vBouncer : Change thread subscribtion options for members with bouncing emails

Update April 5th: Step 2A for vBulletin 3 Gold added.

What vBouncer does
vBouncer will reduce your server load, bandwidth, and your forum admin in-box, by unsubscribing members who keep bouncing their emails back to your forum admin email, which may bomb your mail box if you have a busy forum with many members who subscribe to many threads, but their emails are either invalid, inbox full, or have ISP problems.

Screen shots
None, this is a command line script, with some changes in functions.php

Who may want to use this?
1. Very busy sites, with thousands of notifications a day.
2. Your admin box gets too many bouncing emails
3. You use Postfix or Sendmail. I'm not sure how this works on other mail servers, please let me know if this works with QMail, or Exism.

Caution
This may drive some of your members mad If their email bounces a lot, this script will modify their subscriptions from their favourite threads. They will have to fix their email account, and then modify their subscribtion manually to each thread again... This may not be due to bad emails, just ISP-side problems.

Use at your own risk. I'm sharing this since some indicated interest at vBulletin.com in this thread:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=71496
I'd be glad to help answer questions, but as with most hacks, it is your responsibility....

Installation
1. Create a unique email address on your server, dedicated to catch bouncing emails. Do not use adminemail, or any other existing email that you want to receive through a POP account. This email will be used only to catch bouncing emails.

Recommended name (makes for less editing): subscriber_notify

2. For vB 3.0.3 (older versions below, steps 2a or 2b)

I have yet to upgrade to 3.0.3, so this is contributed by ScottA:

Originally Posted by ScottA

I got this running on 3.0.3. IIRC, what you need to do is open mail.php and look for this:

PHP Code:

    function Mail($toemail, $subject, $message, $headers, $fromemail, $minusf = false)
        {
            if ($minusf)
            {
             $this->success = @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($headers), "-f $fromemail");
            }
            else
            {
             $this->success = @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($headers));
            }
        } 


And change it to this:

PHP Code:

    function Mail($toemail, $subject, $message, $headers, $fromemail, $minusf = false)
        {
            if ($minusf)
            {
             $this->success = @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($headers), "-f subscriber_notify@yourdomain.com");
            }
            else
            {
             $this->success = @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($headers), "-f subscriber_notify@yourdomain.com");
            }
        } 


Note: You need to replace "subscriber_notify@yourdomain.com" with the email created in step 1.

2a. For vB3 gold
Edit functions.php

Find:

PHP Code:

       if ($vboptions['needfromemail'])
       {
         @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($header), "-f $vboptions[webmasteremail]");
       }
       else
       {
           @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($header));
       } 


Replace with (replace subscriber_notify@example.com with the email from step 1:

PHP Code:

   @mail($toemail, $subject, $message, trim($header), "-fsubscriber_notify@example.com"); 


2b. For older, vB3 beta versions
Edit functions.php

Find:

PHP Code:

                   // send those mails
                 if ($vboptions['needfromemail'])
                   {
                     @mail($email['toemail'], $email['subject'], $email['message'], trim($email['header']), "-f $vboptions[webmasteremail]");
                   }
                   else
                   {
                     @mail($email['toemail'], $email['subject'], $email['message'], trim($email['header']));
                   } 


Replace with (replace subscriber_notify@example.com with the email from step 1:

PHP Code:

                   // vBouncer hack
                 // Replace subscriber_notify email@example.com with the email from step 1
                 mail($email['toemail'], $email['subject'], $email['message'], trim($email['header']), "-fsubscriber_notify@example.com");
                   // end hack 


3. Copy vBouncer.pl.txt to a directory on your server above apache level. vBouncer.pl.txt is attached below.

Rename it to vBouncer.pl by typing:

mv vBounver.pl.txt vBouncer.pl

Make it executable by typing:

chmod +x vBouncer.pl

4. Edit the configuation section of vBouncer.pl

   #! /usr/bin/perl -w
   #
   # USAGE: ./vBouncer.pl -bounce : to unsubscribe threads from members with bouncing email
   #        ./vBouncer.pl : with no parameters to see (test) who will be unsubscribed
   #
   
   # Config:
   my $bouncelimit = 10;   # how many bounced emails are allowed, before taking actions
   my $downgrade = 0;      # What subscription level you will assign to bouncing members?
                           # 0 = No email, member will check subscribed thread through usercp
                           # 1 = Instant email, bad choice!
                           # 2 = Daily
                           # 3 = Weekly
   
 my $clearmailfile = 1;	# delete the mail file for bounced email when done (only deletes when -bounce option is used)
   
   my $bouncefile = "/var/spool/mail/subscriber_notify";
                           # the path/to/bouncing emails file. "subscriber_notify is the email name, you need
                           # to change it to the email name you chose for bouncing emails.
   
   
   my $db="database";        # mysql database name
   my $db_host="localhost";                # mysql host
   my $db_username="username";             # mysql username
   my $db_password="password";             # mysql password
   # end of config

5. Once a day or once a week (depending on the size of the spool size), you can run the scropt manually, or through a cron job. When done, you have to clear the email file, otherwise it will keep unsubscribing members whos emails no longer bounce.

To run the script in test mode, type:

./vBounver.pl

To run the script in bouncer mode, type:

./vBounver.pl -bouncer

To clear the mail box, use:
cat /dev/null > subscriber_notify
(or set the option in the script to do it)

Changes
Feel free to modify and post changes here or as new hacks, no credir or permission required. I may eventually add some features when I have the time.

Notes

1. The script assumes that Perl is installed @ /usr/bin/perl

If you have Perl installed elsewhere, you just need to update the first line of the script with the cirrect path:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

2. You need to login to your server with a username that has write access to the mail spool, like a root/admin level user.

3. When run in test mode, ignore the warning "Use of uninitialized value in string eq at ./vBouncer.pl line 49" It just means you did not pass a parameter.

[Erwin]

Originally Posted by tamarian

If you want to, you could automate the transfer of the mail file to the MySQL server. As it's just a flat file, the script should be able to parse through it. and update the database

How would I do that? I'm clueless when it comes to email management on my server. That's the reason why I host my domains on another server and manage email there.

[Erwin]

I do need this hack, as I don't verify email, and lots of emails do bounce back.

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Erwin

How would I do that? I'm clueless when it comes to email management on my server. That's the reason why I host my domains on another server and manage email there.

Here's how I would do it:

Follow step 1 on the mail server.

Follow steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 on the vBulletin server (where the database resides)

Then wirte a small shell script to scp or ftp the bounce mail file from the mail server to the database server. In the vBouncer script, enter the location of the file in the $bouncefile line. When the script is run on the database server, it should pick up the bouncing members from the file.

If you need any help with any of the steps, feel free to PM me.

[PranK]

Originally Posted by tamarian

Yes, you can run this as a cron job, there should be no problem with that.

re: multiple domain: It should not be a problem, but if you have multiple vb forums, the script will only handle one of them, but it's possible to rename it and set it up for each forum.

ok great, thank you!!

i'll install it when i install VB3 Gold.

[d3nnis]

if this script can be modify in a way to trace user's registration using invalid email account and immediately deletes away this new registration, that will be even better!

[PranK]

Any update for VB3 Gold? The code is different (by the looks) and I get bombarded with email!

Thanks!

Christian

[sabret00the]

wow didn't know this was ported to vb3, is their a php version out?

[influence]

is there any alternative to this? I remember someone made a hack where you can have 2 email address. one for the board in general and the other is for error and so on or bounced emails.

[kontrabass]

Hmm... Does this need to be updated for VB3 gold? The code in /includes/functions.php doesn't seem to match the instructions...

[tamarian]

Updated for vB3 gold, use step 2A. The old step 2 for beta is now step 2B