Welcome email from the DL

[Richard H.]

Another wishlist item, but it might be nice if the DL had a welcome email option for first time users, i.e. after they have logged into the DL for the first time. It could then welcome them to the DL and explain why they won't be able to submit anything until a Librarian has given them rights to submit to certain DL categories. This could be paired with an automated email to the Librarian or Manager alerting them to the fact that a new user account has appeared.

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

Thinking about this idea in a little more detail...

Ignore the original suggested idea of also sending the email to Librarians, as Librarians aren't relevant at this stage. Instead, the email would have to go to all DL Manager role holders (there should only be one or two anyway).

The 'Welcome' email therefore can't be sent from a 'Librarian'. It also can't come from a Manager as there are likely to be multiple Managers and how would you decided which one? The answer is to send it from a generic email address which does not accept replies (e.g. dladmin@... for example). This would need adding as a new configuration item in the Manager menu in the DL (e.g. 'admin email'). It is also indirectly an LDAP-related option, as you don't need the emails if you aren't using LDAP for user accounts and groups in the DL.

Suggested text for the email sent to the new DL user:

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Subject: Welcome to the DL at <URL>

** This is an automated email message generated by the Document Library. **

** This automated email is sent from an account that is not monitored and is unable to reply. **

Thank you for logging in to the Document Library (DL) at <URL> for the first time.

You will see which categories you can currently submit to by selecting 'Add document' from the menu in the Document Library and selecting the 'Category' drop-down menu in the form. If the 'Category' menu list is empty then your account has not yet been given the 'Submitter' role by an appropriate DL Librarian, so you will be unable to submit.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The email to go to the Manager(s) could be something like this:

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Subject: <User> has registered on the <URL> DL

** This is an automated email message generated by the Document Library and sent to all DL Managers. **

** This automated email is sent from an account that is not monitored and is unable to reply. **

<User> has logged into the <URL> DL for the first time and a DL account has automatically been created.

The user will be unable to submit until either a Manager or a Librarian allow the account to submit to specific DL categories.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

We can avoid having to do some of the above by simply amending the welcome text in the DL instance to explain what happens the first time you login. However, the email that goes to the Manager(s) would still be very useful to alert them to new users so categories can be assigned to them ASAP.

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

To add an automated email regarding the creation of new DL accounts, we would need to add another configuration option to the DL Manager's menus. This option would be to specify email addresses that the automated message should come from. The ideal scenario for us would be to specify 'From' and 'Reply To (if different)' addresses so we can direct any replies to our University Helpdesk system, whilst the email itself could appear to be from a generic 'dlmanager' email account.

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

Another useful addition might be a date column in the User list to show when the account was originally created (account creation date), although it looks as if the newest accounts appear at the bottom of the list. Can they not be at the top instead? (in the same way as our suggestion for the History information which currently puts the latest actions at the very bottom of the list!)

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

We have now asked for this to be included as part of the quote for the DL Enhancements 2 project (2008).

However, having thought through this again, we need to amend our requirements for how this should work:

(i) Add a new configuration option called 'DL Manager details' which should include: 'email address' and 'reply to address (if different)'.

(ii) Add a new option under 'users' called 'Email Managers for new users' that can either be enabled or disabled (disabled by default). This option should appear before the users list.

(iii) Add a new option under 'users' called 'Email Librarians for new users' that can either be enabled or disabled (disabled by default). This option should appear before the users list.

(iv) When a new user logs in for the first time, the DL automatically emails ALL defined Librarians in the system (but only if option in (iii) is enabled) as well as the designated DL Managers (but only if option in (ii) is enabled), alerting them to the new user. The email will be 'from' the DL Manager's address specified in (i).

From a procedural point-of-view, all Librarians are automatically informed of new users and it is up to them whether they wish to add the new user as a Submitter or a Librarian for their categories. The DL Manager is informed just to keep them 'in the loop', although obviously they also have the ability to assign Submitter or Librarians to *any* of the DL categories.

[Kit Blake (kitblake)]

This adds some complexity so it's good that we know about it for making the new estimate.

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

Another thought regarding the idea of the DL automatically emailing all Librarians to alert them to a new user:

DL Managers are technically Librarians as well, so would this option include them as well as users who are *only* Librarians? I think it should. If it *does*, then there's no reason to have both 'Email Librarians...' and 'Email Managers...' options enabled, as the Manager would end up getting two emails. Under that circumstance, the options would be better labeled as:

'Email Librarians/Managers'
'Email Managers only'

We can probably drop the 'for new users' from the option names regardless.

[Martijn Faassen (faassen)]

One question I have now is whether it is still the intention to send email to new users, or whether this is now purely a function to send mail to managers/librarians as soon as a new user logs in?

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

Hi,

I concluded that it's easier to put a welcome message in the customisable text that appears when you login to the DL, so the original idea was ditched in favour of automated emails alerting librarians to new users logging in for the first time.

>>> On 12/03/2009 at 15:20, Martijn Faassen <email address hidden> wrote:
> One question I have now is whether it is still the intention to send
> email to new users, or whether this is now purely a function to send
> mail to managers/librarians as soon as a new user logs in?
>
> --
> Welcome email from the DL
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/164487
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

[Martijn Faassen (faassen)]

Some progress on this: the DL (development version) now has the basic infrastructure to send email when a user first logs in (and there are automated tests for it).

Something that is harder to test in an automated fashion is sending email when an LDAP user first logs in.

This requires more testing/integration work.

[Kit Blake (kitblake)]

Needs testing with LDAP

[Richard H. (richard-hewison)]

Tested with Managers only on the test server.

An LDAP user logged into the DL for the first time, and an email was automatically sent to the DL manager(s). As we didn't actually agree on the text within the email, this will need to be amended. However, I've also just noticed the new option for Managers in the DL where we can amend the email templates from within the DL application. This is a great option, unexpected but also very very useful! :-)

The new user alert email function is looking good. Testing with Librarians is a little trickier, as we don't want to spam the Librarians from the test server. Also just realised that the email doesn't mention which DL the user has logged into (the ability to add details of which DL instance is being referred to in any of the automated emails is a separate requirement in another listed bug here on launchpad).

[Sylvain Viollon (thefunny)]

I think, like for other alert emails, you need to set the dl_name option under the custom text screens. It should be used after in the notification mail.

Could you try to set it and see if this fix your problem ?

[Kit Blake (kitblake)]

Not a top priority, but this can be edited.