Email-Users v4.4.1-beta-5 now available

This morning I updated the beta version of Email Users 4.4.1 to beta-5.  This version updates a number of the links within the plugin which referred to the old plugin home page on MarvinLabs.com which are no longer in existance.

I hope this is the final beta release before 4.4.1 goes out.  All I am waiting for is some updates to language translation files.

Email Users Custom List (5581 downloads )

Please download and test the beta release.  Report back any issues and I’ll do what I can to fix them quickly.

Email Users Beta (4988 downloads )

Email-Users v4.4.1-beta-4 now available

This evening I updated the beta version of Email Users 4.4.1 to beta-4.  This version addresses the issue with user settings reverting which was reported here, here, and here.  I have implemented the solution proposed by @maximinime on the WordPress Support Forums.

Email Users Custom List (5581 downloads )

Please download and test the beta release.  Report back any issues and I’ll do what I can to fix them quickly.

Email Users Beta (4988 downloads )

Email-Users 4.4.1-beta-3 available

This afternoon I updated the beta version of Email Users 4.4.1 to beta-3.  This version improves the Custom Group filter options by introducing a new Custom Group Meta Key filter.  It builds on the Custom Group Meta Filter but eliminates a lot of the work required if a filter on a Meta Key is desired instead of a Meta Key and Value pair.

For example the following code will yield a Send to Group Form with selections based on any possible value of a User Meta Key by the name of ‘department’:

add_action( 'mailusers_group_custom_meta_key_filter', 'send_to_departments', 5 );
function send_to_departments()
{
mailusers_register_group_custom_meta_key_filter('department', null, 'send_to_departments_label');
}
function send_to_departments_label($mk, $mv)
{
return(ucwords($mk) . ' = ' . ucwords($mv)) ;
}

The only required argument is the first one, which is the name of the Meta Key.  The second argument is an optional Meta Value and the third argument is an optional callback which accepts two strings, Meta Key and Meta Value, and returns a string which is used as the selection text on the form.

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I have updated the example plugin again to create the filter which results in the image above, the examples I have done previously are still in the file however are commented out.  You can download it and drop it into  your plugins directory to see menus like shown in the beta-1 post.

Email Users Custom List (5581 downloads )

Please download and test the beta release.  Report back any issues and I’ll do what I can to fix them quickly.

Email Users Beta (4988 downloads )

Email-Users 4.4.1-beta-2 available

I have uploaded v4.4.1. beta-2 for Email Users.  This version changes the custom filters previously defined to be a “user” filter and introduces a “group” filter.  If you have used the “Send to Group” feature, you can now define a series of filters that you can send to.   There are examples of sending to the “Police” and “Fire” departments in the example filter plugin (see below).

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I have updated the example plugin to create the filters, you download it and drop it into  your plugins directory to see menus like shown in the beta-1 post.

There is also a new option on the plugin settings page to control where bounced emails are sent.

Email Users Custom List (5581 downloads )

Please download and test the beta release.  Report back any issues and I’ll do what I can to fix them quickly.

Email Users Beta (4988 downloads )

WordPress Google Form Update

I have spent some time comparing low level WP_Http results against wget results and have come to the conclusion that Google Cookies aren’t being passed through the series of redirect which happens when viewing a Google Form with the new URL scheme.

Unfortunately I am not sure what to do about it yet.  The usually very helpful WordPress Hackers mailing list is surprising quiet right now.  I am trying to figure out if I can “remember” cookies and pass them along each time a redirect happens.  I am reasonably confident that is what is needed however making it happen within the WordPress context is another story!

Google change to breaks WordPress Google Form

Last week Google introduced a significant update to Google Forms.  In addition to a very different UI, the format of the public URL has changed AND more importantly, it has broken my WordPress Google Form plugin.

The change only seems to affect forms created from scratch using the new version of Google Forms.  My plugin is dependent on the WordPress HTTP API to retrieve the form from Google and with the new URL format, the API is returning an error.  I am trying to figure out what Google doesn’t like.

What is odd is I am able to successfully retrieve the form using the wget utility (a Unix command line tool for retrieving remote content) however wp_remote_get() doesn’t work.

I wish had some better news to report but right now I am stumped as to why this isn’t working.

If anyone has any ideas, I have posted some of the low level debug stuff on PastBin.

Email-Users 4.4.1-beta-1 available

I have fixed a couple of minor bugs, added German Language support and introduced new functionality to send email to a custom list of users based on meta data.  The ability to target a specific list of users based on user meta data is a feature that was requested a while back on the WordPress support form.

The new Customer Meta Filter List functionality allows the the site to create a custom list of users by adding an action in either the theme’s functions.php file or in a stand-alone plugin.

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Unfortunately I ran into a WordPress limitation while working on this functionality.  The  ability to match user meta data through the WordPress get_users() API doesn’t work as expected with the LIKE and NOT LIKE comparisons.  In an effort to protect the SQL, WordPress wraps the value being compared with wildcards to the match is either too permissive (matches too much) or too restrictive (matches to little).

I have opened a WordPress Trac ticket and submitted a patch for this problem but until it gets fixed (or the patch in the Trac ticket is applied), only standard comparisons work.  The “Last Name: M” example won’t work without the patch nor will the “First Name: Not D”.

I have written an example plugin to create the above filters, you download it and drop it into  your plugins directory to see menus like shown above:

Email Users Custom List (5581 downloads )

Please download and test the beta release.  Report back any issues and I’ll do what I can to fix them quickly.

Email Users Beta (4988 downloads )

Understanding Email-Users Settings

Periodically I receive Help Requests (either from the WordPress Support Forum, a comment on my blog, or an email) for Email-Users.  Most of the requests involve why some users do or don’t receive email.

Each user has two values associated with their user id:

  1. Does the user receive mass email?
  2. Does the user receive post and/or page notifications?

The ability to control these settings by the user from their User Profile page was a feature of Email-Users long before I got involved.  I have enhanced this functionality to allow an Administrator have the ability to change the settings for a specific user as well as adding the ability to bulk change the settings for a large number of users.

The bulk change feature appears under the Email-Users menu as “User Settings”.  Looking at this page will show you the current state of each user with respect to receiving mass email and post/page notifications.

The administrator can also remove the ability for a user to change their own settings through the plugin settings.

When using the “Send Email to User(s)” or “Send Email to Group(s)” feature, the list of users or groups is extracted from the database based on the settings for their user id.  You can always send email to a single user regardless of their setting however if you select more than one recipient, the Mass Email setting for a user is honored and they will be dropped from the recipient list.

Here are some screen shots to illustrate the points made above.

WordPress Google Form v0.46 beta 9 available

I’ve updated the beta version of WordPress Google Form v0.46 this morning to beta-9. This beta update adds a significant new feature and one that has been requested a number of times: The ability to require an email address from the person filling out the form is now possible through a setting on the Google Form custom post type (this is not available through the old gform short code).

I would encourage migrating to the new short code and defining forms with the Google Forms Custom Post Type UI as that is where I am adding new functionality.  The way I added the User Email option should also allow me to allow form specific validation rules (e.g. URL required).

Download the beta release and please let me know if you run into any issues.

Google Forms Beta (7967 downloads )

WordPress Google Form v0.46 beta 7 available

I’ve updated the beta version of WordPress Google Form v0.46 yet again to beta-7 and made it available for download from this site. This beta update adds a new settings on the plugin settings page to control the timout value for the WordPress HTTP API. Increasing the timeout appears to help with very large Google Spreadsheets.

Download the beta release and please let me know if you run into any issues.

Google Forms Beta (7967 downloads )