[with mod]Split Topic does not send notification

[scottfrey]

Using version 2.01.

When I split a topic, effectivly creating a new topic, SMF does not send out notifications of a new topic to people requesting to be notified of new topics.

This may be by design, but it is not logical, a split off topic should be treated in all ways like a new topic.

Can this be remedied? Is it a setting that I can't find?

Thanks, Scott

[emanuele]

Hi,

thank you for the report.

I would agree with you if there was the option to select a different board for the "new topic" (I don't mean that you need to change the board, but there should be the possibility to).
BTW: I think the request for a drop down to select boards on splitting is somewhere here around, so maybe we can do both.

[emanuele]

I hope I haven't missed anything, try the mod attached here (better in a test forum, I won't be responsible for messes! ).
At the moment I'm not able to check if the notification actually arrives.

The mod adds a drop down box that allows to select the board you want to post the newly created topic and it should send a notification for the "newly created topic".

ETA: forgot the attachment...

[scottfrey]

Thanks!, but,

Something does not work. Consistently, when I click the "split topic" button now, I get a blank page in return. Going back returns an error page that my session has timed out. The topic gets split correctly, but no email is sent out.

[emanuele]

yups...a typo and a missing global...

BTW there is something strange going on, I want to check it a bit more.

[emanuele]

Okay, now it seems to work as expected.

[scottfrey]

Works!

Thanks you very much. Will this be rolled into the next release or should I just keep using this mod?

Again, thanks

-- Scott

[emanuele]

You are welcome!

Will this be rolled into the next release or should I just keep using this mod?

Don't know...let's see what the others think.

[Joshua Dickerson]

I think this was by design but I'm not sure.

[emanuele]

That's what I thought too.

Regarding the package I posted before: I forgot to fix an issue with the number of posts...sorry.

[scottfrey]

I think this was by design but I'm not sure.

That a split topic not be treated as a new topic (with notification thereof)? Curious why

Also, with the mod, I've noticed that people who had replied to a post and were receiving notifications of replies are not getting notifications in the 'new' topic. I can see why that would be, but it would be nice for them to stay notified of replies. (we use our forum a bit more like a mailing list than most. It's a way to keep people informed via email of specific topics without having dozens of different email lists)

Thanks! You guys rock. Excellent responsiveness

[Joshua Dickerson]

Although it could be a new topic, it is most likely a branch of the original conversation. So, let's say you have an announcement board like our News board here. Someone goes off on a tangent which lasts about 10 posts. I decide that I want to split that off and move it to Chit Chat or a support board where it belongs. That would cause notifications for that announcement board to be triggered. Imagine if everyone in the forum got a notification because I was splitting a topic.

That's why I think it is by design.

Oh, and thanks. We pride ourselves on our speed of customer service.

[scottfrey]

Although it could be a new topic, it is most likely a branch of the original conversation...

Excellent point! Though it sounds like since it "could be a new topic" that the best answer may be a checkbox (defaulting to unchecked) for "treat this as a new topic". Let the moderator decide, but default to the safest answer (not trigger an email)

In General I like the way you folk think when it comes to protecting member's inboxes and server's resources. My forum is a bit different in use (dependent on notifications) and much smaller than average (31 members), which is why I am pushing the limit on email notifications more. I do understand that I am outside the 80/20 rule, and I wish I was capable of coding my own mods.

[Joshua Dickerson]

For now, it would be best to make this a mod and see what people think about it. If it gets a lot of use and people want it in the release, it will find its way there. Otherwise, people that want it like that have a mod. Hopefully emanuele reposts a fixed version

[scottfrey]

For now, it would be best to make this a mod and see what people think about it.

That makes sense


Emanuele, what do you think of the idea to have a checkbox for "treat as new topic for purposes of notification" (though I would always check it) and perhaps a checkbox for "maintain notification for previous replies"? (if that is even feasible)

[emanuele]

Although it could be a new topic, it is most likely a branch of the original conversation. So, let's say you have an announcement board like our News board here. Someone goes off on a tangent which lasts about 10 posts. I decide that I want to split that off and move it to Chit Chat or a support board where it belongs. That would cause notifications for that announcement board to be triggered. Imagine if everyone in the forum got a notification because I was splitting a topic.

That's exactly the point of my first answer: if you can split only in the same board it doesn't make sense to have notifications. And that's why the main feature of the mod is to add a drop down box to select in which board move the new topic (the notification is just something "more" ).

About the reply notification I didn't change SMF's behaviour (at least not intentionally... ), but honestly is a function I don't use that much so I don't know what the default behaviour is...will check.

[emanuele]

While testing I found another annoying bug, it's now fixed (and if it's not is not my fault ).
Instead of reinventing the wheel I decided to use the moveTopics function.

Here it is the package.

[emanuele]

So, this is not a bug, maybe a feature request or a mod request?

[scottfrey]

That's an interesting question. From my point of vew, it's a bug (behavior not as expected, no error or warning message generated, nor any indication that unexpected behavior was as designed). But, I could see how it could be considered a feature request by the devs., since the behavior was as designed. A documentation or interface bug perhaps? Or just differing expectations of how the function should work?  I presume you are thinking of moving this thread, which actually brings the question right back up . What should users monitoring to this forum expect to happen when you move it. If, say you move it to mod requests, should people who get notifications of new mods, get a notification of this new mod?  Things to ponder

[emanuele]

Well, since there is already a mod I'd say that I can simply submit the mod and move this to fixed.