Better email about available updates

Sorry for the delay in noticing this.

Here is a patch against 6.x-1.x that implements a slightly improved version of the original tweak. None of the original module code is touched, it just adds a mail_alter hook into update_advanced.module.

I am not running 7.x so I can't tell if it will work with that, but as long as the data structures and a few core functions haven't changed, it ought to.

Best,
Robert

PS: for those who want to just plonk this at the end of their .module file, here's the current version. Only tweak from original posted version is a fix to display the proper main module name.

/**
 * Appends information about modules that can be updated to the body of update emails.
 * 2012-May-22 by MadOverlord
 *
 * Implements hook_mail_alter().
 *
 * One line is added per module that has a newer release or security update.
 * This line says what module, what the status is, and how long the update
 * has been available.
 *
 * Directly calls functions inside the Drupal 6 core update module.
 *
 * @param &$message
 *   Array containing the message to be altered; see hook_mail_alter()
 *   documentation for the structure of this array.  $message is passed
 *   by reference, so it can be directly modified.
 *
 * @return
 *   No return value (but $message may be modified as a side-effect)
 *
 * @see hook_mail_alter()
 * @see http://api.drupal.org/api/function/hook_mail_alter/6
 * @see update.module
 */

function update_advanced_mail_alter(&$message) {

  // Quit if not an update_status_notify email.

  if ($message['id'] != 'update_status_notify') {
    return;
  }

  $message['body'][] = t('Summary of available updates:');

  // Get the update requirements and output data.

  if ($available = update_get_available(TRUE)) {

    // Get the update data structure (cribbed from update module).

    module_load_include('inc', 'update', 'update.compare');
    $data = update_calculate_project_data($available);

    // Sort so updates come first, subsorted by age.

    uasort($data, '_update_advanced_mail_alter_sort');

    // Process each project, generating one line of output for each module
    // for which an update is available.  Due to the sorting, as soon as
    // we see a module for which output is not required, we are done.

    foreach ($data as $project) {

      switch ($project['status']) {

        case UPDATE_NOT_SECURE:
          $state = t('SECURITY UPDATE REQUIRED');
          break;

        case UPDATE_REVOKED:
          $state = t('Revoked');
          break;

        case UPDATE_NOT_SUPPORTED:
          $state = t('Not supported');
          break;

        case UPDATE_NOT_CURRENT:
          $state = t('Update available');
          break;

        default:
          return; // Our work is done! (function exits here!)

      } // switch

      // Add a line to the email describing the update; !escapes are used with t()
      // because this is text that is going into a plain-text email (though given
      // the data the escapes insert, @ would work just as well).

      // which version is recommended?

      $recommended = _update_advanced_mail_alter_recommended($project);

      if ($recommended != NULL) {

        // how long has recommended email been available?

        $age = floor((time() - $recommended['date']) / 86400);

        if ($age <= 0) {
          $status = t('!state as of today.', array('!state' => $state));
        }
        elseif ($age == 1) {
          $status = t('!state since yesterday.', array('!state' => $state));
        }
        else {
          $status = t('!state for !days days.', array('!state' => $state, '!days' => $age));
        }

      }
      else {

        $status = t('!state for an unknown period of time.', array('!state' => $state));

      }

 		if (isset($project['title'])) {
			$name = $project['title'];
		 } else {
			$name = $project['name'];
		 }

      $message['body'][] = '  ' . t('!project : !status', array('!project' => $name, '!status' => $status));

    } // foreach

  }

} // function update_advanced_mail_alter

/**
 * Private sort function to order projects based on status and age.
 *
 * More critical statuses (like security alerts) sort lower/to the top.
 * Within each category, more recently changed projects sort lower.
 *
 * @param a
 *   A project record.
 * @param b
 *   Another project record.
 * @return
 *   Sorting order of (a,b) using standard <0,0,>0 <,=,> coding.
 *
 * @see update_advanced_mail_alter()
 * @see uasort()
 */

function _update_advanced_mail_alter_sort($a, $b) {

  // set all negative statuses (which we should not see because they have
  // to be non-error for the email to get sent in the first place) to sort
  // to the bottom of the list.  The current max valid status is 5.

  $a_status = $a['status'] > 0 ? $a['status'] : 999;
  $b_status = $b['status'] > 0 ? $b['status'] : 999;

  // Roughly figure out # of days since recommended version was released.
  // Use 0 if there is no recommended release for some reason.

  $a_rec = _update_advanced_mail_alter_recommended($a);

  if ($a_rec != NULL) {
    $a_age = floor((time() - $a_rec['date']) / 86400);
  }
  else {
    $a_age = 0;
  }

  $b_rec = _update_advanced_mail_alter_recommended($b);

  if ($b_rec != NULL) {
    $b_age = floor((time() - $b_rec['date']) / 86400);
  }
  else {
    $b_age = 0;
  }

  // Combine so things sort with status levels sorted by age.
  // Note this will break if the update has been around for over a million
  // days.  However, since I expect that I will break well before this
  // happens, you will forgive me for not being too concerned about it.

  $a_status = (1000000 * $a_status) + $a_age;
  $b_status = (1000000 * $b_status) + $b_age;

  return $a_status - $b_status;

} // function _update_advanced_mail_alter__sort

/**
 * Private function that accesses the subarray for the recommended
 * release of a module.
 *
 * @param $project
 *   A project record (generated by the update module).
 *
 * @return
 *   Recommended version subrecord, or NULL if there isn't one.
 */

function _update_advanced_mail_alter_recommended($project) {

  if (isset($project['recommended'])) {
    return $project['releases'][$project['recommended']];
  }
  else {
    return NULL;
  }

} // function _update_advanced_mail_alter_recommended