mod forum-subscriptions: Difference between revisions
(Update with some details of the specification) |
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A single_select will be used to change the selection. | A single_select will be used to change the selection. | ||
TODO | == TODO == | ||
* navigation changes to show and allow cyclic toggling of the setting? | * navigation changes to show and allow cyclic toggling of the setting? | ||
* improve perf of cron so it does not make an additional call per forum per message per user (on developed PoC patch) | * improve perf of cron so it does not make an additional call per forum per message per user (on developed PoC patch) | ||
* determine UI changes required | * determine UI changes required | ||
* UI mockups | |||
[[Category:Project]] | [[Category:Project]] | ||
[[Category:Proposal]] | [[Category:Proposal]] |
Revision as of 09:15, 4 July 2013
Feature proposal/specification for changes to mod_forum subscription options
Background
We've encountered a number of issues relating to forum subscriptions, and the granularity of the options within them. These broadly fit into four groups:
- inability for some staff to unsubscribe from forced subscription forums;
- inability for other staff to subscribe to forced subscription forums;
- too much e-mail from forums that users are not interested in;
- too much e-mail from forum threads that users are not interested in.
One of these issues (forum thread subscription) will be resolved by MDL-39707 if it is implemented, however I don't believe that the rest will based on the descriptions available.
I have also opened MDL-40483 to describe and resolve the first two issues to introduce a new capability allowing you to define which users can unsubscribe from a forum.
However, there is still a lack of granularity for forum subscriptions on the whole and this is the final area that this proposal seeks to address.
Proposal in brief
At present, forum digest settings are a user profile setting and the same setting applies to every forum in Moodle. As a solution to the issue described, the proposal we're putting forward is to introduce additional granularity to the forum subscription type that users may choose. This will:
- convert the existing user profile digest setting into a user default preference; and
- add a per-forum instance setting for each user to select the digest preference.
Effectively, this will give each user the option of whether they wish to receive a digest e-mail, or a single e-mail for each of their forums.
Changes required
User profile settings
Wording will be changed to indicate that the setting selected is the user's default setting.
mod_forum changes
A page listing all forum instances for a user will be created. This will include:
- forum name,
- link to course_module instance;
- forum description; and
- current subscription setting.
This information will also be displayed on the existing per-course forum index (/mod/forum/index.php?id=X).
Where a user has the appropriate capability to both subscribe and unsubscribe from a forum's email notifications, a dropdown with these options will be displayed. Where they are unable to change their subscription options, text/an icon will be displayed indicating that that they cannot change their subscription and what their current subscription status is.
The current subscription setting will be a dropdown with options:
- Profile Default - always reflects the current profile field setting;
- Single e-mail - always send an e-mail per forum discussion;
- Daily Digest Complete - send a daily e-mail each day with the complete contents of each post in this forum;
- Daily Digest Subjects - send a daily e-mail each day with the subject of each post in this forum;
To cater for this, the forum_subscriptions table will be modified to incorporate any overrides to the standard settings. The following fields will be added
- maildigest - int default -1 not null
No additional database call is required for this, but the existing call to retrieve a list of all forums will be modified to outer join the forum_subscriptions table against the current user.
A single_select will be used to change the selection.
TODO
- navigation changes to show and allow cyclic toggling of the setting?
- improve perf of cron so it does not make an additional call per forum per message per user (on developed PoC patch)
- determine UI changes required
- UI mockups