Edit a user preference for everyone or a subset of users

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:bookmark: This guide explains how to edit a user preference for everyone or a subset of users in Discourse.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: System Administrator

:warning: Console access is required.

If you need to update the user preference for all of your users or a large subset of users, you can do so via the rails console.

Summary

In this guide, you’ll learn:

  • How to access the Rails console for making bulk changes
  • Examples of modifying user preferences
  • How to identify settings names

Accessing the Rails console

To enter the Rails console in your Discourse setup, execute the following commands:

./launcher enter app
rails c

Then, run a command that selects the set of users you wish to update.

Examples of modifying user preferences

Below are command examples to update various user preferences:

Setting the last seen date for inactive users

Set the last seen date for users who have never logged in.

User.where("last_seen_at IS NULL").update_all(last_seen_at: 1.week.ago)

Disabling mailing list mode for all users

Switch users back to the default to prevent them from receiving emails for every new post.

UserOption.update_all(mailing_list_mode: false)

Suppressing emails to active users

Revert to default settings to prevent email notifications when users are actively present on the site.

UserOption.update_all(email_always: true)

Enabling chat for all beta group members

beta_group = Group.find_by_name("beta")
beta_group.users.each do |user|
  UserOption.where(user_id: user.id).update_all(enable_chat: true)
end

Configuring email notifications to exclude previous replies

Set preference to exclude previous replies in email notifications.

UserOption.update_all(email_previous_replies: 0)

Where email_previous_replies can have values:

  • 0: always
  • 1: unless previously sent
  • 2: never

For more information, refer to controlling previous replies in emails.

Identifying the name of a setting

To determine the user setting name and available options:

  • Use the data explorer plugin to inspect the user_options table.
  • Search the Discourse GitHub repository.

For example, to adjust the setting related to “When I post in a topic, set that topic to,” you need to modify the notification_level_when_replying user option.

Check the relevant setting to watching.

You can also configure Docker to expose psql and utilize PGadmin for easier management.

Last edited by @SaraDev 2024-11-15T00:32:38Z

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