Quickmail

Hello developers of Quickmail:
I am certain that this problem is MINE as I am very new to Moodle (6 weeks) and even newer to your plug in (like 6 hours) ut perhaps you can point me towards what I've done wrong. I simply cannot email. I get the message: "There are no users you are capable of emailing."
Is that a flaw with me or my role? (I'm site admin). with the course enrollees? the email server settings? Any points in the right direction would be most appreciated.

Honestly Chad, whatever you come up with as the syntax, will be fine for us. Whether you have 1 set of {} or 6, I'm sure we will have no complaints. Test and try whatever works. We will be happy.
I am currently upgraded to v3.3.2. Was an easy enough upgrade from v3.3.1. Can't say the same for those who have not made the switch over to v3.3.x. With all the security updates and bug fixes, an upgrade should seriously be considered. But that's for an entirely different thread.

Hey Marvin, well I'm certainly glad it will help on both a professional and personal level
Question for anyone with an opinion on the matter: What kind of syntax would be best for the delimiters? For example: {firstname}, {{firstname}}, etc. I'm considering the fact that there are a ton of filters out there that may interfere (since this will be handled server side, likely not), but just in case. I'm not that familiar with all of the filters out there. Any opinions on this?
Finally, just as an update on the progress of Quickmail 2.0, since I'm playing around with 3.3 I've found several new features that I'm checking out that will come in real handy for some big upcoming projects at LSU (love the addition of the Persistent API) as I'm used to dealing with real ORMs in frameworks. So, I got side-tracked a bit and did a little refactoring. I expect to make a ton of progress by the end of the week and have something to test. I'm seeing that it (Quickmail) is such a widely used plugin and there will be db schema changes so I need to make sure it is bulletproof and seamless to upgrade. But will require 3.3 btw.
So I hope you can hold on to your life until this thing gets released!
Chad

Chad... you are a lifesaver. I was just given the order to create a remote database of my own to generate customized system letters. That's how important it is to our school to have such customization. QuickMail saves lives! ...well, kinda. You know what I mean.

Hey guys,
Well it sounds like the community has spoken so let's do this! I'm currently working on a version 2.0 for Quickmail which will require Moodle 3.3. In this new version, we're leveraging the Message API (in addition to regular email as an option), so I can build a parsing engine that would grab the message body and inject each User's specific data when sending.
For starters, and for performance reasons, I think I'll make the injection options map straight to fields that are on the mdl_user table, and alert the sending user before sending the composed message if an invalid field has been requested within the message.
Further, since Quickmail allows a sender to send to emails potentially outside of the database, we'll need to make sure these {firstname}'s (for example) are parsed out when sending the message.
How does this sound?
Chad

Dear {previouswritersname},
Interestingly put. But strait to the point.
Chad, I think we would all agree that personalizing a QuickMail letter is not just a marketing thing. I personally use it to remind students that they have not logged in for 30-60 days. And using "Dear Valued Student" just doesn't quite show that we care. And writing 20-30 personalized letters, one at a time, is just not efficient. QuickMail is the ideal plugin for this sort of communication. This one feature would make it stellar.

Dear {firstname},
I like the plugin very much. However functionality is growing with the FilterCodes (https://moodle.org/plugins/filter_filtercodes) plugin, which enables us to personalise the mail with {firstname}. It would be very, very nice if Quickmail can personalise mail as well.
Bert

Hi Chad. I would have to say that I agree with Gil S. Adding just a first name gives the student assurance that they are not just a number or a "Dear Valued Student". Adding a name is very professional. But then again, I am not the programmer.

Hi Chad,
First - great plugin and very useful!
Re your comment: Our opinion is that data even as simple as a user's first name doesn't support pedagogical purpose. We see that as more of a "marketing" feature if you will.
Adding a first name makes is more personal, and when things get personal students are more motivated to study. Please reconsider

HI Ryan, although the options says 'No-Reply", you just simply type in an email address that the student CAN reply to replace the current 'noreply@yourcollege.com'. Do be sure to use a reply email address with the domain that is the same as the one Moodle is on. Most hosting services will reject any other domains to prevent SPAM abuse. (if that made any sense)

Hi Marvin, can you help us find the place where we can change the 'no-reply' email address to an email address students can reply to? I don't see the option. Thanks!

Hi Ryan, just to note... you can actually change the 'no-reply' email address to an email address that students actually can reply to. I did. It's just that it says 'Quickmail' as the name associated with the email address, versus something configurable to like 'Student Services' instead.

Hi Chad, we love Quickmail. We were disappointed to see that the messages were going out from the no-reply email address. It through a few of our faculty members through a loop. We're happy to here that you're going to make it configurable. We're looking forward to that update.

Thanks Chad! Interesting views on names being non-pedagogical. I will let that spin around in my head for a little while. lol

Hey Marvin, thanks for the message. To answer your questions: In regards to the "no-reply" outbound email, yes, we'll make that configurable. In regards to injecting custom data like names, no. LSU is focused on pedagogical features when it comes to Moodle. Our opinion is that data even as simple as a user's first name doesn't support pedagogical purpose. We see that as more of a "marketing" feature if you will.