Send Bulk User Invites

:mega: A simpler way to invite many users to your Discourse instance is with a shared link. Select the main Invite button on your Invites page, adjust the options according to your needs, then select the :link:  Save Invite to generate a sharable link.

So you want to invite users to your Discourse instance, but you have so many that sending invites individually would be a lot of work? Good news – you can send bulk invites! Here’s how:

Prepare CSV File

Prepare a CSV file with the users you want to invite. These points should be considered while preparing CSV file:

  • One user per line.
  • Email is required in the first column, and the email must be valid.
  • Any permissions groups you want this user to be a member of should be in the second column. For multiple groups, separate group names with a semicolon group_1;group_2;group_3
  • Normally invited users arrive at the homepage. If you would rather invited users end up on a specific topic, enter that Topic ID in the third column.

:information_source: The CSV file can contain existing users from your forum, which may be wanted if your goal is to bulk invite some of them into a group. Here’s a tutorial to do this: Bulk add users from groups to other groups

The CSV file should be saved in Comma Delimited format:

Examples:

name1@example.com,group_1;group_2,topic_id
name2@example.com,group_1;group_2;group_3,topic_id
name3@example.com,,topic_id
name4@example.com,group_1,
name5@example.com,,
etc…

Note that group names and topic ID are completely optional, only email is mandatory. You can have an invite that is just the email alone:

name@example.com

It’s easy to create CSV files in a spreadsheet, which would look like this:

Just be sure to save the file as CSV when you’re done.

Comma Delimited CSV format in Google Sheets

Comma Delimited CSV format in Microsoft Excel

Upload CSV File

Go to Invites page and upload the CSV file by clicking Bulk Invite from File button.

You will see a modal show up to upload your CSV file.

Screen Shot 2021-11-03 at 01.06.33

Afterward, you’ll receive a confirmation stating you’ll be notified when the process is complete.

Bulk Invite Progress Notification

Once the CSV file is processed, you will receive a private message notification with a progress report.

The notification will summarize what happened with your bulk invites, including total counts of invites sent and not sent. Check your invites page on your user profile to see a list of the invites that were successfully sent.

If there were errors reported, you can submit a new bulk invite file with corrected lines.

Invites Sent

Each email address will receive an invite email:

{username} invited you to join

{Community Title}

A brief description of this community taken from the site description setting.

If you’re interested, click the link below:

http://discourse.example.com/invites/d377050add482483d24723f14eac4c45

If you wish to customize the above text:

  • When you invite people to join, they get sent the Invite Forum Mailer email template.

  • When you invite people to join and include a specific topic_id, they get sent the Invite Mailer email template.

Once clicking the confirmation link:

  • their account will be immediately activated and associated with this email address
  • they will be added to the specified groups (if specified)
  • they will be directed to the target topic ID (if specified)

If the invites are never clicked, they will expire naturally after 30 days.

42 Likes