Table of Content
Folders
When you arrive on the User Messages interface, you are presented the content of your Inbox folder. This is the folder where you will receive the messages other users send to you.
In addition to the Inbox folder, you also have a Sent folder. If you choose to keep a copy of the messages you send (see User Preferences), you will be able to find those messages there.
Finally, since version 2.5.0, you can see the emails you have sent and which have not yet been processed under the folder "Pending Emails".
Messages
The core functionnality of User Messages is of course the messages. Depending on your role, you might be allowed to send 3 different types of messages.
- Private Messages are messages that will be sent to a single user or to a selection of users who have agreed to receive private messages.
- Role Messages are messages that will be sent to all the users that have been given the chosen role. You can choose this to send a message to all the administrators of the website for instance.
- Public Messages are messages that will be received by all the users registered on the site who have agreed to receive public messages.
Emails
Some users, depending on the role they have on the site, can contact other users directly by email by using the "New Email" link on the left of the user interface. After clicking on this link, you will be taken to the page allowing you to send the email. The email addresses of the other users are hidden, you can only see their user name.
Just like the messages, depending on whether you are allowed to do it or not, you can choose to send emails to single users, roles or even to all the registered users.
It is very important to note that the emails get processed in batches. Basically, when you click on the "Send Email" button, your email gets queued in the database. Depending on the server processing power, and on the number of users that are sending emails, your message could stay in the queue for several minutes.
Quotas
Each of the user can keep a maximum number of messages in his folders. This limit is called the user quota. All the messages of all the folders are taken into account when computing the current number of messages you have. When you reach your quota, you cannot send nor receive messages anymore.
To avoid that users reach their quota without noticing, and thus might loose messages somebody would like to send to them, the administrator can define another limit called user quota warning limit. When you reach this warning limit, you will be forbidden to send messages. However, people can still continue to send you messages until you of course reach the real quota limit.
Additionally, the number of pending emails (emails in the queue which have not yet been sent) per user can be limited by your administrator.
User Preferences
Each user can save a few preferences concerning the plugin. You can access the preferences panel by following the link on the bottom of each page of the interface. Some of the options might not appear if you do not have the capability to change them.
- Keep a copy of the messages you send in the "Sent" folder.
- Each time you send a message, a copy will be kept in the "Sent" folder. Be careful as these messages are taken into account for your quota.
- Accept to receive public messages.
- When this option is selected, you agree to receive public messages (messages sent to all the users registered on the website).
- Allow other users to contact you by private message.
- When this option is selected, your name will be listed as a potential recipient on the Write Message form. Other users will then be able to contact you by private messages.
- Allow other users to contact you by email (your address will be not be shown to them).
- When this option is selected, your name (not your email address) will be listed as a potential recipient on the Write Email form. Other users will then be able to contact you by email.
- Be notified by email when you receive a new message.
- When this option is selected, the user will receive by email a notification that he received a new message on your website.
Widget
When you are logged in on the website, you might be able to see a Widget in the sidebar. This widget will show you links to write messages, to your Inbox folder and also how many new messages you have.
