vBMail v1.0.0 [Beta]

[Fillip H.]

Image issue has been taken care of, it will not work for past mail but all future mail will support images. I've updated your site for you

 

[Taurus]

Image issue has been taken care of, it will not work for past mail but all future mail will support images. I've updated your site for you

Will I have to re-download and update to have this fix? Thanks.

 

[Badger]

The logic is that when developing the product, the notion that someone wanted a staff-only mailing list did not enter my mind, and as such protecting data people already received in their inbox seemed like a waste

Understood ...

I guess the problem is that since the current mod state let's everyone access and read all historical emails from any list, it really can't be used for anything other than a single general (publicly available to everyone) email list, if there's no ability to restrict who can access and read every email. Minimally unregistered guests need to be kept out ....

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

Will I have to re-download and update to have this fix? Thanks.

Nah I've patched your site

I guess the problem is that since the current mod state let's everyone access and read all historical emails from any list, it really can't be used for anything other than a single general (publicly available to everyone) email list, if there's no ability to restrict who can access and read every email. Minimally unregistered guests need to be kept out ....

I'll change it so that if you can't subscribe, you can't view the mailing list either

 

[Badger]

Image issue has been taken care of, it will not work for past mail but all future mail will support images. I've updated your site for you

Wow ....

Just sent a another test email and it worked GREAT !!!

Imbedded pics appear within email and if clicked on, they open up into full size ... (see attached BOTTOM pic to see what email user sees when he receives it)

Thanks... makes a huge difference for the kind of creativity we would use the emails for in sending out updates for our collector community .. very slick with the graphics capability ....

Note: the history view from the web site still seems to push everything to the extreme right (see attached TOP pic)...

One suggestion.... it would save a lot of create, send test and edit changes as a process, if we could have a "Preview" mode during create, to see what the HTML email would look like if the user was seeing it in his email?

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

That probably won't make it for Final, but it'll be in 1.1

 

[Badger]

I've continued testing and wanted to setup the Bounced Email function for a trial ...

So, I put an email address in the bounced mail settings "mailbounce@xxx.com" and made sure it matched what was in the vBulletin email option settings as well. Prior to installing vbMail, that vBulletin email option field was blank, defaulting according to vBulletin to "webmaster@xxx.com. Note: using xxx's for privacy ...

I ran a test send and the email bounced, but nothing appeared in the Bounced Email List. So, I re-read vBulletin's field info in the vBulletin email option area, which seemed to indicate if I turned ON the -f option, then it would use the "mailbounce@xxx.com" which I had put in that field.

I did that and sent another test, which this time bounced back to "mailbounce@xxx.com" and there was not that email in vbMail's Bounced Email List, with an option to DELETE it or set it to not a bounced email (not sure what that means?). I deleted it, but the user name still appears in the subscribed list? Shouldn't it automatically unsubscribe any user from a valid email list if I manually delete the email because their emails get bounced?

Is it ok to leave the -f turned ON for use by regular vBulletin mailings, even though I didn't need it before I installed vbMail, which doesn't seem to work for bounces unless it's turned ON. Our server is iMap and I don't use SMTP setting, which are currently turned OFF, as I've never needed to use them either. Is there any advantage in turning on SMTP from vBulletin's Email settings and using it, although I don't know what else it would affect?

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

I ran a test send and the email bounced, but nothing appeared in the Bounced Email List. So, I re-read vBulletin's field info in the vBulletin email option area, which seemed to indicate if I turned ON the -f option, then it would use the "mailbounce@xxx.com" which I had put in that field.

Yeah, per the instructions on the "Email Options" vBulletin Settings page you need the -f param unless you use SMTP.

I deleted it, but the user name still appears in the subscribed list? Shouldn't it automatically unsubscribe any user from a valid email list if I manually delete the email because their emails get bounced?

No, deleting the email means you tell the system it is not a bounced email.
You need to set the bounce threshold in the Bounced Mail Options for vBMail, and then wait for the cron job to collect bounced mail and flag anybody who has received over X bounced mail as undeliverable.

Is it ok to leave the -f turned ON for use by regular vBulletin mailings, even though I didn't need it before I installed vbMail, which doesn't seem to work for bounces unless it's turned ON.

It's perfectly safe

Our server is iMap and I don't use SMTP setting, which are currently turned OFF, as I've never needed to use them either. Is there any advantage in turning on SMTP from vBulletin's Email settings and using it, although I don't know what else it would affect?

SMTP mail sending is more reliable than PHP's internal mail() function

 

[Badger]

Thanks Fillip ...

A few more questions as we prepare to go "live" with multiple email styled newsletters for different audiences (user groups) .. see attached pic...

1. If a user is a member of a user group (ie: Contributing Member) that is automatically subscribed, but subsequently they lose that status and just become standard registered members because their donation expired and that usergroup check mark is removed in their user record, do they also get automatically unsubscribed by vbMail?

2. If a user is banned or deleted from the site, do they also get automatically unsubscribed by vbMail?

3. Has the ability to prevent a user, who is not subscribed to one of the email groups we've set-up shown in the pic attached, from view the stored email history, been added to vbMail? We wouldn't want standard registered members reading Moderator email histories etc.

4. Can we get the ability to delete OLD entries in the email histories?

Thanks for your efforts...

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

1. No

2. Not currently, but I'll add that for Final

3. That will also be added for Final.

4. This probably won't make it for Final, but it should get added in one of the future updates

 

[Badger]

1. No

Thanks ..

Just for clarity to make sure I understand how to handle the process of using vbMail lists as they become entrenched in every day use on our site.

So, if I have a mailing list where EXISTING Contributing Members are enrolled by default ... so far so good and they ALL will get the first mailing ...

Now, time passes and a NEW member subscribes to become a Contributing Member, so I'll need to track those people as they donate and manually add them as subscribers to the appropriate email list? Or, as another option, since they now belong to the Contributing Member user group, they can go to the vbMail screen and subcribe themselves manually?

Other possible occurrence ...

A user is a member of the Contributing Member usergroup and was originally automatically subscribed when the list was set up, but subsequently they lose that status and just become standard registered members because their donation expired. So, as in the NEW members that I added in the first situation, in this case I will have to manually remove (unsubscribe) each member who fits these circumstances?

Finally, there's an option at the bottom of a bounced email that appears when viewing any entry in the Bounced Email List option. (see pic)

I'm not sure what it means and how (or when) I'd choose these options?

Thanks ..

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

They will be able to go subscribe manually. You'd need to remove them manually as well, there's sadly no way of automatically unsubscribing them.

If the system incorrectly tracked an email as a bounced mail, but the contents says it's an autoresponder or something, you have the option of un-flagging it

 

[Badger]

They will be able to go subscribe manually. You'd need to remove them manually as well, there's sadly no way of automatically unsubscribing them.

If the system incorrectly tracked an email as a bounced mail, but the contents says it's an autoresponder or something, you have the option of un-flagging it

Roger that ...

Kind of like the "this is not junk mail" option when you see something in the spam box that shouldn't be there ...

Regards,
Doug

Edit: By the way, I switched over to SMTP sending.

I notice vbMail's Bounced Email List is picking up ALL my email bounces, even the ones coming from another mod titled "EZBounce"... I assume it's supposed to do that?

 

[Fillip H.]

If that mod used the vBulletin "Bounced Mail" address to check for and flag bounced mail then yeah, it's supposed to do that