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.

[phreak2010]

This is awesome, best addon i've used so far and we've installed maybe 40.
Good work A+++++++++++

[Krofh]

Originally Posted by techenigma

Any particular reason the options don't change?

I uncheck the box for a particular option and when I click "save changes" it doesn't update it. It just reverts right back to it being checked. Obviously its just not saving my selection. ???

Care to be a little more specific? I can't find any such problem.

Originally Posted by phreak2010

This is awesome, best addon i've used so far and we've installed maybe 40.
Good work A+++++++++++

Thanks muchly

[mybeshoo]

Dear Krofh's, this is the best hack for 2007 i love it and you offer it for free OMG you the cooooool one here , any way i like to tell you some thing
can you add :
desable Aliases changing , so users can not change there Aliases ! i dont think it is useful option to let users cahne there Aliases , it is like to cnage email address.

PS : i made a translate for the lang , via VB cpanel how can i expot the translation ?
PS : vbms_updatecheck.php this page is not in the ZIP file

bet regards.

[succo]

Originally Posted by mybeshoo

PS : i made a translate for the lang , via VB cpanel how can i expot the translation ?
PS : vbms_updatecheck.php this page is not in the ZIP file

1) go to ACP, phrases, download/upload language, select your language, select vbulletin mail system as product and download the xml, that's it... btw, if anyone is interested in italian language i can share it

2) i guess it's because the php file pointed to the old commercial vBMS site instead of using the new vB.org product check (which is still unsupported by this hack)...

[richiepearce]

Excellent mod, nice work fella! I have been looking out for this for ages. I am itching to install but would like to wait until it is out of beta, any ideas on time scales?

[techenigma]

Originally Posted by Krofh

Care to be a little more specific? I can't find any such problem.

I go into my forums, I go to the vbms page and click the "options" button. It takes me to mywebsite.com/forums/vbms_options.php and it shows the options. For some reason at the top it always says "Your options have been successfully updated. "

when I go down and for example uncheck "Save a copy of sent messages by default" and click "save changes" when the page refreshes the box is checked again. It does that for every single option. Hence I cannot change any of the options.

[Krofh]

^ Ohhh, got it... thought you were referring to the ACP, couldn't find any such problem there. I see what you're talking about though, I guess I thought I had fixed that sort of thing :-/ meh. Will try and get that into the next update.

Originally Posted by succo

2) i guess it's because the php file pointed to the old commercial vBMS site instead of using the new vB.org product check (which is still unsupported by this hack)...

Yeah, that's right... I might try and work in an update for that, we'll see. This product doesn't exactly work off of the conventional product system and I'm not sure if it could or not... it might be able to though, I'll have to look into doing that sometime. I'd love to get it working with the product system, but the original version had the installer and I figured I'd just leave it at that for now.

Originally Posted by richiepearce

Excellent mod, nice work fella! I have been looking out for this for ages. I am itching to install but would like to wait until it is out of beta, any ideas on time scales?

Honestly, I have no idea... I'd like to say within a month, but it depends mostly on other factors in my life which determine how much time I actually have to work on this.

[Twisted Chaos]

I've run into a bunch of bugs that i thought i might be able to help with...

first bug is when recieving mail from outloo...
entire html source is displayed... i added in a processor for full html conversion....

also if the system finds ONE attachment that isnt allowed....... it strips them all???? why cant we just strip the ones not allowed?

i downloaded a copy of the PEAR system for mail mime...
i then took the original and modified it for a full release with thvbms.... works better than constructing mime types on your own....just an idea im using on my system

[raiderlax]

Can we have it so only members we choose can have email and can use this system?

Thanks.

[techenigma]

Originally Posted by raiderlax

Can we have it so only members we choose can have email and can use this system?

Thanks.

Seemingly only way to do that would be to create a usergroup, allow only that usergroup access to the VBMS system and then set that usergroup as a secondary group for those users you want to allow access to.

Other than that there doesn't seem to be any functionality included in the product to do that, and my idea is simple enough and very manageable.