[Cyricx]

FAQ

• How do the emails work?

This is a basic rundown of how the emails work..

When a new thread is created on the forum, plugins check for the email integration settings and then send an email out to everyone that has subscribed to that FORUM for instant email notification.

When a new reply is added to a thread, the plugins check to see what forum that thread is in, and then if that forum has email integration settings, and then sends an email out to everyone that is subscribed to that FORUM for instant email notification.

The cron job does the processing of the emails.

It checks your forums for email integration settings and then connects to each of the mailboxes one at a time. Pulls all the messages out, decodes them, cleans them up, checks for errors etc.

To determine who the user for the email is it checks the email header for who it came from. If you have strict email turned on, it grabs the username and then verifies what domain sent the email. If you have strict email turned off, it just grabs the email address of the person that sent the email. Note: this can be easy to fake.

O.. and yahoo mailing lists... do not use strict email checking. You can post as just about anyone you want in seconds from microsoft outlook

It then checks the "in_reply_to" in the message header. This should contain a predefined group of characters that let's us know it's a reply and assigns the post to the correct thread and parentid. Some virus scanners change this so in the subject line of reply emails is the threadid number. We check for that next as a backup If it doesn't match either of these criteria, it's classified as a new thread.

If it is determined that the email is a reply, it uses the datamanager to send the reply and uses the plugins to send out the emails.

If it is a new thread, then it uses the datamanager to post the new thread and uses embedded code in the file to send the email.

It then flags the message to be deleted and before closing each mailbox, expunges all marked messages from it. (Just incase an email came to the box after it had grabbed the list, this way one doesn't get lost! )

So the only time you'll get an email when you run the cronjob is when it is grabbing an email

Additionally, manually running the cron job will sometimes cause the quote boxes to not appear in the mailbox. This is due to the bbcode_quote template not being cached in the admincp

• Error - Undefined Function

If you get the error the below error you will need to enable IMAP support on your server. If you host your own server, check your php.ini file, the line for imap support will be commented out. If you do not host your own server, request your host to enable this.

• Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imap_open() in
  /*****/includes/cron/emailintegration.php on line XXX

To verify if you have IMAP installed go to your admincp -> Maintence -> View Php Info and you should see something like this:

additional .ini files parsed /etc/php.d/imap.ini,

OR

imap

IMAP c-Client Version 200X


To correct this problem you will need to have the php.ini file recompiled with IMAP functions enabled -
http://us.php.net/manual/en/ref.imap.php

You do not need to have IMAP installed, but if you wish to also install IMAP, instructrions for doing so can be found here -
http://us.php.net/imap

• Error - Couldn't open stream

If you get this error while manually running the cron job (suggested to do the first time to be sure it's running right!)

imap_open() [function.imap-open]: Couldn't open stream

Your connection type setting for one or more of your forums are incorrect. I suggest only setting up one forum the first time. Edit that forum, and try one of the other 6 connection types. Then rerun the cron. It's a trial and error if you do not know how your server is setup. Some people use IMAP, some POP3 and others still use POP3 with Official Certificate, so try all 6.

• Can I use a Gmail account to pull the emails from?

You most certainly can.

Login to your mailbox at gmail, go to Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP

Enable POP for the account, either from here on, or for all mail. Be sure to select archive or delete for what to do after the messages are downloaded. Otherwise the system will continue to repost the emails!!

In your forummanager use the folowing settings:

email address to reply to: [email protected]
hostname: pop.gmail.com
username: [email protected]
password: password
Type of connection: select "POP3 with SSL (Self signed certificate)"

Done!

• Smilies don't show up in html emails!

Images are stored in html files with the url for the location of the image. Edit your smilies in the smilie manager and give them all the true url of the image location. For example instead of /smilies/smilie.gif change them to http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/imag...ies/smilie.gif

That will allow them to show up correctly in email.

How does it work with Thread Subscriptions?

This plugin does NOT change how thread subscriptions work. You get the same emails, same format for thread subscriptions.

It just adds an option to instant subscribe to the forum and those emails you can reply to.

However... it does have a series of checks to be sure that these two don't conflict. Here's a fairly concise list of how this plugin integrates with the subscribe thread function.

When an email reply is processed, it checks if user's are subscribed for instant notification for the forum AND the thread.

• If they are, it removes their subscriptions to the thread and sends them a forum email.
• If a user is only subscribed to the forum, then they get the forum email.
• If a user is only subscribed to the thread, they get vbulletins default thread email.

When a reply is posted on the forums for a forum that email integration is turned on for, it runs the same checks as above.

Additionally, if a user has it setup to be instantly subscribed to all threads they reply to it checks then to see if they are subscribed to the forum. If they are, it doesn't allow the system to also subscribe them to the thread.

If a user tries to subscribe to a thread for instant notification for an EI Enabled forum and they are also subscribed for instant notification to the forum, it'll give them an error. However, they may still subscribe to the thread for daily or weekly updates while still having instant notification to the forum.

Is that confusing enough?? Trying writing the code for it!

[Funboy]

Look forward to your more stable version Cyricx as think this may well work for my forum. I like the idea so will watch this one grow in version number

Sounds like a great start well done.

Funboy

[scottct1]

I wonder how this would work for us with vBseo.

Looking forward to seeing this one with the bugs fixed.

[txspaderz]

This is a great idea! I'm looking forward to see'ing this out of beta!

[dope15gd]

this is an awesome idea for my mobile users. I will try this out on my test board in the next few days and report back

will need a link in the foot of the email to disable subscription of threads...

this is great tool.... thanks!

[subnet_rx]

I like this idea too, I've always wanted to do this for text messages.

[Doug Nelson]

I've been waiting for something like this for some time. Hope development goes smoothly.

[RvG2]

I need this!

once it became stable.

[shortbus1662]

awesome!

[ChurchMedia]

Wow -- I'll be keeping my eye on this! Thanks for working on it!

[projectego]

Awesome! Thank you very much!

[rayw]

Great idea! Will be keeping an eye on this.

[Cyricx]

Originally Posted by nexialys

will need a link in the foot of the email to disable subscription of threads...

this is great tool.... thanks!

Great idea! I'll be workin on those templates some while I work on the format of the emails that are posted and the blank bug. I'll add that in

I'm also going to add a little blurp that says "You may also start a new thread by sending an email to $foruminfo[ei_replyaddress]."