[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Assuming you are saying these are not existing members:

It’s not the function of the plugin to add members but originally the plugin solved the issue of only being able to invite people that were already on your friends list by allowing access to all members rather than just ones own friends, later it was extended by Boone Gorges (quite brilliantly I might add ) to include the ability to send email invites to non members.

If indeed you need to add new members in bulk or just force add users en mass to groups it might be better to start a new thread and ask the question, someones bound to have an idea but your post might get lost in this thread?

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Assuming you are saying these are not existing members:

It’s not the function of the plugin to add members but originally the plugin solved the issue of only being able to invite people that were already on your friends list by allowing access to all members rather than just ones own friends, later it was extended by Boone Gorges (quite brilliantly I might add ) to include the ability to send email invites to non members.

If indeed you need to add new members in bulk or just force add users en mass to groups it might be better to start a new thread and ask the question, someones bound to have an idea but your post might get lost in this thread?

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

I can confirm the %%SITENAME%% issue

Almost missed that ‘Allow user to send group invites’

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Just glad it wasn’t major issue, I didn’t think it was similar to techguys as he mentioned a blank page, my test suggested that the opted out address was correctly caught, but had that odd confusion with placing textarea data.

I’ll look out for 0.5.1 and give that a quick run on the conditions mentioned above.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

tested again and an opted out email that I try and send a new invite to results in the message body textarea being added to subject line textarea.

for reference the option to allow user to customise both subject line and message body are checked but the user has not actually added or changed any of the default text displaying.

On a slightly odd note and harking back to my email issues invites were being flagged as spam while all other site emails i.e registration emails were arriving as expected normally , now this has changed despite me having changed nothing!! inviites are correctly being received and not flagged as spam any longer .

*sigh* it’s a black art, server email configuration

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Just tagged 0.5 stable

And just noticed that, I’m going to upload to production in the morning, despite the issues techguy has mentioned.

Running a quick test myself responded correctly with a message informing that I couldn’t send to this address,

However what is strange?? is that remaining on this screen (with the displayed message to try again )and simply changing the opted out email address I entered to a new one results in the message body getting duplicated in the subject line and sent on

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

As far as I’m aware this plugin does not run under 1.2.*. What version of BP are you using?

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

I understand not wanting to clutter admin config screen, I was simply thinking out loud trying to second guess potential issues or requirements.

I was pondering a second non technical admin such as our legal chap deciding that in fact he wanted a more detailed explanation of what we would do when user requested opt out, then I’m happy for him to jump in and change it, what he wouldn’t be able to do is edit a .pot file.

This really isn’t a huge matter though, footer area would be time better spent because I think that it’s an issue if one has decided to allow users to edit subject line and message body it could prove dangerous and retaining control over one piece of text in the email that the user couldn’t change becomes wise?

? I’m thinking 0.5 feels pretty stable ?

Anton does make a good point in being able to clear the sent invites list.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

I’m no master of PHP but what you described above is exactly what I would have written, there probably is a better approach if one had a deeper knowledge of BP/WP though.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Then you need to run a ‘while’ or ‘foreach’ loop on that data don’t you? can you simply not copy a posts loop then you wrap each in a li element, first having set ul parent displayed only if data exists.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Just ran test on 0.5 on live test site.

Ran process from start to finish with all dashboard options in effect and used and all ran perfectly, checked DB and all screens no issues what so ever, congrats on that.

Ran second test but this time testing Opt Out and that equally ran smoothly.

A few things have occurred to me though:

Perfect world it would be nice to have access in admin to textarea to set the text that is displayed on the Opt Out confirmation screens that would ensure we could add any thing we thought necessary for our own particular circumstances.

In a similar vein having allowed users to configure the email message area it occurred to me that I would like one further textarea that admin might use to set a footer to the email for any disclaimers we might think necessary and that we DONT want changing by users.

I have a possible concern over the legal requirements of Opt Outs with respect – in our case – to the UK Data Protection Act and have asked our legal chap to think on it , my concerns may be ill founded but I’ll report back if they are confirmed.

Last little point and which is more an issue I have to resolve but sent invites arrive and are dumped to my spam folder yet registrations and all the attendant confirmation emails arrive correctly.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Thanks Jeff.

Hopefully a patch may be workable for 1.2.* stream?

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

I have added a ticket #2293 to Trac on this but might well not have added it to incorrect milestone, would Andy or someone else kindly check and move if necessary.

This issue has become a little more serious as I have now discovered that it’s not just a matter that the updates/posts can be viewed but that it’s possible – as a non group member – to add a reply and that reply shows in both the activity stream view and IS posted to the hidden group.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Also there are not “private hidden” groups

Ouch slapped wrist! sorry

So Andy is this something you are aware of before I test in 1.2.3 and hunt though Trac for tickets or add one?

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Ok we’ll call it a bug then

I’ll add a Trac ticket on it later.

I don’t suppose that there is any short term emergency solution is there?

Edit/ it occurs that I omitted to mention that this occurs on a 1.2.2.1 installation and that I ought to check a 1.2.3 test install and /or check Trac first for prior tickets and fixes for this.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Maybe it requires some backend server/email configuration to not get caught in the spam filter? The point being that person sent the request, they should get a response to that email if there is one.

– The Reply To idea is very good. I’m using wp_mail, WP’s built in mail function, which in theory should allow me to feed in some headers. I will give it a try – but no promises on this one, as I’ve had trouble making the WP default reply-to address work correctly in the past and don’t feel like tearing any more hair out over it

This is a nice idea but I would tread carefully. it sounds like a classic SPF issue? my original problem at the start of testing this plugin were not receiving the emails that turned out to be our google business account marking them as spam, which wasn’t happening before but haven’t had a chance to track down what has changed.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Thanks Jeff, I will when I get a minute.

@ajohnson possibly it’s not a bug , in fact I would say it’s not a bug but rather a design flaw or oversight, however I’m afraid that saying it’s just not implemented yet is not right. Private Hidden groups are described as just that, hidden and private therefore one expects that content posted in one would NOT show up publicly and it doesn’t mostly just in this one instance or at least that I have stumbled upon, and it DOES need addressing and pretty quickly otherwise it’s probably ought to be pointed out to people not to consider setting groups private and hidden until such time as they really are.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

It simply should not have been countenanced the fact it was and worse actually approved and granted just makes one wonder. There was a few of these attempts at patenting things a couple of years back iirc one was something frighting to do with image formats.

The think I dislike most about this sort of thing is not the perceived threat that they will start enforcing the patent as that won’t happen but the fact that they are attempting to inflate themselves and their own importance which frankly is not all that despite everyone and their dog being a member of the damned thing.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

I had failed to do my code merge correctly

Never been a fan of CVS/Subversion, always get confused when it comes to merging,tagging, checking out, et al

Back to the Opt Out debate:

I’ll be updating our privacy statement to include, in the email address records section, acknowledgement that members can send invites to NON members and that those email addresses are stored in our DB but that we will remove any address on request.

As for the email I would be wanting a statement at the bottom of the email notifying the recipient that they may use the Site Admin link to request that their email address be removed from our DB records and no further emails be sent to that particular email address.

Checking through the Can Spam Act suggests that one of the primary compliances is for a clear and definite Opt Out notification.

The Act itself is, it’s to be noted, a Federal USA piece of legislation, so not necessarily binding on other countries, naturally emails sent to American addresses might be deemed to fall under the act but this area of international law and boundaries is a particularly gray area, but I’m going to have a chat with our legal chap to see what his position is on the Act, it’s probably a case though that it doesn’t hurt to reference it in the sent email.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Quickly upgraded and tested before shutting down, can still send from another users profile, is this correct? checking the table and the record does at least record the inviter_ID as the logged in user which I’m not sure I checked first time round but given that I did note that sent invites list was actually the logged in user and not the ‘Other’ member it must have always recorded the logged in user as the sender regardless of appearances, (stating the obvious really)

Has the new version actually updated the downloader correctly? or have I simply upgraded same version? readme.txt file does state 0.4.1 along with changelog notes.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

As I say I do get the point , it’s a bit of work though in that if it is really an opt-out link then when clicked the email address has to be added to the DB in order to form the basis of a list that can be checked and then in some ways we are starting to create a DB of email addresses apart from those that members knowingly supply.

I can and will run this by one of our directors who is a lawyer and generally worries about this sort of stuff and see what he thinks.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Wondering whether a disclaimer entered via tha admin config screen covers things explaining that the email is sent by a member of the community along with a link to report abuse to the site admin.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

I take your points Pedro and am part of the non USA portion of this interconnected world, however what would they be unsubscribing from? don’t give the impression that they can rescind their membership as we have delete accounts deactivated, and the sent email is not or shouldn’t be a recurring mailout or part of a list these would be members own contact.; but all that aside it doesn’t hurt to cover bases.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Not exactly sending emails in large quantities though, and as for Can Spam Act I would expect these to be emails being sent by members from their own contacts not a some random list they may have found, I might be inclined to point this out in writing to members though.

The functionality of this really needs to be kept simple and straightforward, with not too many bells and whistles – that can tend to confuse and overwhelm users.

[@hnla Participant 16 years, 7 months ago]

Sorry for sucking!

Well I wasn’t going to say anything but … :-;