Mini Mods - Email Reminder for inactive users

AS OF MARCH 16TH 2013 - THIS ADDON IS NO LONGER BEING UPDATED DUE TO INSUFFICIENT TIME AVAILABLE. THANK YOU ALL FOR USING THIS ADDON AND FOR YOUR SUPPORT. IF YOU OR YOU KNOW OF ANYONE THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO PICK UP WHERE I LEFT OFF ON THIS ADDON, PLEASE DO SO. I'M RELEASING THIS ADDON TO THE VBULLETIN COMMUNITY TO UPDATE AS NEEDED.
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What does it do?
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This mod will send out reminder emails to inactive members to encourage them to come back to your site.

I also want to give full credit and thanks to the developers of the previous versions from which this was derived:
technom8t (Email reminder for inactive users 1.0.0)
C Braithwaite and djbaxter (Email reminder for inactive users v1.2.7)
robertjandreu (Email reminder for inactive users 1.1.3)

*** See Updates section below for new feature list per release. ***

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS WITH THE ADDON, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO CLICK THE INSTALLED LINK!! THANK YOU!!

Features
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* Turn product on/off.
* Set the number of days a user can be away from your site before being considered inactive. (Default: 30 days)
* Send reminder emails once and once only during any inactive period. (Default: Off)
* Edit maximum number of reminder emails sent totally.
* Set how often an reminder email is sent during an inactive period .
* Set reminder email format - TEXT or HTML.
* Set the reminder email subject. (phrased) (site must be placed in debug mode currently to edit, not translate)
* Set the reminder email body. (phrased) (site must be placed in debug mode currently to edit, not translate)
* Set the usergroups to be sent a reminder email.
* Set userids to exclude.
* Log inactive users that have been sent a reminder.

Install Instructions
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This was written specifically for VB4. The VB3.8.x version is here.

IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU INSTALL, IF YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS VERSION INSTALLED I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU BACK UP YOUR
CUSTOM REMINDER MESSAGE SUBJECT AND MESSAGE BODY THIS MOD WILL OVER WRITE THEM. ALSO, IN VERSION 2.x, REMINDER
MESSAGE CONTENTS HAS BEEN MOVED TO USING VBPHRASES. LOOK IN THE INSTALL.TXT FILE WITH THIS UPLOAD FOR A LIST OF
PHRASES USED IN THIS MOD.

1. Back up Custom Reminder Email Phrases that you have made.
2. Upload file in the upload folder to the forums folder on your server.
3. In your AdminCP:
a. If you've installed an older version of this mod prior to 1.1.4 you must uninstall it first as well as remove the files that came with it. I can not stress this enough.
b. Go to Plugs & Products -> Product Manager -> Add New Product.
c. Import the product xml from the zip file. (make sure to use overwrite)
4. The mod is disabled by default on install so you will need to enable it. Go to Vbulletin "Settings" -> Options -> Inactivity Reminder Emails.
5. Settings and the inactivity log viewer are also available on the left menu just above the users settings group.

History Log
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Update 2.2.1
* NEW : New plugin resets inactive members when they return to site.
* FIX : UserID field in inactivity log was showing 0, and UserID was not being added to the optout url.

UpDate 2.2.0
* CHANGE : Inactivity is now based on members Last Activity Date.
* ADD : Exporting the following additional values which can be used in reminder email templates. Check readme.txt in zip file for list of place holders.

Update 2.1.5
* CHANGE : Mod no longer has the option of adding a footer credit to the end of your website.
* CHANGE : Mod no longer has the option of adding a footer credit to outgoing emails.
* CHANGE : New Reminder Optout: Currently this is only accessable from emails being sent out.

Note: Please let members know that they may receive one more email at which time they can choose to optout/unsubscribe by clicking on the embedded link or copying/paste it into
their browser.

* FIX : Reminders were still being sent out incorrectly. I believe this is now fixed finally.
* FIX : Issues when emails were sent out had the incorrect "From" address and listed the host domain name. This should be resolved now.
* FIX : Issue regarding special characters in the usernames being added to the database has been resolve.
* NEW: New data fields have been implimented for keeping track of when reminders are sent out and how many a member has received. If you have a had this mod installed since version 1.1.4, it will look for those fields and rename them so you do not loose previous data in those fields, otherwise new fields will be added.
* NEW: I've added the ability to turn off the admin report. In this version, if it is enabled, you may receive 2 reports. One report for members that have never received a reminder and one for members who haven't received a reminder since the last reminder based on the frequencey setting in the mod settings screen.
* NEW: Reminder's sender and email address are correctly determined now. Should now reflect site name with the webmasteremail address as the reply to.
* CHANGE :Translations for 2.1.1 may not work for versions after since some templates and phrases have been removed.

Update 2.1.1 (6/24/2010) - German Translation - (Thanks Semmi)
Thanks to Semmi for translating the Admin menu, Phrases and Reminder Phrase Templates to German.

Update 2.1.1 (3/30/2010) - Bug Fix
* FIX - Removed extra where clause in query where scheduled task script was performing an update when inactive reminders where based on last post count.
* FIX - Email Phrase Templates - Changed $bburl variable to $forumurl to correct a broken unsubscribe link.
* NEW - Includes tool to reset the date and count of reminder emails that were previously sent to users. This tool is mainly for testing purposes.

Update 2.1.0 (3/26/2010) - Bug Fixs and some new features
* Edit number of emails send totally
* Choose whether inactivity is based on members "Last Post" or their "Last Activity"
* Keep a log of all inactive users contacted
* Opt-Out Feature for members - Include an opt-out link in reminder email. (Thanks to Gene Steinberg)
* Added a link to the bottom of the default email template phrases that members can use to unsubscribe from reminder emails.

Update 2.0.1 (03/15/2010 9:00pm) - Bug Fix
* FIX - Issue related to processing users in a batch configuration. Mod was checking for a field length greater than zero instead of a numeric value greater than zero.

Update 2.0.0 (03/15/2010) - Complete rewrite of mod
* NEW - Can specify number of users to process during nightly scheduled task.
* NEW - Send reminder emails in either text or html format.
* NEW - Email subject and message body uses vb phrase templates. I've included sample content in email phrase templates so all you need to is customize as desired.

Update 1.1.4 (03/05/2010) - Initial release for vBulletin 4.x
* FIX - Would continue to send out email more often than specified intervals due to incorrect setting in cron job.
* NEW - Exclude userids from processing.


IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS WITH THE ADDON, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THOSE THAT HAVE NOT INDICATED THE MOD IS INSTALLED WILL BE A LOWER PRIORITY.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO CLICK THE INSTALLED LINK!! THANK YOU!!

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO NOMINATE.

If you like this mod and it has helped your site, and would like to see more features added, please consider donating.
Your support is very much appreciated! Thank you - Thank you

[cbiweb]

Originally Posted by TalkVirginia

Can you email me a screen shot of your test account? From admincp. Something doesn't sound like it's set right. Also if you could email me a screen shot of your mod settings screen. jim@talkvirginia.net

Thanks Send me that and I'll look into it this evening.

Originally Posted by cbiweb

Screenshots sent. Thanks again!

Did you receive my email with the screenshots?

[TalkVirginia]

Originally Posted by cbiweb

Did you receive my email with the screenshots?

Yes. As a matter of fact I did. Everything there appears to be fine. I'll have to look at it again this evening when I get home. Do you have access to phpMyAdmin? Can you export the data for your test accounts only and email it to me?

Thanks

[threethrees]

Hi -
I love this mod, but my "sent from" email address gets output as blank and thus the email gets marked as spam. The subject and content text are fine.
Any suggestions?

[TalkVirginia]

Originally Posted by threethrees

Hi -
I love this mod, but my "sent from" email address gets output as blank and thus the email gets marked as spam. The subject and content text are fine.
Any suggestions?

Install the 2.2.1 version if you are running vb4.x.x. That bug has been fixed.

[Marv]

Hi TalkVirginia,

this is long needed mod and I thank you for that one. It does what it should do. But there is a major downside (in particular there are 2) in using it - and yesterday we´ve learned it the hard way, what it is about.

Our ISP forwarded us abuse notices they´d received after installing your mod. As most of the forums out there, since the launch on the edge of this century we have gained a large number of accounts in the database (~30k). In the meanwhile many of them have invalid email-adresses, since the accountholder deleted or changed his emailaccount.

On that basis the mailhosting companies noticed a bounce rate, which has reached the indication level for spam. AFAIR, the common treshhold is at 10%. For that reason hotmail was the first who dropped an abuse report to our ISP, a second one followed by a european hoster forced our ISP to shut down our server immediatly. That´s a responsible behaviour, so we don´t argue with em. They got in contact with us and we were able to explain what happend, deactivated the reminder mod and we were back online.

Your mod, like any other mod referring to email features, shows the lack of checking if a users mailaccount is still existing before sending and a bounce management. Nothing brings you and your forums closer to the spam blacklist, as sending out dozens of emails to not existing mailaccounts and sending these ones periodicly. That´s truly the best way to get your forums mailadresses and IP´s blocked.

What do you think? Could you implement at least a bounce management into this mod here? Something, that deactivates all email functionality for hard or softbounces and brings them to the usergroup for awaiting an email verification/activation? That could avoid a lot of trouble for forums with a userbase +10k.

[TalkVirginia]

Originally Posted by Marv

Hi TalkVirginia,

this is long needed mod and I thank you for that one. It does what it should do. But there is a major downside (in particular there are 2) in using it - and yesterday we?ve learned it the hard way, what it is about.

Our ISP forwarded us abuse notices they?d received after installing your mod. As most of the forums out there, since the launch on the edge of this century we have gained a large number of accounts in the database (~30k). In the meanwhile many of them have invalid email-adresses, since the accountholder deleted or changed his emailaccount.

On that basis the mailhosting companies noticed a bounce rate, which has reached the indication level for spam. AFAIR, the common treshhold is at 10%. For that reason hotmail was the first who dropped an abuse report to our ISP, a second one followed by a european hoster forced our ISP to shut down our server immediatly. That?s a responsible behaviour, so we don?t argue with em. They got in contact with us and we were able to explain what happend, deactivated the reminder mod and we were back online.

Your mod, like any other mod referring to email features, shows the lack of checking if a users mailaccount is still existing before sending and a bounce management. Nothing brings you and your forums closer to the spam blacklist, as sending out dozens of emails to not existing mailaccounts and sending these ones periodicly. That?s truly the best way to get your forums mailadresses and IP?s blocked.

What do you think? Could you implement at least a bounce management into this mod here? Something, that deactivates all email functionality for hard or softbounces and brings them to the usergroup for awaiting an email verification/activation? That could avoid a lot of trouble for forums with a userbase +10k.

Hi Marv,

First, let me say that I apologize for the issues the mod has caused. Secondly, I am sure you will be pleased to know I am currently working on a bounced email manager for this mod. Unfortunately, my time to work on development is limited and I will do my best to get something out as soon as my time will allow.

EDIT: Marv, I did a little research on checking to see if an email address exists before sending an email. It looks like most email servers are denying this validation to protect users from spambots. However, the closest that we can get to is at least checking to verify that the domain name is a valid mail server and that "MX" or mail records do exist on that server. I'm currently testing this change locally. If you would like to try this out now as long as you feel comfortable making the change yourself.

1. Open the functions_remindermail.php file that resides in your forums includes folder in your favorite text editor (such as notepad++ or textpad).
2. Scroll down to or about line 100.

Below this line:

PHP Code:


$email = $row['email']; // user email address 


Insert:

PHP Code:


list($junk, $maildomain) = explode('@', $email); 


3. Now.... On or about line 131:

Change:

PHP Code:


if(is_valid_email($toemail))
{ 


To:

PHP Code:


if (checkdnsrr($maildomain, "MX"))
{ 


This should cut down on some of the invalid emails that go out. Let me know how this works for you, or if you have questions.

Thanks

[TalkVirginia]

Greetings fellow VB admins,

As I'm working on the bounced email detection for this mod, I've been thinking that I may release the bounce detection as a separate addon. Here's a couple reasons why:

1. I know in the past since I've been working on the reminders addon I've gotten responses that it's confusing. Adding additional functionality and settings may only add to the confusion.

2. With all the additional settings for the bounce detection the settings screen is scrolling about 2 - 3 screens. More could be added which would make it even longer.

Just some thoughts I'm throwing out there. What are your thoughts. Tonight I'll post a screen shot of the settings screen and you can see what I mean.

[Alan_SP]

How this will work together? This is main question. If it can work well together, no problem.

For example, if mail gets bounced, will user change his usergroup? This sometime would be good for me. I want just that users with bounced mail doesn't receive remainder mails.

[Marv]

Hi TalkVirginia,
somehow I must have missed your last post. I appreciate your fast response.

Your suggestion to check up on the domains seems to be a good effort, but wont get even close to what you are trying with the bounce manager now (based on EZ´s Bounce management?). The Domains will be there, yahoo, gmail, hotmail and all the other mailproviders. Guess that wont help much or is only the drop into the sea.

I´m looking forward to your newest announcement - or let me call it your new project. Personal I would recommend a seperate bounce mod. There are lot´s of email-mods and built-in vb functions which could benefit all from a sepereate one, in case someone don´t wants to install the email reminder.

Thumbs up, good to see you´re taking care of that.
Kudos.

[doopz]

Id go for a seperate bounce manager! and def. in need of one too