Mirror mailing list with web forum
I'd be interested in how others have implemented this. Here are the options I've identified so far, with some questions.
- FUDforum - http://www.fudforum.org/forum/
This is a forum with a 'mailing list manager' admin page. For me, the script to send list emails to the web forum only works from the command line, and I can't get postfix to pipe emails to that script (or, at least, I can't get the script to do anything).
Has anyone got over that problem? I've asked on their own forum but no response yet.
- Groupserver - http://groupserver.org/
It looks like an absolute beast to install but is a combined mailing list/web forum. I would would prefer not to leave Mailman so wonder...
When is Mailman 3 likely to be released (roughly) and - if that is ages away - what are the chances of being able to migrate 'back' from Groupserver to Mailman 3?
- PHPBB - https://www.phpbb.com/
They say there is no mailing list feature with version 3.
- Tikiwiki CMS Groupware - https://info.tiki.org/
This has a forum which apparently can mirror a Mailman list - has anyone tried this?
Sorry for all the questions. Answers to any of them would be appreciated!
Best wishes
Jon
On 4/16/14, 7:06 PM, Jon 1234 wrote:
I'd be interested in how others have implemented this. Here are the options I've identified so far, with some questions.
I have been (slowly) working on an module to integrate a mailing list to a Drupal web site. My goal is to generate an archive that you can easily find recent messages in, and then be able to reply back to the list via the web site. I will need to look at some of those options to see if any would help in my needs.
From: Richard@Damon-Family.org I have been (slowly) working on an module to integrate a mailing list to a Drupal web site. My goal is to generate an archive that you can easily find recent messages in, and then be able to reply back to the list via the web site. I will need to look at some of those options to see if any would help in my needs.
I found Drupal hard enough by itself, let alone integrating it with a mailing list. Good luck.
I finally got FUDforum to work. Without wanting to go into detail here, I had to change the shebang line on maillist.php and change the file permissions in the FUDforum/messages folder. Seems simple now! On installation I had other permission errors (host doesn't allow 777 web directories), and other errors may occur in future, but at least I know in principle it works for me.
Incidentally, my impression of Groupserver is that it would be good but difficult to install and maintain, as their focus is definitely on their hosted, paid-for service.
When is Mailman 3 expected to be released, very approximately?
On Apr 17, 2014, at 04:27 AM, Jon 1234 wrote:
When is Mailman 3 expected to be released, very approximately?
We *are* going to do a beta release of the full suite after Pycon. I expect there will be bugs and missing features, but we're hoping people will bang on it and help us get to a good, stable, final release.
-Barry
On 17 Apr 2014, at 04:27, Jon 1234 jon.1234@hotmail.co.uk wrote:
From: Richard@Damon-Family.org I have been (slowly) working on an module to integrate a mailing list to a Drupal web site. My goal is to generate an archive that you can easily find recent messages in, and then be able to reply back to the list via the web site. I will need to look at some of those options to see if any would help in my needs.
I found Drupal hard enough by itself, let alone integrating it with a mailing list. Good luck.
I finally got FUDforum to work. Without wanting to go into detail here, I had to change the shebang line on maillist.php and change the file permissions in the FUDforum/messages folder. Seems simple now! On installation I had other permission errors (host doesn't allow 777 web directories), and other errors may occur in future, but at least I know in principle it works for me.
I have it working with Fudforum and although the fudforum integration was (to me) poorly documented I got it working and has been stable / rock solid for a couple of years now.
It would be nice to get things like membership linked between the two and to more easily identify forum posters (when their mail hits the list) but that is just a comment not a request (unless someone has worked it out!)
BW Tim
From: tim@yingtong.co.uk I have it working with Fudforum and although the fudforum integration was (to me) poorly documented I got it working and has been stable / rock solid for a couple of years now.
It would be nice to get things like membership linked between the two and to more easily identify forum posters (when their mail hits the list) but that is just a comment not a request (unless someone has worked it out!)
BW Tim
I'm pleased to hear this - out of interest, which versions of FUDforum and Mailman are you running? I have some ideas about linking membership and will report back here if I come up with anything useful. By 'more easily identify forum posters' do you mean by, for instance, a header/footer stating that the message came from the web interface? I think that would be fairly easy to implement. Or is it part of your linking-membership point? - so that, for instance, you'd want Mailman to realise when a forum post should (or should not) be held for moderation? Best wishes Jon
On 17 Apr 2014, at 22:04, Jon 1234 jon.1234@hotmail.co.uk wrote:
From: tim@yingtong.co.uk I have it working with Fudforum and although the fudforum integration was (to me) poorly documented I got it working and has been stable / rock solid for a couple of years now.
It would be nice to get things like membership linked between the two and to more easily identify forum posters (when their mail hits the list) but that is just a comment not a request (unless someone has worked it out!)
BW Tim
I'm pleased to hear this - out of interest, which versions of FUDforum and Mailman are you running?
I have some ideas about linking membership and will report back here if I come up with anything useful.
By 'more easily identify forum posters' do you mean by, for instance, a header/footer stating that the message came from the web interface? I think that would be fairly easy to implement. Or is it part of your linking-membership point? - so that, for instance, you'd want Mailman to realise when a forum post should (or should not) be held for moderation?
Best wishes
Jon
Hi Jon, FUDForum 3.0.5 but several version prior to the latest too. Mailman 2.1.12 as part of Virtualmin
ref identity I really mean at present most of the traffic is on the mailing list (and the forum is more of an archive for 80% of the joint community) where users complain they can’t easily identify forum posters as people (its a friendly bunch) as I’ve set it to post to the list as the single subscribed list address. They/I would like to see the forum users name/email address somewhere inside the body text so they can say “Hi Peter, good to hear from you, I think I can answer this one…” I’ve searched within FUDforum for documentation of how to format posts to include posters names etc. to no avail.
In reality for membership intergration between the two I suspect I wouldn’t be first in the queue currently as I have several hundred subscribers both places, with significant overlap between them!
BW TIm
From: tim@yingtong.co.uk Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:36:37 +0100 ref identity I really mean at present most of the traffic is on the mailing list (and the forum is more of an archive for 80% of the joint community) where users complain they can’t easily identify forum posters as people (its a friendly bunch) as I’ve set it to post to the list as the single subscribed list address. They/I would like to see the forum users name/email address somewhere inside the body text so they can say “Hi Peter, good to hear from you, I think I can answer this one…” I’ve searched within FUDforum for documentation of how to format posts to include posters names etc. to no avail.
This seems to work. Go to forum/theme/default/post.php and find the line:
if (!empty($r[3])) { // Use the forum's fixed "From:" address.
After it add words to the following effect:
$body .= "\n-- \nThis message was sent via the web forum by $from";
You should get a footer along the lines of:
This message was sent via the web forum by Name <email address>
Which will be followed by the Mailman footer.
In reality for membership intergration between the two I suspect I wouldn’t be first in the queue currently as I have several hundred subscribers both places, with significant overlap between them!
BW TIm
If I manage to solve this how about I mention it here but post the detail on the FUDforum website?
Best wishes
Jon
On 18 Apr 2014, at 02:26, Jon 1234 jon.1234@hotmail.co.uk wrote:
From: tim@yingtong.co.uk Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:36:37 +0100 ref identity I really mean at present most of the traffic is on the mailing list (and the forum is more of an archive for 80% of the joint community) where users complain they can’t easily identify forum posters as people (its a friendly bunch) as I’ve set it to post to the list as the single subscribed list address. They/I would like to see the forum users name/email address somewhere inside the body text so they can say “Hi Peter, good to hear from you, I think I can answer this one…” I’ve searched within FUDforum for documentation of how to format posts to include posters names etc. to no avail.
This seems to work. Go to forum/theme/default/post.php and find the line:
if (!empty($r[3])) { // Use the forum's fixed "From:" address.
After it add words to the following effect:
$body .= "\n-- \nThis message was sent via the web forum by $from";
You should get a footer along the lines of:
This message was sent via the web forum by Name <email address>
Which will be followed by the Mailman footer.
In reality for membership intergration between the two I suspect I wouldn’t be first in the queue currently as I have several hundred subscribers both places, with significant overlap between them!
BW TIm
If I manage to solve this how about I mention it here but post the detail on the FUDforum website?
Best wishes
Jon
Hi Jon, brilliant. Works exactly as it says on the tin. I’m guessing however it will be overwritten with the next patch, but I can live with that. In this life I am a user rather than a contributor I’m afraid, is there a way of putting that at the top such as “Tim Walter wrote on the forum…”
As to the integration I suspect both places seem sensible, I hang out in both.
(Sorry to have slightly hijacked the mailman list for FUDForum stuff, though hopefully moderately relevant.)
From: tim@yingtong.co.uk Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 10:49:20 +0100 Hi Jon, brilliant. Works exactly as it says on the tin. I’m guessing however it will be overwritten with the next patch, but I can live with that. In this life I am a user rather than a contributor I’m afraid, is there a way of putting that at the top such as “Tim Walter wrote on the forum…”
You're welcome - I'm pleased to have helped. You could change the line to:
$body = "This message was sent via the web forum by $from \n\n" . $body;
I'll be checking the FUDforum forum for the next while so we can discuss it further there if necessary.
As to the integration I suspect both places seem sensible, I hang out in both.
I suppose it depends on which code I tinker with the most :-)
Best wishes
Jon
From: tim@yingtong.co.uk Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:46:03 +0100 I have it working with Fudforum and although the fudforum integration was (to me) poorly documented I got it working and has been stable / rock solid for a couple of years now.
It would be nice to get things like membership linked between the two and to more easily identify forum posters (when their mail hits the list) but that is just a comment not a request (unless someone has worked it out!)
I think I have got Mailman and FUDforum to work well together by writing two FUDforum plugins. One uses Mailman’s email/password list for logins to the forum (calling, using php’s shell_exec() command, two separate withlist scripts based on the example in the withlist documentation). The other unsets a user’s Mailman moderation bit (by calling Mark Sapiro’s set_mod withlist script) just before the user’s first post is approved via FUDforum.
I’ll post the plugins to the FUDforum website when I’m finished, but in the meantime I’d be very grateful for comments on the Mailman withlist scripts I’ve used: (a) will they still work when I upgrade to 2.1.18-1? and (b) is there a better way of doing it? Thanks in advance, and feel free to ask for further information!
#! /path/to/bin/python
from Mailman.Errors import NotAMemberError
def get_name(mlist, member):
try:
print
'%s' % (mlist.getMemberName(member))
except NotAMemberError:
print 'No address matched:', member
#! /path/to/bin/python
from Mailman.Errors import NotAMemberError
def get_password(mlist, member):
try:
print
'%s' % (mlist.getMemberPassword(member))
except NotAMemberError:
print 'No address matched:', member
On 05/07/2014 03:41 PM, Jon 1234 wrote:
I’d be very grateful for comments on the Mailman withlist scripts I’ve used: (a) will they still work when I upgrade to 2.1.18-1? and (b) is there a better way of doing it? Thanks in advance, and feel free to ask for further information!
#! /path/to/bin/python
from Mailman.Errors import NotAMemberError
def get_name(mlist, member):
try:
'%s' % (mlist.getMemberName(member))
except NotAMemberError:
print 'No address matched:', member
#! /path/to/bin/python
from Mailman.Errors import NotAMemberError
def get_password(mlist, member):
try:
'%s' % (mlist.getMemberPassword(member))
except NotAMemberError:
print 'No address matched:', member
I'll assume that all the spacing and indentation anomalies are due to mangling by your email client and try to ignore them, so your question boils down to
Do the list methods getMemberName(member) and getMemberPassword(member) work the same in 2.1.18-1 and throw the same NotAMemberError exception if member is not a member?
The answer is an unequivocal Yes.
Note that the shebang line "#! /path/to/bin/python" is unnecessary since these can't and don't run standalone.
On the other hand, it is a bit of overkill to do these as withlist scripts because of the withlist setup and takedown. You could, e.g., do something like
#! /path/to/bin/python import sys import paths from Mailman import MailList from Mailman.Errors import MMUnknownListError, NotAMemberError try: mlist = MailList.MailList(sys.argv[1]) except MMUnknownListError: print 'No such list: %s' % sys.argv[1] sys.exit(1) try: print mlist.getMemberName(sys.argv[2]) except NotAMemberError: print 'No address matched: %s' % member
as a standalone script to be run as
/path/to/mailman/bin/get_name listname memberaddress
and similarly for the password. Note this would need to be run from Mailman's bin/ directory for import paths to work and get all the other paths.
On 05/07/2014 04:50 PM, Mark Sapiro wrote:
On the other hand, it is a bit of overkill to do these as withlist scripts because of the withlist setup and takedown. You could, e.g., do something like
#! /path/to/bin/python import sys import paths from Mailman import MailList from Mailman.Errors import MMUnknownListError, NotAMemberError try: mlist = MailList.MailList(sys.argv[1]) except MMUnknownListError: print 'No such list: %s' % sys.argv[1] sys.exit(1) try: print mlist.getMemberName(sys.argv[2]) except NotAMemberError: print 'No address matched: %s' % member
There are two errors in the above.
The 7th line should be
mlist = MailList.MailList(sys.argv[1], lock=False)
and the last line should be
print 'No address matched: %s' % sys.argv[2]
participants (5)
-
Barry Warsaw -
Jon 1234 -
Mark Sapiro -
Richard Damon -
Tim Walter