Messages & Forums 2.7 Release

Highlights

• New synoptic tool MSGCNTR-255 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Performance improvements
• UI makeover MSGCNTR-170 - Getting issue details... STATUS , MSGCNTR-170 - Getting issue details... STATUS , MSGCNTR-170 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Direct linking to forum post
• Forums posts marked as 'read' after displaying all messages (optional / enabled by property)
• Ability for specified roles to email author if messages/threads MSGCNTR-200 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Ability for site participants to receive notification MSGCNTR-200 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Count of how many people have read a message will now be displayed MSGCNTR-256 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• View of all postings by an individual MSGCNTR-257 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Display last activity time and sort by recent activity (optional / enabled by property) MSGCNTR-179 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• New and empty tool pre-populated with default forum and topic (optional / enabled by property) MSGCNTR-169 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Ability to link directly to forum messages MSGCNTR-195 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Properties

• smtp@org.sakaiproject.email.api.EmailService
• forum.email.prefixedPath
  • Default: forum.email.prefixedPath="/tmp/"
• testMode@org.sakaiproject.email.api.EmailService
• ui.service
  • Default: ui.service="LocalSakaiName"
• email.fromAddress
  • Default:

    email.fromAddress=no-reply@{0}
    

• msgcntr.forums.default.auto.mark.threads.read
  • Default: msgcntr.forums.default.auto.mark.threads.read=false
• forums.setDefault.forum
  • Default: forums.setDefault.forum=false

Synoptic Tool Properties:

• msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.performance
  • =1 #1: Show direct links to tools
  • =2 #2: Hide direct links to tools (10x faster)
  • Default: msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.performance=1
• msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.userRequestSynoptic
  • =true #If true, then a link will show up to ask the user to click to see the synoptic info in their MyWorkspace
  • =false #Synoptic info will load automatically in user's MyWorkspace
  • Default: msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.userRequestSynoptic=false
• msgcntr.synoptic.disable.forums
  • =true #If True, the column for forums on MyWorkspace will be removed
  • =false #If False, the column for forums on MyWorkspace will be visible
  • Default: msgcntr.synoptic.disable.forums=false
• msgcntr.synoptic.disable.messages
  • =true #If True, the column for messages on MyWorkspace will be removed
  • =false #If False, the column for messages on MyWorkspace will be visible
  • Default: msgcntr.synoptic.disable.messages=false
• msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.disable
  • =true #If True, synoptic MyWorkspace will be disabled
  • =false #If False, synoptic MyWorkspace will be visible
  • Default: msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.disable=false
• msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.disabledMessage
  • =Text for users to read #This is used when msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.disable=true and the institution wants to override the disabled message w/o needing a code change.
  • Default: msgcntr.synoptic.myworkspace.disabledMessage=The Check for new messages link has been temporarily disabled in My Workspace. Messages and Forums Notifications are still available on the Home page of any site.
    • *This default is from Messages.properties

Conversion

Conversion for Messages & Forums 2.6.x to 2.7.x is already bundled in the Sakai conversion scripts.  Below are ddl for just Messages & Forums.

MySQL 2.6.x -> 2.7.x Conversion 

Oracle 2.6.x -> 2.7.x Conversion 

Synoptic Tool:

To present users with a seamless upgrade, the new synoptic tool mimics the original messages and forums synoptic tool. Also, since all synoptic information is stored in a table, I have provided a quartz job that can be ran before deployment to populate this table. Since this tool has been designed to dynamically update and insert new data whenever a synoptic update action is triggered, this tool will work without populating the synoptic information through the quartz job. The difference between these options would be a lag of information while the data is populated reactively through the tool compared to instantly populating data through a batch job.

*If you are planning on running the Quartz load job and you are running on an Oracle DB, for better performance, set runOracleSQL flag to true in UpdateSynopticMessageCounts.java.