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Topic notifications [message #26959]

Tue, 23 August 2005 14:13

JamesS

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If I remember correctly, the software will stop sending a person notifications if he does not log in and view the messages for which he has received email notifications. I, quite frequently, just visit the link in the emails without logging in. This means I have viewed the message that I was notified of but the software doesn't realize it. I think it would be handy if the notification link included a unique user id so that the software can mark the message as read for the user even though he did not log in. It should not, however, log the user in when visiting the URL as that would be a huge security hole.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #26961 is a reply to message #26959]

Tue, 23 August 2005 15:11

Ilia

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Not entirely, you can disable "smart notification" at which point the forum will send e-mail notifications regardless of read status or previous notifications.

I think unique user ids and so on provide a nasty security problem.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #26968 is a reply to message #26959]

Tue, 23 August 2005 16:52

JamesS

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It would only be good for marking messages as read. If the id does absolutely nothing else then it poses no risk.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #26978 is a reply to message #26968]

Tue, 23 August 2005 23:19

Ilia

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There is just too much complexity involved in this, just to avoid having user to mark something read.

It'd require:
A new table with subscription type, id and unique key, entries for every e-mail sent (lots of inserts). Then we'd need to tailor email body for each user with their own, special unsubscribe link. Then there is a possible issue with what happens if the user never uses the link, the table will just keep on growing and growing. So no we need some cleanup code, another words quite a bit of a mess.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #26979 is a reply to message #26959]

Tue, 23 August 2005 23:52

JamesS

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I don't see it as that complex. I think the approach you have envisioned goes way too deep. The forum already has to pull up the thread based on the URL given to it; along with retrieving the data for the thread view it can process the "mark as read" code that already exists. Yes, the emails would have to be rendered for individual users instead of the generic notification that is sent now. I really don't see how that would be so complex either; plus it would be an opportunity to fix the notification language bug. I know that you see it as a feature in terms of speed but it is really a bug from the user's perspective.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #26983 is a reply to message #26979]

Wed, 24 August 2005 02:25

Ilia

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Sure, but it does not have user information unless the user is logged in. Since you want to mark it read without being logged in the extra steps are needed.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #26986 is a reply to message #26959]

Wed, 24 August 2005 03:27

JamesS

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The link that brought me to your response is:
http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=26983#msg_26983

If the URL were something like:
http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=26983&i=cz89t7l#ms g_26983

Where the 'i' variable identifies the person the email was sent to then I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to adjust that user's viewed list. Would it not be one query to get the user and a second to update their list? I am assuming that this information is stored in the users table. I haven't taken the time to track down how all of this information is kept.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #27006 is a reply to message #26986]

Wed, 24 August 2005 13:33

Ilia

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Well, this id string needs to be kept somewhere, let's say the subscription table that has hundreds of thousands of entries. An extra field would add loads of overhead to the mix and require additional indexes.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #27007 is a reply to message #26959]

Wed, 24 August 2005 13:38

Anonymous

Not if you use the current index for the user. That information is already being retrieved when the emails are generated.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #27008 is a reply to message #27007]

Wed, 24 August 2005 13:40

Ilia

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What current index for the user, we don't have a user identifier other then the "mark-read" id.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #27010 is a reply to message #26959]

Wed, 24 August 2005 13:55

JamesS

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Looks to me like there is an "id" column in the users table and it seems to be the primary key.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #27011 is a reply to message #27010]

Wed, 24 August 2005 15:40

Ilia

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Sure, but if you just pass the user id, your can use the code to mark things read for ANY users. So, you need to have some validation string.

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Re: Topic notifications [message #27014 is a reply to message #26959]

Wed, 24 August 2005 18:25

JamesS

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That is what I wasn't thinking of. I guess there really would need to be a new column added to the user's information. Oh well, it was just a thought.

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