Extension:Semantic Tasks

MediaWiki extensions manual

Semantic Tasks Release status: stable
Implementation	Notify
Description	Provides email task notifications and reminders
Author(s)	Steren Giannini, Ryan Lane, Ike Hecht, Peter Grassberger
Latest version	2.0.1 (2020-11-26)
MediaWiki	1.31+
PHP	5.6+
Database changes	No
Composer	mediawiki/semantic-tasks
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	GitHub: project page git repository URL [help ] commit history Note: No localisation updates are provided by translatewiki.net . README
Parameters $wgSemanticTasksNotifyIfUnassigned
Hooks used PageContentSaveComplete PageContentSave
Compatibility Semantic MediaWiki 3.0+
Check usage and version matrix.

The Semantic Tasks extension works in conjunction with another extension, Semantic MediaWiki, to provide email task notifications and reminders.

Semantic Tasks was originally developed for the Creative Commons internal task- and project-tracking system ccTeamspace. Currently the development is sponsored by KDZ - Centre for Public Administration Research.

Description

• After a task creation, users assigned to the task and following the task receive a "New Task" mail containing the task text.
• After a task is modified, users assigned to the task and following the task receive a "Task Updated" mail containing a diff of the modification.
• The editor of the task doesn't receive a mail after his edit.
• If the edit is a minor edit, no mail is sent.

Installation

• Install the Semantic MediaWiki extension which is requrired for this extenion to work.
• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called SemanticTasks in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

  wfLoadExtension( 'SemanticTasks' );
  

• Setup cron and configure as required.
•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration and Usage

Parameters

The following configuration parameters allow to set the names of the properties used by the extension to localized names suitable for the wiki instance's language or to different names suitable to the needs specific to your wiki:

$stgPropertyAssignedTo

Sets the name of the property holding the name of the user to who the respective task was assigend to. Defaults to: 'Assigned to'

$stgPropertyCarbonCopy

Sets the name of the property holding the name of the user who should get an infomation about the respective task. Defaults to: 'Carbon copy'

$stgPropertyTargetDate

Sets the name of the property holding the target date on which respective task should be completed. Defaults to: 'Target date'

$stgPropertyReminderAt

Sets the name of the property holding the date on which a reminder for the respective task should be sent. Defaults to: 'Reminder at'

$stgPropertyStatus

Sets the name of the property holding the status of the respective task. Defaults to: 'Status'

$stgPropertyAssignedToGroup

Sets the name of the property holding the name of the group of users to who the respective task was assigend to. Defaults to: 'Assigned to group'

$stgPropertyHasAssignee

Sets the name of the property holding the name of the user to who the respective task was assigend to. Defaults to: 'Has assignee'

See also furhter infomation on minimum required properties.

This is another configuation paramter provided by this extension:

$wgSemanticTasksNotifyIfUnassigned

Sets if the users should be notified once unassigned from a task. Defaults to: 'false'

Cron job

Finally run a cron job once a day to execute the reminder script. To do so edit your crontab file:

$ crontab -e

And add the following line to execute the script every day at 12:

0 12 * * * php extensions/SemanticTasks/maintenance/checkForReminders.php

Usually the system administrator of the server servicing the respective wiki sets up the cron job. In version 2.0.0 the name of the maintenance scipt changed from "ST_CheckForReminders.php" to "checkForReminders.php". Moreover the script is not located in the "maintenance" directory of the extension.

Reminder emails are now sent by a cron job. The actual sending of the emails is evaluated as follows for all pages that have annotations to the Assigned to or Carbon copy properties:

1. Modification date value
2. Reminder at value
3. Target date value

As soon as the current date is equal to one of these three values a corresponding reminder will be send through the email system used by MediaWiki. Thus only users who have set a valid email address in their preferences, and have confirmed it will receive emails.

Properties

• Notification emails are sent when a page is saved that has [[Assigned to::*]] and/or [[Carbon copy::*]] and [[Reminder at::*]] and/or [[Target date::*]] properties.
• The Assigned to and Carbon copy properties must be of datatype "Page" (default for non-existing properties) and their values must be of the form: "User:<username"
• The Reminder at and Target date properties must be of datatype "Date"

See also

• Semantic MediaWiki extension
• Semantic Watchlist extension