Email notification of update to thread

ichigo

@moe: since whispering is off...ill say it publically...let's go there -> http://lussumo.com/community/comments.php?DiscussionID=499

dom

@Scottish I said on community forums, rather than all forums. I agree that the functionality would be useful on certain forums, especially ones more focused around support. That aside, moe's idea seems to be a winner. It keeps all sides happy!

matt

I like moe's thinking

orangeguru

I'll support the request for an eMail notification plugin.

It should have:

• admin: a list for the admin to see who subscribed what
• admin: pause the function - just in case when you get heavy traffic
• notifications: a link / function to block unblock all notifications
• user: your bookmarks should be the topics you are subscribed to???

A bit like this WordPress plugin:

http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/

Anyone out there who wants to code this? ;-)

jsanders

i can give this a shot, but i've got some other things on my plate... and i go slow. email is actually very simple to handle in php, it's just a matter of getting the right data.

orangeguru

@jsander: Thanks very cool. Since this seems a most wanted extension I'll sponsor the development with 50€ for a version that has the same functionality as the WordPress plugin (more or less). I'll pay via paypal.

Any more sponsors?

FLC

Personally I hate that god damned WP plugin, especially when blogs have it on by default, it's the equivalent of unsolicited spam

lament

i'll be honest: i didn't read this whole thread.

but I don't think email notify on update to thread is necessary if a Participated Threads extension is put into use.

you go to the site, glance at all the threads you've participated in, bookmarked, and your own - and it shows you what's new. that's good enough for me.

Mark

brady: i actually hope nothing else is added to the core. simplicity for once, please.

at the same time, i'm betting mark doesn't add much to the core. especially fringe functionality such as this.

Four things to be aware of:

1. I will be removing most of the extensions from the next release. Most extensions will be available from the docs site only.
2. I will definitely not be releasing Vanilla with ANY extensions turned on. You get the base and you decide what to do with it. That's the whole point of extensions.
3. I will be STRIPPING OUT more functionality than I'll be putting in for the next version. All things stripped out will be made into extensions. I want this thing even more streamlined than it already is.
4. After the next update, problems related to updating will be a thing of the past - you will be able to download a new version of Vanilla and drop it on top of your current version without opening any files or changing any parameters.

Minisweeper

"I will be STRIPPING OUT more functionality than I'll be putting in for the next version. All things stripped out will be made into extensions. I want this thing even more streamlined than it already is." I KNEW vanilla would simply become the extensions management page and everything would be connected through that! "After the next update, problems related to updating will be a thing of the past - you will be able to download a new version of Vanilla and drop it on top of your current version without opening any files or changing any parameters." Any news on the streamlined updater (i.e. dragging from your server) yet?

jsanders

LUM_subscription ----- subid userid discussionid timestamp <- data for data's sake (or admin's sake) - as well as two pieces of info join'ed from the user table: useremail preference regarding to receipt of mail (in case the user opts to stop receiving mail) the extension would need to be hit whenever a post is made. when the extension is hit: 1.) determine if the extension has been paused 2.) poll the database for all subscriptions to this comment's parent (the first post in the thread) (pseudocode) select subid, userid from LUM_subscription where discussionid=firstpost.id (/pseudocode) 3.) go through the list and send an email to all users subscribed of course, this makes no mention of the obvious preferences that would need to be in place, and the admin options... so i thought all of this through on my drive home, sorry if this doesn't make much sense. i won't have a chance to code this for a while, but since i've actually coded one before i'd put this up in case someone else wants to tackle it before i get there.

moe

@jsanders your approach sounds just fine to me. additionally the extension would have to fire once every time you display a thread. - after all the "notify me"-checkbox should remain checked when you checked it once. oh and also it needs to fire when a thread is removed, so the LUM_subscription table doesn't grow indefinitely.

jsanders

when would a thread actually be removed? the subscription table would grow reasonably in proportion to the actual comments table, but the amount of data that would be kept there would actually be very negligible. no, the extension really wouldn't need to do anything when a thread is displayed, except insert the code for the panel to show you your subscription status on this thread. but yes, the extension would be firing off bits of code to check things ALL THE TIME, which is why this extension could really load the server quite a bit more. one other thing that i thought of, somehow subscribing to entire categories or the entire board. i'd have to think about that one a bit more.

moe

no, the extension really wouldn't need to do anything when a thread is displayed, except

)

one other thing that i thought of, somehow subscribing to entire categories or the entire board. i'd have to think about that one a bit more.

entire board sounds easy, just a special discussionid in your schema ("*" ?).
categories shouldn't be much harder (yet another "magic" discussionid?).

overall this all shouldn't be hard to do. i'm just a bit worried that if it's not done right *once* (mark?:)) we will end up with multiple non-interoperable, hacked up extensions, all doing a little bit of this or that and none of them doing the whole thing right.

ofcourse this might be just my negative attitude and it all turns out fine.
(hoping the best !)

jsanders

except... there would be no database hits or emails sent on display. just a line or two of php. and yes, i'm the wrong person if you want it done "right," and have no problem admitting this! i'm what you might call a php hack, but i've put my share of time into it. if mark wants to lay his OOL skills into something this trivial, that'd be awesome, but let him finish the docs first!

cmi

is there any update on this extension yet?

moe

unfornationally not :(

Krak

Actually, I think Mini is working on this...unless I read it wrong.

Minisweeper

correct, i've made a start on it, little stuck for how to get the information i need to send but hopefully i should have it sorted shortly after the next revision is released.

Minisweeper

Um. So. Vanilla formats comments on their way into and out of the database?