[Mediawiki-l] SMTP settings in LocalSetting.php

[Monahon, Peter B.]

Hi fellow MediaWiki admins,

(Ooops, sorry for the duplicate post to wikitech-l - I've not written in
a while and my email "To..." field auto filled in the wrong address - my
bad!),

	I'm having difficulty setting up SMTP email notification under
MediaWiki.  Does anyone have any leads or links to a checklist, a
sequence of criteria for successful MediaWiki SMTP email setup?  If I
could see a successful MediaWiki SMTP setup, then I could emulate it and
troubleshoot my non-successful setups.  Even a successful example using
Google GMail SMTP, or other external freebie, would at least allow me to
confirm if I've got the underpinnings in order.

	When I click on a user name from "Special:Listusers", and then
click on "E-mail this user", then "Special:Emailuser/(username)"
returns: "No send address.  You must be logged in and have a valid
e-mail address in your preferences to send e-mail to other users."  ...
but I am logged in, and both the username and my current log-in have
legitimate, working email addresses entered into and saved in each of
their preferences (unverified, of course)!

	I click on "My preferences" ("Special:Preferences") then select
"Confirm your e-mail address" ("Special:Confirmemail"), and it then
displays:  "A confirmation code has already been e-mailed to you; if you
recently created your account, you may wish to wait a few minutes for it
to arrive before trying to request a new code."  ... but of course none
has ever been sent.  Then I click on "Mail a confirmation code", and it
returns a blank screen, and no email ever arrives.

--

	My background searches: 

	- I've had no luck finding how to turn on PHP error logging
(where I presume the email is handled) and then reading error logs (if
any?) so I can see where it's stuck - does anyone have a link to samples
of PHP error logging?  This may not relate to email.

	- I had no luck searching Google or MediaWiki for "gmail smtp in
php" or equivalent, plus or minus any of these and related words, so I'm
hoping someone here will have a successful sample to share.

	I appreciate there are at least 4 types of SMTP, and each
requires different setup: 
	- private: SMTP server in the same computer as the MediaWiki
installation, directly accessed
	- local: SMTP accessed via Intranet on another, in-house
computer
	- remote: SMTP via ISP or web host - remote access
	- public: SMTP via external, such as GMail, et cetera, over the
Internet

	Have I got those alternatives right?  Anyway, even successfully
testing with a public SMTP server would help!  I can then search through
my local settings to make changes, or try to install a private SMTP
server if I find no satisfactory alternative.  I'd just like to see it
work at all, ever, any way, at least once!

	Would anyone who's had success with MediaWiki SMTP in any form
please cut and paste their successful settings into examples at
http://www.mediawiki.org/ in a sample SMTP page - and include a link to
it in a response here?

--

	Here are some sample "LocalSettings.php" elements that may
relate, I've played with these using a variety of settings to no avail:

$wgEnableEmail = true;
$wgEnableUserEmail = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['autoconfirmed'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['emailconfirmed']['emailconfirmed'] = true;

$wgSMTP = array(
'host' => "smtp.gmail.com", or "mail.google.com", or ...
'IDHost' => "google.com", or "mail.google.com", or "gmail.com, or
commented out ...
'port' => 25, or 465, or commented out ...
'auth' => true, or false, or commented out ...
'username' => "myaccont at gmail.com",
'password' => "********"
);

--

"Special:Version" returns the following, for your information:

Version
- MediaWiki: 1.10.0
- PHP: 5.2.2 (apache2handler)
- MySQL: 5.0.41-community-nt 

Extensions
- Special pages
- LastUserLogin (version 1.0.6)
 
Parser hooks
- DynamicPageList2 (version 1.2.1)
- Subpage List 2
 
Extension functions
- wfLastUserLogin, wfUpdateUserTouched, wfDynamicPageList3,
wfDynamicPageList2 and efSubpageList

Parser extension tags
- <dpl>, <section>, <subpages> and <pre>

Parser function hooks
- dpl, int, ns, urlencode, lcfirst, ucfirst, lc, uc, localurl,
localurle, fullurl, fullurle, formatnum, grammar, plural, numberofpages,
numberofusers, numberofarticles, numberoffiles, numberofadmins,
numberofedits, language, padleft, padright, anchorencode, special and
defaultsort

Hooks
- LanguageGetMagic wfDynamicPageList3_Magic
- LoadAllMessages wfDynamicPageListSPloadMessages

--

	... I see on other wikis:

Hooks
- PrefsEmailAudit	logPrefsEmail (from SpecialPreferences.php, not
documented)
- UserCanSendEmail wfUserCanSendEmailExt

	... but I can't find a reference to see if they matter to my
situation or how to engage them anyway!

--

Thanks in advance for sharing your successful MediaWiki SMTP setups,

- Peter Blaise