Category: Watch (email notifications of changes)

Send notification email to forum moderator when a user posts a message which is queued pending moderation.

To reproduce the environment:
log is as user
u: user1
p: user1

here:
http://xavi-9794-5370.show.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=1

and post a message.

User "admin" is moderating all messages of that forum, but he gets no email nor intratiki message of new forum posts pending moderation.

admin credentials:
u: admin
p: 12345

It happens to me with Tiki 1.9.0.

I've got two trackers. At their admin screen, I have the option:
"Send copies of all activity in this tracker to this e-mail address:" filled with a valid e-mail address (email1), and the second oone with an empty field there. I have them both monitored with my email address as user in the tiki site (email2).

When there is a new item created for the first tracker, I get two email messages. one to each email adress (email one, and email2)

When there is a new item created for the second tracker, I get just one email message. the one to email2. But hte problem is that the system admin in my server gets a message with an empty "To:" field.

It seems as if messages from "Send copies of all activity in this tracker to this e-mail address:" are attempted to be sent, even if there is no email entry there...
Could this be the cause of the problem?

An example of the wrong email headers here:
I'm using catalan l10n of Tiki, and "Damian-based" theme style.

^
To:
Subject: =?utf-8?b?W0luZm8gZXh0cmEgdXN1YXJpc10gRWwgcmFzdHJlamFkb3IgdmEgc2Vy?= =?utf-8?b?IG1vZGlmaWNhdCBlbCBnY2x1Yi51Yi5lcw==?=
From: xavidp@NOSPAM@porthos.bio.ub.es
Content-type: text/plain;charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <E1Dtk0w-0001dW-CI@mailhost.ourproject.org>
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 12:35:22 +0200
^

(note that I've added manually now ar reporting time the "NOSPAM@" bit in the middle of my email address (but the email was ok)

Renaming a group doesn't update the name in the corresponding group watches

Reproduced in our production site: http://ueb.vhir.org

This might be the culprit for this other more serious usability issue in our production site:
http://dev.tiki.org/item5497?from=Watch

I did a quick test of mail seding (through tiki-admin.php?page=general) with a computer recently upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04, which comes with php7 by default. Attempting to send a test email through smtp with tiki 15.x svn fails with this message:
{CODE()}
Unable to send mail
Array ( [0] => Unable to connect via TLS )
{CODE}

Same setup with Ubuntu 14.04 works as expected: emails sent (and reported as such by tiki, as usual, etc):
PHP Version 5.5.9-1ubuntu4.14
Zend Engine v2.5.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Zend Technologies

I downgraded the php in Ubuntu 16.04 to use php 5.6 (in both web app and php-cli).
Same error persisted.
PHP Version 5.6.21-1+donate.sury.org~xenial+2
Zend Engine v2.6.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2016 Zend Technologies


Maybe the error came with Zend Engine 2.5->2.6 and Tiki15?
Or maybe there is some issue with openssl in php in php5.6 AND php7.0 compared to php 5.5?

----
Standard email sending (directly through sendmail or postifx but no smtp set) works as expected. It didn't work before due to missing system packages {sign user="xavidp" datetime="2016-05-02T12:26:30+00:00"}
---
UPDATE:
* retested using three different XAMPP packages, all of them on top of the same Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit box. Issue reproduced in xampp 5.6 and 7.0, but works as expected in xampp 5.5 (PHP Version 5.5.35.35; Zend Engine v2.5.0). {sign user="xavi" datetime="2016-05-31T08:30:38+00:00"}

This should be migrated to the community site, and handled with ((doc:Organic groups)) and ((doc:User Trackers))

In the function: function send_replace_item_notifications($args)
in lib/trackers/trackerlib.php, and change to the tracker generates an error and a failure for attempting to assign() to a non-existent object.

The line that generates it is:
$smarty->assign('mail_date', $this->now);

But if I comment that out, the next one generates it - so I think it is all assigns.

The error occurs if: I have a standard "watch" on all tracker activity. I have not tested moving the notification into the tracker setup screen.

To test, I:
1. Manually set $simpleEmail = "y"; error goes away
2. Set the Simple Email flag on the edit tracker prefs screen - error does NOT go away

Group watches works in 6.2, but in 7.1. The settings do not save. When the group watch is selected the response shows that the group is set. But when navigating back to the settings page, none of the groups are selected.

Using Tiki 5.0: anonymous shouldn't see "watch" icons when browsing category tree.
And they can.
Reproduced here, for instance:
http://intercanvis.net/tiki-browse_categories.php

We recently upgraded precarios.org site from 3.6 to 5.0 (and migrated to a new server; dns propagating right now).

Since then, when you post a message in a forum that you are watching, you don't get a copy of your own email, but only copies of emails sent by others.

This is expected to allow users to follow a full thread in the email program.

For wiki page changes, you get also notification of your own changes.

5x: tracker comments should allow self-subscribe option for poster, like in forum posts or page comments. Right now, lost of interaction and feedback is lost for users until they learn how to subscribe to tracker items....

That was the same problem in forum posts for years, until some one added that feature to forum posts and wiki comments...
However, it seems that tracker item comments didn't benefit from that enhancement.... and honestly, they deserve it...

---

UPDATE:
* Still a very much desired feature in MANY tiki sites (including *.t.o sites). {sign user="xavi" datetime="2013-11-17T09:30:58+00:00"}
* Still a wish...{sign user="xavi" datetime="2014-07-13T10:00:49+00:00"}
* Still a wish (many years later). Sniff ... {sign user="xavi" datetime="2016-06-28T08:55:07+00:00"}
---
Gorgeus, fixed, Victor! Thanks! (tested in tracker comments, and adapted the profile "Bug_Tracker_15" to allow commenting by registered to easily test/debug this issue also in the future (or in other branches). {sign user="xavi" datetime="2016-10-11T17:21:14+00:00"}
---
Update: {sign user="xavi" datetime="2016-10-11T17:38:28+00:00"}
* emails are duplicated if the user was also selected in a "user selector" type of field, with notifications on. We should check that no duplication of emails is sent: one as commenter, and another one duplicated as user selected in the "user selector" field with notifications on.
See it reproduced in the show instance:
2 emails have been sent in some cases:
http://xavi-9794-3214.show.tikiwiki.org/tiki-syslog.php
u: admin
p: 12345

* Tracker item commented:
+ http://xavi-9794-3214.show.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?itemId=5
* see email corresponding to each user:
+ http://xavi-9794-3214.show.tikiwiki.org/tiki-adminusers.php
* see tracker field definition:
+ http://xavi-9794-3214.show.tikiwiki.org/tiki-admin_tracker_fields.php?trackerId=1
** note last 3 fields, all of them user selector with email notification on.
---
Update {sign user="xavi" datetime="2016-10-13T10:40:17+00:00"}
In addition, other systems maybe sending a duplicate of the same email message (see https://doc.tiki.org/Watch ), and we'd better add a system to prevent those duplicated emails to be sent.
To be checked for duplicates (and remove them before sending):
# generic (wildcard-like) user watches through the "__My Watches (UI) > Add Watch > Event__"
# Objects
** user watches on objects
** group watches on objects
# Categories
** user watches on categories
** group watches on categories
# Structures
** user watches on structures
** group watches on structures

I'm usure about category watches. Maybe we can leave those messages also, since they are not 100% equivalent to the other notification emails?
---
Sure, see comments. Issue fixed. {sign user="xavi" datetime="2016-10-14T10:13:36+00:00"}
And duplication of emails was due to some other issue, fixed by kroky6 also (great, thanks!).

When watching if someone attached file to a wiki page the notification email subject and body lacks information who did that change.

Example:
{CODE()}
A file was attached to "Signature"

Comment: SIGNATURE_PAD code architecture

You can view the page by following this link:
https://dev.tiki.org/Signature

signature_pad.PNG : https://dev.tiki.org/tiki-download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=214


***********************************************************


***********************************************************
The new page content follows below.
***********************************************************

signature_pad.PNG
{CODE}

Forums are getting powerful enough to substitute mailing lists on many tiki sites (yahhogroups, etc.). However, notification messages from forums cannot be added easily to local email filters since the subject doesn't contain a label like [[Forum X - site Y] to ease this task.
{CODE()}
[Forum X - site Y]
{CODE}

I guess this must be very easy for a coder (just adding some variable to a smarty template? and adding a call to that variable if needed from the related .php or .tpl file - I just get the rough idea... I wish I could do that myself...)

I've been thinking for ages that this kind of option is REALLY needed, and I thought it should not be much coding effort:

Automonitoring each own's posts, through either:
# Add a select box to monitor each own's forum post or tracker submission at post time, in a "per forum post or tracker item insertion" basis, or
# with a user preference for all forums, or all trackers, blogs, etc..
---
Still needed...

When using the SUGGEST FAQ feature, it would be nice to allow notification to the Admin, when a new FAQ was suggested.

Add group watch to articles

This way we could also have all users informed about comunity news , etc. in tiki sites.

In fact, the best option would be what it's done with newsletters: subscribe that bunch of users from a group, and let them unsubscribe it they wish and when they wish, without admin action. But if no action is done, they all get the copy of the article at their email, etc.

Add Group Watches to Categories, so that ((Organic Groups)) can receive automatic notification on changes about their topics (e.g. Infrastructure Team when tracker item related with *.t.o sites).

Right now, all messages from tiki forums of the same tiki site have the same subject. Or all tracker items from different trackers from the same tiki site.
I suggest that notifications from each forum, or tracker, etc., have some label like in e-mail lists [[LABEL], that they look like:
* "[[TRACKERNAME] Current notification subject"
* "[[FORUMNAME] Current notification subject"

Or even better: allow an empty text field to be filled at tracker and forum admin screen where the admin can write the content of the label sent in subjects of notification emails from this feagture/site.

It took me a while to figure out how to unsubscribe to the frequent "Make a wish" mailings. We should put this link at the bottom of those mailings:

To modify your watches, please visit:
https://dev.tiki.org/tiki-user_watches.php

Thanks,
Pete

I know that calendars can be watched by users through links like:

tiki-calendar.php?watch_event=calendar_changed&watch_action=add

But this link doesn't work like this other one:
http://info.tikiwiki.org/tiki-user_watches.php?event=article_submitted&add=Add

I mean, Anonymous users clicking on the first link (calendar watch event, as it is right now), would not be offered any message to login or register first.
With the second link (watch article), the user will be shown the login box to login first, before the action can be executed.

This is to make more easy for new users to know that they can subscribe by email to get info from calendars if they register to that tiki site.

When someone changes the Related-to field here I receive email notification like this:
{CODE()}
Item Modification

Tracker:
Bugs & Wish list
Item:
6887 WSOD (again) on tiki.org forum thread link

View the tracker item at:
https://dev.tiki.org/item6887-WSOD-again-on-tiki-org-forum-thread-link

Author: luciash d' being
Date: 01 Nov 18 11:51 CET

Status: Open
----------

----------


{CODE}

I added the related tracker item to the Related-to field on https://dev.tiki.org/item6887-WSOD-again-on-tiki-org-forum-thread-link
__As you can see it does not report the change on that field at all.__

{syntax type="tiki" editor="plain"}
It would be lovely to set some new user defaults at
* Admin (home) > Login > User defaults, and/or
* Admin > Groups > (Edit a single group)

The ability to Subscribe/watch/monitor new users in the site or to that specific group, to specific Tiki objects.

Which tiki objects?: I would say, in this order:
# specific forums
# specific blogs
# specific calendars
# specific newsletters (ML: we can already subscribe groups to newsletters)
# specific wiki pages
# specific structures
# specific trackers
# specific categories
# new articles

This is specially useful for new users of the site, where they don't know yet how to subscribe to specific areas, etc. Very needed for educational scenarios, but I can see many other places where new users are a bit lost for some time while they learn how to use the Tiki site.

Related:
*[wish988|Forum: Let forum admins/moderators add groups and/or users as watching the forum]
*[tiki-index.php?page=Business%20Plans|Let small business start ups access collaborative sharing where the document being shared is not visible by anyone else]


Anywhere there is a watch eye, it should be possible for an admin to have group members watch this category

Currently, Tiki allows anonymous visitors to subscribe to a newsletter (via the "subscribe any address" feature. It would be nice if anonymous visitors could "watch" items simply by adding their email address.

{syntax type="tiki" editor="plain"}
It would be really useful to be able to override the smarty templates used for email notifications (currently in -+templates/mail+- and -+templates/activity+-)

Probably a new pref -+mail_template_wiki_pages+- to look for pages "named exactly like the template files" (maybe starting with -+mail_+-?) with the correct -+tiki_p_use_as_template+- permission and if found, use that as a tplwiki resource instead of the tpl file.

Hopefully to be backported to 21.x when tested.

When we enable the ((doc:Notifications)) system in a real-world tiki site, with some sort of activity, we usually end up attempting to review the notification log (tiki-monitor-stream) with plenty of duplicated entries (a wiki pages was edited many times the same day, a tracker items was editted many times in the same time frame, etc.)

Some sort of low-hanging-fruit would be to expose the PivotTable UI (like the one we use in PluginPivotTable) to display those entries from your own tiki-monitor-stream data with usual default time-based aggregations by months, weeks and days.

This is related to the other similar feature requests to allow to use action log or activity stream as data sources to the ((doc:PluginPivotTable))

My 2 cents.

Anonymous comment posters do no receive email notification of replies to their comments, even if they leave their email as indicated as indicated.

There should be a way to communicate back with anonymous comment posters which provide their email (and have some new checkbox ticked by default with "__Notify me of replies__")

That's one of the main differences why there is lot of feedback on content in wordpress or other blogs or cms/s and almost no comments and feedback from anons to Tiki sites. If they ever come to leave a comment, they do not get feedback on their comment, and they are implicitly discouraged to come back or provide more feedback (or even become real users, when the site is open for anonymous registrations).