[Mediawiki-l] NEWS: E-Mail notification on page changes (updated) "PCNOTIF"

[Thomas Gries]

*** repeated and updated mail ***

(update)
We have developed a reasonable scheme for page change notifications.
Please be patient until the patch is published (a few days) or send me 
directly your further ideas (not via the mailing list, please). Tom

BRION & MAGNUS:
PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP ME TO "DELIVER" THE PATCH (based on version 
1.3.1) ? Shall I use "diff", do you have a wiki, where I can place patch 
and documentation and re-edit it later ?


HOW DOES PAGE CHANGE NOTIFICATION (PCNOTIF) WORK ?

User X gets a short E-Mail:

(1) when someone changes a page listed in his/her user X's watch list.

At the moment, *all* pages in the watchlist (the standard and unmodified 
watchlist of MediaWiki 1.3.1) are sensed for changes the same way.

[ We could think of a second watchlist (first: w/ mail notification, 
second: w/o ) or  additional mail notification parameters such as 
"bring-forward after xx days" and many more such options, which a User X 
could set in his/her watchlist. This is for later, eg. long and cold 
winter evenings ...]

Such "power features" as "bring forward notification" as suggested by 
some developers would need DATABASE TABLE MODIFICATIONS. However, this 
patch does NOT need table modifications.

(2) when someone changes the user_talk page of User X (low traffic is 
expected; each page change is related to only one recipient). This can 
be even allowed for large scale MediaWikis such as the WikiPedias.

For technical reasons: at the moment, it is not possible that User Z 
sets User_talk:User_X to his watchlist, in order to get PCNOTIF. Only 
the owner User_X gets it.

Global flags enable or disable the two mail notification modules (normal 
pages ; user_talk pages) independently:

  $wgEmailNotification = true | false ;
  $wgEmailNotificationUserTalkPage = true | false ;

  $wgReplyToUserTalkPageEditor = true | false ; # if true then a 
notification e-mail reveals the page editor's e-mail address in the 
Reply-To: address

The third constant determines, whether a User_talk-notification message, 
(sent FROM:wikiadmin as usual) comes with REPLY-TO: User_talk editor's 
e-mail-address. This is mainly a one-to-one communication, because User 
Z wrote on User_talk:User_X page.

Why shouldn't we give User_X the e-mail-address of User Z ? I think, 
it's okay to do so.


- The notification message body and subject texts can easily be adapted
to your needs. I have four new pages (2x body, 2x subject) in the 
MediaWiki: namespace and have introduced NAMED parameters such as 
$PAGESUMMARY and $PAGEEDITOR (no longer messing around with $1, $2 ...).

- Further notification messages are suppressed until UserX visits the
changed page(s).

- your own changes to a page in your own watchlist or to your own
User_talk page do never trigger the sending of notification mails to you.

- Notification flags for *all* your watchlist pages can be reset on one 
click (button) on your watchlist page

Please be patient. Allow for some days of further tests.

The mail programs have been developed in the last two weeks and are 
integrated into to 1.3.1 version. A documentation follows soon; the 
patches are not too complicated.

Tom Gries and friends
Berlin/Munich

---
Conclusion:

4 new pages in the MediaWiki namespace

  [[MediaWiki:NotificationMessageBodyPageHasChanged]]
  [[MediaWiki:NotificationMessageSubjectPageHasChanged]]
  [[MediaWiki:NotificationMessageBodyUserTalkPageHasChanged]]
  [[MediaWiki:NotificationMessageSubjectUserTalkPageHasChanged]]

In these pages, you can use the following new variables to compose your 
notification messages:

  $CURRENTUSERNAME
  $PAGENAMESPACE $PAGETITLE
  $PAGEEDITOR $PAGEEDITDATE
  $PAGESUMMARY
  {{MediaWiki:Sitetitle}}


Example of a notification mail:

  Dear $CURRENTUSERNAME,

  the {{MediaWiki:Sitetitle}} page $PAGETITLE has been changed on 
$PAGEEDITDATE by $PAGEEDITOR, see http://myserver/mywiki/$PAGETITLE .

  Editor's summary: $PAGESUMMARY

  There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless 
you visit this page.
  You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages 
on your watchlist.

              Your friendly {{MediaWiki:Sitetitle}} notification system

  --
  To change your watchlist settings, visit
  http://myserver/mywiki/index.php?title=Special:Watchlist&magic=yes

  Feedback and further assistance:
  http://myserver/mywiki/index.php/WikiHelpdesk

--- END OF EXAMPLE PCNOTIF ---