Include text of post in email notifications

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CPTOM
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Include text of post in email notifications

Post by CPTOM »

On 3.3.4, when someone posts a topic or otherwise subscribes to a thread, and gets an email notification of a response, it would be useful for that email notification to include all or a portion of the text of that response. The extension could allow the admin to select how much (or all) of the response to display in the email notification. VBulletin and Xen Foro do this, as do others, so is something people tend to expect and want these days. I've had multiple users on my board ask for it....

Also, the email notification gives 4 link options (post, thread, forum, unsubscribe), which seems needlessly cluttered. Would be nice if you could scale that back to a single link and/or choose how many of those links to include.
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david63
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Re: Include text of post in email notifications

Post by david63 »

CPTOM wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 4:45 pm the email notification gives 4 link options (post, thread, forum, unsubscribe), which seems needlessly cluttered.
You can change that yourself by editing the email template.

Isn't sending the content of the post in the notification the opposite of what a bulletin board is about? If you email all the posts to users then you run the risk of nobody actually logging in to the board.
David
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CPTOM
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Re: Include text of post in email notifications

Post by CPTOM »

david63 wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:57 pm
CPTOM wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 4:45 pm the email notification gives 4 link options (post, thread, forum, unsubscribe), which seems needlessly cluttered.
You can change that yourself by editing the email template.

Isn't sending the content of the post in the notification the opposite of what a bulletin board is about? If you email all the posts to users then you run the risk of nobody actually logging in to the board.
Thanks and sorry I missed your response until now. Literally every major automotive forum I use gives me the text of the first response post. These are forums with hundreds of thousands of users, so it does not seem to be holding them back. Maybe expectations differ between communities, but this is the expectation for auto-related boards and my users are asking for it.

When you say 'by editing the email template' -- is that in the ACP somewhere?
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warmweer
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Re: Include text of post in email notifications

Post by warmweer »

CPTOM wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 6:34 pm When you say 'by editing the email template' -- is that in the ACP somewhere?
Email templates are in {your_board_root}/language/en/email/

e.g. topic_notify.txt
Notice that it contains placeholders for variable data: e.g. {U_NEWEST_POST} which will result in a link to the new post in that topic.

If you want to include the text of that new post, then a placeholder (which would contain the text) has to be included.

I think a placeholder already exists but I'm not 100% sure about that. If it doesn't then I think this is currently above your paygrade (seeing that you didn't know the whereabouts of the email template).

Added: just did a search for a more helpful post and found
having email notification contain post body?.
It's an old topic but the principle hasn't changed and the topic contains relevant information.
Spelling is freeware, which means you can use it for free.
On the other hand, it is not open source, which means you cannot change it or publish it in a modified form.


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SMcCandlish
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Re: Include text of post in email notifications

Post by SMcCandlish »

I think the extension you want already exists: Prime Notify.
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warmweer
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Re: Include text of post in email notifications

Post by warmweer »

SMcCandlish wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:22 pm I think the extension you want already exists: Prime Notify.
Correct: I would have come up with that had my brain not faltered (as usual).
:thumbsup:
Spelling is freeware, which means you can use it for free.
On the other hand, it is not open source, which means you cannot change it or publish it in a modified form.


Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.
CPTOM
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Re: Include text of post in email notifications

Post by CPTOM »

Thanks all. Installed Prime Notify and all is good! :)
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