Hi there.
After having worked with our staging site for a little while, we have realized that we would love the option to receive email notifications for every event added to the calendar, not just those submitted on the public submission form. We’re concerned that people who add new events may forget to suggest their event to the main calendar and we could miss them. An email would ensure that we don’t miss anything.
Thanks for the consideration!
Hey Adam,
Great question, this has come up before, and while it’s not something we’re planning to add support for in LiveWhale core, it’s definitely do-able with a custom module.
Here’s an example module that can work at /livewhale/client/custom_notifications/global.application.custom_notifications.php
The base file has commented out chunks for a few different notification styles, but one of them is the example you mentioned:
onAfterCreate
- Emails when new items are created
- Example code is for “new live Event created, not from Linked Calendar”
With a little PHP knowledge you could test this out on your dev server and then launch to prod, otherwise feel free to reach out to our team via the support channels (personalized email support or the Request Help form) for hands-on assistance getting something implemented to meet your needs. Thanks!
<?php
$_LW->REGISTERED_APPS['custom_notifications']=[
'title'=>'Custom Notifications',
'handlers'=>['onAfterPublicSubmission', 'onAfterCreate', 'onValidateSuccess'],
'custom'=>[
'email_list'=>[],
],
]; // configure this module
/*
IN THIS MODULE:
Starter blocks of code that you can adapt to add custom notifications for:
onAfterCreate
- Emails when new items are created
-- Example code is for "new live Event created, not from Linked Calendar"
onValidateSuccess
- Emails whenever an item is saved meeting certain criteria
-- Example code is when Hidden changed to Live
onAfterPublicSubmission
- Emails whenever public submission form is successfully submitted
-- Example code includes "always email" and "email for certain group" blocks
*/
class LiveWhaleApplicationCustomNotifications {
// To send custom notification every time a new Live Event gets created, uncomment and
// add array of emails to $_LW->REGISTERED_APPS['custom_notifications']['custom']['email_list']
/*
public function onAfterCreate($type, $id) {
global $_LW;
// New live event, not from a linked calendar
if($type == 'events' && $_LW->save_data['status']== "1" && empty($_LW->save_data['subscription_pid'])) {
$cols='livewhale_events.id, livewhale_events.title, livewhale_events.status';
$table='livewhale_events';
$where='id='.(int)$id.' AND parent IS NULL';
//make sure event is not a suggestion
foreach($_LW->dbo->query('select', $cols, $table, $where)->run() as $res) {
$event_title = $res['title'];
$event_url = $_SERVER['HTTP_ORIGIN'] . '/live/events/' . $id;
$event_date = $_LW->save_data['date'];
$event_id = $res['id'];
$subject = 'New Event Added - ID ' . $event_id;
$message = "A new live event has been added to the calendar:
\n" . "<b>Event Title:</b> " . $event_title . "\n" . "</b>Event Date:</b> ". $event_date . "\n Click here to view the event details: " . $event_url;
foreach($_LW->REGISTERED_APPS['event_notification']['custom']['email_list'] as $to) {
$_LW->d_messages->sendMail($to, $subject, $message);
}
}
}
}
*/
// To send custom notification every time an existing event gets changed from Hidden to Live, uncomment and
// add array of emails to $_LW->REGISTERED_APPS['custom_notifications']['custom']['email_list']
/*
public function onValidateSuccess($type, $id) {
global $_LW;
// Existing event with status as live
if($type==='events' && !(empty($id)) && $_LW->save_data['status']== '1') {
$cols='livewhale_events.id, livewhale_events.title, livewhale_events.status';
$table = 'livewhale_events';
$where ='id='.(int)$id.' AND status != 1';
foreach($_LW->dbo->query('select', $cols, $table, $where)->run() as $res) {
$event_title = $_LW->save_data['title'];
$event_url = $_SERVER['HTTP_ORIGIN'] . '/live/events/' . $id;
$event_date = $_LW->save_data['date'];
$subject = 'Event Set Live - ID ' . $id;
$message = "An event has been set to live:
\n" . "Event Title: " . $event_title . "\n" . "Event Date: ". $event_date . "\n Click here to view the event details: " . $event_url;
foreach($_LW->REGISTERED_APPS['event_notification']['custom']['email_list'] as $to) {
$_LW->d_messages->sendMail($to, $subject, $message);
}
};
}
}
*/
// To send custom notifications for public submissions, uncomment and
// add individual emails to the $_LW->d_messages->sendMail lines
/*
public function onAfterPublicSubmission($type, $id) { // after a story/event is submitted
global $_LW;
// Assemble message vars for custom email notifications
$message_vars=[
'submitter_name' =>$_LW->_POST['name'],
'submitter_email' =>$_LW->_POST['email'],
'type' =>$type,
'title' =>($type == 'news' ? $_LW->_POST['news_headline'] : ($type=='events' ? $_LW->_POST['event_title'] : $_LW->setFormatSummarize($_LW->_POST['image_caption'], 5))),
'summary' =>($type == 'news' ? @$_LW->_POST['news_summary'] : ($type=='events' ? @$_LW->_POST['event_summary'] : '')),
'description' =>($type == 'news' ? @$_LW->_POST['news_body'] : ($type=='events' ? @$_LW->_POST['event_description'] : '')),
'contact_info' =>($type == 'news' ? @$_LW->_POST['news_contact_info'] : ($type == 'events' ? @$_LW->_POST['event_contact_info'] : '')),
'event_cost' =>@$_LW->_POST['event_cost'],
'event_time' =>@$_LW->_POST['event_time'],
'event_time2' =>@$_LW->_POST['event_time2'],
'event_date' =>@$_LW->_POST['event_date'],
'event_date2' =>@$_LW->_POST['event_date2'],
'location' =>@$_LW->_POST['event_location'],
'url' =>@$_LW->_POST[$type.'_url'],
'edit_url' =>($type == 'news' ? 'http'.($_LW->hasSSL() ? 's' : '').'://'.$_LW->CONFIG['HTTP_HOST'].'/livewhale/?news_edit&id='.$id : ($type=='events' ? 'http'.($_LW->hasSSL() ? 's' : '').'://'.$_LW->CONFIG['HTTP_HOST'].'/livewhale/?events_edit&id='.$id : '')),
'submission_group' => @$_LW->_POST['submission_group'],
];
if ($type == 'events') {
$message_vars['url'] = @$_LW->_POST['event_url'];
};
// **** Send notification for all submissions to email ****
// $_LW->d_messages->sendMail('email@myschool.edu', 'public_submission_notification_subject', 'public_submission_notification_body', false, false, $message_vars);
// **** Send notifications for specific group to email ****
// if ($_LW->_POST['submission_group'] == 67) {
// $_LW->d_messages->sendMail('email@myschool.edu', 'public_submission_notification_subject', 'public_submission_notification_body', false, false, $message_vars);
// };
}
*/
}
?>
Thank you, Karl!
Regarding this line, is there a way to make the group number “All”?
if ($_LW->_POST[‘submission_group’] == 67) {
Sure Adam, you could just unwrap it from that if and then the onAfterPublicSubmission handler will run every time a submission is made from the front-end form. Unless I’m missing something, just to confirm that’s different from the onAfterCreate piece we were discussing earlier which would be events created in the back-end UI. 
Thanks again, Karl.
This quickly went over my head so I sent it all to Robbie. He’s the PHP guru in our office and I’m sure he’ll figure it out.
Adam