 per hour, you are never going to be able to send 35,000 per week as 120/hour would take almost two weeks to process that many e-mails.

You need a less restrictive host.

[ip-ip]

Originally Posted by Paul M

There isnt any way you can do a "send 20 and then wait 3 minutes".

The closest you can get is use the current default of every 10 minutes, and set the limit to 20.

Since this will send 120 per hour, you are never going to be able to send 35,000 per week as 120/hour would take almost two weeks to process that many e-mails.

You need a less restrictive host.

- I installed according to "Cron-mail-queue.txt FILE", How Much take time with this option for 35.000 send mail ?

- my "Mail Setting" now set on "Number of Emails to Send Per Batch: 80" & "E-Mail Send Delay: 0" , Is It ok or Cound I change them ?

[Paul M]

That would take 3 days. It would also break your hosts restrictions.

[ip-ip]

If my server accepted your setting, Need I change "Number of Emails to Send Per Batch: 80" & "E-Mail Send Delay: 0" ?

[Paul M]

Yes.

[ip-ip]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Yes.

So, please say me What do I need to change this : "Number of Emails to Send Per Batch: 80" & "E-Mail Send Delay: 0"

Tnx.

[Paul M]

What ?? Im lost now.
You canot do what you asked originally.
The settings you mentioned would send them in three days, but break your hosts restrictions.
After that I dont get what you are asking anymore.

[sportsfroma2]

Paul, first off- congrats on the new (newish, at least- I just read the announcement @ vbulletin.com) gig with the VB folks..

Do you know a way to include the activation e-mails into the mailqueue? I want to send a reminder activation e-mail to all my users who haven't activated yet, but don't want to violate my Host's TOS- Any way I can accomplish this?

Thanks in advance

[sportsfroma2]

Actually, If I just "manually" compose an e-mail through the user-->send e-mail to user system and send it to the primary usergoup of "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" With $activateid and $activatelink in the content of e-mail, Then it would have nearly the same effect and honor the cron-based mailqueue, right?