使用 Zapier 自动发送 Discourse 邀请邮件

您可以使用 Discourse API 在外部应用程序上执行操作时,自动发送论坛邀请电子邮件。对于许多应用程序,您可以使用 Zapier 进行设置,而无需编写任何代码。

一个常见的用例是,当用户购买产品或在外部服务上注册时,邀请他们加入您的论坛。在本文的示例中,我将使用 Zapier WordPress 集成来触发在 WordPress 网站上有新用户注册时从 Discourse 发送邀请。

在 Zapier 上设置触发步骤

访问您的 Zapier 仪表板,搜索您想要触发邀请电子邮件的应用程序。在下面的截图中,我选择了 WordPress 作为触发器。

这里唯一需要的配置是连接 WordPress Zap 到一个 WordPress 账户,并选择“New User”事件来触发 Zap。

设置用于发送邀请的操作步骤

点击“Add a Step”按钮,然后从下拉菜单中点击“Action/Search”。

在搜索菜单中输入“webhook”,然后从操作菜单中选择“Webhooks by Zapier”。Webhook 操作步骤将添加到您的 Zap 侧边栏,并且会打开一个表单,让您选择希望 Webhook 执行哪种类型的请求。

从表单中选择 POST,然后点击 Continue。

打开的表单允许您配置发送到 Discourse 的 POST 请求。在 URL 字段中,输入您论坛的基础 URL,后跟 /invites。例如,我的论坛的基础 URL 是 https://demo.scossar.com,因此邀请路由的完整链接是 https://demo.scossar.com/invites

您现在需要配置表单的 Payload Type(负载类型)、Data(数据)和 Headers(标头)部分。所有其他表单部分可以保留默认值。

Payload Type 告诉 Zapier 以何种格式发送负载。它应设置为 Json

Data 部分用于告诉 Discourse 将邀请发送到哪个电子邮件地址,并设置可选的用户组列表和自定义消息。要邀请用户而不将其添加到用户组或包含自定义消息,输入 email 作为数据 Key,然后点击“Insert a Field”图标以打开字段的下拉菜单。向下滚动列表,直到看到包含用户电子邮件的触发应用传递的值。当使用 WordPress 作为触发应用时,完成的 Data 部分应如下所示:

要自动将用户添加到他们接受邀请时所在的组,请点击 Data 部分的 :heavy_plus_sign: 图标以添加一个新字段。将该字段的 Key 设置为 group_names。将该字段的值设置为您希望用户被添加到的组名的逗号分隔列表。要包含在邀请电子邮件中的自定义消息,创建一个新的字段,其 Key 设置为 custom_message,其值设置为您想要发送的消息。

注意:在 Zap 的触发步骤后添加一个 Code 步骤应该可以动态地为特定用户设置组名和自定义消息。

Headers 部分用于验证您的请求。要配置 Headers 字段,您需要在 Discourse 站点上生成一个 API 密钥。要执行此操作,请访问您的 Discourse 站点的 Admin / API 页面,然后点击“New API Key”按钮。创建密钥时,将其分配给一个工作人员用户,并将范围设置为 Global,或者使用 Granular 范围并勾选 Invites > Create 框。

现在,在 Zap 的 Headers 部分中,输入以下键/值对。用适合您站点的适当值替换我用方括号括起来的任何值。键的字母大小写很重要。

Api-Username: <您希望发送邀请的工作人员用户名>
Api-Key: <您生成的 API 密钥>
Content-Type: application/json

表单现在应该与下面的屏幕截图相似,但包含您的 Api-Username 和 Api-Key:

点击 Continue 按钮。

现在,您可以通过点击“Send Test To Webhooks by Zapier”按钮来测试集成。测试将使用您在触发步骤中设置的数据进行。如果一切配置正确,您将看到成功消息,并且您在触发步骤中设置的用户尚不存在于您的 Discourse 论坛上,将发送一封邀请电子邮件,并且您将在 Zapier 上看到一条 Success 消息。一旦测试步骤通过,点击 Finish 按钮并打开您的 Zap。

有关如何使用 Zapier 向 Discourse API 发送其他类型请求的详细信息,请参阅 https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-make-requests-to-the-discourse-api-with-zapier/122126。

25 个赞

This is awesome thank you for the feature and clear instructions!

Is it possible to also set the custom group when generating an invite, like you can from within the app?

That can be done by adding a group_names key to the Headers field. Its value should be set to a comma separated list of group names. I’ll add an example of this to the topic.

The basic approach that’s used in this topic will work for any API request to Discourse.

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Awesome!! I think the dialog accepts a custom message too, guessing that can be done the same way?

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I tried setting this up this AM and was running into a 400 error. With a little bit of debugging, I found that the auth-related steps need to go in the headers section as instructed, but the actual form values (email, group name, and custom message) need to go in the data section as key/value sets.

Once I made that change, though, it worked perfectly!

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Thanks for that, @simon!

Are there any descriptions on meta about alternative ways to create an automated process for sending an invite email after the reader signed up to an offering and to which you could link here?

Thanks for testing that! What I’m finding is that when no custom_message or group_names are included in the request, passing the email in the Headers works. It’s not the correct way to pass the email address though. I’ve updated the guide to use the Data section for setting the email address, and have included examples for adding users to groups and including a custom message.

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I’m not aware of other services that are similar to Zapier, but I’m sure there are some out there. You can make requests directly to the Discourse API without using a third party service. The main requirement for doing this is that you have an application to make the requests from. This can be something a simple as a WordPress site.

A good resource on Meta for getting started with the API is Reverse engineer the Discourse API. You can test API requests with CURL from your computer’s terminal, or with a service like Postman.

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Thank you! Most of what you write I have no idea about… but I’ll check I’ll out your links and see if so can understand anything :smiley:

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@simon

Quick question:

When I send an automated invite through Zapier, would this then be an already personalized link, or a link to the general login page to my forum (where someone can log in and also create an account)?

I would like to avoid that everybody and their dog who knows the login page creates an account. How can that best be avoided?

When you send an invite link through Zapier you are triggering exactly the same action as if you had clicked the ‘Send an Invite’ link from your account’s Invite page.

Creating an invite will send an email to invited user’s email address. That email contains a link to a page where the invited user can set their name and password, and login to their new account. The email address for the new account is set by the email address that you used for the invite.

Only users who have been sent an invite can create an account through this page. If you would like to only allow invited users to register for your site, go to the Login section of your Site Settings and select the invite only site setting.

The best way to get a sense of how invites work is to invite yourself to your site. You can use a throw-away gmail address for this. You will need to log out of the site before you will be able to accept your invite.

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Ah, awesome info. Thanks!!

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Thanks for the great tutorial! Is there a way to add a topic id that the user gets redirected to after signing up like in the bulk invite feature?

It is possible to invite a new user to a topic with a similar approach to what is outlined above, but the URL that you setup in the Action step needs to point to the topic. For example, to invite a user to a topic with the id 123 you would add the URL https://forum.example.com/t/123/invite to the Action step. You would then add the email and the optional custom_message and group_names parameters in the same way as they are outlined in the guide.

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Hi Simon,

Thanks for your post !

I have 2 questions, if you could help me, it could be awesome :slight_smile:

Question 1/
On my side, the invite + message is working fine, but whatever group_names I’m adding, I only have access to the default public group, when I join the forum.

Do you know is something could “block” the invite to specific private group ?

The URL of the group name is like that : https://forum.[mywebsite].com/c/cercle/33

So I have : group_names /// PUBLIC,cercle

I also tried to use “number” instead of the group name (33) for this group, but it still doesn’t work.

Maybe there is a kind of “restriction” on the admin setting of the forum, which block the private group invite ?

Question 2/

I would like to be able to invite people, not only to “private group”, but "private “sub-group” (I don’t know the right name for that)

Screenshot 2021-05-12 at 08.04.11

Here you can see, I have the group “RÉSERVÉ…”
And all the little sub-groups under it.

I would like to invite users to specific subgroups.

Do you know how I can do that ?

Thanks a lot if you can take some time to help me on that ! :slight_smile:

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Make sure that you are using the group’s name and not the name of the category that you allow the group to access. You can find the group’s name in the URL for the group, or from the group’s Name field:

If that does not resolve the issue, make sure that the Discourse API key you add to Zapier is a global All Users API key. Also, make sure that the API Username set on Zapier has permission to add users to the group. Any admin username on your site will work for this.

Let me know if this doesn’t resolve the issue for you.

You can invite the user to multiple groups by adding a comma separated list of group names to the group_names field on Zapier. Discoure doesn’t have the concept of sub-groups, so you will need to add the name of each group you want to invite the user to.

From the screenshot you have provided, it looks like you are trying to give the user access to a category and all of its subcategories. Instead of creating a group for each subcategory you could just allow a single group to access the category and all of its subcategories. This is configured on the Security section of the category’s edit page.

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Thanks for your reply Simon !

So, regarding the API :

I had give the access to only one user (the admin) I thought it was ok. So now I created a new API to give access to all user.

But, it still didn’t work. But I may have understood the issue :slight_smile:

I’m trying to add a “category” name, in the “group_names” field. So I guess it can’t work :).

I misunderstood the name of groups/category/topic…

On the screenshot you can see a list of maybe 15 subcategories : TB, MT, RD,MA…)

For example, the URL of the first subcategory is : https://forum.MYWEBSITE.com/c/question-formactions/TBD/14

So I guess would like to invite new members automatically to some private subcategory, and Not some Group.

On the URL I gave you, I would like to give only access to the subcategory “TBD” for example.

And, another user will have Only access to another one.

Do you know if it’s possible to do it ?

Maybe I just have to replace the field “group_names” on Zapier, by the one for Categories ?

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Groups and Categories are a source of much confusion in Discourse!

  1. Groups are collections of people.
  2. Categories are collections of topics. You can’t invite people to them per se. But access to these is controlled by groups.

To achieve what you want, make a group. In the relevant category security settings, add access for that group. Use that group for the invites API. Done.

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Thanks for your reply Nathan !

I will try that and post my result here :wink:

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Your solution works fine, thanks ! :smiley:

I have another question, maybe you (or @simon) could help me in that :

With Zapier, is there a way to give access to a New group, for people who are already members of Discourse ?

Basically, here is my workflow :

1/ A member joins one of my courses

2/ Zapier takes his email from my learning platform, and send him an invite to my Discourse + add him automatically to the right group, related to the course he just joined.

3/ Sometime, a few months later, this same member will join Another course : So, with my actual process, my Zapier will send him a new invite to Discours, whereas he is already a member, so the invite will not work.

I would need Zapier to give him access to a new group, if he is already a member of my Discourse.

Do you see a way to do that ?

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