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The notify.php script allows a site administrator to configure PmWiki to send email messages whenever pages are changed on the wiki site. Notifications can be configured so that multiple page changes over a short period of time are combined into a single email message (to avoid flooding mailboxes). This feature is useful for sites and pages that have infrequent updates, as it eliminates the need to frequently check RecentChanges pages just to see if anything has changed. In order for notifications to work, the notify.php script must be enabled in the site's local customization. Usually this is as simple as placing the following in local/config.php: $EnableNotify = 1;
Notification configurationOnce enabled, the notification system gets its configuration from the SiteAdmin.NotifyList? wiki page. The SiteAdmin.NotifyList page contains entries of the form: notify=alice@example.com
This says that information about page changes should be periodically emailed to alice@example.com. The SiteAdmin.NotifyList page can contain multiple "notify=" lines to cause notifications to be sent to multiple addresses; the "notify=" lines can be concealed by placing them inside of an NOTE: Do not put any spaces around the equal sign! Notifications will fail silently if you have... This is a really easy mistake to make because all of the other assignments have spaces around the equal sign. notify=fred@example.com rather than notify = fred@example.com
Notification optionsThe basic syntax is A number of options exist for limiting the pages that result in a notification. The # send notifications about the Main group to alice@example.com
notify=alice@example.com group=Main
# notify bob@example.com of any changes to the home page
notify=bob@example.com name=Main.HomePage
# notify charles@example.com of changes to pages except in Main
notify=charles@example.com group=-Main
(Note: The options are similar to the PageList syntax.) For maintaining arbitrary lists of pages, i.e., "watchlists", it's generally easier to build a trail of pages to be watched. The following entry in SiteAdmin.NotifyList will send alice@example.com an email containing changes to any of the pages listed in the Profiles.Alice trail: # notify Alice of changes to pages listed in Profiles.Alice
notify=alice@example.com trail=Profiles.Alice
Note that once this entry has been added to SiteAdmin.NotifyList, Alice can easily change her watchlist by editing the Profiles.Alice page, and doesn't need to edit the SiteAdmin.NotifyList page. In particular, this means that an administrator can restrict editing of SiteAdmin.NotifyList, yet allow individuals to maintain custom watchlists in other pages. Limitations of this feature:
This is probably a good place to point out that edit access to SiteAdmin.NotifyList should be controlled, otherwise malicious persons can use the notification capability to flood others' electronic mailboxes. By default, SiteAdmin.NotifyList is blocked against reading or edits except by the admin (as is the case for most pages in the SiteAdmin group). Adding notification entries via local customizationsNotification entries can also be added via the $EnableNotify = 1;
$NotifyList [] = 'notify=alice@example.com group=Main';
$NotifyList [] = 'notify=bob@example.com name=Main.HomePage';
Controlling notification frequencyTo prevent flooding of recipients' mailboxes, the notify script uses a "squelch" value as the minimum amount of time that must elapse between messages sent to any given email address. The default squelch setting is 10800 seconds (three hours), which means that once a recipient address is sent a notification message, it will not receive another for at least three hours. Any edits that occur during the squelch interval are queued for the next notification message. The site administrator can change the default squelch interval via the # enable notifications
$EnableNotify = 1;
$NotifySquelch = 86400; # wait at least one day (in seconds) between notifications
In addition, individual addresses can specify a custom squelch parameter in the SiteAdmin.NotifyList page: # Alice receives at most one email per day
notify=alice@example.com squelch=86400
# Bob can get notifications hourly
notify=bob@example.com trail=Profiles.Bob squelch=3600
# Charles uses the site default squelch
notify=charles@example.com
Controlling notification delayBecause a page will often receive several edits in rapid succession (e.g., a long post followed by several minor edits), a site administrator can also set a # enable notifications
$EnableNotify = 1;
$NotifySquelch = 86400; # wait at least one day between notifications
$NotifyDelay = 300; # wait five minutes after initial post
Note that the squelch and delay values are minimums; notifications are sent on the first execution of PmWiki after the delay period has expired. For inactive sites, this could be much longer than the specified delay periods. This isn't really considered an issue since timely notifications are less important on relatively inactive sites. However, changes within the squelch time after the last notification will remain unnoticed if the wiki is not even visited for a long period after. If this matters it might be necessary to make the server call pmwiki.php regularly (e.g. cron job). Custom delay parameters cannot be specified for individual addresses in the SiteAdmin.NotifyList? page: # the delay= parameter will be ignored
notify=edgar@example.com trail=Profiles.Edgar delay=600
Note for Windows installationsSites running PHP under Windows may not have PHP's mail function configured correctly. Such sites may need to add a line like ini_set('SMTP','smtp.server.com');
to config.php, where smtp.server.com is the name of your host's preferred outgoing mail server. You may also need to set the sendmail_from value if that is not configured: ini_set('sendmail_from','noreply@foo.com');
Notify Variables
Notification only for major editsIt is possible to send notifications only in case of major edits. In your config.php, replace " if ( @$_POST['diffclass'] != 'minor' ) This way, only 'major' edits send notify messages (when the author doesn't select the checkbox for minor edit). If you want minor edits and not major edits to send the message then you would use: if ( @$_POST['diffclass'] == 'minor' ) instead. Disabling notifications for downloadsIf you use "$EnableDirectDownloads=0;" (eg. for privacy on a password-protected wiki) then attached images may generate duplicate notification messages. To prevent that disable notifications for downloads via if ( $action != 'download' ) That way, only page views (and not images within the page) will generate notifications. See PITS:01159 for more information. < Blocklist | Variables | Basic Variables > This page may have a more recent version on pmwiki.org: PmWiki:Notify, and a talk page: PmWiki:Notify-Talk. |
Page last modified on December 04, 2013, at 03:29 AM EST |