After looking at the sms blast module we were wondering about some use cases that have came up our way and think that they can be incorporated into the module rather than creating a seperate module for them.
First use case was that users might wish to opt out of blast sms being sent to them. Figured in the install of the module could add an opt out field to the sms_user table called blast and if set to 1 allows the user to receive blast sms messages and if set to 0 the user has opted out of blast sms messages. Could have this show up on the Mobile Settings tab where the user can choose the time range they wish to receive sms messages between. If the module is disabled we can then remove the column fromt he sms user table.
2nd use case was to integrate sms blast functionality with the og module. This would allow us to specify the audience that we are targetting the blast for. Would not take up much since we could modiify the existing page to just add the groups if the og module is present. In the submit handler we can check for all of the users in the group and then send the sms based off their blast settings.
Does any one have any objections against having this added to the sms blast module???
Please let me know and if people think it is a good idea, will implement in the module and provide a patch on d.o.
Comments
Sounds good
Darren,
Thanks for the work on this module. Would also like to see integration with one of the geospatial modules so we can define blasts by bounding box. Going forward not sure the best way to do that. Sounds like for D6 Geo will be the back end, but not sure which front end geospatial module would handle this type of integration in D6.
R,
Coby
One of the guys we work with
One of the guys we work with does a lot on the Geo side and he stated the same things you stated that other modules like location and taxonomy might wish to utilize this functionality also. We are currently investigating as well but definitely would like the blast process in.
Darren Ferguson
Darren Ferguson
FYI, OG module is now
FYI, OG module is now integrated with Notifications/Messaging (see HEAD or DRUPAL-5--3 branches). SMS Framework integrates with those so we might have this functionality already.
Moshe Yes, the
Moshe
Yes, the og_notifications module provides some of the functionality but it takes into account the default sending method only hence if the users default is mail it is going to go via email. I see in the hook_og that there is a user broadcast case. Would it be possible to implement on an admin page allowing the group admin to decide how they want to send the information i.e. via sms, email, xmpp etc??
It would mean adding to the function in the hook_og the action and would be specified by the group admin. If not specified we can leave as default as currently enabled. Is that something that we can add to this module??
Respectfully,
Darren Ferguson
Darren Ferguson
@Darren yes, I would be
@Darren yes, I would be interested in such a patch. Not sure how we force a notification to be sent by a given method. I don't see that in notifications_lite() which is he API we usually use to send our mails from OG. Also, I presume you would want to send the message by a fallback method if SMS number was not provided by the user.
Moshe Yep i am looking into
Moshe
Yep i am looking into that and saw the action that can be passed, the user could have the specified functionality for that to send by a specific method and fallback. Will dig through the notifications module and determine how we can force the specific method to be called so it will call the correct way. I am sure it can be done, but if not then will leave it as it currently is.
Respectfully,
Darren Ferguson
Darren Ferguson
Moshe After looking through
Moshe
After looking through you are right on the notifications portion for notifications lite there is no way to specify the sending method.
I have took a slightly different approach and the patch i am attaching is to check if that approach is good for you.
Basicallly we check for the messaging module, if it exists we allow the group admin when creating or updating the group to specify the sending method as part of the form. If the sending method is specified and it is not default then the module will utilize the messaging_message_send_user function instead of the notifications_lite function. If the messaging module is not there or the administrator does not specify a transport layer the module will then utilize the notifications lite module.
The messaging framework should be providing the pertinent fallback so that if the messaging does not work it will default back to mail.
Please let me know what you think on this one. http://drupal.org/node/318083 is where the patch is uploaded due to groups not accepting patch file extensions
Respectfully,
Darren Ferguson
Darren Ferguson