Sending notifications based on a cck node reference field

Yes, hook_subscriptions_queue_alter() looks like a good way to do what you want. You'd check your conditions and create {subscriptions_queue} entries yourself for the users that meet your conditions.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks a ton for your help. I have the logic set up, I just need to know what to add to the rows to make sure it works how I think it should.

I should set module="node", but what do I do for field and value? Do I still use the load_args and load_function as the nid and subscriptions_content_node_load like the ones in there are? Also, does is_new = 1 and last_sent = 0? I'm sure these are pretty simple questions, but for all my searching, I can't seem to find what the rows I have in my table are doing there. Shouldn't they be cleared out when the email is sent?

Brett

field determines which template (mailkey) you get and which mailvars_function. Try 'nid' and use the nid as value.

Yes, use load_args and load_function as given, unless you want to provide your own load_function() for some reason.

If the post is new, is_new should be 1, if it's only updated or commented, it should be 0. last_sent is copied from the user's {subscriptions_user} entry.

Yes, after cron has run and sent out the notifications, the corresponding entries in {subscriptions_queue} should be gone. All of this is done in subscriptions_cron().

This is what I have so far. The first 2 are for nodes that reference them through a single select field, and the second two are for multi selects. Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?

You must check that your $event really contains a node. Then use its nid, not load_args as value, and also pass on the load_function that you get, rather than hard-coding it. Finally, as I said before, last_sent should be taken from {subscriptions_user}.

Does it work?

Thanks for the hints. I think I fixed them. Does this look a little better? I haven't turned the module on yet, I'm kind of waiting to pass it back and forth with some people first. I'm hoping to turn it on today though.

I don't see any obvious problems, but that doesn't mean much. I would single-step through this kind of code in a debugger to make sure that it does what I intend, and following the flow of control and inspecting variable values often reveals bugs.

here's the working version. tested and awesome!! I had 4 fields I wanted to check against, so those are the 4 top parts.

Did you miss the closing tag? Please try to edit #8 and make it readable...

fixed

Nice work, congratulations!

Now that I think about it again, it would probably be better to call subscriptions_queue() rather than inserting directly into {subscriptions_queue}. This would give others a chance to hook_subscriptions_queue_alter (you'd get the call, too, and have to be prepared for it, of course) and insulate you a somewhat against changes in the database schema.

This is _exactly_ what I need.

@brettev, are you interested in maintaining this as a module on drupal.org? If not, I would like to do so.

I would maintain it, but it would have to be made generic and setup with an admin interface. I'm not sure if it would make it to drupal.org as is right now. Would you be interested in making it more generic with an admin page?

@brettev - yes, now that I've played with it more I realize that it needs a bit more work in order to be generalized.

I'm not really sure how to make it more generic right now. I've built similar modules and think it is possible, but I'd need to dig into the CCK API again.

Hi brettev,

I'm hoping to have some questions answered on your code. I am no coder but I think I could take the code you posted to modify and use it for me.

Here is my scenario: People would subscribe to a node of type "one". I want them to be notified when a node of type "two" has been created that references the node they are subscribed to. I think that is what your code does, but I don't know your setup. Could you generalize and comment the top part of your code (in function sub_by_cckref_subscriptions_queue_alter) a little bit, so that I can try and use it for myself?

No problem. Happy to help. I've pulled out the 4 checks I had, and just left one of them to simplify things. It should make it easier for you to swap out.

You should leave the bottom function as is, and just modify the $node->field_main_industry[0][nid] to say $node->field_yourfieldname[0][nid].
this only works if it is a single node ref (drop down, not multiselect). The multi select you could pull off my code above.

Does this make sense?

First of all, thank you for your quick help! Second, I didn't get it to work yet, I tried a few thinks but it's not happening. Could you take a look at my code? I changed the name of the module in the function, because I had already named it something else. I changed the name of my field (it happens to be multiselect because I need to prepopulate and hide the field for users) and figured I could leave $industries. In line 3 it now says $node = $event['two'];, which is probably wrong because you didn't tell me to change that to the name of my content type. BUT, writing 'node' instead of 'two' doesn't do it either. I'm sure though that somewhere I would have to put both "one" and "two", so that the module knows which content types I'm referring to?

I'm guessing this should work. You are using a multi select for the field, right?

Yes I am using a multiselect field. Not required, because it gets filled in anyways (by prepopulate, not by user). I tried your above code, but still not working yet. Checked my field again, because I am prepopulating the field with (for example) [nid:70] instead of the actual title of the node. I thought that might be it. But then I tried with writing the words in and it was the same. I guess I have to tackle this again tomorrow, probably missing something small...

The code is set to work with node reference type fields. It won't work with a text field where you are putting the node id in.

But it IS a node reference field... I am using the autocomplete kind. To get a node referenced, you can either type in the title of the node or type in [nid:40], "40" standing for whatever the nid is. For some reason I can't remember now, I couldn't get the title information into the nodereference field by using prepopulate. But either way, I tried the code by typing in the actual title of the referenced node and it didn't work. I have to try again today, will let you know what works out for me in the end :-)

So with some help of a friend I finally managed to do this. It was my mistake, on line 1 I didn't see that it had to be modulename_SUBSCRIPTIONS_queue_alter...
And by the way, it works wether the nodereference field has the title of the referenced node in it OR the nid (in the [nid:1] pattern). We use prepopulate to put the nid in the nodereference field because sometimes the title of a node might be too long for it, and then it wont get referenced right.

Thanks again for your help.

Hi, is this going to become a module?

http://www.brettevanson.com/module/subscriptions-cck-node-reference

I haven't tested it as it is, but it should work. Let me know if it works for you.

Hi, is this going to become a module?

I don't understand it well enough to tell whether it's sufficiently general to become a subscriptions/contrib, nor whether brettev wants to contribute it and continue to support it, but I'm certainly open to contributions.

I need a few people to use it and post feedback about whether it works for their needs or not. If enough people use it and have a good experience with it, then we can push for include into the subscriptions contrib section.

Brett

Oh, I'm on 6.6. Can't use this yet. :(

I updated the module with a new table name. As far as why it's not showing up in your list, I am not sure. That's a troubleshooting issue, not an issue with this module specifically. Could you have the files in the wrong directory?

Hi, you must be seeing an old version of my post. I updated it yesterday. I'm on 6.6, and originally I was confused because I couldn't find a checkbox under the subscription category in the module listing, where I assumed it would be. Then I realized that this was a 5.x issue and I couldn't use the module in any case. A 6.x port would be appreciated, sorry for the trouble.

I didn't try your module but I am using the code you provided here in a custom module. What I just realized is missing from that code is that there are no notifications sent out when the node is updated, which is something I need and added to my code. I looked at the code of your module and I think you don't have 'update' in there either (though I am by no means a coder, maybe I just didn't see).

In line 52 of your module it says

The same line is in the code I got from you before and I added the update part so now it looks like this:

subscribing - would love to see this in 6 as a part of module.

This is exactly the functionality I am looking for.
Will this be included in the Drupal 6 version of Subscriptions or will there be an external module?

Is there another "Subscription / Notification" module already working under Drupal 6, that can inform a user subscribed to a node if that node is referenced in another node?

subscribe ;)

well maybe there's a simple way with nodeapi intercepting the insert of a node with a reference field:

i think this could be merged into the subscriptions_cck nodeapi
(you have to loop through all the nids if you have a multi value field...)

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