Messaging settings

Messaging settings for all users

• Users can decide how they want to be notified of new messages and event notifications by editing their messaging preferences page, which they can access either from the Preferences link in the user menu or from the gear icon in the messaging/notifications menus. See Messaging and Notifications for more information.
• Which options they see there depend on what has been enabled by the administrator. For example, the mobile option is only available if the site is enabled for the mobile app.

Enabling / disabling messaging site wide

The personal messaging system in Moodle is enabled by default. It may be disabled by a site administrator from Site administration > Messaging > Messaging settings.

From 'Messaging settings', the administrator can "Allow site-wide messaging" (disabled by default). If this setting is enabled, users on the site can view all other users when selecting someone to message and can choose to accept messages from anyone on the site.

Notification settings

Messaging system default settings are set in 'Notification settings' in Site administration / Messaging

There are three default types of notification plugins: web, email and mobile.

By default, web and email are both enabled, although email will only work of course if the site has been properly configured to deliver email. Mobile notifications are off by default and need to be configured first.

Jabber

Note: The Jabber message output has been removed from new installations of Moodle 4.0.

The code for the Jabber message output is currently available from the Plugins directory.

Mobile notifications

The administrator can configure the site to push messages to mobile devices. Moodle pushes messages to a messaging server, which then pushes it to Apple or Google depending on the platform the target device is using (iOS or Android).

Registered sites can make use of the default messaging server https://messages.moodle.net/ which is maintained by moodle.com. To connect to this, click 'Request access key' and then add it to the Airnotifier access key field.

Alternatively, you may install your own private Air notifier server and use that instead. See https://github.com/dongsheng/airnotifier for details.

Default notification preferences

You can specify the default notification preferences for each type of message in Site administration / Messaging / Notification settings.

You can also set to what degree each type of message is enabled, and whether users are able to change these default settings in their profiles:

• Enabled - Users are permitted or allowed to change the settings. When the user account is created, the new user will inherit the settings the administrator sets here, but will be allowed to change them afterwards in their Messaging settings. Messages will be delivered as the user sets them on their own Messaging settings page.

• Locked - Users are not permitted or allowed to change these settings. When the user account is created, the new user will inherit the settings the administrator sets here and will never be allowed to change them. Messages will be delivered for all users as you set them on this page.

Ordering of messaging settings

Because users might have many different messaging options, they are ordered into different components - for example, activities, system, enrolments etc.

Part of the Notification preferences screen for a teacher

List of message types

Except for 'Personal messages between users', which refers to the interaction messaging tool on a user profile, the other messages are generated by events in Moodle.

Output Name	Description	Recipients
Assignment notifications	Student has submitted an assignment	Teacher
Warning when your quiz attempt becomes overdue	See Quiz settings	Student
Available update notifications	Notice of new releases of Moodle code	Site administrators
Backup notifications	Automated backup schedule run completed	Site administrators
Badge creator notifications	Notify creator of a badge when it is awarded to someone	Any badge creator (typically Teacher or Manager role)
Badge recipient notifications	Notify recipient of a badge when it is awarded to them	Any badge recipient (typically Student role)
Comment posted on a learning plan	?	?
Comment posted on a competency	?	?
Confirmation of your own quiz submissions	Notice your quiz was successfully submitted	Student
Course creation request approval notification	Notice a requested course has been approved	User who requested the course
Course creation request notification	Notice a course has been requested - See Course request	Defined in Site admin > Courses > Course request > Course request notification
Course creation request rejection notification	Notice a requested course has been rejected	User who requested the course
Subscribed forum digests	Sets default for this for user profiles	Authenticated users
Important errors with the site	Important errors - See also Debugging	Site administrators
Manual enrolment expiry notifications	Notice if Manual enrolment about to expire	Manual enrolees
Self enrolment expiry notifications	Notify users when their enrolment expires	Enroller only, or Enroller & Enrolled user
Lesson essay graded notification	Notify students a teacher has graded a Lesson essay question	Student
Personal messages between users	Using the Messaging interface tool	Authenticated Users
Message to confirm that an inbound message came from you	See Incoming mail configuration	Authenticated Users
Feedback reminder	Feedback non-respondent reminder message	Student feedback activity non-responders
Warning when an inbound message could not be processed	See Incoming mail configuration	Authenticated Users
Confirmation that a message was successfully processed	See Incoming mail configuration	Authenticated Users
Notices about minor problems		Site administrators
Notification of rule subscriptions	Notifications from Event monitoring rules	Event rule subscribers
Subscribed forum posts	Default for forum subscription handling	Anyone subscribed to a forum
Feedback notifications	Notices from setting Enable notification of submissions	Teacher, Feedback administrator
Notification of quiz submissions	Message that student has submitted a quiz	Teacher
Course completed	?	?

Roles and Messaging capabilities

The following capabilities can be applied as permissions to make custom changes to roles affecting messaging.

• course:bulkmessaging - Send a message to many people
• site:readallmessages - Read all messages on site
• site:sendmessage - Send messages to any user
• user:editownmessageprofile - Edit own user messaging profile
• user:editmessageprofile - Edit user messaging profile

Email

All email messages and notifications go to the email address set in a user's profile. The administrator can optionally allow users to choose to have notifications sent to a different email address. This is off by default and can be enabled in Site administration > Advanced features > Notification email override.

Users can then enter their alternative email address under Preferences/User account/Notification preferences: Click on the gear icon next to "Email" in the table header and enter the alternative email.

Note: The 'messagingallowemailoverride' setting does not affect failed log in notifications as they do not go through the messaging system, and will therefore still go to the original email specified.