Extension:Email notification

Email notification for changed pages (watch listed and user_talk pages)
We have developed a reasonable scheme for page change notifications.

It is listed as Bugzilla feature request #454

Introduction
We are currently finalising the E-Mail Notification patch based on MediaWiki version 1.3.2. The patch which will be published soon.

Maintainer of this feature: --Nyxos 00:34, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

What can you expect ?

 * The first version of E-Notif will mainly be suited for small scale MediaWiki implementations, as each e-mail is sent out separately. This will be changed in forthcoming versions.
 * All features are admin-configurable in the DefaultSettings.php resp. LocalSettings.php - admins can enable or disable sending notifications for a) general pages of all namesspaces and b) user_talk pages separately.
 * The notification message texts are not hard-coded in the source but pages in the MediaWiki: namespace making use of new variables such as $PAGEEDITORUSERNAME and $PAGEEDITTIMESTAMPUTC.
 * Your own changes do not trigger a notification mail back to you.
 * Minor edits will or will not trigger notification e-mails sent out depending on another admin setting.
 * Only one mail is sent on the first page change, further mails are suppressed until you re-visit the changed page or reset all "notified" flags by clicking on a new button on the watchlist page.
 * On the watchlist page, a new small icon [[Image:updated.png]] indicates such pages for which a mail was already sent (i.e. the page has new contents since your last visit).
 * A bring forward function which reminds you after a certain time of non-visiting changed pages (ie. resending notification mail(s), for example as a digest), is foreseen. -- Nyxos 00:44, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

How it works
User X gets a short E-Mail:


 * when a page listed in user X's watch list changes
 * when the user_talk page of User X changes

Additional features:


 * The notification message body and subject texts can easily be adapted to your needs. These are the new entries in the MediaWiki: namespace:

email notification messagetext

You can use the following new named variables to compose your messages:

$WATCHINGUSERNAME $WATCHINGUSEREMAILADDR $PAGETITLE $PAGEEDITORNAMEANDEMAILADDR $PAGEEDITOR $PAGEEDITDATE $PAGEEDITDATEUTC $PAGEMINOREDIT $PAGESUMMARY $WIKIADMINEMAILADDR


 * 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 not trigger the sending of notification mails to yourself.
 * The notification flags can be reset together for all watchlist pages with a function (button) on UserX Watchlist page
 * Minor edits do usually not trigger the sending of notification. This feature can be disabled by setting $wgEmailNotificationForAllEdits=true
 * Global program flags in DefaultSettings.php set the defaults. As a sysop, you can fine-tune the email notification program according to your needs by using other settings in your LocalSettings.php (which then overwrite the defaults):

$wgEmailNotificationForWatchlistPages                         = true;	# true/false: enable/disable sending notification mails triggered by changes of watch-listed pages $wgEmailNotificationForUserTalkPage                           = true;	# true/false: enable/disable sending notification mails triggered by user_talk page changes $wgEmailNotificationForAllEdits                               = false;	# false: "minor edits" do not trigger notification mails $wgEmailNotificationSystembeepForWatchlistPages               = '/usr/bin/beep -f 4000 -l 20 &';	# a system call with exactly this string as parameter is executed when such a mail is sent $wgEmailNotificationSystembeepForUserTalkPages                = '/usr/bin/beep -f 2000 -l 20 &';	# ditto., but for UserTalk page changes
 * 1) Patch for email notification on page changes T.Gries/M.Arndt 11.09.2004
 * 1) The following strings are passed as parameters to two system calls.
 * 2) On our server, they call the beep 1.2.2 program with different frequencies f [Hz] and length l [msec]
 * 3) Beep 1.2.2 can be found on http://freshmeat.net/projects/beep/

Tom Gries/Markus Arndt Berlin/Munich

Example of a working notification mail text template:
email notification messagetext