Mini Mods - Inactive Users Email Reminders For 3.7.x

Inactive reminder emails. This mod was designed to send out a reminder to inactive members to try and win them back. Earlier versions of this plugin have had great success, and has been installed on 1000's of forums.

This mod is a revised version of my 3.6 modification.
Someone pointed out that I needed to make a new thread in the right forum for this.

***1.2.7 Update***
Fixed the \ in the message.
Changed the way the mails are processed to try and stop duplicates
Made the bounce management monitor ALL outgoing emails
Added more stats
Added bounced email messaage viewing with management options.
***1.2.7 Update***
This update includes built in support for bouncing emails. The script will automatically detect the bounced mail, mark it as bounced so the user is not to be contacted again so as to avoid spam, and then move that user into a seperate usergroup. This plugin is still in it's testing stages, but I have addressed the bugs mentioned previously regarding the emailing side of things.

This is important so keep reading
To install this plugin and take advantage of the bounced email features you are going to need to follow these instructions very carefully. I can not gaurentee that they will work to the letter as this will be based on each persons individual hosting settings.

Step 1: Pre Install
Before you touch this product you need to do the following

• Create an "inactive" usergroup
• Set up a "bounce to" email address
  Pick an email address that you want to use as your bounced email address. Im using "bounce@icora.co.uk". feel free to use whatever you wish.
• Add a email message filter
  This is the hard part. You need to set up a filter that will 'pipe' an email sent to the above email address.
  I am using Cpanel 11 and this is how i have mine set up:
  Rules: 'To' 'Equals' 'bounce@icora.co.uk'
  Actions: 'Pipe to program' with the setting: |/usr/local/bin/php /home/icora/public_html/forum/bounce.php
  This will depend entirely on your settings and structure so you may have to do a little research. It would be very helfull if people who have to use diferent configurations would post them on here.
• Go into vBulletin options, and find the options for 'Emails'. there is a setting asking you if you want to use '-f'. set this to yes.
• While still inn the email options set the 'Bounce Email Address' to your above address.

Step 2: Install
Remove all previous trace of this modification, and upload all the files in the "upload" folder to your base directory of the server.
Go into your product management section and add a new product. upload the XML file with overwrite selected.
Refresh your admin CP to load the new menu items. Just under the "users" group you will find an "Inactive Reminders" group. open that up and click on settings.
Play with these settings and options to suit for the most part. when you come down to the bounce settings you MUST use the same email address as the one you created above.
Set to active and save.

I must re-iterate that this version has not been widely tested, but the simulations i have ran have worked. I look forward to your feedback!


Features:

• Select the period of time before a user is considered inactive.
• Select how many emails to send to each inactive user per inactivity period
• Choose weather inactivity is based on members "Last Post" or their "Last Visit"
• Specify how often followup emails are sent
• Specify alternative emails to send to reduce repetition
• Keep a log of all inactive users contacted

Planned Updates:

• More detail in reports
• ...such as
• Which useres returned
• Effectivness stats
• Email validity

**1.2.1 Update***
Added more detail to the reports section. You can now see the email address, and quickly indicate which emails were invalid. You can link directly to that user to edit as you wish.
I have fixed some errors which have been crashing people's database. Please post any problems if you can.

**1.2.3 Update***
Fixed several problems with escaping strings
Stopped database errors locking up site
***

**1.2.4 Update***
Added a "From Email" so you can specify your own email address to send the reminders from.
Fixed potential bug for people who do not use the mail queue.

Anyone having problems with sending emails out too fast, and multiple emails being sent need to consider changing their email settings in vbulletin options.
People with emails going out too fast - edit Number of Emails to Send Per Batch to a lower amount
People with multiple emails sending - edit Use Mailqueue System to "Yes, with locking"
***

**1.2.5 Update***
Added more stats in the reports page, also added a "Send test email" option so users can test the functionality of the mod
***

**1.2.6 Update***
Identical to 1.2.5, however EzBounce support added.
***

**Opps Update***
Sorry i somehow managed to not include the file in the zip. My bad.
***

[dfc005]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

it doesnt use the cron - it is triggered on page load. i have no idea about vbseo, but i would be happy to alter code if somone could identify the exact error (i dont use vbseo so i can test). it could be something simple as a conflicting variable, but im sure all mine are prefixed...

I'm sure you've answered this before but what are the reasons behind going away from a cronjob and using on page load instead as the trigger?

[RedTrinity]

Just a suggestion for feature request, it would be great if the log was a bit more detailed - showing date/time that reminder emails were sent out at

[birdie]

I do not mind giving links back to the site of the developer of products I use on my forum,

BUT, why does this product show a link at the top of every post to users who are not logged in (eg search engines). The link says "Inactive Reminders By Icora Web Design".

This is overkill - how do I get rid of all but one of them. It looks silly and unprofessional.

Its happening with version 1.2.8. I am using 1.1.3 on another forum in which this does not happen.

[treyb]

The mod work great for me!

[Gersfan]

Working good so far, I've install 1.2.8 !

What about the EzBounce Email thing? Is it bult in? Do I need the mod kept installed or what?

EDIT: Ok I'm confussed, This morning i've checked my mail and I've got a good number of members with a bounced email address, that has been sent back to me. I've went into the mod on the AdminCP and no members have been moved into the group?

Thanks,

[j1mmy]

It appears to have some copyright text at the bottom saying Inactive reminders designed by X...

Now, because I have a custom theme, this text is showing itself right at the bottom below the coloured footer and spoiling the custom theme's footer appearance. Is there anyway to put this text with the other copyright notices above it - because that footer is expected to be the last of the page...

Thanks

[fly]

Has anyone mentioned that this doesn't validate as XHTML compliant?

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by birdie

I do not mind giving links back to the site of the developer of products I use on my forum,

BUT, why does this product show a link at the top of every post to users who are not logged in (eg search engines). The link says "Inactive Reminders By Icora Web Design".

This is overkill - how do I get rid of all but one of them. It looks silly and unprofessional.

Its happening with version 1.2.8. I am using 1.1.3 on another forum in which this does not happen.

Originally Posted by j1mmy

It appears to have some copyright text at the bottom saying Inactive reminders designed by X...

Now, because I have a custom theme, this text is showing itself right at the bottom below the coloured footer and spoiling the custom theme's footer appearance. Is there anyway to put this text with the other copyright notices above it - because that footer is expected to be the last of the page...

Thanks

It is expected to be at the bottom - as a little credit to myself. i would prefer it on the site, but i wont make a fuss about it being removed. if you disable the (if i remember correctly as i dont have access to the plugin at this moment in time) the "Required" plugin, that should disable the link.

Originally Posted by flypaper

Has anyone mentioned that this doesn't validate as XHTML compliant?

thanks for pointing this out. but could you go into more detail?

[Megatr0n]

When will this hack be updated?

[fly]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

thanks for pointing this out. but could you go into more detail?

http://validator.w3.org/

Assuming you have it running on your site, run it through that. Its the little tag that you've coded at the bottom of unlogged in pages...