Posted by gaele on March 16, 2012 at 3:33pm
In the Simplenews Content Selection issue queue I found this rules recipe (http://drupal.org/node/1080346#comment-5390326):
- Create a Rule component that takes a list of entities as a parameter. In the configuration of this Rule, add Actions to (1) create a new entity of type Newsletter, and (2) append the body (or whatever fields) from the list of entities to the body of the newsletter, then save the newsletter.
- Create a VBO to list recent content on the site, restrict access to this by whatever editorial role is applicable.
- Add the Rule component as the action of the VBO, give it a label like "generate newsletter".
I'm stuck at "append the body from the list of entities to the body of the newsletter". Would this be possible without using PHP?
Comments
I am stuck there too, let me
I am stuck there too, let me know if you have any success. If you can tell me how to get an empty newsletter to be created I might be able to help with the other parts.
I have a rule component,
I have a rule component, which will be called from a VBO view. In the view, you can select a few articles and then "generate newsletter". A newsletter will be created, but currently only the body from the last article will appear in the newsletter.
Also a few PHP notices from Simplenews appear. I still have to look into that. Perhaps I need to set more Simplenews fields before saving.
The rule component:
{ "rules_generate_newsletter" : {"LABEL" : "Generate newsletter",
"PLUGIN" : "rule",
"REQUIRES" : [ "rules" ],
"USES VARIABLES" : { "articles" : { "label" : "Articles", "type" : "list\u003Cnode\u003E" } },
"DO" : [
{ "entity_create" : {
"USING" : {
"type" : "node",
"param_type" : "simplenews",
"param_title" : "Newsletter",
"param_author" : [ "site:current-user" ]
},
"PROVIDE" : { "entity_created" : { "newsletter_created" : "Created newsletter" } }
}
},
{ "data_set" : { "data" : [ "newsletter-created:field-simplenews-term" ], "value" : "1" } },
{ "LOOP" : {
"USING" : { "list" : [ "articles" ] },
"ITEM" : { "article" : "Article" },
"DO" : [
{ "data_set" : { "data" : [ "newsletter-created:body" ], "value" : [ "article:body" ] } }
]
}
},
{ "entity_save" : { "data" : [ "newsletter-created" ] } }
]
}
}
The view:
$view = new view;
$view->name = 'test';
$view->description = '';
$view->tag = 'default';
$view->base_table = 'node';
$view->human_name = 'Test';
$view->core = 7;
$view->api_version = '3.0';
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
/* Display: Master */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Master', 'default');
$handler->display->display_options['title'] = 'Test';
$handler->display->display_options['access']['type'] = 'perm';
$handler->display->display_options['cache']['type'] = 'none';
$handler->display->display_options['query']['type'] = 'views_query';
$handler->display->display_options['query']['options']['query_comment'] = FALSE;
$handler->display->display_options['exposed_form']['type'] = 'basic';
$handler->display->display_options['pager']['type'] = 'full';
$handler->display->display_options['pager']['options']['items_per_page'] = '10';
$handler->display->display_options['style_plugin'] = 'table';
$handler->display->display_options['style_options']['columns'] = array(
'title' => 'title',
);
$handler->display->display_options['style_options']['default'] = '-1';
$handler->display->display_options['style_options']['info'] = array(
'title' => array(
'sortable' => 0,
'default_sort_order' => 'asc',
'align' => '',
'separator' => '',
'empty_column' => 0,
),
);
$handler->display->display_options['style_options']['override'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['style_options']['sticky'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['style_options']['empty_table'] = 0;
/* Field: Content: Title */
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['id'] = 'title';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['table'] = 'node';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['field'] = 'title';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['label'] = '';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['alter_text'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['make_link'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['absolute'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['word_boundary'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['ellipsis'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['strip_tags'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['trim'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['alter']['html'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['hide_empty'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['empty_zero'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['title']['link_to_node'] = 1;
/* Field: Bulk operations: Content */
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['id'] = 'views_bulk_operations';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['table'] = 'node';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['field'] = 'views_bulk_operations';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['alter_text'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['make_link'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['absolute'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['external'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['replace_spaces'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['trim_whitespace'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['nl2br'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['word_boundary'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['ellipsis'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['more_link'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['strip_tags'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['trim'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['alter']['html'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['element_label_colon'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['element_default_classes'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['hide_empty'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['empty_zero'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['hide_alter_empty'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['entity_load_capacity'] = '10';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['operations'] = array(
'action::node_assign_owner_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::views_bulk_operations_delete_item' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::system_message_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::views_bulk_operations_script_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'rules_component::rules_generate_newsletter' => array(
'selected' => 1,
'skip_confirmation' => 1,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_make_sticky_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_make_unsticky_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::views_bulk_operations_modify_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
'settings' => array(
'show_all_tokens' => 1,
'display_values' => array(
'_all_' => '_all_',
),
),
),
'action::views_bulk_operations_argument_selector_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
'settings' => array(
'url' => '',
),
),
'action::node_promote_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_publish_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::system_goto_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_unpromote_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_save_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::system_send_email_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_unpublish_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
'action::node_unpublish_by_keyword_action' => array(
'selected' => 0,
'use_queue' => 0,
'skip_confirmation' => 0,
'override_label' => 0,
'label' => '',
),
);
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['enable_select_all_pages'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['display_type'] = '1';
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['display_result'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['merge_single_action'] = 0;
$handler->display->display_options['fields']['views_bulk_operations']['vbo']['force_single'] = 0;
/* Sort criterion: Content: Post date */
$handler->display->display_options['sorts']['created']['id'] = 'created';
$handler->display->display_options['sorts']['created']['table'] = 'node';
$handler->display->display_options['sorts']['created']['field'] = 'created';
$handler->display->display_options['sorts']['created']['order'] = 'DESC';
/* Filter criterion: Content: Published */
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['status']['id'] = 'status';
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['status']['table'] = 'node';
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['status']['field'] = 'status';
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['status']['value'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['status']['group'] = 1;
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['status']['expose']['operator'] = FALSE;
/* Filter criterion: Content: Type */
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['type']['id'] = 'type';
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['type']['table'] = 'node';
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['type']['field'] = 'type';
$handler->display->display_options['filters']['type']['value'] = array(
'article' => 'article',
);
/* Display: Page */
$handler = $view->new_display('page', 'Page', 'page');
$handler->display->display_options['path'] = 'test';
$translatables['test'] = array(
t('Master'),
t('Test'),
t('more'),
t('Apply'),
t('Reset'),
t('Sort by'),
t('Asc'),
t('Desc'),
t('Items per page'),
t('- All -'),
t('Offset'),
t('Content'),
t('Page'),
);
Simplenews PHP notices
Already solved in simplenews dev: http://drupal.org/node/1480258
Article title and body
To put both article title and body in the newsletter body I guess I need a separate rule component inside the loop. But I still don't know how to append it to an existing value.
It would be disappointing to have to use PHP. The ckeditor critical from last week shows the danger of allowing PHP in input fields.
So, what I think your rule is
So, what I think your rule is doing, is writing the body over and over and over until it gets the last one. just like a loop in php would do, if there was a way to store the data from the loop into a variable, I think we'd have it.
Maybe add the item to a list?
Or maybe use an entity
Or maybe use an entity reference in the newsletter and format the newsletter to show the teaser of each referenced entity?
Right
The body is overwritten repeatedly until the last article.
I could store the data in a variable, or add it to a list. However I still don't know how to concatenate the values (or flatten the list).
Rules has a way to add values, however as I understand it this only works with numbers (addition and subtraction).
The entity reference worked
The entity reference worked for me
The entity reference worked
[dupe]
I deleted my rule, because I
I deleted my rule, because I used yours and modified it to populate a node reference field in the newsletter instead of the body (like yours) of the newsletter using the "add item to list" action.
Excellent!
Hi trackleft, your solution is great! I tested it, and it works fine. And appending body fields in rules is no longer needed.
I see two disadvantages:
- adjusting the text after selecting articles for inclusion is not possible.
- choosing a custom order of articles in the newsletter is difficult
Advantage though is that it's a very clean solution. I like it.
I will write down the steps to create this in a follow-up post.
Documented
http://drupal.org/node/1492498