[RELEASE v2] Auto-Welcome Email to New User

[tubedogg]

Update - Apr 13 03:35 PM: I fixed another small bug that occured when you used email verification.

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This hack was requested by RobAC. It sends a welcome email to a new registrant at your board automatically. You can change the email wording to whatever you like, and turn the feature itself on or off in your Admin CP. If you require your new users to verify their email, it waits until that is done to send the welcome email. Otherwise, it sends it right away.

No demo, for obvious reasons. However, you can register at the vGeekIsland Board (link in my sig) to see it working. Or you could register there anyway, to help us build up our small community. ;)

For version: version 2, beta 5

Files needed: none

Files to edit: register.php

Templates to create: email_welcome, emailsubject_welcome

Instructions
1] Open register.php in an ASCII editor (you know at this point why you can't open it in a WYSIWYG editor; if not, read any of the hack threads in my sig).
2] Around line 414, find
eval("\$subject = \"".gettemplate("emailsubject_activateaccount",1,0)."\";");

mail($email,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");

}
Right below this, add
// send a welcome email using email_welcome and emailsubject_welcome templates, but don't
// send it now if they need to activate their account
if (!$verifyemail && $welcomeuser) {
eval("\$message = \"".gettemplate("email_welcome",1,0)."\";");
eval("\$subject = \"".gettemplate("emailsubject_welcome",1,0)."\";");

mail($newuseremail,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");
}
// end send mail
Then, around line 489, find
eval("standarderror(\"".gettemplate("error_moderateuser")."\");");
} else {
Add right below it
// send a welcome email using email_welcome and emailsubject_welcome templates but only if it's on
if ($welcomeuser) { $email = $userinfo[email];
$username = $userinfo[username];
eval("\$message = \"".gettemplate("email_welcome",1,0)."\";");
eval("\$subject = \"".gettemplate("emailsubject_welcome",1,0)."\";");
mail ($email,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");
}
// end send mail
3] Save and upload register.php. Then upload welcomemysql.php to your forums /admin directory. Go to http://yoururl.com/forums/admin/welcomemysql.php in a browser. If it is successful, it will display a link to you Admin CP.
4] Follow the link, and then create two new templates. First, one called email_welcome, filled with this:
Dear $username,

On behalf of the $bbtitle team, I would like to welcome you to our forums.
I hope you enjoy your stay and would like you to know that if you ever have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact me or one of the other team members.
I have listed our emails below for future reference.

Once again, thanks for joining us!
I hope you have a long and enjoyable stay with us.

Sincerely,
the $bbtitle team
Then, create another one called emailsubject_welcome and fill it with this:
Welcome to $bbtitle!
That's it. You can check out the new option under "Change Options" in the Admin CP.

Instructions are also in the zip file - welcome.txt.

Please do not PM me or contact me via AIM or ICQ about this hack. Post your message here - I will see it and try to help you.

Enjoy!

Edit: Almost forgot this. In the email_welcome template, you have these variables available to you:
$username - inserts the username of the recipient
$bbtitle - inserts the title of your BB
$u - inserts the userid of the recipient
$email - inserts the email address of the recipient
$webmasteremail - inserts the webmaster's email address

[chrispadfield]

thanks for writing this out. I have been meaning to add this is and glad you have done.

[jojo85]

Oh :)
Thx you very much guy :D

[bokhalifa]

good hack ;)
thanks

tubedogg

[RobAC]

Hmmmmm....Kevin, when does the email get sent out to the user? I ran a test twice by registering the username of test and I didn't receive the welcome email. It is set to YES in the control panel and the hack installation was successful. It was a breeze to install. Any ideas?

[tubedogg]

If you use email verification, it should get sent after the email is verified. If not, it should get sent right after registration.

Double-check that you saved and reuploaded register.php (I forgot to do this at first...;)).

Other than that, I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work...You said it appeared in the control panel, which is right. And it's set to yes, which is right.

Hmm...one thing to try. On lines 426 and 498, which should look like this:
mail ($newuseremail,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");
change it to this
mail($newuseremail,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");

I can't imagine that would make a difference, though...

[RobAC]

Verifying now....code is all there in register.php. I'll try making the code change you suggest and see what happens. I registered two separate test users last night and did not receive the email. :(

[RobAC]

It worked! Taking that space out after "mail" in the code worked. Don't ask me why, it doesn't make any sense, but I've tested it twice with email verification turned off and on and it worked both times.

However, there is something strange...with email verification turned off, the message starts out as expected:

Welcome test, (test is the username)

With email verification turned on, the message received after verification starts out like this:

Welcome ,


Any ideas?

[tubedogg]

On line 493 of register.php, try changing
$emails = $DB_site->query_first("SELECT email,username FROM user WHERE userid='$u'");
to
$emails = $DB_site->query("SELECT email,username FROM user WHERE userid='$u'");

[RobAC]

No email sent. :(

[tubedogg]

On lines 493-495, try changing
$emails = $DB_site->query("SELECT email,username FROM user WHERE userid='$u'");
$email = $emails[email];
$username = $emails[username];
to this
$email = $userinfo[email];
$username = $userinfo[username];

[RobAC]

Bingo! Nice job Kevin. It works great now!

-Rob

[tubedogg]

It seems odd that no one else ran across this error mine...is no one else using email verification? Or is it just no one has installed it? :D Anyway I fixed the problem both in the instructions and the zip file.

[RobAC]

Oh oh......I just had a new member sign up and I received the welcome email! LOL Time to go look at the code again.... :)

[Wayne Luke]

Why not use $bbuserinfo[userid] and $bbuserinfo[email]. Would cut down on the number of queries needed in fact it should eliminate any extra queries.

These should contain valid data if the member is already registers.

[jojo85]

I prefer to wait the final release before install this hack cause the final release come soon :)...i hope :rolleyes:

[tubedogg]

Originally posted by wluke
Why not use $bbuserinfo[userid] and $bbuserinfo[email]. Would cut down on the number of queries needed in fact it should eliminate any extra queries.
These should contain valid data if the member is already registers.

$userinfo contains the same info during verification
$userinfo=verifyid("user",$u,1,1);
which is why I used that. The other time it would happen (when verification is not required) I don't use any queries.

Rob: I think I found the problem, maybe. On line 497, try changing this
mail($newuseremail,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");
to this
mail($email,$subject,$message,"From: \"$bbtitle Mailer\" <$webmasteremail>");

[RobAC]

Nice job once again Kevin. Works great. I verified it with different email addresses. thanks!!!

[mjames]

Thanks for the hack, Kevin! I was looking for something like this, but unfortunately, there isn't really a need, IMO, because you can vBulletin to verify all new user's e-mail, but just change the permissions so users awaiting e-mail confirmation can still view everything. Then, just edit the confirmation templates and viola, you have your own welcome message.

[Jaxsdad]

I followed this to a T...NOTHING! I tried it several times tonight and got NO email!

I KNOW I did everything like you said, but it still doesnt work! It is checked YES in the CP and register.php was saved and uploaded to the server to the admin area.

I really want this to work...it would save me from doing it manually (Which I do EVERYTIME a new user signs up)!

[JJR512]

Tubedogg, you are an excellent hacker. However, I won't be using this hack for two reasons.

1. I have email verification on, so every new member gets an email already. If I want to include a welcome message in it, I could change a template, I think. I think two emails is unnecessary.

2. I (and my members) prefer a more personal touch than some auto-generated thing. Whenever a new person registers, whoever sees the new name first will post a welcome message to that member in our main chatting forum. Other people will reply with their own greetings. I don't think we've missed anyone in a long time (OK, we only have 190-some members and have been opened only 11 months, but still...)

You registered on my board, and there was a welcome message to you. You never posted anything, so I don't even know if you saw it. In case you missed it, look here: http://www.jjr512.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21087&highlight=tubedogg :)

[tubedogg]

You're right I never saw it :) I registered for whatever reason to test something and then just never posted. I have been busy lately, that's why I haven't been pumping out the hacks as much as usual ;) but I have more free time as of today so hopefully it's back to great hacking!

[Maverick1236]

everything is set up ok-but no welcome email is sent
also:
$emails = $DB_site->query_first("SELECT email,username FROM user WHERE userid='$u'");

i dont even see that line in my register.php

[Spoker]

Does this hack work on the vbulletin final release?

[c0bra]

I was just gonna ask the same question. :)

[RobAC]

Yes. I'm running it on my Forums. Works great.

[Spoker]

tnx,
i'll check it out

[freehtml]

I had installed this hack for vB 2.0.0 final, also no email send

[Eficrx]

free html i just registered and it worked for me

[Eficrx]

it doesnt seem to work for me on vb 2.0 :mad:

[freehtml]

Originally posted by Eficrx
free html i just registered and it worked for me

maybe its because I had enable the verify email option?

[Eficrx]

it doesnt seem to work for me either way i really want this hack too =(

[Eficrx]

yeah i think because you had the email option on.

[kirck]

can't get this hack to work. I have double checked all the files but the emails are not being sent. I have run tests by registering as test but no luck. a little help please?

[Eficrx]

same problem with me

[kirck]

I got it, I did not turn off the email notification in the control panel.:rolleyes:

[Eficrx]

i installed it wrong :D works now i got confused

[kdog316]

when a member signed up on my board i recieved the e-mail:confused:

[RobAC]

Go back through this thread because I had a similar problem and Tubedogg explained how to fix it.

[kdog316]

worked thanks

[FindSP.com]

How do I make it work with 2.0.1?

Please answer.. this feature could be great for my forum :)


Thanks.

[Eficrx]

it should work with 2.01

[FindSP.com]

well.. it doesn't send emails when I sign up or people who sign up..


can you help?

[Sinema]

Loved this!

I finally got vBulleting Working and I came back to look for hacks :-) and this great one was the first!

Too Cool for Words :-)

[Cold Steel]

Originally posted by Eficrx
it should work with 2.01

Does it work for 2.0.1?

And can we please get this into the next version? :)

[Iliana]

I have attempted three times to install this hack and still no emails are received when registering my site. I have gone back and started from scratch and now I have the Welcome Email option listed three times on my Control Panel. Can someone help figure out what I'm doing wrong and how to get rid of the other two welcome Email options on my cp and get this hack to work for me? Please please please :)

THanks,

Iliana

[Iliana]

bumping this up in hopes that someone can help me :(

Ever since I tried this hack, I am not able to send emails through my CP to the members. I made a back up copy of the register.php file before messing with it and I copied it back over, once I discovered that the hack was not working for me.

Can someone PLEASE OH PRETTY PLEASE help me? :(

[RobAC]

First of all, you may want to replace the "none" under the version of vBulletin in your user profile with the version of vBulletin that you're running.

Second, if you haven't done so already, make sure that you have entered valid registration information into your profile as per John's request.

[amykhar]

It's not working for me either with version 2.0

I require email verification, and the welcome email is never sent. :(

Amy

[Eficrx]

does this work on 2.01

[datman99]

will this work on my VB 2.0.1?

[Sinema]

Best thing is to try it and find out ..

I use 2.0.3 w/ vbPortal 3.0b and it works fine

[Kaizen]

I have version 2.0.3 and i have gone through the instructions and everything and it still doesn't work.

I have it so users have to verify there emails if that helps.

Plz help me - i really want this feature

[Byron]

Hope that this useful hack be a standard feature in the next version. Possible?

[bdjncox]

Same problem here...

Installed the hack with seemingly no problems. But, no welcome e-mails are being sent out. I tried re-installing the hack after the 2.03 upgrade but it still doesn't work and now I have two instances in my CP.

Anyone have an easy way to remove this from the CP so I can start over and try again?

[LuBi]

Can anyone make this script work with 2.0.3? I tried installing this as my first hack and it seemed not to work at all. I've created 3 test accounts all with no emails.

[LuBi]

Does this hack work with 2.0.3? yes or no still waiting...:(

[Kaizen]

doesnt work for me

i am 2.0.3

save yourself the hassle - might be implemented for next version

Originally posted by LuBi
Does this hack work with 2.0.3? yes or no still waiting...:(

[Matt*is*thick]

Same here, no welcome email sent.

Can someone pleeeeeeeeease fix it?

[grb123]

If you look at register.php for v2.0.3 you will see that there are two instances of each of the lines you have to search for and replace/add. Don't know if that is different to earlier versions of vB, but it would be handy if someone could confirm what we should do.

[LuBi]

I wont be upgrading anytime soon I have to many goodies installed. Also no one ever stated anything like it would be implememnted in the next version. So I'm gonna to play with it and we'll see how it goes I'll post my findings.

[TigerLily]

Is there any way to do this using the Private Messaging system instead of emailing new members? I've had a "welcome wagon" group of members welcoming the newbies using PMs for some time, but the community is growing so big and so fast that it's impossible to keep up anymore. I would love to find a way to automate a welcome PM for each new member. I've found that it gets the newbies used to the PM system, which they might otherwise skip over.

TigerLily:)

PS Would love to find a way to do this for someone's birthday too!

[hacker]

I have installed the hack, but may have accidentally applied the welcomemysql.php twice! I now have four Email Options as shown.

How do I adjust it back to one? Also, after installing, is it OK to delete the welcomemysql.php file?:confused:

PS: I can't get it to work though the installation seems correct.

[hacker]

I can't get it installed and am using 2.0.3. Anyway, are there instructions to uninstall the sections at the CP?

[hacker]

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it.

[Steve Machol]

hacker,

I'm not familiar with this hack, but it looks like it creates a new table in the database. If that's true, then you my be able to fix the problem by going into phpMyAdmin and removing the duplicate tables.

[Kaizen]

Hey tubedog

does this hack work on:

vb 2.0.3 ?

also in register there are two identical lines - i cant get past the first step....

help

[Cloughie]

I tried this in 2.0.3 and no luck?

I removed the templates I made..

Can anyone tell me what else I need to remove to completely remove the hack?

[hacker]

Originally posted by smachol
hacker,

I'm not familiar with this hack, but it looks like it creates a new table in the database. If that's true, then you my be able to fix the problem by going into phpMyAdmin and removing the duplicate tables.

What are the tables to remove?

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by hacker


What are the tables to remove? Like I said I'm not familiar with this hack. You'll need to ask someone more familiar with it, or browse the database with phpMyAdmin and locate it manually.

[hacker]

Does anyone know how to uninstall this hack?

[Cloughie]

or does anyone know from the swl doc what table it makes?

Does it make a settings table ? Is that all?

If I delete the settings table will it be completely uninstalled?

thank you..

TubeDog?

[Chen]

NO don't delete the setting table!!!
Jesus Christ are you nuts!

Run this query:
DELETE FROM setting WHERE varname='welcomeuser'
and AFTER you run this queyr run this one again:
INSERT INTO setting (settingid, settinggroupid, title, varname, value, description, optioncode, displayorder) VALUES (NULL,'6','Send Welcome Email','welcomeuser','1','If you wish for a welcome email to be sent when a user registers, select Yes. You can change what the email says by editing the emailsubject_welcome and email_welcome templates.','yesno','16')

[Cloughie]

Originally posted by FireFly

Jesus Christ are you nuts!



LOL, this made me laugh....

Thank you very much Firefly!!! Exaclty what I needed...

[hacker]

Firefly, if I only do Step one , would this take out everything from the mtSQL database? And if I delete the code I inserted or replace the code back to the original, it would be an uninstall?

If I do both Steps 1 and 2 queries as suggested but without modifying the code, does is mean that the Hack will remain, but with one instance of the Welcome Email at the CP?

[hacker]

Also, I read through the posts, no one seems to know whether this hack can work with 2.0.3.

[Chen]

Originally posted by hacker
Firefly, if I only do Step one , would this take out everything from the mtSQL database? And if I delete the code I inserted or replace the code back to the original, it would be an uninstall?

If I do both Steps 1 and 2 queries as suggested but without modifying the code, does is mean that the Hack will remain, but with one instance of the Welcome Email at the CP?
Yes, and yes.

[hacker]

Firefly:

One last thing, does it work with 2.0.3? All the previous posters say it can't work, and I can't seem to get it to work also, even with email verification shut off.

Thanks again for your help. Which part of Israel are you in?

[Chen]

I have no idea, sorry. Not my hack, and I've never used it in the past (maybe I did and I can't remember ;)).

I'm from Tel Aviv.

[hacker]

Firefly's uninstall worked for the database. The majority of people here could not get this hack to work. I tried, and I couldn't no matter what I did and double checked. I've installed about 7-8 hacks but this still mystifies me.

Thanks for the trouble, Firefly.

[Heineken77]

I would LOVE to hear that this has been fixed to work with 2.0.3!! Is there anything close to this hack that works?

Thanks.

Tubedog you kick a$$!!! :):D

[Byron]

I have an idea for this welcome new members function. Need a small modification.

Please take a look at http://vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=190968&t=5703#post190968

[Byron]

Does this work on V2.03? My install was unsuccessful.

[Cloughie]

this would be an awesome hack if it worked :(

[Heineken77]

I hear it does work, just not for 2.0.3 yet, the man just needs some time :)