OK. First of all, your time restarts if you choose to do this new task. My sincere apologies to you on the mix up.
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New task:
Create a Joomla! v 1.5 System Plugin to send email notification of new articles
Include instructions to:
1. Install Kevin Devine's
UserMeta Extension
2. Explain how to add a new parameter to the XML file:
- Activate Email Notification for New Articles
- Note: In the future, being able to select notification for specific menu items and/or authors will be good. Not for this contest, though.
3. Explain how the new user parameters are available on the frontend to the site member, and in the backend for the site administrator.
4. Create a system plugin that fires when an article is published (this is where your work will be):
- Determine the article URL and convert it to a Tiny URL (Hint: look at
Depresz's Twitter Plugin and reuse his logic - noting his contributions.)
- Read the user table, determine which users want notification for the section/category that this article was published in, extracting their email addresses.
- Extract the title of the article, the author's name and the introductory text for the body of the email (plus the tiny url from above).
- Send a group email, and blind copy each recipient with the tiny url linking back to the article.
Resources:
- administrator/components/com_massmail/*.*
-
Depresz's Twitter Plugin
- Kevin Devine's
UserMeta Extension
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Let me know if this sounds good to you. Again, my apologies for the mix up. I guarantee you that this will be a popular extension. Make certain to post frequently to get as much community feedback as possible.
If you do not wish to do this extension, but wish to choose another, instead, I completely understand.
Thanks very much for your patience,
Amy