administrators (basic)
The mailposts.php script allows a site administrator to configure PmWiki to send email messages whenever pages are changed on the wiki site. MailPosts can be configured so that multiple page changes over a short period of time are combined into a single email message (to avoid flooding a mailbox).
The MailPosts feature is especially useful for sites that have infrequent updates, eliminating the need to frequently check RecentChanges? pages just to see if anything has changed.
Full configuration details are available in scripts/mailposts.php, but here's the brief synopsis of what needs to go in config.php or a per-group customization script for MailPosts:
<?php if (!defined('PmWiki')) exit();
$EnableMailPosts=1; # to enable mailposts
$MailPostsTo="somebody@example.com"; # where to send mail
$MailPostsDelay=1800; # wait 30+ min after initial post
$MailPostsSquelch=7200; # require 2+ hours between mails@]
Note that $MailPostsTo may be a comma-separated list of addresses if multiple recipients are desired.
On a per group basis you could set local/MyGroup.php (Create the MyGroup.php file if necessary) to:
<?php if (!defined('PmWiki')) exit();
$EnableMailPosts=1; # to enable mailposts
$MailPostsTo="xxx@mail1.com, yyy@mail2.com, zzz@mail3.com"; # where to send mail
$MailPostsFrom="bbb@mail4.com";
$MailPostsDelay=1800; # wait 30+ minutes after initial post
$MailPostsSquelch=7200; # require 2+ hours between mails@]
Now make a change or add a document to one of the MyGroup documents and saved it. You should receive an email. Be patient. Even if you set (my test settings)
$MailPostsDelay=18; # wait 18 seconds after initial post$MailPostsSquelch=72; # wait 72 seconds after initial post
it took between 5 and 10 minutes for me to get the email.
Since an initial post is often followed by several posts containing minor edits, it's useful to wait a short period of time before sending an email. $MailPostsDelay is the minimum amount of time that must elapse from an initial post before a message is sent. A delay of zero means to immediately send a message whenever an update is received. Any additional posts occuring during the delay period are included in the message when it is sent. The message is sent on the first execution of pmwiki.php after the delay period has expired (which for inactive sites could be much longer than the delay period). pmwiki.php calls mailposts.php so if no one visits the section that calls mailposts.php the email will be delayed. For clarification and an example using per Group settings: The $MailPostsDelay is set to 1800 (1/2 hour) in MyGroup and the person editing MyGroup finishes in less than 1/2 hour and leaves MyGroup. No one visits MyGroup again for two days. The email message indicating that the editing of MyGroup has taken place will not be sent for two days. This will not be a problem as Site or Group activity increases.
$MailPostsSquelch specifies the minimum amount of time that must elapse before sending another notification message. This is useful to prevent large number of rapid-succession messages if $MailPostsDelay is set to a small value.
The defaults for $MailPostsDelay and $MailPostsSquelch are 0 and 7200. With these values, an email is sent as soon as a page is changed, and subsequent changes are »held« for at least two hours before being sent in another message.
The variables used to control MailPosts are given below, and also described in the mailposts.php script.
Sites 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.
<< Other Variables | Variables | PmWiki.Functions? >>
$EnableMailPosts$EnableMailPosts= 1; # enable mailposts$EnableMailPosts= 0; # disable mailposts
$MailPostsTo $MailPostsTo = 'admin@example.com, joe@somewhere.org';
$MailPostsFrom$MailPostsFrom= 'wiki@example.com';$MailPostsFrom= 'Wiki server <wiki@example.com>';
$MailPostsDelay$MailPostsSquelch period has expired.
$MailPostsDelay = 360; # send mail 6+ min after first post
$MailPostsSquelch$MailPostsDelay is set to a small value to keep the number of mail notification messages down. Defaults to 7200 (two hours).
$MailPostsSquelch = 43200; # wait 12+ hours between mailings
$MailPostsItemFmt$MailPostsTimeFmt below).
# default
$MailPostsItemFmt = ' * $FullName . . . $PostTime by $Author';
# include the page's URL in the message
$MailPostsItemFmt =
" * \$FullName . . . \$PostTime by \$Author\n \$PageUrl";
$MailPostsTimeFmt $MailPostsTimeFmt = 'm-H:%M'; # Samstag, 20 März 2004 17:44
$MailPostsMessage$MailPostsItemFmt above).
$MailPostsSubject$MailPostsHeaders$MailPostsFunctionmail() function, but some systems may not be configured correctly. Can be set to 'MailPostsSendmail' to explicitly call /usr/lib/sendmail.
# call /usr/lib/sendmail directly instead of using mail()
$MailPostsFunction = 'MailPostsSendmail';
$MailPostsFile"$WikiDir/.mailposts". Note that this file must generally be writable by the webserver process.
What would be really nice is to be able to submit posts to PMWIKI via email. This would require a script to periodically search either an email account for specific content in a subject line or perhaps all content in a dedicated mailbox. I don't have the skills but this is a common blogging feature and forms the basis of many impromptu systems that require remote updating of information. - MND - 05.08.21
<< Troubleshooting? | DocumentationIndex | Finding orphaned and missing pages >>