[Plugin Release] EMailSubscription

cdavid

This discussion is related to the EMailSubscribe addon.

Dear all,

I have created a new plugin. Here is the description:

This is a new plugin, EMailSubscription and it comes as a better built follow-up to my EMailDiscussion addon.

It allows users to subscribe to certain categories of the forum (receive e-mail notification when a new discussion is posted) and it auto-bookmarks newly created discussions so that users will receive an e-mail notification each time a new comment is added to a discussion. Users can change their subscription settings by visiting their profile page and then choosing EMail subscription in the side panel.

Also, there is a Dashboard->EMailSubscription button that allows admin users to subscribe all users to all content (*newly created*).

I consider this plugin useful for some small communities, where the people don't visit the forums that often, but read their emails regularly, thus enabling them to be more interactive with the forums.

TODO for next release: set by default new users to be subscribed to all content.

/cd

Dan Devine

This is a fantastic plugin! Exactly what I have been waiting for (still learning how to program). This should get user activity back to the level I had with Vanilla 1. Thanks cdavid!

agniz

hi, this is a really long waited addon. THANK YOU !
I installed and already translated it to my local language but an error with the sent messages is happening. Well, in fact the plugin is curiously trying to send email to old and deleted users what means some emails are coming back as follows: (i´ve got 6 separate message like this one)

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

user_6@deleted.email
The mail server could not deliver mail to user_6@deleted.email. The account or domain may not exist, they may be blacklisted, or missing the proper dns entries.

bugslayer

You're my hero :)

cdavid

A, yes, I see the problem. There is a column entry in the GDN_Users table that says "Deleted". I am taking care of it now. You should see an update to version 0.1.1 in the next few minutes.

/cd

cdavid

Might take a bit longer though, I also want the new users to be subscribed by default to all the content.

bugslayer

@cdavid, that big fat "subscribe ALL users" button scared the bejeebers out of me. I knew someday someone might press it, so I totally disabled it, just to be safe.

Given the magnitude (and permanence?) of that operation:
1. Can you make it look more scary? Currently it looks downright inviting, almost like you are meant to press it.
2. Could you please add a confirmation? (To talk people out of it if the didn't really mean it?) I didn't actually press it, so I don't know if there is a confirmation, but I didn't see anything in the code that looked like it would confirm the action.

bugslayer

I also want the new users to be subscribed by default to all the content.

!?!? Please make this optional. We use Vanilla for our support forum, so certain people in the company need to subscribe to certain categories in the forum, but it would be very rare for one of our users to want to subscribe to everything.

cdavid

They can always disable that... But, oki. The quick fix for tonight is that it will not send e-mails to deleted users... I will think about how to go about this tomorrow.

/cd

cdavid

Uploaded version 0.1.1 -- this takes care of the sending e-mails issue that @agniz has reported.

@bugslayer - I am more of a CSS-newb, so if you can suggest something, that would be great. I will dig into Vanilla for confirmations - i know that when you do something important to the dashboard, you get such a popup asking if you really really really want to do this.

Regarding the button, I don't find it that appealing to push that button, but the behavior is reversable -- every user can unsubscribe from their own profile. Still, if you could help me with that (CSS), I'd be grateful.

For the next version, I want to have in the dashboard a way to choose to what categories users should be subscribed by default and implement this for all type of registration methods.

Any more requests and bugs are welcome!

/cd

cdavid

@bugslayer -- still, if you are in the dashboard, you should know what you are doing... just a thought.

/cd

Chat_101_com

Looks like I'm missing something, but the "Subscribe All Users to All New Content" button didn't work for me. It just gave an error message as follows:
"Bonk
Something funky happened. Please bear with us while we iron out the kinks."

Thanks for the nice plugin!

cdavid

I'm sorry there was a typo. This is why one should not be allowed to code late at night *grr*.

New version is online now.

Thanks,

/cd

kdwoell

Hello, I installed Vanilla2 and have installed the email subscription plugin. As admin I created a test post, along with enabling notification for the forum category. However I have not received an email. Any thoughts on troubleshooting?

cdavid

I have just checked that on my installation and everything seems ok.

First thought that comes to mind is if you have E-mail (SMTP) set up properly on the machine and maybe if the e-mail hit a spam filter. If on a new discussion, you post a comment (like 1st comment) and refresh the page you are at, does the conversation appear to be bookmarked (yellow star)?

Mark

Nice work, @cdavid!

kdwoell

I'm on a GoDaddy, shared hosting Linux account. In installed it the same level in the directory tree as our WordPress site with intent for eventual embedding into WP.
When you say " E-mail (SMTP) set up properly on the machine", do you mean the Vanilla email settings or the host server?

Yup its bookmarked (i.e. has a star).

cdavid

If it has a star, then the plugin works. The only part left to debug now is to see what is wrong with your e-mail settings. Do you receive any e-mail notification from Vanilla -- test by going to the dashboard and creating a new user with a valid e-mail address and see if you get any e-mail.

/cd

kdwoell

I have two users pending activiation but no email notifications to the email account under my admin profile. hmm.
Are there some obvious settings in the dashboard I need to check? The backend interface is pretty straightforward but some I dont understand their purpose.

Chat_101_com

Great! Thanks. Now one last issue. Suppose you clicked on the "subscribe all members to all discussions", and now you want to unsubscribe them all :) is there a way to do this? The only thought which came to mind was to delete the plugin and re-install it. Any other thoughts on this?

cdavid

@Chat_101_com Disabling and re-enabling won't change anything in the database, therefore, it should not affect that. Unfortunately, I didn't think of a way to do that since I want to let the users decide for their own if they want notifications or not, via their profile.

/cd

Chat_101_com

Actually I meant deleting the whole folder and then uploading it and re-activating the plugin. Wouldn't this do the trick?

cdavid

No, the database still has the data. You should try to manually delete from the database the entries in GDN_UserMeta that in column Name start with "Plugin.EMailSubscribe." (maybe "All").

delete from GDN_UserMeta where Name = "Plugin.EMailSubscribe.All"; to remove subscriptions to all content.

/cd

adriansonline

Sorry I have been away... Great work :)

Dan Devine

Two questions, I don't see the subscribe to all button but tonight I started a discussion and noticed it went out to all members. I spoofed a couple of members and see that their default email preferences are set to "subscribe to all". Is this the normal procedure for the plugin? Don't really want to spam all the members of the forum, I would rather they sign in and set their own notification preferences.

Second, I replied to my discussion and didn't receive any notification email like I received when I started the discussion. Is the plugin designed to send an email for discussion replies? (I hope it is). I have subscribed to all discussions checked in my preferences.


Thanks

Dan

cdavid

@Dan Devine : 1) that is definitely not the default behavior. The button is in Dashboard->Forum Tab-> EMail Subscription. Maybe somebody else pushed it??

2) That's where Vanilla itself should start kicking in. What I do in the plugin is, beside sending a notification of a new post, also bookmark the discussion for all the users that want that. So, it's the same as if you clicked the star to bookmark the discussion. Regarding that, is the star lighted up (discussion is bookmarked) after first comment? It should be.

Otherwise, can't tell what's going on :)

/cd

Dan Devine

Ok /cd,

That is the first time I have gone into that menu. Had not even noticed it so I don't know why everyone was set to default. I did have your other plugin running to email an announced discussion but I disabled it after I downloaded this plugin. Could anything have been "left over" from that plugin. I used the other one once.

Yes, the star is lighted "gold" on the first discussion and I am set to be sent an email for all discussions. I don't know why I didn't get one for the reply. I did get one (as well as everyone else) when I created the discussion. I will keep an eye on it.

Thanks!

agniz

thanks once more. It is very useful to me. It has the magic effect to bring inactive users to the main stage again.
Maybe this is not the place for it but let me ask: HOW TO SEND A NOTE (THROUGH EMAIL) TO A SPECIFIC USER FROM PROFILE OR DASHBOARD?

cdavid

I don't think that's possible. You might want to look into conversations, but if the other person does not have notifications enabled, you will still not gain anything.

/cd

vanillajo

As many agree, this is a GREAT plugin! I miss a feature though - in our forum some roles should not be able to see all forum categories. Still, users within this role can subscribe to the categories where do not have permission to see. They will receive emails with a link to the discussion, that produces a 'you don't have permission' message. So far, so good. But in the notification email those users also see the body text of that discussion, and the title, where they should not be able to see it.

Could it be possible to make this within EMailSubscribe: a user can only see and subscribe to the categories that they are assinged to within their role?

Thanks in advance for your answer!

cdavid

Sorry, but I don't have time quite right now and I will be away for 2 weeks. To see if I get things straight, a user is allowed to subscribe only if he has view permission for that Category, right?

To everybody else, I will be away, but I will try to keep my inbox open and reply from time to time.

/cd