"Notifi" for Vanilla 2?

judgej

Vanilla 2 allows a user to receive email notifications when people reply to their threads, wall or send private messages. It is nice that a user does not need to subscribe individually to each thread that they start.

Now I would like to take that a bit further and give the user the option to subscribe to the following:

- Any thread that they are interested in, or take part in.
- Any new discussion to selected categories they have permission to view.
- Any new discussion started that they have permission to view.

The Notifi plugin handled all this in Vanilla 1, but there does not seem to be any similar module for Vanilla 2. Is there one I have not managed to find?

A client would like all new users to be subscribed automatically to everything. I've argued the case, but that is what they want and insist on it, and it is a private forum so will be limited in members. Obviously that involves a lot of email for each new discussion that is started. Is there any way that emails sent out for notifications can be redirected to a table and sent offline instead of immediately? If there are several hundred notifications to be sent out, then it just slows things down for users posting, while taking that offline and sending the mail in batch mode would speed things up.

-- Jason

Linc

"Notify me when people comment on my bookmarked discussions." = "Any thread they are interested in" but does not cover discussions you've simply participated in.

The other 2 situations you mentioned are not covered in core.

judgej

I guess I could always auto-bookmark a discussion that a user has commented in, assuming the user wants that. Perhaps even a tick box next to the comment submit button for the user to check to bookmark the discussion as they post? I'll look into that.

The "notify me of everything" TBH I just wish the client wasn't insisting on. The "notify me of discussions in a category" is a bit more reasonable, but is functionally identical, and just as heavy on the emails. If I have to code that in, then I would be coding in the offline email notifications as a part of that.

Linc

@judgej You might try having a conversation with your client about why that functionality is desirable or where they've seen it favorably used. I can't think of a reason I'd want an email for every new discussion.

judgej

I've been through that, and have not managed to change their mind. My concession is to ensure it is an option that the users can turn off (it is turned on only once when they first log in). The final persuasion may come from making sure all the bounces go to the client ;-)

judgej

Hmm, silly question, but how does one bookmark a discussion? I can't see any options or icons to do that.

Edit: Just found it - the little star in the title of the discussion. I think I am going to have to expand on that a little for my users. It's nicely out-of-the-way and yet easily accessible once you know it is there, but it's not at all obvious what it is.

judgej

Notifications for categories is more understandable. For example, the client would like one category to be used to post jobs. Unlike the other categories which are closed to non-members, the jobs are fed through to a publicly viewable page. The moderators would like to be kept informed instantly a job is posted and so would like to subscribe to that category. Postings to other categories are less important to keep on top of, as they are not accessible to the public.

It takes time for organisations to get used to their members posting stuff that can be seen by the public. There is still a bit of a mentality with many orgs that anything a user posts could lead to the organisation being landed in deep water.

aidster

im looking for this feature too, i want a user who posted a comment in adiscussion, to be notified if anyone should post a new comment.

AustinSaucier

@judgej
Allowing users to subscribe to all new discussions and, optionally, a particular category can be achieved with the Email Subscribe plugin.

That plugin automatically bookmarks new discussions too. However, I've never been able to get the Vanilla to send an email users when people comment on their bookmarked discussions. It does add an entry to their profile notifications tab, but no email is sent.

It must be a bug, because even if I have the "Notify me when people comment on my bookmarked discussions" setting enabled in my profile, emails are never sent.

aidster

@AustinSaucier
im looking for a plugin like a "Notify me when people comment a discussions i've commented on". and this will be default for all user. is this what the email subscribe plugin do?

aidster

I'm not an expert php/Javascript programmer, but i did a small work around

i modified this line (in vanilla/application/vanilla/views/post/comment.php)

$ButtonOptions = array('class' => 'Button CommentButton');

to

$ButtonOptions = array('class' => 'Button CommentButton', 'onclick' =>"$('#Content').children().first().attr('class')
if($('#Content').children().first().attr('class') == 'Bookmark'){
$('#Content').children().first().trigger('click')
}");

in someway this will auto-click the star to bookmark the discussion after posting a comment or edit.

not sure the impact. pls comment

AustinSaucier

@aidster
There is probably a cleaner way to accomplish this via plugin. I will look into it.

Ryder

@AustinSaucier Did you get anywhere with that plugin? I'm also considering writing a plugin to accomplish this but wanted to check that it hadn't been done before.

Ryder

@AustinSaucier @aidster @judgej

I went ahead and created an AutoBookmark plugin because I didn't want to wait. Some of you might find it handy:

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/autobookmark-plugin