Post Notif

Contributors: DevonOstendorf
Donate link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6M98ZTPSAKPGU
Tags: post, notif, notification, email, subscribe
Requires at least: 4.1.1
Tested up to: 4.9
Requires PHP: 5.6
Stable tag: 1.3.0
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Notify subscribers when you publish new posts.

Description

Post Notif is an easy way to keep your readers notified when you've posted something new.

Simply tailor the subscription widget labels, the email subjects and bodies, and the subscription preferences pages - all via the common WordPress online admin menu area (no tinkering with files required :) ).

Included features:

• Configurable email settings:

  • Plugin email sender name and email address
  • Subscription confirmation email subject and body
  • Post notification email subject and body
  • Email sent to subscriber after subscription is confirmed subject and body
  • @@signature variable (for optional use in emails)
  • Many additional email template variables (for optional use in emails)
  • Send post notifications automatically when post is published

• Configurable page settings:

  • Subscription confirmed page title and page greeting
  • Subscription preferences selection instructions
  • Current subscription preferences page title and page greeting
  • Subscription preferences updated page title and page greeting
  • Unsubscribe link label
  • Unsubscribe confirmation page title
  • Unsubscribe confirmation page greeting

• Configurable widget settings:

  • Title label
  • Call to action text, font, font size, and font color
  • Submit button label
  • Require first name?
  • First name field size, font, font size, and font color
  • Email address field size, font, font size, and font color
  • First name and email placeholder text, font, font size, and font color
  • Error and status message font, font size, and font color

• Configurable widget messages:

  • Blank first name error
  • Blank and invalid email address errors
  • Widget processing message
  • Already subscribed info message
  • Successful subscription request message

• Versatile shortcode functionality:

  • Generates subscriber sign up form
  • Usable in posts and on pages
  • Includes all settings and messages available within widget configuration
  • Attributes default from main settings page but can all be individually overridden
  • Custom stylesheet can be used for comprehensive CSS changes to form (IF author has fileserver access)

• Configurable category settings:

  • Make all or a subset of system categories available to subscribers or turn off categories entirely

• Configurable post notification send:

  • Auto send (when post is published)
  • Send now
  • Schedule send (via WordPress cron)
  • Batch send options (batch size, batch pause)
  • Test send

• Admin and editor tools:

  • View subscribers (and the post categories they've subscribed to)
  • Manage post notifications sent (check the status of, pause, or cancel, post notification processes [both running and scheduled])

• Admin-only tools:

  • Import subscribers (see FAQ for details on how import process works)
  • Manage subscribers:
    • Export
    • Force confirm subscriber
    • Delete
    • Resend confirmation email

• Multisite capable

• Translations for the following languages:

  • Czech (cs_CZ) via language pack
  • Dutch (nl_NL) via language pack
  • German (de_DE and de_DE_formal) included in plugin package
  • Spanish (es_ES) included in plugin package

Benefits:

• No file server configuration required:

  • All configuration of email subjects and contents done via the plugin's settings page
  • All configuration of user preferences "pages" done via the plugin's settings page

• Dynamically-created pseudo-pages used for user preference configuration, avoiding issues with themes that automatically add pages to menus

• For Multisite networks, once the plugin is installed in the network's plugin directory, individual site activation and configuration of the plugin can be handled by individual site admins without any access to the file server.

Installation

Download and Install

1. Go to "Plugins > Add New" in your Dashboard and search for: Post Notif
2. Click the "Install Now" button for the Post Notif plugin
3. See the appropriate section below ("Single Site - Activate and Configure" or "Multisite - Activate and Configure") BEFORE activating

OR

1. Download post-notif.[version_number].zip from the WordPress.org plugin directory
2. Extract post-notif.[version_number].zip into a directory on your computer
3. Upload the post-notif directory to your plugins directory (typically ../wp-content/plugins)
4. See the appropriate section below ("Single Site - Activate and Configure" or "Multisite - Activate and Configure") BEFORE activating

Single Site - Activate and Configure

1. Activate the plugin on the WordPress Plugin Dashboard
2. Choose the one bullet item below that best represents your configuration and perform the steps specified for it:

   • If you are using permalink settings OTHER THAN the "Plain" (Settings >> Permalinks >> Common Settings >> Plain [radio button]), everything should work fine (the .htaccess file's regular expressions will handle the plugin's URLs)

     1. Configure options (Settings >> Post Notif)
     2. Add and configure widget (Appearance >> Widgets)

   • If you ARE using the "Plain" permalink settings (Settings >> Permalinks >> Common Settings >> Plain [radio button]) and don't mind changing your URL formatting, select another option under "Common Settings" and Save Changes. If WordPress tells you that it is unable to automatically update your .htaccess file, due to permissions issues, manually make the changes it prescribes to your .htaccess file. The Post Notif plugin should work fine now.

     1. Configure options (Settings >> Post Notif)
     2. Add and configure widget (Appearance >> Widgets)

   • If you are deliberately using the plain permalink settings and want to keep it that way, you'll need to manually modify (or, if it does not exist, create) your .htaccess file in your site's root directory (where wp-config.php also resides), so that it contains:

     1. Add the following to .htaccess:

        # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

        # END WordPress

        NOTE: If your blog resides in a subdirectory (e.g. "http://blogname.com/blogdir"), you'll want to use the following for .htaccess (instead of what's shown above), replacing 'blogdir' (on lines 4 and 8) with the literal subdirectory name:

        # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blogdir/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blogdir/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

        # END WordPress

     2. Configure options (Settings >> Post Notif)

     3. Add and configure widget (Appearance >> Widgets)

Multisite - Activate and Configure

1. If your .htaccess file is similar to the recommended default (https://codex.wordpress.org/htaccess), everything should work fine (the .htaccess file's regular expressions will handle the plugin's URLs)
2. Be sure you ONLY activate it for one or more individual sites - DO NOT "network activate" it (there is not yet a way for plugin authors to disable this option which is why it is even available for this plugin)
3. Configure options (Settings >> Post Notif)
4. Add and configure widget (Appearance >> Widgets)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is such a recent version of WordPress listed as the minimum version required?

I strongly believe admins need to keep their sites updated with the current WordPress core. This is particularly important for security reasons but also because it provides admins and their users with new-and-improved functionality. If you cannot (or will not) upgrade, this plugin will probably work fine if you're running WordPress 3.5 or higher. But seriously, you really should upgrade!

How do I get this thing to work?

Follow the steps on the Installation page and then review the Screenshots (which show the plugin "in action" from both the administrator's and a subscriber's perspective). If people have more specific questions, I will update this page accordingly.

Why aren't emails being sent from the email address I specified in the Post Notif settings?

The email sender email address (under Email Settings in the settings) must be an email address already configured to send email from your domain.

What's the Test Send functionality all about?

This allows you to test send (to one email address or a list of comma-delimited email addresses) the post notification for the current post, so you can see the email subject and body, complete with variables substituted, as it will appear to your subscribers when you send it for real. Please note that personalized variables (e.g., @@firstname, @@confurl, @@prefsurl, and @@unsubscribeurl) will not be resolved in the test send email.

What does the Post Notif option ("Auto" or "Manual"), in the core Publish meta box, on the Edit Post page, do?

This option defaults to whatever you've set it to on the Settings page (Settings >> Post Notif >> "Send post notifications when post published"), though the setting is ALWAYS defaulted to "Manual" for any post which has been published previously (to avoid inadvertent automatic re-sending of post notifications if you hit "Update" after something like a typo correction). Regardless of what value defaults in, for a post, you can always override it, as desired. If "Auto" is selected, post notifications will be sent immediately after the post is published, whether it is published by you manually or scheduled to be published by the system at a later date/time. If "Manual" is selected, options will appear in the Post Notif meta box, corresponding to the post's current status. If it has been published already, both "Send Now" and "Schedule" will be available. If the post is scheduled to be published at a future date/time, only "Schedule" will be available.

I've scheduled a post notification for a specific date/time, which has passed; why hasn't the post notification been sent?

As WordPress Cron is not a true UNIX-style Cron daemon, some activity (even just a public page view from an unknown user) needs to happen SOMEWHERE on the blog, AFTER the schedule datetime, for the post notification process to be triggered. You may also want to consider configuring your Post Notifications to be sent automatically upon post publish (see above).

Where did the Send Now progress bar go?

It has been removed in exchange for a more robust send process. Due to issues with PHP script timeouts (particularly for large subscriber lists), the send notification processing code has been strengthened to avoid timing out. However, this is incompatible with the progress bar. Please see the new Manage Post Notifs Sent page (mentioned below) to check the status of all of your notifications going forward.

Where did the View Post Notifs Sent page go?

It has been replaced with the Manage Post Notifs Sent page, which allows admins and editors to check the status of, pause, or cancel, post notification processes (both running and scheduled).

How do I cancel a scheduled (future) notification?

This functionality has been moved from the Post Notif metabox (on the Edit Post page) to the Manage Post Notifs Sent page; go there, find the scheduled notification and click on the "Cancel" action immediately below the Post ID.

Why aren't all my notifications being sent out?

If your web host throttles the number of emails you can send during a period of time, you should enable batch mode on the Settings page (Settings >> Post Notif >> "Enable batch send options") and then define a batch size and/or batch pause. Please note that only 0 and positive integers are valid values for batch size and batch pause. If batch size = 100 and batch pause = 60, the send process will send a batch consisting of up to 100 emails and then will schedule (via WordPress Cron) the next batch to process 60 minutes later. If batch size = 100 and batch pause = 0, the send process will send a batch consisting of up to 100 emails and then will begin the next batch immediately. If batch size = 0 and batch pause = 60, the send process will send as many emails as it can before either the script times out or the complete set of subscribers is exhausted and then (if any subscribers remain to be notified) will schedule (via WordPress Cron) the next batch to process 60 minutes later. If batch size = 0 and batch pause = 0, the send process will behave as if batch mode is disabled (i.e., the send process will send as many emails as it can before either the script times out or the complete set of subscribers is exhausted and then [if any subscribers remain to be notified] will begin the next batch immediately).

I have 10,000 subscribers - is this a good plugin for me to use to notify them?

Post Notif is probably not a good fit for your needs. Look into using a plugin that works in conjunction with a service like AWeber or MailChimp.

I deactivated Post Notif and when I re-activated it my scheduled notifications show as cancelled; what gives?

When you deactivate Post Notif, all future WordPress Cron events, scheduled by the plugin, are deleted (the assumption being that you don't want an inactive plugin to do anything!). This means that if you re-activate the plugin, any notifications that had been scheduled (or paused, by a batch process), will not initiate(/resume). Therefore, to convey an accurate status of all of your notifications, when you deactivate the plugin, the notifications dependent on future scheduled WordPress Cron events are updated to "Cancelled" status.

Why isn't Post Notif translated into my language?

It is because no one who speaks your language has translated this plugin yet. If you'd like to do so, you'll find the current post-notif.pot file in the post-notif/languages directory. Please contact me with any translation files you create; I will help you get set up as a Project Translation Editor (PTE) with the WordPress.org Polyglots team to create a language pack for Post Notif - thanks much!

Why create another post notification plugin?

The Post Notif plugin came to life after I used the Post Notification plugin for several years. Though Post Notification has not been actively maintained for some time now, until WordPress 4.x it worked well enough. Post Notif aims to take a considerable amount of the functionality I liked from the Post Notification plugin while improving on some of the implementation and configuration challenges I faced while using the plugin (particularly in a multisite environment).

What does the Resend Confirmation functionality actually do?

Resending confirmation will both generate a new authcode AND set the CONFIRMED value to 0 for each subscriber it is applied to. This functionality was implemented to make it easy for a site admin to re-send a confirmation email to a subscriber who has indicated they never received the initial confirmation email. However, it WILL allow you to resend a confirmation email to a confirmed subscriber (which will effectively unconfirm them and require them to re-confirm), so you probably want to think long and hard about doing this for anyone who has already confirmed, unless they've specifically asked you to do so (because they want their authcode reset, for instance).

Why can't I see the Post Notif admin menu?

It is likely clashing with another plugin's menu. By default, Post Notif is set with a menu position value of 3.389. If you do not see the Post Notif admin menu, go to the Admin Menu Settings section (under Settings >> Post Notif) and try new values in "Position in menu" (like 3.390) until you CAN see the menu. For further reference see the explanation of the position parameter.

Why don't you provide a way for me to import subscribers directly from another plugin?

In an effort to avoid an arms race of sorts, I've elected not to try to keep up on what various other plugins' database table structures are. Consequently, the subscriber import functionality assumes you are able to export your existing subscribers and get them into comma-separated value (CSV) format. That is, each row of data contains one or more fields, separated by commas, and terminated with a newline/carriage return. If you are not familiar with CSV files, you can generate them fairly easily from Excel or an equivalent spreadsheet application (Excel allows you to save a file as CSV).

Where do I import subscribers?

Go to the Import Subscribers page (Post Notif >> Import Subscribers) and choose one of the two methods available there: "Import from file" or "Import directly". If you choose to import directly, please be sure to copy-and-paste from a file you've saved somewhere as, once you press the Import button, the data in the field will not be retained when you return to the Import Subscribers page.

What is the row format required for importing subscribers?

At a minimum, each row requires a valid email address for the subscriber-to-be, like so:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Optionally, you can include a first name (available for use in personalizing your email templates):

[email protected],Jill
[email protected],Bill
[email protected]

Or, if your previous plugin tracked which categories each subscriber chose to be notified of posts for, you can provide one or more category IDs as well:

[email protected],Jill,2,3
[email protected],Bill,1
[email protected],,2

Please note that, as you can see from this last example, if you want to specify a category, you MUST provide a first name (even if it is blank/empty).

If you omit a first name for a row it will be defaulted to "[Unknown]" and when it is used in email templates it will be replaced with "there" (e.g. instead of "Hi Jill" or "Hi Bill", a subscriber with an unknown first name will be addressed as "Hi there").

If you omit categories for a row (as in the first two sets of examples above), the subscriber will be assigned all categories active in your system.

Also, do not worry if you have a trailing comma at the end of a row (as you may end up with via saving as CSV from Excel) - this will work fine too:

[email protected],Jill,2,3
[email protected],Bill,1,
[email protected],,2,

What is the complete process for importing subscribers?

Because I don't expect people to have 100% clean data the first time through, the subscriber creation process has two phases. First, subscriber import, which loads each subscriber (and their categories) into staging tables in the database and validates each field against certain rules. If the row is found valid (or has only permissible warnings), the import phase also stages it for subscriber creation. If errors are found in a row during import, the staged row indicates those errors and cannot proceed to the second phase. The second phase is subscriber creation, which takes cleanly staged subscriber rows and creates actual subscriber rows (which will receive post notifications going forward). The only error that may occur during the subscriber creation phase is if a staged subscriber with an email address matching an existing subscriber (a duplicate) is encountered.

Once you've supplied your subscriber data (in the row format described above) and pressed the Import button, and the initial import phase completes, you are re-routed to the Staged Subscribers page. Here you'll see the current status of each row you've attempted to load.

Please note that the Staged Subscribers page (and the database tables containing what you see on it) retain ALL rows you attempt to load, from ALL batches (you can think of a batch as those rows loaded each time you press the Import button) until you delete some or all of the rows (see below for how you do this). There is no functional requirement to retain anything in the Staged Subscribers page once subscribers have been successfully created during the second phase of the process; it is strictly for the admin's analysis purposes, so rows can be deleted whenever you want to, or not at all.

If a row passed all the validation rules, you will see it with a Status of "Staged" (assuming the "Skip staging of clean rows?" checkbox is NOT selected - see 'What does the "Skip staging of clean rows?" checkbox do?' below for a bit more explanation of this).

Any row that failed one or more of the validation rules will fall into one of the following classifications:

1. The row has a blank email address: An error message is shown, indicating that the email address is missing - this row will not make it past this initial import step

2. The row has an invalid (badly formed) email address: An error message is shown, indicating that the email address is invalid - this row will not make it past this initial import step

3. The row has an email address that is too long (more than 100 characters): A warning message is shown, explaining that the email address has been truncated - this row IS eligible to continue through to subscriber creation

4. The row has a first name that is too long (more than 50 characters): A warning message is shown, explaining that the first name has been truncated - this row IS eligible to continue through to subscriber creation

5. The row has one or more category values that are non-numeric: An error message is shown, indicating which category(s) are non-numeric - this row will not make it past this initial import step

6. The row has one or more categories that cannot be found in the system: An error message is shown, indicating which category(s) are invalid - this row will not make it past this initial import step

On the Staged Subscribers page there are two actions available:

1. Delete (both single and bulk), which does exactly what you'd think it does - deletes selected staged subscribers (and their categories) from the staging tables (this has no bearing on the "real" subscriber tables)

2. Create (both single, for rows with no problems or with only truncation warnings [that still passed formatting checks] and bulk [though you can select rows ineligible for single creation, they get filtered out during processing]), which attempts to create the subscriber and their categories. Since at this point they've passed the previously mentioned validation checks, the only thing that prevents creation at this point is if there is already a subscriber with the same email address, in which case, when the Staged Subscriber page refreshes, you'll see a status of "Duplicate email address". All successfully created subscribers will show "Created".

Please note that selecting the checkbox to the left of the First Name header selects all rows. Similarly, unchecking that checkbox clears the checkbox on each row.

What does the "Skip staging of clean rows?" checkbox on the Import Subscribers page do?

Selecting the "Skip staging of clean rows?" checkbox will do precisely that, effectively applying the Staged Subscriber "Create" functionality to each valid row in the import set.

Why'd you make the subscriber import process so complicated?!

I chose this two-phase approach as an attempt to satisfy both those in a hurry to simply import a bunch of email addresses they'd accumulated while using another plugin and for those that want to explicitly select what gets created during the creation phase, following review of the results of the validation process performed during the import phase.

How do I export subscribers?

Go to the Manage Subscribers page (Post Notif >> Manage Subscribers), select the subscribers you wish to export, select the Export option from the Bulk Actions dropdown, and press the Apply button. You will be prompted for a file name and location to save the export file. Subscribers are exported in the same CSV format as used by the import subscriber process (email address, first name, and category[s] subscribed to). Here's an example:

[email protected],Jill,2,3
[email protected],Bill
[email protected],[Unknown],2

Note that Bill is an unconfirmed subscriber so he has no categories selected.

How do I turn off categories?

Go to the Settings page (Settings >> Post Notif):

1. Uncheck every category under "Categories available to subscribers" (in Category Settings section)

2. You probably also want to remove references to the "update prefs" URL (by default it is defined as "If you'd like to change the categories you're subscribed to, click here:@@prefsurl") from:

   • Email sent after subscription is confirmed body
   • Post notification email body

3. You probably also want to blank out:

   • Subscription preferences selection instructions
   • Current subscription preferences page greeting
   • Subscription preferences updated page greeting

4. Press the Save Changes button

You can later turn category functionality back on by doing the reverse of these steps.

What variables are available for use in the Post Notif Settings configuration and where can they be used?

1. @@blogname

   • Description: Your site's title (as defined in Settings >> General >> Site Title)

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email subject
     • Post notification email body
     • Subscription confirmation email subject
     • Subscription confirmation email body
     • Email sent after subscription is confirmed subject
     • Email sent after subscription is confirmed body
     • Subscription confirmed page title
     • Subscription confirmed page greeting
     • Subscription preferences selection instructions
     • Unsubscribe link label
     • Current subscription preferences page title
     • Current subscription preferences page greeting
     • Subscription preferences updated page title
     • Subscription preferences updated page greeting
     • Unsubscribe confirmation page title
     • Unsubscribe confirmation page greeting

2. @@posttitle

   • Description: Post's title

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email subject
     • Post notification email body

3. @@permalinkurl

   • Description: Post's permalink URL

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body

4. @@permalink

   • Description: Post's permalink

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body

5. @@postexcerptauto

   • Description: Post's first 55 words (standard WordPress core auto excerpt)

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body

6. @@postexcerptmanual

   • Description: Post's manual excerpt

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body

7. @@postteaser

   • Description: Post's content up to

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body

8. @@featuredimage

   • Description: Post's featured image (post thumbnail)

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body

9. @@signature

   • Description: Optional signature string [as defined in Settings >> Post Notif >> Email Settings >> @@signature])

   • Can be used in:

     • Post notification email body
     • Subscription confirmation email body
     • Email sent after subscription is confirmed body

10. @@firstname

    • Description: Subscriber's first name or blank (if not defined)

    • Can be used in:

      • Post notification email body
      • Subscription confirmation email body
      • Email sent after subscription is confirmed body

11. @@confurl

    • Description: Subscriber's unique confirmation URL

    • Can be used in:

      • Subscription confirmation email body

12. @@prefsurl

    • Description: Subscriber's unique subscription preferences URL

    • Can be used in:

      • Post notification email body
      • Email sent after subscription is confirmed body

13. @@unsubscribeurl

    • Description: Subscriber's unique [one-click] unsubscribe URL

    • Can be used in:

      • Post notification email body
      • Email sent after subscription is confirmed body

14. @@postauthor

    • Description: Post's author's name

    • Can be used in:

      • Post notification email subject
      • Post notification email body

15. @@postexcerpt

    • Description: Post's excerpt content

    • NOTE: This has been deprecated; use @@postexcerptmanual instead!

    • Can be used in:

      • Post notification email body

16. @@postcategory

    • Description: Post's category(/categories)

    • NOTE: This will resolve to a comma-delimited list of categories if post has more than one category

    • Can be used in:

      • Post notification email subject
      • Post notification email body

How do I use the shortcode?

1. Go to Settings >> Post Notif and make sure the default settings in the Subscriber Form Shortcode Settings and Subscriber Form Shortcode Messages sections are populated to your liking

2. Add [post_notif_subscribe] to a post or page

3. Use none, some, or all of the attributes (listed below) to override the defaults you've defined in #1 (above), using the following convention:

   [post_notif_subscribe attr1="value" attr2="value2" attrn="valuen"]

   Here is an example, passing two attributes (id and title):

   [post_notif_subscribe id="2" title="Subscribe To The Blog"]

   Note: The shortcode will only generate the subscriber form when a single post or page is viewed; it will be ignored when a visitor is on your site's front page or a post index summary page.

What attributes does the shortcode support?

If you do not explicitly specify one or more of the following attributes, their values are defaulted from the corresponding default value as defined in the Subscriber Form Shortcode Settings and Subscriber Form Shortcode Messages sections (under Settings >> Post Notif).

1. id

   • Description: Unique identifier for each use of shortcode in one post or on one page

   • Sample usage: id="2"

   • Note: If you use the shortcode more than once in a post or on a page, you MUST specify unique id values for each

2. title

   • Description: Subscriber form title

   • Sample usage: title="Subscribe To The Blog"

3. call_to_action

   • Description: Subscriber form call to action (text immediately above input fields)

   • Sample usage: call_to_action="Notify me when new posts are published:"

4. button_label

   • Description: Subscriber form submit button label

   • Sample usage: button_label="Sign me up!"

5. first_name_field_size

   • Description: First Name input field width

   • Sample usage: first_name_field_size="20"

6. first_name_placeholder

   • Description: First Name input field placeholder text

   • Sample usage: first_name_placeholder="First name"

7. email_addr_field_size

   • Description: Email Address input field width

   • Sample usage: email_addr_field_size="25"

8. email_addr_placeholder

   • Description: Email Address field placeholder text

   • Sample usage: email_addr_placeholder="Email address"

9. require_first_name

   • Description: Should First Name input field be required (to be not blank) on subscriber form?

   • Sample usage: require_first_name="yes" OR: require_first_name="no"

10. override_theme_css

    • Description: Should your theme's CSS styles be overridden when rendering subscriber form?

    • Sample usage: override_theme_css="yes" OR: override_theme_css="no"

    • Notes: If this is set to "yes", the theme CSS override attributes (#11 - #26, below) will be applied to the relevant form elements

11. stylesheet_filename

    • Description: Name of stylesheet

    • Sample usage: stylesheet_filename="my_custom_subscriber_form_style.css"

    • Notes:

      • This file must be a syntactically-correct CSS file, located in the "../post-notif/public/css" directory and with its permissions set such that the web server can read it
      • If this attribute is populated, the theme CSS override attributes below (#12 - #26, below) are IGNORED by the Shortcode API when executing the shortcode
      • Therefore, if you have defined a default stylesheet (in Settings >> Post Notif >> Subscriber Form Shortcode Settings >> Stylesheet filename), but want to override one or more stylesheet-related settings, directly in your shortcode call, you need to include stylesheet_filename="" in your shortcode call
      • See FAQ item below ('How do you use the "stylesheet_filename" attribute with the shortcode?') for a comprehensive list of ids and classes you can target with your CSS selectors

12. call_to_action_font_family

    • Description: Subscriber form call to action text font family

    • Sample usage: call_to_action_font_family="Times New Roman"

13. call_to_action_font_size

    • Description: Subscriber form call to action text font size (including unit of measure)

    • Sample usage: call_to_action_font_size="20px"

14. call_to_action_font_color

    • Description: Subscriber form call to action text font color

    • Sample usage: call_to_action_font_color="blue"

15. placeholder_font_family

    • Description: First Name and Email Address input fields' placeholder text font family

    • Sample usage: placeholder_font_family="Arial"

16. placeholder_font_size

    • Description: First Name and Email Address input fields' placeholder text font size (including unit of measure)

    • Sample usage: placeholder_font_size="10px"

17. placeholder_font_color

    • Description: First Name and Email Address input fields' placeholder text font color

    • Sample usage: placeholder_font_color="grey"

18. input_fields_font_family

    • Description: First Name and Email Address input fields' text font family

    • Sample usage: input_fields_font_family="Arial"

19. input_fields_font_size

    • Description: First Name and Email Address input fields' text font size (including unit of measure)

    • Sample usage: input_fields_font_size="10px"

20. input_fields_font_color

    • Description: First Name and Email Address input fields' text font color

    • Sample usage: input_fields_font_color="#000000"

21. error_font_family

    • Description: Error message text font family

    • Sample usage: error_font_family="Arial"

22. error_font_size

    • Description: Error message text font size (including unit of measure)

    • Sample usage: error_font_size="10px"

23. error_font_color

    • Description: Error message text font color

    • Sample usage: error_font_color="red"

24. message_font_family

    • Description: Success message text font family

    • Sample usage: message_font_family="Arial"

25. message_font_size

    • Description: Success message text font size (including unit of measure)

    • Sample usage: message_font_size="10px"

26. message_font_color

    • Description: Error message text font color

    • Sample usage: message_font_color="green"

27. error_reqd_first_name_blank

    • Description: Error message text to display when First Name field is blank but has been defined as required

    • Sample usage: error_reqd_first_name_blank="A first name is required."

28. error_email_addr_blank

    • Description: Error message text to display when Email Address field is blank

    • Sample usage: error_email_addr_blank="An email address is required."

29. error_email_addr_invalid

    • Description: Error message text to display when Email Address field contains an invalid email address

    • Sample usage: error_email_addr_invalid="A valid email address is required."

30. info_message_processing

    • Description: Message to display while subscriber form submission is processing

    • Sample usage: info_message_processing="Processing..."

31. info_message_already_subscribed

    • Description: Message to display when email address provided in subscriber form is already registered as a subscriber

    • Sample usage: info_message_already_subscribed="You are already subscribed so no need to do anything further."

32. failure_message

    • Description: Message to display when new subscriber creation process fails. Because you likely do not want a potential subscriber to be scared off by an error message, you probably want to use a positive message similar to the example below.

    • Sample usage: failure_message="Thanks for subscribing."

    • Notes: A separate email, hidden from the subscriber, is sent to the admin in this scenario, so that manual creation of the subscriber can be done

33. success_message

    • Description: Message to display when new subscriber creation process completes successfully

    • Sample usage: success_message="Thanks for subscribing."

How do you use the "stylesheet_filename" attribute with the shortcode?

If you are going to use the same stylesheet for multiple shortcode instantiations, you should probably target classes. Alternately, if you are targeting a single shortcode use/instantiation, you should probably target IDs of the elements.

The naming conventions, used by the subscriber form markup (located in ../post-notif/public/views/post-notif-public-subscriber-form.php) are fairly consistent, as you can see below, with the exceptions being the aside tag (which themes the form like a widget) and the h1 tag (which contains the form title), which use standard WordPress classes (for consistency in appearance with widgets).

1. Subscriber form container (<aside>)

   • id: id_pn_aside_subscriber_form_form_id

   • class: widget class-post-notif

2. Subscriber form title (<h1>)

   • id: id_pn_h1_title_[form_id]

   • class: widget-title

3. Subscriber form form (<form>)

   • id: id_pn_frm_subscriber_form_form_id

   • class: pn-frm-subscriber-form

4. Subscriber form call to action text (<label>)

   • id: id_pn_lbl_call_to_action_form_id

   • class: pn-lbl-call-to-action

5. Subscriber form First Name text input field (<input>)

   • id: id_pn_txt_first_name_form_id

   • class: pn-txt-first-name

6. Subscriber form Email Address email input field (<input>)

   • id: id_pn_eml_email_addr_form_id

   • class: pn-eml-email-addr

7. Subscriber form submit button (<button>)

   • id: id_pn_btn_subscriber_form_submit_form_id

   • class: pn-btn-subscriber-form-submit

8. Subscriber form success message span (<span>)

   • id: id_pn_spn_success_msg_form_id

   • class: pn-spn-success-msg

9. Subscriber form error message span (<span>)

   • id: id_pn_spn_error_msg_form_id

   • class: pn-spn-error-msg

Screenshots

NOTE: #1 - 12 depict admin functionality while #13 - 18 show subscriber screenshots:

1. Activating the plugin
2. Overriding the default settings with your own custom values
3. Adding the widget to a sidebar and overriding the defaults with your own custom values
4. Using the shortcode to render the subscriber form at the bottom of a post
5. Importing subscribers
6. Viewing results of subscriber import
7. Viewing results of subscriber create
8. Viewing current subscribers
9. Sending a post notification
10. Viewing post notifications sent and managing those scheduled, pending, or in process
11. Manage subscribers (preparing to delete unconfirmed subscribers)
12. Manage subscribers (preparing to export subscribers for use with another plugin)
13. User subscribing to post notification
14. User receives subscription confirmation email
15. User has confirmed subscription request
16. User has chosen to update their subscription preferences
17. User receives post notification email
18. User has decided to unsubscribe (via either link in post notification email or unsubscribe link at the bottom of subscription preferences page)

Changelog

1.3.0

Release Date: January 6, 2018

• NEW: Added shortcode to generate subscriber form
• NEW: Added @@postcategory variable for post notif email template

1.2.0

Release Date: November 30, 2017

• NEW: Added new page to check the status of, pause, or cancel, post notif send processes
• NEW: Added post notif send process batch mode options
• CHANGED: Bolstered post notif send process (to avoid PHP timeouts)
• REMOVED: Removed progress indicators from Post Notif metabox
• FIXED: Fixed code to unschedule all WordPress Cron events for future (scheduled and batch-paused) post notifs upon plugin deactivation

1.1.5

Release Date: September 13, 2017

• FIXED: Fixed code to prevent duplicate notifs from being sent when a post has multiple categories
• FIXED: Fixed issue where subscriber import from file failed on "invalid" categories
• FIXED: Fixed situation where email addrs containing "+" wouldn't work with personalized URLs
• NEW: Added additional configurable settings to widget admin
• REMOVED: Removed language files for Czech and Dutch as both now have language packs maintained on WordPress.org

1.1.4

Release Date: May 14, 2017

• NEW: Added Czech translation (cs_CZ) by Jirka Licek
• CHANGED: Replaced generic gear dashicon with email dashicon for Post Notif top level menu

1.1.3

Release Date: April 30, 2017

• NEW: Added ability to auto-send post notifications when post is published
• CHANGED: Added ability to schedule post notifications for posts scheduled to be published
• FIXED: Restricted categories for subscriber import to set of PN-available categories
• FIXED: Added process to handle subscriber creation failure

1.1.2

Release Date: November 4, 2016

• NEW: Added Dutch (nl_NL) translation by frankmaNL
• FIXED: Updated custom table create statement to adhere to WordPress 4.6 dbDelta() KEY format

1.1.1

Release Date: October 28, 2016

• FIXED: Fixed pre-PHP 5.5 fatal errors with empty(trim()) calls
• CHANGED: Added corrected German translations (de_DE and de_DE_formal) by Ruediger Walter

1.1.0

Release Date: October 25, 2016

• NEW: Added additional, more specific, post excerpt vars for post notif email template
• NEW: Added @@permalinkurl, @@featuredimage vars for use in post notif email template
• FIXED: Fixed issue where subscriber import directly from textarea generates file error
• NEW: Added progress indicators to post notification send
• NEW: Added scheduling for post notification send process
• NEW: Added (force-)confirm subscriber (single and bulk) action to "Manage Subscribers" page
• NEW: Added post notification test send process
• FIXED: Fixed code to prevent PHP notice in Import Subscribers functionality
• CHANGED: Made all datetimes stored in DB UTC but display them on pages in local timezone
• FIXED: Fixed code to prevent invalid, selectable page, displaying in Post Notif admin menu in multisite environment
• FIXED: Fixed code which was preventing display of data on View Post Notifs Sent page in multisite environment

1.0.9

Release Date: May 23, 2016

• NEW: Added German translations (de_DE and de_DE_formal) by Ruediger Walter
• FIXED: Added missing 1.0.8 strings to Spanish translation

1.0.8

Release Date: April 30, 2016

• FIXED: Fixed handling of custom permalinks
• NEW: Added new variables for use in Post Notif settings, plus full explanation of each
• FIXED: Fixed issue with translation check generating errors during core update process

1.0.7

Release Date: March 19, 2016

• FIXED: Fixed translation-related bug and revised translation nag functionality
• NEW: Added minified JavaScript files

1.0.6

Release Date: February 21, 2016

• NEW: Added Spanish (es_ES) translation by Enrique Maza and translation nag functionality
• NEW: Added translation nag functionality based on Clorith's example

1.0.5

Release Date: December 29, 2015

• NEW: Added configurable AJAX message to inform subscriber that widget is processing
• NEW: Added functionality to options page so admin can define set of categories from which subscriber can choose
• NEW: Added undo (subscriber) delete functionality to "Manage Subscribers" page
• CHANGED: Modified dynamic HTML throughout the code, sanitizing it with "esc()" functions and added missing nonces

1.0.4

Release Date: July 14, 2015

• CHANGED: Reworked plugin options and custom table update handling
• NEW: Added import subscriber functionality
• NEW: Added export subscriber functionality
• NEW: Added functionality to optionally send email after subscription is confirmed

1.0.3

Release Date: June 5, 2015

• CHANGED: Made the Post Notif admin menu position configurable to avoid clashes with other plugins that were resulting in "invisible" Post Notif admin menu
• FIXED: Fixed issue with Post Notif custom URLs causing "Page not found" errors for installs using (non-default) permalink settings with no trailing "/"

1.0.2

Release Date: April 26, 2015

• CHANGED: Confirmed compatibility with WordPress 4.2 (though Post Notif 1.0.1 is compatible as well)
• FIXED: Fixed issue with View Post Notifs Sent page showing nothing for installs with table prefix other than "wp"
• NEW: Added widget-related messages as configurable settings (Settings >> Post Notif)
• NEW: Added widget input field placeholders as configurable settings (Appearance >> Widgets >> Post Notif)
• NEW: Added "Resend Confirmation" as both a single and bulk action on "Manage Subscribers" (formerly "Delete Subscribers") page
• CHANGED: Updated screenshots to accurately reflect current functionality

1.0.1

Release Date: April 13, 2015

• CHANGED: Updated installation steps in README.txt for clarity
• CHANGED: Added code to prevent attributes (category, author, and post date/time) and functionality (add comment) from appearing on subscriber preferences pages

1.0.0

• Initial release

Upgrade Notice

1.3.0

Added shortcode to generate subscriber form. Added @@postcategory variable for post notif email template.

1.2.0

Added new page to check status of, pause, or cancel, post notif send processes. Added send process batch mode options. Bolstered post notif send process (to avoid PHP timeouts). Removed progress bar from metabox. Fixed code to unschedule all Post Notif WP Cron events on plugin deactivation.

1.1.5

Prevented duplicate notifs when a post has multiple categories. Fixed sub import from file failure on "invalid" cats. Fixed issue w/email addrs containing "+" breaking personalized URLs. Added new config settings to widget admin. Removed Czech and Dutch lang files (moved to language packs).

1.1.4

Added Czech translation. Added email dashicon for Post Notif top level menu.

1.1.3

Added ability to auto-send post notifications when post is published. Added ability to schedule post notifications for posts scheduled to be published. Fixed subscriber import category bug. Fixed subscriber creation failure issue.

1.1.2

Added Dutch translation. Updated custom table create statement to adhere to WordPress 4.6 dbDelta() KEY format.

1.1.1

Fixed pre-PHP 5.5 fatal errors with empty(trim()) calls. Added corrected German translations.

1.1.0

NOTE: Post Notif admin menu item sequence has changed. @@postexcerpt variable has been deprecated (use @@postexcerptmanual)! Many new features and bug fixes are included in this release. Full details are in the Changelog (https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-notif/changelog/) under 1.1.0.

1.0.9

Added German translations. Added missing 1.0.8 strings to Spanish translation.

1.0.8

Fixed handling of custom permalinks. Added new variables for use in Post Notif settings, plus full explanation of each. Fixed issue with translation check generating errors during core update process.

1.0.7

Fixed translation-related bug and revised translation nag functionality. Added minified JavaScript files.

1.0.6

Added Spanish translation. Added (dismissible) translation nag screen to solicit translation help from all admins whose site uses a language for which Post Notif does not yet have an official translation.

1.0.5

Added configurable "processing" AJAX message to widget. Added ability to define set of categories available to subscribers. Added undo (subscriber) delete functionality to "Manage Subscribers" page. Sanitized dynamic HTML via "esc()" functions. Added missing nonces.

1.0.4

Fixed issue with plugin options and custom table updates requiring manual plugin deactivate/re-activate

1.0.3

Fixed issues with "invisible" Post Notif admin menu (due to clashes with other plugins) and with Post Notif custom URLs causing "Page not found" errors for installs using (non-default) permalink settings with no trailing "/"

1.0.2

Fixed issue with View Post Notifs Sent page showing nothing for site installs using a table prefix other than "wp_"

1.0.1

Fixed issue with some themes erroneously displaying extra attributes (category, author, and post date/time) and functionality (add comment) on subscriber preferences pages

Thanks

Special thanks to:

• morty and all who worked on the Post Notification plugin, which inspired the creation of this plugin
• Tom McFarlin for creating the WordPress Plugin and Widget Boilerplates
• Matt Van Andel for the Custom List Table Example plugin
• All of the people courageous enough to risk sounding stupid by asking the same questions I had about how things work in WordPress!
• Enrique Maza for the Spanish (es_ES) translation
• David Cox for the Spanish translation revisions
• Ruediger Walter for the German (de_DE and de_DE_formal) translations
• Wolfgang for the German translation revisions
• frankmaNL for the Dutch (nl_NL) translation
• Jirka Licek for the Czech (cs_CZ) translation