Adding articleID in ALL email subjects

[mgscano]

Hi all,
I see there are a few other threads on this subject, but I just wanted to isolate this aspect, because to our journal (and I guess to many others) it's VITAL to have the submission ID # automatically included in all the emails going out from the site, exactly as the [<journal abbreviation>] tag.
We currently have never less than five new submissions per day, with a Review stage filled up with almost 150 items ... the number of emails every editor gets per day is quite high, and having at least the submission ID well printed there would make the work really really simpler (just consider searching/sorting your mailbox ...).

I'd like to customize it myself, even if I'm not really sure if I can do it, so I'm basically just asking for suggestions ... basically: where is the code I need to to change? Mind I want all the emails to sport the ID, also to avoid having to go 'round all the OJS code to make hundreds of small changes, which would make my code updates barely unmanageable.

Thanks,

Marco

[mcrider]

Hi Marco,

You can play around with the ArticleMailTemplate class (classes/mail/ArticleMailTemplate.inc.php), since the ArticleMailTemplate (as opposed to the regular MailTemplate) class will always be assured to have an article associated with it and thus not produce errors if you're trying to get an article ID.

I haven't tested this or anything, but you should be able to do this by putting this line in the constructor of the ArticleMailTemplate (around line 53):

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$this->setSubject("[Article " . $article->getId() . "]" . $this->getSubject());

Cheers,
Matt

[mgscano]

Hey Matt,
to properly get the articleId it needs a small edit, like:

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$this->setSubject("[Article " . $article->getArticleId() . "]" . $this->getSubject());

it works also in all the editors' correspondence, thanks a lot for the hint.

However, the final result is not very fancy, since you get something like:

[Article <ID>] [<jabbrev>] Email subject

while I wanted to get something like:

[<jabbrev>] [Article <ID>] Email subject

... which is not different from a scientific guy PoV, but it drives designers crazy. And I have to deal with them.

That's why I was asking if there was a way to modify the string as it does when it throws in the <journalabbreviation>, but the subject must be contructed somewhere else, because in the ArticleMailTemplate it comes already with the [jabbrev] tag.

I'll try to split the string and insert my code in between. You'll see all progresses here.

thanks,

Marco

[mcrider]

Hi Marco,

to properly get the articleId it needs a small edit, like:

Code: Select all

$this->setSubject("[Article " . $article->getArticleId() . "]" . $this->getSubject());

it works also in all the editors' correspondence, thanks a lot for the hint.

Sorry, yes, you'll need to do that--But when you upgrade, you'll have to change it to the way I originally wrote it, i.e., we've changed $article->getArticleId() to $article->getId() everywhere in an effort to maintain consistency in an object-oriented design.

... which is not different from a scientific guy PoV, but it drives designers crazy. And I have to deal with them.

Yeah, I know how that goes ...

The subject is actually constructed near the end of the classes/mail/MailTemplate.inc.php constructor function, and you can rejig some code so that has access to the article object (and thus the ID)... But your easiest solution is to split the string like you suggested. Should just be a couple lines of code, and will definitely get the job done.

Cheers,
Matt

[mgscano]

HI Matt,
more news from the eastern front ...

So, there is a strange behaviour with the article ID#, because with the code we discussed before, the subject is okay until you see it in the mail form on the site, but when the message is sent, the article ID is included twice .
Still I wonder how it comes out, the searching goes on.

Then, I tried to split the variable with something like this:

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list($newName, $newSubject) = explode("]", $this->getSubject);
$this->setSubject($newName . "] - #" . $article->getArticleId() . $newSubject);


.. but nothing happens, as if the string was not really yet formed, I get only the text and the article ID.

All these things make me wonder that the getSubject should be accessed in another way, but I don't want to mess up things in too many files, for the same ole' reason that I'd like to survive the updates. So if all the editing could be limited to this file, it would be great.

thanks for the help, this aspect has become vital for our journal.

bye,
Marco