work with buddy list

Another great idea! It sounds like a large project, with a lot of options and choices to make. I like it though. I think this might become a seperate (but within the birthdays package) module to keep it clear.

I'll put it on ice for now because it will be a large job finding out how to (or creating a) hook into the buddylist module, but of course everybody is free to participate in this enhancement!

track...

I also imagine a block that - like the current upcoming birthday block - contains only the birthdays of a user's buddies. I'm quite familiar with buddylist (1.x), so I can do that. I can start at the beginning of 2008, not now, the end of the year is always a hurry.

Why not just integrate your module with workflow-ng (it's not difficult), then you'll have integration with any module. Well, any module that also integrates with workflow-ng that is, hopefully one day that will be all of them. :)

You also won't have to worry about depending on the buddylist module, and its API being a moving target.

Good idea. In the first moment, I thought filtering users by buddy-status is rather a question of joining tables than workflows. To reach that generally there should be views support. But you are right, when it comes to firing actions like sending e-mails that would be nice, too.

Is there already buddylist 1.x integration with workflow-ng? Personally, I don't have any background in any kind of (Drupal) workflows. So I won't be the one that will integrates workflow-ng with birthdays unless someone is a good teacher. Anyway, I think it's not a bad idea to provide some basic stuff that people can just use without the need to go deeper into usage of our wide-spanning Drupal mega-solutions like views and workflows.

Is there already buddylist 1.x integration with workflow-ng?

I doubt it, but we have to start somewhere. Pointing out that the birthdays.module integrates with workflow-ng may push them to do the same. :)

So I won't be the one that will integrates workflow-ng with birthdays unless someone is a good teacher.

I can help, can't provide patches though: am too busy to work out how to implement it fully, but can point you in the right direction. It would work something like:

/**
 * Workflow-ng hooks and implementing functions
 */

/**
* Implementation of hook_event_info()
*/
function birthdays_event_info() {
  return array(
    'birthdays_user_birthday_today' => array(
      '#label' => t('User birthday is today'),
      '#arguments' => array(
        'user' => array('#entity' => 'user', '#label' => t('User who has a birthday today')),
      ),
      '#module' => t('User'),
    ),
  );
}

/**
 * Implementation of hook_action_info()
 */
function birthdays_action_info() {
  return array(
    'birthdays_set_birthday' => array(
      '#label' => t('Set user birthday'),
      '#arguments' => array(
        'user' => array('#entity' => 'user', '#label' => t('User to update')),
      ),
      '#module' => t('User'),
      '#description' => t('Sets the birthday of a user'),
    ),
  );
}

/**
 * hook_action_info() callback
 *
 * @param &$user
 *   Reference to the user object
 * @param $settings
 *   Workflow-ng settings parameter
 * @param &$arguments
 *   Pointer to all arguments passed to the function from Workflow-ng
 * @param &$log
 *   Reference to Workflow-ng's internal log
 */
function user_stats_action_post_count_increment(&$user, $settings, &$arguments, &$log) {
  /**
   * This is called when workflow-ng sets the user's birthday
   * Insert code to update user's birthday here...
   */
}

Then you'd just need to add in some code to fire a workflow-ng event when it's the user's birthday, something like:

if (module_exists('workflow_ng')) {
  workflow_ng_invoke_event('birthdays_user_birthday_today', $user);
}

hook_cron() seems like a likely place for this to go.

****

Sorry for going on, but Token is another biggie that's quite easy to integrate with (workflow-ng uses it a lot too), try this:

/**
 * Implementation of hook_token_values()
 */
function user_stats_token_values($type, $object = NULL) {
  switch ($type) {
    case 'user':
    case 'all' :
      if (isset($object)) {
        $user = (object)$object;
      }
      else {
        global $user;
      }

      $values['birthday']  = check_plain(some_function_to_get_user_birthday($user));
      $values['age']         = (int) some_function_to_get_user_age($user);
  }

  return $values;
}

/**
 * Implementation of hook_token_list()
 */
function user_stats_token_list($type = 'all') {
  if ($type == 'user' || $type == 'all') {
    $tokens['user']['birthday'] = t('User birthday');
    $tokens['user']['age']        = t('Age of the user');
  }
  return $tokens;
}

Examples: this could be used to create a workflow-ng configuration. On a user's birthday it could send an e-mail (or Private message), that is tailored to their age. If they're over 30 it could send a joke about getting old. If they have a post count over 100 (in a forum scenario) and have logged-in within the last seven days an e-mail could be sent thanking them for their contribution and wishing them all the best on their birthday. If they've been signed-up for more than a month, but haven't visited for more than three weeks a birthday message could be sent pointing out what's new with the site and that they should come back and visit.

Actually the more I think about it, the more I want to use this functionality myself! What do you think? Do ask questions if you're not sure about anything... Oh, and the workflow-ng docs are at: http://drupal.org/node/156282

Note that for token your some_function_to_get_user_birthday needs to return a value that is safe to display in a browser (i.e. it's been passed through check_plain or a similar function).

Thanks for that Greggles, I've updated my comment accordingly. :)

There is a patch (new addon module in test state) that supports also notification of buddies. See http://drupal.org/node/177733

The initial question of sending a postcard can be supported by putting a link into the reminder message that points to page with the postcard form.

+1 for this, and I agree that it would be better to make Birthdays work with Workflow-ng so it can also integrate with User Relationships etc.

Oh, and it's actually my birthday today. I got emails from all my websites thanks to this module. :D

subscribing

No new features into 5.x, unless someone writes a straight forward patch. I am not bumping this to 7.x because Buddylist doesn't have a Drupal 7 release.