Add text editor controls to user Notify menu

[librariam]

User Notify option became available in OJS 3.3 and editors are looking to use it in a way similar to Announcements, only more role-targeted. They would like to see the same rich text/html/image controls in this form as those available in Announcements (when enabled via the Text Editors Extras plugin).

Will it be possible to add these controls to user Notify menu, either via the Text Editors Extras plugin, or in a different way?

Application: OJS 3.3
Who is asking: PKP|PS clients

[NateWr]

This would raise some issues that would need to be more thoroughly investigated. The problem is that email clients (Outlook, Gmail, etc) do not support the same layout/design elements as a web browser. So when you take a given webpage and put it into an email, often many parts of it break when the user views the email in their email client -- images don't load, columns collapse, etc.

Certain markup (bold, italic, underline, links) work reliably across almost all clients. But others (blockquotes, images, certain parts of tables) don't. There is a whole technical specialisation for people who know how to build reliable email designs (and that's also why there's a massive industry behind Mailchimp and other newsletter services).

We might get away with adding simple tables. Images are probably the biggest challenge. Many email clients will prevent an image from loading automatically in an email unless it is an embedded attachment. And some of the image controls, like sizing or positioning, probably wouldn't work in an email.

The biggest problem is in testing. Even if we wanted to evaluate which controls could work, it is very difficult to test across the dozens of different email clients that make up the email landscape. It's much more difficult than testing a webpage in 2-3 browsers.

Sorry for the essay. 😆 This is one of the reasons I've strongly encouraged people who want to send email newsletters to use a third-party service like Mailchimp, rather than trying to use OJS. It's a big, complicated problem.

[JoGMEd]

NateWr. Thanks for your comments. I've enclosed the top of the ToC from the Lancet that comes into my inbox with its images. It doesn't load automatically, but once I click download, it opens up. This is what I'm trying to achieve with the Journal of Global Medicine This is just to be able to put the logo of the journal in the message. Below the Lancet email that I got is the one I sent out from JoGM. I'm not quite sure how Mailchimp will sort that out. If an email client wouldn't open an image through notify, why would it open it if sent by Mailchimp? Automatic loading is not important, as long as you can load it once you click. As this is just to notify users, the image controls like sizing or positioning don't matter as well.

Notify comparison.docx

[NateWr]

I'm not quite sure how Mailchimp will sort that out. If an email client wouldn't open an image through notify, why would it open it if sent by Mailchimp?

Mailchimp (and all tools or services dedicated to email newsletters) will build the email's source code in a special way to support images and layout. Mailchimp has built its own custom email builder specifically to do this within the constraints set by email clients.

Automatic loading is not important, as long as you can load it once you click.

The button that you are referring to is a feature of Outlook and is not available in all email clients.