Email Digests

MarkDHamill · Post by **MarkDHamill** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:44 pm

Unfortunately it is not an easy mod to install. However, on the installation page on my web site you might want to skip down to the part about using a Site Monitoring Service. If you use this option installing becomes a lot easier because you don't have to worry about the cron.

drixie · Post by **drixie** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 3:46 pm

ok. after days of racking my brain. I finally installed it. I'll try to fix the cron soon too.

Is there anyway to subscribe users to the digest automatically. My users actually wont mind. Their major problem is actually navigating the forum (they are more accustomed to social networking sites where they add friends), so they wont mind if links to recent posts are sent to their e-mail addresses.

I'll appreciate any help.

MarkDHamill · Post by **MarkDHamill** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:48 pm

Yes, just go into the ACP and enable the setting. You can also subscribe existing users to receive digests.

Sorry it's such a pain to install. You were warned.

drixie · Post by **drixie** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 7:23 pm

OK. Thanks a million. I'm still figuring out how to get the cron right, but for now, is there a way I can send the digests manually?

P.S this mod is the best thing after easymod and attachment mod. keep it up.

MarkDHamill · Post by **MarkDHamill** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 8:18 pm

If you used a site monitoring service as described on the installation page, you effectively have an external cron service that will kick off the mail_digests.php program once an hour.

http://phpbb.potomactavern.org/digests/installation.htm

Search for "Using an External Web Monitoring Service" near the bottom of the page.

lifedeuce · Post by **lifedeuce** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:43 am

I added the MOD and I get the digest sent to my e-mail when I put mail_digests.php in theweb browser. MY problem is the links all come like this: http://www.dawgbones.comphbb/viewforum.php?f=2

There should be a / between dawgbones.com and phBB. Anyone know how I can fix this? I'l lbe asking about setting up my CRON in CPanel next

normd1 · Post by **normd1** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:11 am

hi,
sorry guys, i do not have so much free time to read all the posts in this topic. So, i'll just ask here then. Help me out.

i'm using a site monitoring service that kick off the mail_digests.php program once an hour. And my site users will receive the digest once an hour starting the hour they set to receive it. Is there any way to make them receive the digest only once a day? I'm using the 1.0.18 version with phpbb 2.0.22.

TQ

sbourdon · Post by **sbourdon** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:40 am

normd1 wrote:hi,
sorry guys, i do not have so much free time to read all the posts in this topic. So, i'll just ask here then. Help me out.

i'm using a site monitoring service that kick off the mail_digests.php program once an hour. And my site users will receive the digest once an hour starting the hour they set to receive it. Is there any way to make them receive the digest only once a day? I'm using the 1.0.18 version with phpbb 2.0.22.

TQ

That's exactly what I do on my website!

1. Simply remove the Time of day to send digest dropdown box from digest_body.tpl
2. Select Midnight as the Default Time of day to send digest in the ACP (Digests Admin > Configuration)
3.Modify all Hour sent (your time) values to Midnight as well in the ACP (Digests Admin > Modify Subscribers)
4. Set your site monitoring service to Midnight and... Enjoy!

normd1 · Post by **normd1** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:31 am

Set your site monitoring service to Midnight

How to do that? there is not option for that. I'm using SiteUptime, free plan.

They got Check Period for 30mins or 60minutes. Where can i find the option to set it on Midnight?

Thanks.

sbourdon · Post by **sbourdon** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:28 am

As a site monitoring service, I use Outposted: http://www.xequte.com/other/index.html#outposted
It is a simple freeware program that you install on your computer; leave your computer On at all times and configure Outposted to check your website at whatever time you prefer (I choose 00:05).

Outposted can check your websites once per day, or every X minutes. Whenever changes are detected the site is e-mailed to you (this can be turned Off if you don't want to receive emails).

Give it a try; I've never missed a Digest using it!

normd1 · Post by **normd1** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:01 am

cannot do that. i'm using office's computer. Have to switch off after work.

Any other solution?

Thanks

sbourdon · Post by **sbourdon** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:11 am

normd1 wrote: cannot do that. i'm using office's computer. Have to switch off after work.

Any other solution? Thanks

A free online CRON service, such as: http://www.webcron.org/index.php?&lang=en

danmaiz · Post by **danmaiz** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:01 am

Relative newbie warning...

Using last version of phpbb2. Hosting solution does not allow for direct webmail. Installed BetterSMTP mod and it works fine with smtp.gmail.com for sending emails from phpbb. However, the digest mod does not work. Everything installed fine and I am able to utilize all features through admin window. However, it returns error when attempting manual test of sending a sample digest...

"Ran into problems sending Mail. Response: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first l17sm6911094rvb

DEBUG MODE

Line : 126
File : smtp.php"

This error is similar to the one reported before adding BetterSMTP Mod and obviously has something to do with the way the mail_digests.php attempts to login to smtp.gmail.com

Does someone out there know what file needs to have it's code altered? What to add/change?

Much thanks in advance!

MarkDHamill · Post by **MarkDHamill** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:22 pm

The Digest mod uses the phpBB settings for sending email. Typically this is sendmail. However you can also tell phpBB to use SMTP to send emails, you just have to know the right settings.

If you can currently get email notifications for watched topics and the like then you should also be able to send digests easily enough.

I don't know about this mod you talked about and I have never integrated it with the Digest mod.

danmaiz · Post by **danmaiz** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:47 pm

Mark:

Thank you so much for the quick reply. It seems that the requirements of gmail and most other smtp servers require an authentication process that was not part of the phpbb2 code...BetterSMTP is the mod that was written to allow phpbb2 the ability to connect to smtp's with advanced security...and, yes, the internal email functions of my phpbb2 board work just fine.

The rub is that this mod allowed me to access smtp.gmail.com for internal mail but, for some reason, the digest mod still errors out as noted before. That said, my newbie guess is that the digest mod does some sort of php call to the "original" phpbb2 SMTP script. I would have guessed that your mod and the BetterSMTP Mod would have crossed paths previously due to the popularity of that fix for those of us stuck with having to utilize external SMTP's.

Well, if you or anyone can take a look at the BetterSMTP Mod (http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=345265) and describe back how to adjust any code in your Mod or vice versa to get this to work, it would be much appreciated!

It also looks like this SMTP fix that the BetterSMTP Mod addressed was integrated into phpbb3 but I'm guessing that it will be a while for great mods like yours to be integrated into the new version of phpbb.

Rating:

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