Add-On Releases - Send HTML emails from adminCP

Well, this was asked for by many people (me included ) without ever being done so things are never done for those who want but not prepared to do for themselves! Thus, a hack is borne!

This hack does what it says on the label. Having come from IPB to vB, I was surprised to see that a default "Send HTML email" from the adminCP was lacking as I used it in my IPB board for newsletters and such. This hack adds the ability to use the default email template that sends plaintext emails or, but toggling the radiobutton, will send HTML mime emails.


Unfortanatly, I am not familiar enough with vB's hooks/plugins so it is done with 2 file edits but I'm sure that it could be done with a plugin if someone ever feels the need...


Step 1:
In admincp/email.php find:

 print_textarea_row($vbphrase['message_email'], 'message', '', 10, 50);

Directly below it place:

 print_yes_no_row('Send HTML Email?', 'sendhtml', 0);

Step 2:
In admincp/email.php find:

 construct_hidden_code('test', $vbulletin->GPC['test']);

Directly below it place:

 construct_hidden_code('sendhtml', $_POST['sendhtml']);

Step 3:
In includes/class_mail.php find:

$headers .= 'Content-Type: text/plain' . iif($encoding, "; charset=\"$encoding\"") . $delimiter;

and replace with:

if($_POST['sendhtml'])  {
  $headers .= 'Content-Type: text/html' . iif($encoding, "; charset=\"$encoding\"") . $delimiter;
}else{
  $headers .= 'Content-Type: text/plain' . iif($encoding, "; charset=\"$encoding\"") . $delimiter;
}

(you may modify this hack at will... No permission needs to be granted)

**Tested and works for vB versions 3.5.0 to present (3.7.1PL)**

[Tom_S]

I went ahead and installed that today. I was bored. It works great! I just don't like editing the php files. It sucks when the vB updates come out because my old brain forgets what I have to go and edit. LOL

[len backus]

Is it possible to send both plain text and html email versions?

[veenuisthebest]

this working perfect on my 3.7.0 Gold !!

i hope vB team soon gets this feature inbuilt with nice extra features !!

thanks a lot ..

[Pvtiste]

Does it work with vb 3.6.10 ?

[bchertov]

Originally Posted by Pvtiste

Does it work with vb 3.6.10 ?

I don't know, but I've got to imagine that it does. I wouldn't worry about it. If it doesn't I'll fix it for you right away!

[sdfaheem]

Could anyone show me a demo of the newsletter?
Can we set duration to send the newsletter, like weekly or monthly?

[tokenyank]

Originally Posted by Tom_S

I went ahead and installed that today. I was bored. It works great! I just don't like editing the php files. It sucks when the vB updates come out because my old brain forgets what I have to go and edit. LOL

I know, that's what I use the 'notes' section for in the admin panel.. Anything I need to do code editing, I put the name of the hack, the url for it here, and what files I had to edit. My personal post-it note

Originally Posted by len backus

Is it possible to send both plain text and html email versions?

Yes, there is a toggle that you can send either txt or html, but not both at same time

Originally Posted by Pvtiste

Does it work with vb 3.6.10 ?

Yes

Originally Posted by sdfaheem

Could anyone show me a demo of the newsletter?
Can we set duration to send the newsletter, like weekly or monthly?

There is no demo... You create your newsletter in your favourite html editor, upload all the css/images to your site, **MAKE SURE YOUR IMAGES AND CSS** are coded to use absolute paths, you then copy all the HTML from the editor and paste it into the box in the admincp and toggle HTML and hit send... Badda bing.

As to scheduling, no, there's no way to add scheduling to this... If you want something that robust, you'll need to use Sendstudio or OemPro or similar.

[bchertov]

Originally Posted by len backus

Is it possible to send both plain text and html email versions?

You can send a plain text email as long as your messages doesn't have any HTML tags in it. If an HTML tag is found it is sent out as HTML, otherwise it is sent as plain text.

[tokenyank]

Some things work like that, yes bchertov... My particular hack isn't that smart.

There is a toggle that you have to explicitly say whether the email is to be sent via plaintext or HTML.

If you put HTML in the editor box and hit send without toggling the HTML option, the email will be sent out plaintext.

As I said before, I'm not clever enough to make this as good as it could be or do it without code edits... This suits my needs and thus I put it here to hopefully help someone else..

[bchertov]

Originally Posted by bchertov

You can send a plain text email as long as your messages doesn't have any HTML tags in it. If an HTML tag is found it is sent out as HTML, otherwise it is sent as plain text.

Originally Posted by tokenyank

Some things work like that, yes bchertov... My particular hack isn't that smart...

My apologies. I thought this was a question from the hack I published thread.
B