Feature #940
openCommunication with users after releases
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Description
Often, we need to communicate with users after a release (point or feature) to tell them that something they've requested is now fixed or some new feature is implemented. It's hard to remember, by the time the update is made to the site, who should be notified.
It would be cool if there was a way to add a feature to Redmine, I guess, though perhaps through Git, that would allow us to send notifications to interested parties upon release so that they could know that they could now try out the thing they had requested.
Right now, I'm going to do this manually by setting up an email and keeping it in my drafts folder, and then sending it when the release is done. But it would be cool if we could add a field to redmine tickets where we could add email addresses of requesters, and then when the update went live, they'd get an automated email that a link to the ticket and to the site, and then telling them to contact us again if anything else was needed. It would complete the feedback loop with users.
Maybe we'd need to add another status to differentiate tickets that have been resolved but not uploaded to the site and those that have.
Assigning this to Boone, for now, though there are many ways to possibly go about this. Also adding the community/dev teams as watchers.
Related issues
Updated by Boone Gorges over 13 years ago
An elegant solution seems like it would be a Redmine plugin that does the following:
- puts a "Notify Me" field on each ticket, which will be auto-populated with the creator of the ticket. You will also be able to add other member of the project (similar to how Watchers work), as well as email addresses unassociated with Redmine accounts.
- sends an email notification to those addresses when the ticket's milestone is marked as Complete (or is given a completion date - Redmine does it kinda funny)
I don't have time to look into this at the moment, as I don't have a local Ruby environment, and I don't know anything about developing Redmine plugins, and I'm knee-deep in diaper changes. Maybe in the upcoming weeks, if I get a chance. In the meantime, I recommend a human-being-based solution that is a bit more systematic than a bunch of email drafts.
Updated by Chris Stein over 13 years ago
Boone, I think that your solution sounds like a good one. Instead of "Notify Me" it might be "Notify When Completed" since the creator will be notified on any change anyway and this is really to add people who aren't the creator, assigned or watcher. I understand the diaper madness full well and I think this is a bit lower on the priority list than other things. If/when you do get around to it a couple of other thoughts:
I looked through the Redmine plugins and there isn't anything that does this. There are a few plugins you could look at when writing one:
New Issue Alerts This one allows you to send out emails to a specified address when a new issue is logged. It's GNU and maybe can be reconfigured to send emails on issue completion.
Updates Notifier This sends update notifications to a user configured URL for individual issues. This may help with the missing issue part of the code above, or perhaps you can figure out some way to use the URL notification.
QA Contact This adds a QA person for each issue. This could be part of a stopgap measure where the QA person for each issue is responsible for notifying any interested parties.
Also when you do think about making your own version I'd be happy to work on the text for the email that would be sent to the user. The tricky part here I think is explaining the difference between something being resolved in code and it being live on the site. Probably ideally we would just notify them when the could actually use and see it.
To address Boone's concern about the email draft system, perhaps we can use a BP doc with a list of names, emails and ticket #'s and when a ticket is closed the person closing it (or a QA person if we use that plugin) can go to the list and email the person and then delete them from the list. The problem there is knowing when to check the list. Perhaps something like an asterisk could be added to the title of the issue if there is someone who needs notification when it is complete. This could use some more thought.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 12 years ago
- Assignee changed from Boone Gorges to Dominic Giglio
- Priority name changed from Normal to Low
- Severity set to Normal
Commenting here because this issue was raised again in the duplicate #2111.
I'm reassigning this ticket to Dom for the moment, as I know he has experience with Rails. Dom, this is a low priority item. When you have a few spare minutes, have a look at how to build Redmine plugins, and give a rough sense of how much work you think this could be. That'll give us more information on how to fit it into our larger roadmap. Thanks.
Updated by Dominic Giglio over 12 years ago
Very interesting issue, I think this would be a wonderful feature.
I'll dust off my Ruby skills and have a look as soon as I get a chance.