Siraj Learning

Messaging settings for all users

• Users can decide how they want to be notified of new messages and event notifications by editing their messaging preferences page, which they can access either from the Preferences link in the user menu or from the gear icon in the messaging/notifications menus. See Messaging and Notifications for more information.
• Which options they see there depend on what has been enabled by the administrator. For example, the mobile option is only available if the site is enabled for the mobile app.

Enabling / disabling messaging site wide

The personal messaging system in LMS is enabled by default. It may be disabled by a site administrator from Site administration > Messaging > Messaging settings.

From 'Messaging settings', the administrator can "Allow site-wide messaging" (disabled by default). If this setting is enabled, users on the site can view all other users when selecting someone to message and can choose to accept messages from anyone on the site.

Notification settings

Messaging system default settings are set in 'Notification settings' in Site administration / Messaging

There are four default types of notification plugins: web, Jabber, email and mobile.

By default web and email are both enabled, though email will only work of course if the site has been properly configured to deliver email. Jabber and Mobile notifications are off by default and need to be configured first.

Jabber

Jabber is the original name of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), an open standard instant messaging protocol. The Jabber service on the LMS server must be configured before use. To configure Jabber, an XMPP account should be created that is specific to the LMS server, either on a locally hosted XMPP server or on one of many public servers. The information for this account is entered in Site administration / Plugins / Message outputs / Jabber:

• Host - The server to connect to to send jabber message notifications - this is entered as the full hostname (e.g. jabber.org) with no protocol (i.e. no "https://")
• Server - XMPP host ID (can be left empty if the same as Jabber host)
• Username - The user name to use when connecting to the Jabber server as the LMS site, without domain name
• Password - The password to use when connecting to the Jabber server as the LMS site.
• Port - defaults to 5222

After the Jabber service has been configured, it must also be enabled.

Each LMS user wishing to receive instant message notifications through Jabber must create an account on a Jabber server and must configure their LMS account to include those details:

The user must also choose which notifications to receive using Jabber:

Users may also choose to receive LMS messages via Jabber.

Mobile notifications

The administrator can configure the site to push messages to mobile devices. LMS pushes messages to a messaging server, which then pushes it to Apple or Google depending on the platform the target device is using (iOS or Android).

Alternatively, you may install your own private Air notifier server and use that instead. See https://github.com/dongsheng/airnotifier for details.

Default notification preferences

You can specify the default notification preferences for each type of message in Site administration / Messaging / Notification settings.

You can also set to what degree each type of message is enabled, and whether users are able to change these default settings in their profiles:

• Disallowed - This particular type of message is not allowed at all and users will not see any settings related to them. Message of the chosen type will never be delivered.
• Permitted - Users are permitted or allowed to change the settings. When the user account is created, the new user will inherit the settings the administrator sets here, but will be allowed to change them afterwards in their Messaging settings. Messages will be delivered as the user sets them on their own Messaging settings page.
• Locked - Users are not permitted or allowed to change these settings. When the user account is created, the new user will inherit the settings the administrator sets here and will never be allowed to change them. Messages will be delivered for all users as you set them on this page.

Logged in/Offline

You can set whether each of these will be sent when the user is online through the messaging system interface available to users in their profiles, and/or whether each output is sent via email.

Ordering of messaging settings

Because users might have many different messaging options, they are ordered into different components - for example, activities, system, enrolments etc.

Example notifications preferences screen - student view

List of message types

Except for 'Personal messages between users', which refers to the interaction messaging tool on a user profile, the other messages are generated by events in LMS.

Roles and Messaging capabilities

The following capabilities can be applied as permissions to make custom changes to roles affecting messaging.

• course:bulkmessaging - Send a message to many people
• site:readallmessages - Read all messages on site
• site:sendmessage - Send messages to any user
• user:editownmessageprofile - Edit own user messaging profile
• user:editmessageprofile - Edit user messaging profile

Email

All email messages and notifications go to the email address set in a user's profile. The administrator can optionally allow users to choose to have notifications sent to a different email address. This is off by default and can be enabled in Site administration > Advanced features > Notification email override.

Users can then enter their alternative email address under Preferences/User account/Notification preferences: Click on the gear icon next to "Email" in the table header and enter the alternative email.

Note: The 'messagingallowemailoverride' setting does not affect failed log in notifications as they do not go through the messaging system, and will therefore still go to the original email specified.