K2 MultiNotify is, as the name suggests, a multifuntional notification extension for K2 Content Creator for Joomla.
Through the addition of simple content subscriptions, you can allow site visitors, authors and admin to subscribe to any K2 Category, User (Blog) or Comment so that they maybe notified via email, when new Items are released in a particular category or new comments made.
Why?
Why do you need it?
By using this Component, you will increase interaction with visitors to any website as they will be encouraged to come back to read new content.
They will have control to subscribe to particular areas of a site so that they can know when new content such as a blog, review, news, products or even comments that has been added. This then allows your visitors to be kept up to date and get the latest from your site.
Visitors get kept up to date and return to read your content or respond to comments! Consider teaming this with the K2Multiads to place targeted adverts in your items too.
Currently, K2 has no way to notify visitors and admin when items or comments are made, other than our previous K2AutoComments, which in comparison, is so basic as it only informed admin of new comments.
Usage
How Does It Work?
There are two main areas of this component, the frontend and the backend.
Frontend
This is what your visitors will see.
- A subscription form is added to any Category, User or Comment block that has been enabled for subscriptions.
- A visitor can, if allowed, enter their email address and subscribe, without the need to register on the site.
- A visitor will, if set in the options, be notified that they need to register before they can subscribe.
- Any registered user can add their email address without the need to login.
- Any registered user that is logged in, does not need to enter their email, just click submit.
Backend
This is what is used to configure your notifications.
- The Component contains the global parameters to configure the extension.
- The Category editor contains parameters for per category subscription management.
- The Item editor contains parameters for per item subscription management.
- The User editor contains parameter for notification and subscriptions management.
- The K2 list views for the above, can show the number of subscribers for easy identification of popular subscriptions.
Config
This array shows which options are available and where they are.
Many options can be overrided by sub-level options :
- K2
- Multi Notify
- K2 Category
- K2 Item
- K2 User
- K2 Category
- Multi Notify
| Option / Availability | K2 | Multi Notify | K2 Category | K2 Item | K2 User |
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| Category Subscription / affects | All the K2 categories | K2 category | |||
| Off/On Global Enabling/Disabling category subscriptions |
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| Allow category subscription Enabling/disabling subscription to new items of the category in category layout |
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| Allow public subscription Guest users have access to the category subscription form |
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| Show subscribers count Show/hide the subscribers count on category layout |
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| Blog Subscription / affects | All the K2 blogs | K2 User blog | |||
| Off/On Global Enabling/Disabling blog subscriptions |
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| Allow Blog subcription Enabling/disabling subscription to new items of the blog in blog layout |
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| Allow public subscription Guest users have access to the blog subscription form |
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| Show subscribers count Show/hide the subscribers count on blog layout |
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| Comment subscription / affects | All the K2 comments | All the K2 category comments | All the K2 Item comments | K2 User | |
| Off/On Global Enabling/Disabling comment subscriptions |
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| Allow comment subscription Enabling/disabling subscription to new item comments in item layout |
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| Allow public subscription Guest users have access to the comment subscription form |
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| Show subscribers count Show/hide the subscribers count on item layout |
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| Item author auto-subscription Item author is automatically added to the item new comment subscriber list |
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| Enable comment auto-publishing Enabling/Disabling auto-publishing of new comments |
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| Approval notification / affects |
Entire website | All the K2 category comments | All the K2 Item comments | K2 User | |
| Comment waiting approval notification Enabling/Disabling sending of a waiting approval notification to item author |
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| Extra users Adding extra backend users to waiting approval notification |
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| Comment approved notification Enabling/Disabling sending of a comment approved notification to comment author |
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You can see that you'll be able to configure each K2 category and each item of each category as you want.
Each K2 user will be able to decide if they want to receive notifications about comments.
Extras
Not only do you get this great component, but we also give you a module too.
Yes thats right, a module which displays the most popular subscriptions.
A disabled module is added to your module manager upon installation or additional modules can be added as per any other module.
Below, you will see how the module parameters are set.
The source drop down allows you to select between blog, category or item comment.
Select the quantity you wish to display in the count field.
Select if you wish to display the number of subscribers or if you wish to show the subscriptions rank position.
This makes for an ideal tool to boast about the number of subscribers but also to show how popular certain content may be.
Alternativley, you could set it to be only shown to administrators or registered users only.
Screen Shots
Frontend
K2Joom is running this component through out this site, but to allow you to see some of the other views, we have created the following galleries of some screen shots.
Frontend Images.
This is an example of the subscription form that will be displayed in a K2 category for visitors.
This is an example of the subscription form that will be displayed in a K2 category for logged in users.
This is an example of the subscription form that will be displayed in an Author Blog for visitors.
This is an example of the subscription form that will be displayed in an Author Blog for logged in users.
This is an example of the subscription form that will be displayed in the comments section for visitors.
This is an example of the subscription form that will be displayed in the comments section for logged in users.
An example of an error message if an incorrect email address is submitted.
If public subscription is disabled, then only registered users can subscribe. This notifies users to register to subscribe.
Dashboard Tabs
K2Joom is running this component through out this site, but to allow you to see some of the other views, we have created this gallery of some screen shots.
Backend Images.
Component Dashboard
This is the main component dashboard which include icon and menu links to the Subscriptions, Notifications and Emails data.
Included is a helpful tabbed data area.
Latest Tabs
The Latest Subscriptions tabs lists the latest subscriptions including the user, type of subscription and its source and the date.
In this example, we can see several Category subscriptions and the specific category that has been subscribed to.
The Latest Notifications tab lists the latest notifcations that have been mailed to subscribers. You can easily see the what type of notification has been sent and the number of subscribers it was sent to.
The statistics page contain a table of information containing all subscriptions and notifications over a period of time.
Dashboard Info
K2Joom is running this component through out this site, but to allow you to see some of the other views, we have created the following galleries of some screen shots.
Main Dashboard Data
The Subscriptions page shows all subscribers across all types, what they are subscribed too and when they subscribed.
The Notifications page shows all notifications that have been sent, including the type, which item or comment and the total subscribers.
The emails tab contains the 5 email notifications that are sent out depending on the appropriate action. A default message has been configured for each notification but each one can edited using the edit icon.
Global Params
K2Joom is running this component through out this site, but to allow you to see some of the other views, we have created the following galleries of some screen shots.
The Global Parameters
This is the main, global parameters for the component, these setting can be over ridden at item, category level.
The three main subscriptions type have the similar options which are listed below:
- Off/On: Turns on or off the whole subscription process for either Category, Blog or Comments a master switch.
- Allow Subscription: Set this to Yes to enable subscriptions, by doing so, additional per category, item and user control can be set within the category, item and user editor.
- Allow Public Subscription: If set to Yes, then non-registered users can subscribe, If set to No, then non-registered users will be prompted to register and logged in users can just click to subscribe.
- Show Count: Displays the counter on the front end, visible to all visitors, set to No to hide.
- Item Author Auto Subscription: If set to Yes, then the Author will be notified of all new comments are submitted on their items.
- Comment Awaiting Approval: Depending on the commenting parameters set in K2, comments may have to be approved before it is published. This setting emails the super admin that there is a new comment awaiting approval.
- Extra Users: Allows selection of extra Super Admin to the notification.
- Comment approved notification: Sends an email once the comment has been approved.
Content Params
K2Joom is running this component through out this site, but to allow you to see some of the other views, we have created the following galleries of some screen shots.
The Content Parameters
Within the Item, Category and User edit pages, there are further configurations for per item, category and author over rides to the gloabl parameters.
This allows complete flexibility to enable and disable the subscriptions to any item, category and author.
Category
Item
Author
Log
MultiNotify Change Log
V1.2.7
- Adding compatibility with K2 2.5.4 to K2 comment overriding. This fixes the spinning image when a comment is made with K2 2.5.4
- Removing category MovedItemAsNew option test from the category subscription class to the system plugin. This fixes the Category notification creation & sending when the 'Moved item as new' option is set to 'No'.
- Initialization of Global parameters is now done without override to avoid reset of them. This fixes some strange behaviors in a specific context where the merge of parameters was lost.
V1.2.6
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Added missing image folder and image files.
V1.2.5
- Fixes the duplicate sending when Joomla!/K2 users are selected in MN backend lists (TECH-000004)
- An item moved from 1 category to another 1 is now considered as new the first time it's moved. Moving back the item in a category it had already been will do nothing.
V1.2.4
- Bug fixed: The Subscription to new comments is only working when the Comments are published automatically. When new Comments are not published immediately the subscription doesn't work.
- Update: Notices & warnings in Backend cpanel statistics & subscription list removed.
V1.2.3
- Update: K2 publisher users are now in the list of extra approval users
- Feature: New link in item approval to preview the item and activate it if it's ok
- Feature: New configuration parameter called 'item approval notification on update'. If set to 'yes', an approval notification is sent each time the item is updated in frontend by the item author. This parameter can be overrided in the category configuration.
V1.2.2
- Update: Now compatible with PHP 5.3 : no more warning messages on K2 item saving
- Feature: Now NL language for backend & fontend : thanks to Bart Pluijms
- Feature: Possibility to hide MN params on item frontend editing & user frontend profile
- Feature: Default approval emails have now the activation link in body.
V1.2.1
- Feature: Place the subscription form where you want on the page via Mootools. Just configure the container and the position comparing to it for each subscription type. The global configuration for each subscription type can be overrided in the category, item or user details.
V1.2.0
- Update: This version corrects url errors in notifications and adds an auto validation in emails for item & comments.
To use auto validation, you just have to use the 'activationLink' property in approval notification emails.
For comment approval notifications :$this->body.= "Activation link : ".$this->comment->activationLink;
For item approval notifications :$this->body.= "Activation link : ".$this->item->activationLink;
V1.1.1
Initial Release
