Using Plone Rules to send emails to users based on roles

davisagli · November 28, 2015, 9:14pm

This add-on does exactly what you want: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/collective.contentrules.mailtogroup

However, it may need some updates to work in Plone 5.

rileydog · November 28, 2015, 9:43pm

Hi David,

Thanks for the suggestion. This is exactly what is needed.

I installed and the option shows up. However, there was an "error loading modal".

Anyone have any ideas?

tkimnguyen · November 28, 2015, 9:51pm

It's always best to post a pastie.org of the error you got (and of your buildout configuration).

I've used collective.easytemplate a lot in Plone 4 sites. It lets you create templated email actions. It too probably needs updating for P5.

fredvd · November 29, 2015, 12:01am

And if you ever do need to send based on roles instead of groups there's another add'on called collective.contentrules.mailtorole

djay · November 29, 2015, 2:26am

There is another alternative way to solve it.

github.com

collective/collective.multimail/blob/master/README.rst

.. contents::

.. image:: https://secure.travis-ci.org/collective/collective.multimail.png
    :target: http://travis-ci.org/collective/collective.multimail

Introduction
============

Allows you to use more than one mailhost. Email is filtered by rules which
determine which mailhost to send a particular email to. Each rule can apply
regular expressions to email headers such as "to", "from" and "subject".
Scripts or views can be configured in place of a mailhost to allow custom
behaviour.

Potential uses include:

- using different SMTP servers depending on the sender;
- expanding special email addresses into multiple send calls;
- sending via an external API such as twitter;
- adding additional headers or altering the text of standard Plone emails.

This file has been truncated. show original

It let's you script actions based on emails being sent. For example you could capture the group email and replace it with emails to each member of the group.

rileydog · November 29, 2015, 10:34pm

The rule Dylan posted above is another good example of an excellent rule.

Searching pypi for "content rules' you get about two dozen content rules for Plone. Each one of these makes Plone a lot more useful for site admins and users.

There is so much added functionality lying dormant. (Note: I did try the rule "send to group" it install and shows up put I get an error).

So, how do we get these so they are P5 compatible? For example, can we have a kickstarter campaign to raise money to have people convert? I would be glad to help by testing and writing plone doc entries. I don't know any of the content rule authors. Does anyone know how to contact them?

I realize we all see the world through our own knot hole. What is important to us is what drives us. In the case of the site admin what drives our interest are the features closet to the users and our ability to solve the issues that matter to them and get them to love Plone. Isn't the end user our ultimate customer? If they can't get what they want from Plone, why would they support it?

Thoughts?

vangheem · November 29, 2015, 10:54pm

Is there a big problem with these not working on Plone 5?

The only thing that has changed in the content rule framework is that it was moved to z3c.form.

However, all content rules should inherit from a base class so custom rules shouldn't necessarily need work.

tkimnguyen · November 29, 2015, 11:29pm

I just haven't tried them on P5

rileydog · November 29, 2015, 11:52pm

Looking at the page: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/collective.contentrules.mailtogroup

I find this, (which I don't know if it matters:)

UberMultiSelectionWidget

This content rule uses the UberMultiSelectionWidget from plone.app.form. This widget is broken in version 1.1.7 of plone.app.form. Plone 3.3.4 has this version.

As of version 1.1.8 the widget is working again. To use the correct version pin down plone.app.form:

[versions] … plone.app.form = 1.1.8

==================================================================

rileydog · November 29, 2015, 11:54pm

Did it work? I get the following which I try to add the action: "send to group ...."

rileydog · December 18, 2015, 12:49am

@vangheem I am looking to hire someone to bring this into Plone 5. If you are interested, please contact me privately. thx.

espenmn · December 18, 2015, 8:02am

I am not sure if this (modal) error is related. I have seen it two times in Plone 5, and restarting seeemed to fix it (I got the error on the login form.

rileydog · January 8, 2016, 10:38pm

I am using the built in content rule that allows you to send an email to an email address.

I tried specifying a group to send email to. Not surprisingly it didn't work.

But, since this Rule works great, would it be difficult to add code so that a group could be specified. Thus combining these to Content Rules

djay · January 9, 2016, 2:57am

What I posted above is not a content rule. Did you try to install it?
Multimail is another rules system for reacting to emails sent out of plone to turn them into other things (such as sending to more than one person like a group)

rileydog · January 9, 2016, 7:28pm

Hi,

@djay I appreciate the follow-up. and Yes, I had tried that. I got a fatal error because yaml not on my host's system. chose not to try to troubleshoot or install yaml.
However, in reading the description, I didn't think it was a good fit for my target audience to use: Site Admin.
I want to use the standard Plone Content Rule because they are very comfortable for someone like me to build and administer.
I am not being a programmer, so I don't know how difficult or silly my question might be. If Plone can already handle quite elegantly adding email notifications to individual emails, and code exists (in the content rule I've referenced) what would it take to combine the two. That is, the setup form would have two sections for whom to send emails to: 1) users (or actual emails) and 2) groups.
I have been looking to hire somone for a reasonable fee to update the email to group content rule. However, if thie above approach could work, I would prefer that.
There is certainly a big whole in not being able to use a content rule to email a group. I would like to help fill that with some of my ideas and a little money if others can help. Anyone interested?

rileydog · January 11, 2016, 1:32am

Hi David,
If you are interested in doing this upgrade for a fee, please contact me.

vangheem · January 11, 2016, 1:53am

Some tips on finding someone to do work for you:

look at who wrote the original project and who has contributed. Contact them letting them know you'd like to pay for the work.
look at other project developers or plone core developers that do work you enjoy and directly contact them to see if they are interested
contact a plone service provider and they will be able to help you

pjoshi_ · January 11, 2016, 5:28am

Hi,

So just for clarification you want a already present addon to upgrade it to make it plone 5 compatible, right ?

rileydog · January 11, 2016, 3:22pm

Correct. If interest please private message

rileydog · January 19, 2016, 6:05pm

Hi,
work is being done on this topic in github

Trying the approach of adding the ability to email to group using built plone ability.