Some proposed improvements to user invites

Feature
1

Hey sam, we’re ready to go with this and I’m running into a few issues:

1 I’m too dumb to directly use the api (and would rather not if I didn’t have to). It looks like the api is slightly different than your initial post based at what I’m looking at on github. I am a complete idiot when it comes to ruby, so that could very well be the problem :smile:

2 We would love to just use the invites page and not resort to ruby scripts. I would love to be able to

  • specify the topic ID I want use for content of the email
  • set a group that the user(s) will immediately be added to
  • have an option to use a bulk list of email addresses

It feels like the UI is so close to being able to do this already.

2

Another useful bit would be that if an invite email address was already in the discourse user list, then just make sure that they are automatically added to the groups that we specify.

1 Like
3

@techAPJ just added support for CSV invite to groups.

Eg this CSV will invite the user to group a and b:

sam@somewhere.com,group_a;group_b

However the optional topic_id is missing, @techAPJ can you add it as the third column?

5 Likes
4

PR sent for topic_id support in Bulk Invite:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/2474

1 Like
5

Does @techAPJ change cover you?

This way you would:

  1. Create a topic in your private category
  2. Create a csv specifying the email/group/topic_id
  3. Each user would get a customised invite to the topic (our standard one that includes the first para)

If we really need to customise the emails, some custom work + usage of API is really the only way to get this done.

6

Sounds like a great start. We would like to test this tomorrow if possible. Is there any way our site could get updated with this feature in place?

7

Sure, will update it today, will be up to date when you start your business day.

1 Like
8

I don’t think this is working. I was able to have an invite sent for a public topic, but couldn’t for a private topic.

We really want this feature for private categories. Our current focus is to send out invitations to all of our resellers to have them automatically added to the “reseller” group and give them access to a private reseller category.

9

Hmm… apparently @bobmcneel was able to get this to work for private posts.

Is there any way we can get the entire initial post contents into the email? Our test email invites are pretty sparse and we would like to add a little more information.

10

I just tested this, and it works fine for me.

Did you checked the PM notification? It gives you the error log of invitation processing.

11

@codinghorror should we provide a site setting for the amount of truncating invite emails do?

12

I personally didn’t get any PMs, but @bobmcneel did so it may have been operator error on my part.

13

For now, trigger the invites from your profile page. You can’t trigger invites from a topic in a category that has permissions set at the moment.

14

He is triggering a bulk invite, the issue they are having is that we seem to truncate topics in the invite emails

15

@stevebaer are you still blocked here, do you need us to create a custom api sample for this?

16

I think the bulk upload will work just fine for us if we can get the entire post placed in the email. It is the truncation of the post that makes the email nearly impossible to adjust. Is the latest code still truncating or was a setting added as you mentioned possibly doing?

17

I think you really want better control for a big batch email like the one you have planned.

You probably want a custom title and body, which brings us back full circle.

Would you like us to build an API sample you can use to give you that level of control?

18

Few things still missing here, @techapj is on it.

  1. The invite button still does not appear for private topics, but should, only if you are an admin. Presumably admin will be smart enough to include the right groups so the user can actually see the topic they’re being invited to… we hope :wink:

  2. Right now there is zero topic context included in a topic invite… but there should be. I wrote up a spec to improve the topic invite email to include the first para of the topic as context.

  3. I don’t know that I support having the entire topic included in the invite email. I think for that you should use the API, and maybe @techapj can write up a howto sample for that after he’s done with #1 and #2 above.

Remember there is a distinction between “pushing the invite button” which exists on

  • your user page, in the invites section, if you have trust level 2+ or are a staff member
  • every topic, if it is a public topic and you have trust level 2+ or are a staff member
  • private topics, if you are an admin

… and using the bulk invite upload facility, which exists only on your user page, if you are an admin. Behind the scenes they are the same code, of course, it’s just a question of whether you want to push a button 10, 100, or a thousand times… :wink:

3 Likes
19

Implemented:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/2506

Implemented:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/2521

4 Likes