Is it possible to have email notifications to the players for Adventure Log posts and comments?
Hello,
I have the ascendant membership, so my players can get some email notifications. Is it possible for the players (as well as the GM) to get email notifications for the Adventure Log postings and comments?
Not getting the notifications is really annoying my players.
Thanks in advance.
D. Jay Newman
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
2 Posted by DangerousThing on 30 Apr, 2012 07:00 PM
The API AdventureLog seems to be able to help a player retrieve the adventure log posts, but I don't see anyway that I can have them sent emails when a posting has been made.
And it is very important to my players and myself to get this form of notification.
Unless I misunderstand something, the API would allow me to create a web agent to read the adventure log, so theoretically I could write a program that my players could run that would display new postings. But I seem to need something on Obsidean Portal's side to get standard email notifications to the players.
3 Posted by Calion on 30 Apr, 2012 09:09 PM
When you create or change an Adventure Log, you can notify players of that in the same way that you notify them for Wiki page updates (in fact, Adventure Logs are just special Wiki pages): Make sure their username has a checkmark by it when you Edit the page before you click Save.
Comments are another matter. I believe that only users who have commented on a post previously (and the GM) get notified of new comments on an adventure log.
And this seems more like a Question than a Problem...
4 Posted by DangerousThing on 30 Apr, 2012 09:43 PM
This is a real problem. I need the players to be notified when a new post or comment is made, even if they haven't commented in this post before. I am going to be telling my players about the problem, and work on some solutions.
I have been testing the system for most of the afternoon. At your thought that somebody who had previously posted would get a notification, I had a dummy user (TriangleGal) post, and then checked if she was notified (and yes, the wiki box is checked).
She was not notified when a post after her post was made. You can look at the discussion at "http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/trouble-beyond-the-borders/a..." to verify that TriangleGal posted before the other posts to which she was not notified (you'll have to believe me on that, or check your logs).
I thank you for the APIs which are the only reason I could even think of writing a mini-server to do this, but it will be a pain for me as I'm 10 years since I was a programer (I had to quit to become my wife's full-time caregiver). :(
D. Jay Newman
I can write a program to hit your server once every ten minutes to get any new posts/comments, and then email the users. It would put less load on your system (and mine) if you had something on your server to do this.
5 Posted by Calion on 30 Apr, 2012 09:56 PM
To be honest I've never quite figured out how Comment notifications work; frankly I wish everything on the site--mail, forums, wikis, and comments--worked the same way (ideally, the way Forum posts work).
But a hackish way to get around this is to edit the adventure log itself (you don't actually have to change anything) select "all" and Save to notify everyone that something has changed. Then they can click on the link they receive to see what's what. Unfortunately they will be sent the full text (minus graphics and formatting) of the actual Adventure Log, and not any comments, so it's possible they'll just read the email, not click the link, and not see the new comment(s). I've been bugging Micah to remove this feature, but he's got a lot on his plate.
6 Posted by Calion on 30 Apr, 2012 10:07 PM
Are you saying that players aren't receiving notifications of changes to the Adventure Log itself (not Comments) even when their username is checked under Email Notification?
7 Posted by DangerousThing on 01 May, 2012 12:32 AM
No. When you said:
Comments are another matter. I believe that only users who have commented on a post previously (and the GM) get notified of new comments on an adventure log.
I used a dummy user, posted one comment, and then I signed on again as myself, and posted yet another comment. The dummy user (TriangleGal) did not get an email notification.
8 Posted by Calion on 07 May, 2012 07:56 PM
Okay. But do your users get updates when you check their names under Email Notification when editing the Adventure Log?