Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of TracNotification


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Timestamp:
01/29/13 10:19:02 (12 years ago)
Author:
trac
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  • TracNotification

    v1 v1  
     1= Email Notification of Ticket Changes =
     2[[TracGuideToc]]
     3
     4Trac supports notification of ticket changes via email.
     5
     6Email notification is useful to keep users up-to-date on tickets/issues of interest, and also provides a convenient way to post all ticket changes to a dedicated mailing list. For example, this is how the [http://lists.edgewall.com/archive/trac-tickets/ Trac-tickets] mailing list is set up.
     7
     8Disabled by default, notification can be activated and configured in [wiki:TracIni trac.ini].
     9
     10== Receiving Notification Mails ==
     11When reporting a new ticket or adding a comment, enter a valid email address or your username in the ''reporter'', ''assigned to/owner'' or ''cc'' field. Trac will automatically send you an email when changes are made to the ticket (depending on how notification is configured).
     12
     13This is useful to keep up-to-date on an issue or enhancement request that interests you.
     14
     15=== How to use your username to receive notification mails ===
     16
     17To receive notification mails, you can either enter a full email address or your username. To get notified with a simple username or login, you need to specify a valid email address in the ''Preferences'' page.
     18
     19Alternatively, a default domain name ('''`smtp_default_domain`''') can be set in the TracIni file (see [#ConfigurationOptions Configuration Options] below). In this case, the default domain will be appended to the username, which can be useful for an "Intranet" kind of installation.
     20
     21When using apache and mod_kerb for authentication against Kerberos / Active Directory, usernames take the form ('''`username@EXAMPLE.LOCAL`'''). To avoid this being interpreted as an email address, add the Kerberos domain to  ('''`ignore_domains`''').
     22
     23== Configuring SMTP Notification ==
     24
     25'''Important:''' For TracNotification to work correctly, the `[trac] base_url` option must be set in [wiki:TracIni trac.ini].
     26
     27=== Configuration Options ===
     28These are the available options for the `[notification]` section in trac.ini.
     29
     30 * '''`smtp_enabled`''': Enable email notification.
     31 * '''`smtp_from`''': Email address to use for ''Sender''-headers in notification emails.
     32 * '''`smtp_from_name`''': Sender name to use for ''Sender''-headers in notification emails.
     33 * '''`smtp_replyto`''': Email address to use for ''Reply-To''-headers in notification emails.
     34 * '''`smtp_default_domain`''': (''since 0.10'') Append the specified domain to addresses that do not contain one. Fully qualified addresses are not modified. The default domain is appended to all username/login for which an email address cannot be found from the user settings.
     35 * '''`smtp_always_cc`''': List of email addresses to always send notifications to. ''Typically used to post ticket changes to a dedicated mailing list.''
     36 * '''`smtp_always_bcc`''': (''since 0.10'') List of email addresses to always send notifications to, but keeps addresses not visible from other recipients of the notification email
     37 * '''`smtp_subject_prefix`''': (''since 0.10.1'') Text that is inserted before the subject of the email. Set to "!__default!__" by default.
     38 * '''`always_notify_reporter`''':  Always send notifications to any address in the reporter field (default: false).
     39 * '''`always_notify_owner`''': (''since 0.9'') Always send notifications to the address in the owner field (default: false).
     40 * '''`always_notify_updater`''': (''since 0.10'') Always send a notification to the updater of a ticket (default: true).
     41 * '''`use_public_cc`''': (''since 0.10'') Addresses in To: (owner, reporter) and Cc: lists are visible by all recipients (default is ''Bcc:'' - hidden copy).
     42 * '''`use_short_addr`''': (''since 0.10'') Enable delivery of notifications to addresses that do not contain a domain (i.e. do not end with ''@<domain.com>'').This option is useful for intranets, where the SMTP server can handle local addresses and map the username/login to a local mailbox. See also `smtp_default_domain`. Do not use this option with a public SMTP server.
     43 * '''`ignore_domains`''': Comma-separated list of domains that should not be considered part of email addresses (for usernames with Kerberos domains).
     44 * '''`mime_encoding`''': (''since 0.10'') This option allows selecting the MIME encoding scheme. Supported values:
     45   * `none`: default value, uses 7bit encoding if the text is plain ASCII, or 8bit otherwise.
     46   * `base64`: works with any kind of content. May cause some issues with touchy anti-spam/anti-virus engines.
     47   * `qp` or `quoted-printable`: best for european languages (more compact than base64) if 8bit encoding cannot be used.
     48 * '''`ticket_subject_template`''': (''since 0.11'') A [http://genshi.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/text-templates.html Genshi text template] snippet used to get the notification subject.
     49 * '''`email_sender`''': (''since 0.12'') Name of the component implementing `IEmailSender`. This component is used by the notification system to send emails. Trac currently provides the following components:
     50   * `SmtpEmailSender`: connects to an SMTP server (default).
     51   * `SendmailEmailSender`: runs a `sendmail`-compatible executable.   
     52
     53Either '''`smtp_from`''' or '''`smtp_replyto`''' (or both) ''must'' be set, otherwise Trac refuses to send notification mails.
     54
     55The following options are specific to email delivery through SMTP.
     56 * '''`smtp_server`''': SMTP server used for notification messages.
     57 * '''`smtp_port`''': (''since 0.9'') Port used to contact the SMTP server.
     58 * '''`smtp_user`''': (''since 0.9'') User name for authentication SMTP account.
     59 * '''`smtp_password`''': (''since 0.9'') Password for authentication SMTP account.
     60 * '''`use_tls`''': (''since 0.10'') Toggle to send notifications via a SMTP server using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security TLS], such as GMail.
     61
     62The following option is specific to email delivery through a `sendmail`-compatible executable.
     63 * '''`sendmail_path`''': (''since 0.12'') Path to the sendmail executable. The sendmail program must accept the `-i` and `-f` options.
     64
     65=== Example Configuration (SMTP) ===
     66{{{
     67[notification]
     68smtp_enabled = true
     69smtp_server = mail.example.com
     70smtp_from = notifier@example.com
     71smtp_replyto = myproj@projects.example.com
     72smtp_always_cc = ticketmaster@example.com, theboss+myproj@example.com
     73}}}
     74
     75=== Example Configuration (`sendmail`) ===
     76{{{
     77[notification]
     78smtp_enabled = true
     79email_sender = SendmailEmailSender
     80sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail
     81smtp_from = notifier@example.com
     82smtp_replyto = myproj@projects.example.com
     83smtp_always_cc = ticketmaster@example.com, theboss+myproj@example.com
     84}}}
     85
     86=== Customizing the e-mail subject ===
     87The e-mail subject can be customized with the `ticket_subject_template` option, which contains a [http://genshi.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/text-templates.html Genshi text template] snippet. The default value is:
     88{{{
     89$prefix #$ticket.id: $summary
     90}}}
     91The following variables are available in the template:
     92
     93 * `env`: The project environment (see [trac:source:/trunk/trac/env.py env.py]).
     94 * `prefix`: The prefix defined in `smtp_subject_prefix`.
     95 * `summary`: The ticket summary, with the old value if the summary was edited.
     96 * `ticket`: The ticket model object (see [trac:source:/trunk/trac/ticket/model.py model.py]). Individual ticket fields can be addressed by appending the field name separated by a dot, e.g. `$ticket.milestone`.
     97
     98=== Customizing the e-mail content ===
     99
     100The notification e-mail content is generated based on `ticket_notify_email.txt` in `trac/templates`.  You can add your own version of this template by adding a `ticket_notify_email.txt` to the templates directory of your environment. The default looks like this:
     101
     102{{{
     103$ticket_body_hdr
     104$ticket_props
     105{% choose ticket.new %}\
     106{%   when True %}\
     107$ticket.description
     108{%   end %}\
     109{%   otherwise %}\
     110{%     if changes_body %}\
     111${_('Changes (by %(author)s):', author=change.author)}
     112
     113$changes_body
     114{%     end %}\
     115{%     if changes_descr %}\
     116{%       if not changes_body and not change.comment and change.author %}\
     117${_('Description changed by %(author)s:', author=change.author)}
     118{%       end %}\
     119$changes_descr
     120--
     121{%     end %}\
     122{%     if change.comment %}\
     123
     124${changes_body and _('Comment:') or _('Comment (by %(author)s):', author=change.author)}
     125
     126$change.comment
     127{%     end %}\
     128{%   end %}\
     129{% end %}\
     130
     131--
     132${_('Ticket URL: <%(link)s>', link=ticket.link)}
     133$project.name <${project.url or abs_href()}>
     134$project.descr
     135}}}
     136== Sample Email ==
     137{{{
     138#42: testing
     139---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
     140       Id:  42             |      Status:  assigned               
     141Component:  report system  |    Modified:  Fri Apr  9 00:04:31 2004
     142 Severity:  major          |   Milestone:  0.9                     
     143 Priority:  lowest         |     Version:  0.6                     
     144    Owner:  anonymous      |    Reporter:  jonas@example.com               
     145---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
     146Changes:
     147  * component:  changset view => search system
     148  * priority:  low => highest
     149  * owner:  jonas => anonymous
     150  * cc:  daniel@example.com =>
     151         daniel@example.com, jonas@example.com
     152  * status:  new => assigned
     153
     154Comment:
     155I'm interested too!
     156
     157--
     158Ticket URL: <http://example.com/trac/ticket/42>
     159My Project <http://myproj.example.com/>
     160}}}
     161
     162
     163== Customizing e-mail content for MS Outlook ==
     164
     165Out-of-the-box, MS Outlook normally presents plain text e-mails with a variable-width font; the ticket properties table will most certainly look like a mess in MS Outlook. This can be fixed with some customization of the [#Customizingthee-mailcontent e-mail template].
     166
     167Replace the following second row in the template:
     168{{{
     169$ticket_props
     170}}}
     171
     172with this instead (''requires Python 2.6 or later''):
     173{{{
     174--------------------------------------------------------------------------
     175{% with
     176   pv = [(a[0].strip(), a[1].strip()) for a in [b.split(':') for b in
     177         [c.strip() for c in
     178          ticket_props.replace('|', '\n').splitlines()[1:-1]] if ':' in b]];
     179   sel = ['Reporter', 'Owner', 'Type', 'Status', 'Priority', 'Milestone',
     180          'Component', 'Severity', 'Resolution', 'Keywords'] %}\
     181${'\n'.join('%s\t%s' % (format(p[0]+':', ' <12'), p[1]) for p in pv if p[0] in sel)}
     182{% end %}\
     183--------------------------------------------------------------------------
     184}}}
     185
     186The table of ticket properties is replaced with a list of a selection of the properties. A tab character separates the name and value in such a way that most people should find this more pleasing than the default table, when using MS Outlook.
     187{{{#!div style="margin: 1em 1.75em; border:1px dotted"
     188{{{#!html
     189#42: testing<br />
     190--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
     191<table cellpadding=0>
     192<tr><td>Reporter:</td><td>jonas@example.com</td></tr>
     193<tr><td>Owner:</td><td>anonymous</td></tr>
     194<tr><td>Type:</td><td>defect</td></tr>
     195<tr><td>Status:</td><td>assigned</td></tr>
     196<tr><td>Priority:</td><td>lowest</td></tr>
     197<tr><td>Milestone:</td><td>0.9</td></tr>
     198<tr><td>Component:</td><td>report system</td></tr>
     199<tr><td>Severity:</td><td>major</td></tr>
     200<tr><td>Resolution:</td><td> </td></tr>
     201<tr><td>Keywords:</td><td> </td></tr>
     202</table>
     203--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
     204Changes:<br />
     205<br />
     206&nbsp;&nbsp;* component: &nbsp;changset view =&gt; search system<br />
     207&nbsp;&nbsp;* priority: &nbsp;low =&gt; highest<br />
     208&nbsp;&nbsp;* owner: &nbsp;jonas =&gt; anonymous<br />
     209&nbsp;&nbsp;* cc: &nbsp;daniel@example.com =&gt;<br />
     210&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;daniel@example.com, jonas@example.com<br />
     211&nbsp;&nbsp;* status: &nbsp;new =&gt; assigned<br />
     212<br />
     213Comment:<br />
     214I'm interested too!<br />
     215<br />
     216--<br />
     217Ticket URL: &lt;http://example.com/trac/ticket/42&gt;<br />
     218My Project &lt;http://myproj.example.com/&gt;<br />
     219}}}
     220}}}
     221
     222**Important**: Only those ticket fields that are listed in `sel` are part of the HTML mail. If you have defined custom ticket fields which shall be part of the mail they have to be added to `sel`, example:
     223{{{
     224   sel = ['Reporter', ..., 'Keywords', 'Custom1', 'Custom2']
     225}}}
     226
     227However, it's not as perfect as an automatically HTML-formatted e-mail would be, but presented ticket properties are at least readable by default in MS Outlook...
     228
     229
     230== Using GMail as the SMTP relay host ==
     231
     232Use the following configuration snippet
     233{{{
     234[notification]
     235smtp_enabled = true
     236use_tls = true
     237mime_encoding = base64
     238smtp_server = smtp.gmail.com
     239smtp_port = 587
     240smtp_user = user
     241smtp_password = password
     242}}}
     243
     244where ''user'' and ''password'' match an existing GMail account, ''i.e.'' the ones you use to log in on [http://gmail.com]
     245
     246Alternatively, you can use `smtp_port = 25`.[[br]]
     247You should not use `smtp_port = 465`. It will not work and your ticket submission may deadlock. Port 465 is reserved for the SMTPS protocol, which is not supported by Trac. See [comment:ticket:7107:2 #7107] for details.
     248 
     249== Filtering notifications for one's own changes ==
     250In Gmail, use the filter:
     251
     252{{{
     253from:(<smtp_from>) (("Reporter: <username>" -Changes) OR "Changes (by <username>)")
     254}}}
     255
     256For Trac .10, use the filter:
     257{{{
     258from:(<smtp_from>) (("Reporter: <username>" -Changes -Comment) OR "Changes (by <username>)" OR "Comment (by <username>)")
     259}}}
     260
     261to delete these notifications.
     262
     263In Thunderbird, there is no such solution if you use IMAP
     264(see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_(Thunderbird)#Filtering_the_message_body).
     265
     266The best you can do is to set "always_notify_updater" in conf/trac.ini to false.
     267You will however still get an email if you comment a ticket that you own or have reported.
     268
     269You can also add this plugin:
     270http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/NeverNotifyUpdaterPlugin
     271
     272== Troubleshooting ==
     273
     274If you cannot get the notification working, first make sure the log is activated and have a look at the log to find if an error message has been logged. See TracLogging for help about the log feature.
     275
     276Notification errors are not reported through the web interface, so the user who submit a change or a new ticket never gets notified about a notification failure. The Trac administrator needs to look at the log to find the error trace.
     277
     278=== ''Permission denied'' error ===
     279
     280Typical error message:
     281{{{
     282  ...
     283  File ".../smtplib.py", line 303, in connect
     284    raise socket.error, msg
     285  error: (13, 'Permission denied')
     286}}}
     287
     288This error usually comes from a security settings on the server: many Linux distributions do not let the web server (Apache, ...) to post email message to the local SMTP server.
     289
     290Many users get confused when their manual attempts to contact the SMTP server succeed:
     291{{{
     292telnet localhost 25
     293}}}
     294The trouble is that a regular user may connect to the SMTP server, but the web server cannot:
     295{{{
     296sudo -u www-data telnet localhost 25
     297}}}
     298
     299In such a case, you need to configure your server so that the web server is authorized to post to the SMTP server. The actual settings depend on your Linux distribution and current security policy. You may find help browsing the Trac [trac:MailingList MailingList] archive.
     300
     301Relevant ML threads:
     302 * SELinux: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.subversion.trac.general/7518
     303
     304For SELinux in Fedora 10:
     305{{{
     306$ setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail 1
     307}}}
     308=== ''Suspected spam'' error ===
     309
     310Some SMTP servers may reject the notification email sent by Trac.
     311
     312The default Trac configuration uses Base64 encoding to send emails to the recipients. The whole body of the email is encoded, which sometimes trigger ''false positive'' SPAM detection on sensitive email servers. In such an event, it is recommended to change the default encoding to "quoted-printable" using the `mime_encoding` option.
     313
     314Quoted printable encoding works better with languages that use one of the Latin charsets. For Asian charsets, it is recommended to stick with the Base64 encoding.
     315
     316=== ''501, 5.5.4 Invalid Address'' error ===
     317
     318On IIS 6.0 you could get a
     319{{{
     320Failure sending notification on change to ticket #1: SMTPHeloError: (501, '5.5.4 Invalid Address')
     321}}}
     322in the trac log. Have a look [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291828 here] for instructions on resolving it.
     323
     324
     325----
     326See also: TracTickets, TracIni, TracGuide