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.

[silly rabbit]

Originally Posted by Lionel

Here is my options which works. Template needs to be replaced too

Thanks Lionel! You fix works like a charm! Cut & paste new .txt template (I use UltraEdit) and overwrite "options.php" . . .

[snunhuck]

Might this be ported for 3.7

[BushyTea]

Originally Posted by GTX2

i got always this error message while installing: Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imap_open() in /home/gsmptnet/public_html/includes/vbms_class_installer.php on line 790

I've uncomment the line ";extension=php_imap.dll" and restarted apache, but still same problem...

Well from what I can tell by looking at the code this error is due to wrong setting for your POP3 Server.

/**
* Attempts to connect to the POP3 server specified in the $usersettings
* array. Returns true on success, textual error on failure.
*
* @return mixed true on success, textual error on failure
* @access public
*/

That is the comments in the file where the error is occuring. You might recheck your POP3 settings and go from there.

[powerful_rogue]

Hi,

Ive managed to get this to work, apart from one problem!

If you send a message from VBMS to a Hotmail account, it dosent get delivered. You can send from hotmail to VBMS and oher numerous email providers and it works fine.

Anyone else experienced this problem or have any idea how I may resolve it?

[Krofh]

Originally Posted by powerful_rogue

If you send a message from VBMS to a Hotmail account, it dosent get delivered. You can send from hotmail to VBMS and oher numerous email providers and it works fine.

This is because Hotmail has a whitelist-only spam filter. Instead of just filtering out emails from blacklisted domains, they have a tendency to only allow emails from whitelisted domains.
I wrote a plugin for a friend's site awhile back that would fetch your MSN Messenger contacts and invite them all to the forum... unfortunately this was the biggest obstacle, and what we discovered after about three solid weeks of looking into it that is that they wanted us to pay a rather significant amount of money to be whitelisted. On the other hand, I'm affiliated with other sites that don't pay, but I think in those cases there are thousands of users clicking the "not spam" notifications on the emails.
Not sure completely if I'm all right on this information, but either way my experience with trying to get emails to Hotmail/MSN was pretty shitty. I recommend an Internet-wide boycott.

[powerful_rogue]

Originally Posted by Krofh

This is because Hotmail has a whitelist-only spam filter. Instead of just filtering out emails from blacklisted domains, they have a tendency to only allow emails from whitelisted domains.
I wrote a plugin for a friend's site awhile back that would fetch your MSN Messenger contacts and invite them all to the forum... unfortunately this was the biggest obstacle, and what we discovered after about three solid weeks of looking into it that is that they wanted us to pay a rather significant amount of money to be whitelisted. On the other hand, I'm affiliated with other sites that don't pay, but I think in those cases there are thousands of users clicking the "not spam" notifications on the emails.
Not sure completely if I'm all right on this information, but either way my experience with trying to get emails to Hotmail/MSN was pretty shitty. I recommend an Internet-wide boycott.

Thats quite annoying.

Ive just tried sending an email from my @mysite.com which is set up in outlook express and even that dosent get through. I can understand hotmail need to stop spam, but blocking every single address unless its on a white list is quite excessive.

[LT Mote]

Krofh...

I would like to start by saying that this is a great add-on for vB, & look forward to adding & getting this system to work properly on my site...

Although I have been encountering some errors, I have been working with my hosting company to correct these problems, the IMAP system is a pain in the arse...

But once that was correcte, I have been stopped by yet another delema!

The images attached below will show the information that I am entering (confirmed by my hosting company) is correct! And still I am encountering the error mentioned in your original post claiming to be incorrect login information.

Please advise further on what I am to do to correct this, I would be happy to give you my admin login & any other necessary information to correct this issue for me. I am of extreme frustration with this project, and wish to finish it so that I can move onto other projects...

Thank you in advance for your support

[croportal]

is this working with gmail, yahoo, msn and other mails...does anyone know some hack that will work with other email accounts

thanks

[basketmen]

hi guys i have using this mod for 10 months, maybe i have bad news now :

if you send message to gmail, it will broken and knowing from (unknown sender) in gmail

maybe the problem is in gmail it self


if you still use this hack please try to sending a mail to gmail and let us know are you get same problem?? if yes so we must find the fix


this is url from gmail groups that talking simillar problem :
http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache...n&ct=clnk&cd=3

[soundbarrierpro]

Is this a resource hog? Doe is require large amounts of bandwidth?