[Michael Conaty]

I’m using Connections as a Membership directory for a Statewide membership organization, allowing their members to update their directory listings. I’m using Link as well to tie the members into WordPress as well.

Like many organizations these days, there are a number of staff members that work remotely. In this case the person who will be moderating the website needs to pass the updated information onto a second person that maintains their offline database.

What we’re looking for is a way to 1) Notify the Moderator that a record has been modified by a member, and 2) A way to pass this information on to the second person for entry into the offline database. (I know double data entry isn’t ideal, but it’s the only solution for this application.)

It would be great if Connections could email the information to the Moderator, as well as the second person. Basically a dump of the record into an email sent to multiple email addresses. This would serve as a notification to the Moderator that there is a listing waiting to be approved, and as record change notification for the person managing the offline database.

Wondering if this is a function that’s already available in the Form extension.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Michael

Basically the request boils down, you need multiple individuals emailed on these events; adding / updating / deleting an entry. And that notification should contain the entry details. Right? If so, what other events should have email notifications?

The only notification Form sends out is when a new submission has been received and that notification can only be sent to one email address. Also it does not include the entry details. So that really wouldn’t meet your needs.

This would make a great Extension to Connections though…

[Michael Conaty]

@ Steven

That’s exactly what I would need. Actually, since we’re not using Connections to allow members to add new entries, the only notification in this particular case we need is for changes to a record, but I can see where these notifications would be helpful for monitoring adds/deletes in other cases. Not sure there would be any other event that would be helpful to trigger a notification.

I’ve found a manual workaround, involving a plugin that can export a CSV file based on a SQL query of pending changes… not elegant, not automated, but it will work for the time being.

Make the Extension, and I’ll be first in line with a fistful of $$. ;-)

[Steven Zahm]

@ Michael

Thought I’d follow up and mention that I’ve begun work on a new add-on, Notify. It’s already quite functional … it’ll email selected email address on add/update and delete events. The email has is customizable with to email, from email, from name, subject and message. The entry details will be appended to the end of the message in a table format.

How’s that sound?

[Michael Conaty]

@ Steven

That sounds fantastic!

While you’re in development, I might as well ask for the sky: is there any way to highlight the information that’s changed in the listing? Thinking of how we would be using the add-on (for notification of changes) it would be extremely helpful for the person entering the information in the off-line database if the changed information was highlighted or marked in some way so that they could tell that only the phone number was changed, or the zip code and phone number were changed.

Not sure that’s even possible, but I thought I would ask.

Let me know if you need a beta tester.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Michael

It’s possible, I just would know how to implement that, to be honest. One item that I can think of that could make doing this very difficult is what if the only change was changing the display order of two phone numbers. My initial thoughts those would show up as both being removed and then both being added even though the actually info didn’t change.

The way, I believe, that I’ll handle the beta test is add it to the Pro and Extension Pack so those who have purchased either can have earlier access before I put it up for individual sale.

[Michael Conaty]

@ Steven

Hadn’t thought about it that way.

A second pie-in-the-sky idea: Would it be possible to have the approval of a listing trigger an email? Again, thinking about how we would use it, it’s possible that the moderator would adjust something changed by a member, say correcting “ave.” to “Avenue” or formatting a phone number/area code, before approving the listing. It would be great if instead of the “raw” listing being emailed to our second staff person, the “approved” version would be emailed to them, and to the member who submitted the change.

This would serve 2 purposes, keeping the information consistent, and also as a notice to the original submitter that their listing was “live” in the database.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Michael

If I understand …

Currently it’ll email on the add / update / delete actions. You’re suggesting to split the add / update actions based on status of pending and approved. So I would have emails that could go out based on the following actions:

add – pending
add – approved
update – pending
update – approved
delete

By the way, the extension can already be set to send email on actions you choose and each action email can have its own unique message and “to email” address. So, if I add the email based on status, it could easily be configured where one “admin” is emailed when a user makes a change and another “admin” is emailed when the first “admin” approves it.

So, that sounds like what you’re thinking correct?

[Michael Conaty]

@ Steven

That’s correct. The only “missing” piece would be to send a copy of the “add-approved” or “update-approved” to the email in the actual listing, the person submitting the listing.

Member Bob submits a change/adds a listing. ==> Admin 1 receives an email alerting them ==> Admin 1 approves it ==> which sends an email to Admin 2 and Member Bob.

Upon approval, the email would go to the original submitter, and any additional email addresses set up in the admin area.

[rosie]

Hi there. These sound awesome but I cannot find any way to even send the normal notification for a new listing. How do I get this? I can’t see it in the extensions.
Cheers
Rosie

[Author]

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