umputun/remark42

Email response notifications tooltip for users without active subscription

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#745 opened on Jul 10, 2020

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frontendhelp wanted

Description

I apologise if I have missed something obvious, but I have a query about the email notifications, specifically to message responses.

If user A logs in (email login) and writes a message, and user B (email login) replies to that message, shouldn't user A get an automated email about that response without having to subscribe separately? Then if user A responds to user B's response, then user B should get an email notification etc?

I know email is working (NOTIFY_EMAIL_ADMIN=true receives a notification of every post), however remark42 is not sending out any non-admin response emails.

I know there is the "Subscribe by email", however I believe that is something completely different (ie: a user wants notifications for all messages regardless who posted to what thread) and isn't even shown in the SIMPLE_VIEW layout.

I have the following relevant settings (including the SMTP settings of course):

AUTH_EMAIL_ENABLE=true
AUTH_EMAIL_FROM=<removed>
NOTIFY_EMAIL_FROM=<removed>
NOTIFY_TYPE=email
NOTIFY_EMAIL_ADMIN=true

When a response is posted I see in the debug logs Admin:false Blocked:false Verified:false EmailSubscription:false. I'm not sure what the Verified:false is as the email was verified with the code in order to post in the first place, and I'm not sure if the EmailSubscription:false relevant or not either.

Maybe I got this all wrong, and if one expects an email notification to responses to their own post then one must first manually subscribe, however that does not seem logical at all?

I'm running the latest (v1.6.0) from the official docker image.

Any help/pointers/explanation would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Contributor guide

Tech stack
go
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Understanding of email notification system in remark42Familiarity with Go and SMTP setup
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
First, review the current email notification logic in the backend, specifically how subscriptions and reply notifications are handled. Check the code for 'EmailSubscription' and 'Verified' flags to understand why they are false for users. Look at the existing subscription mechanism and determine if automatic reply subscriptions are intended. Then, propose changes to either enable automatic subscription on comment or modify the notification logic to send emails for replies to own comments without requiring manual subscription. Consider the impact on users and configuration options.