Mini Mods - Email reminder for inactive users

Inactive reminder emails. This mod was designed to send out a reminder to inactive members to try and win them back.

***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
***

[Total666]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Admin CP | vBulletin Options | Inactive User Reminder Emails

Set:

Days of Inactivity = 90
How many days a user can go without posting before they are considered inactive.

Product Active?
Is this product active? Yes

Email Frequency =30
How often to send a reminder email once a member has become inactive.

Email Quantity = 3-50, depending on available server resources
How many emails to send each time cron runs (Lower means faster board, but longer to send all emails. Higher, vice versa.)

Usergroups = ???
List the usergroups that you wish to send the emails to here. (Seperate by commas) eg. 2,3,4,7

The settings are now like you suggested .. I'll let you know .. Thanks .. Total

[ComputerVitals]

I have a question.

If user X has become inactive for lets say 30 days.
I have it set for 30 days.

The addon will send a reminder email on day 31.
How often will this user get an email? will it be every day? or will it be another 30 days before they get an email?

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by Total666

ANy Idea why I would receive around 250 + e-mails like this


Inactive User Reminder Email Report

This email shows that the product is installed and working as it should be.


There were no inactive users at this time.


one every 1 to 3 minutes ?? Ideas .. Thnaks

Total

I'm making a guess here that you installed 1.11 then changed to 1.09? did you remember to replace the php file?

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by ComputerVitals

I have a question.

If user X has become inactive for lets say 30 days.
I have it set for 30 days.

The addon will send a reminder email on day 31.
How often will this user get an email? will it be every day? or will it be another 30 days before they get an email?

depends on the frequency setting.

[ComputerVitals]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

depends on the frequency setting.

Ok, it was set at 3

so does them mean it's sending out emails to that user every 3 days?
I would like it only every 30 days.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by ComputerVitals

Ok, it was set at 3

so does them mean it's sending out emails to that user every 3 days?

Yes, exactly.

Originally Posted by ComputerVitals

I would like it only every 30 days.

Just change the 3 to 30.

[raven3d]

it was 1.09 and they said a script on my forum was sending hundreds of emails and it was killing the server!

anyway, brilliant mod but sadly on my behalf an over zealous host.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by raven3d

it was 1.09 and they said a script on my forum was sending hundreds of emails and it was killing the server!

anyway, brilliant mod but sadly on my behalf an over zealous host.

Your settings are incorrect. See instructions and this post: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=650

[LordDB]

Hi there, djbaxter

Got a little problem here...can you kindly advise, plz?

I ran the mod, and got the message below! How can I correct this?

Cheers!

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.0:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT * FROM user WHERE lastactivity < '1179088245' AND emailDate < '1179088245' AND options & 16 LIMIT;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Error Number : 1064
Date : Sunday, May 27th 2007 @ 09:30:45 PM
Script : http://www.norfolkmanagementrentals....cron&cronid=24
Referrer : http://www.norfolkmanagementrentals.co.uk/forum
IP Address :
Username : Mega Admin
Classname : vb_database

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by daPLAYBOY

Hi there, djbaxter

Got a little problem here...can you kindly advise, plz?

I ran the mod, and got the message below! How can I correct this?

Cheers!

I'm no MySQL expert but I don't see anything obviuously wrong with that query.

I think the problem may be that you're running vBulletin 3.60, according to that error message. I think Chris developed and tested the add-on on 3.64 and later.

One more reason to upgrade your vBulletin installtion (but certainly not the only one - some of the updates were security fixes).