HCL Connections Newsletter v2 and Join Community requests

Since IBM Connections 6.0CR4 we can use a new newsletter format which needs still (now with HCL Connections 7) be activated separately in LotusConnections-config/notification-config.xml.

Today some users asked how they can add other users to their private communities (visible in Community catalog) without manually adding them. As we investigated the question I had a look at the old notification format.

So there a community owner got following e-mail when a user requested to join:

So he could directly add the requesting user to the community.

Now we switched to the new v2 format and the mail looks like this:

So the “Add Member” link disappeared. So what happens when we use “Open”? Yes it opens the community and I can’t see any link or option where I can answer these requests within the community. This was the reason for the users question, because they added the requesters manually with “Add member”.

Which other options does the user have to add the requesting members?

Notification Bell

There they get the information about the request, but clicking on the notification opens the Community and as we already know: you can’t see the request there.

Action Required

The only way to say and click the “Add member” link is “Action Required” in the old Homepage (sorry, but I haven’t deployed Orient Me until now, so I don’t know if you see it there).

Workaround

So how can we get the link “Add Member” into the notification email again?

LotusConnections-config/notifications_v2/communities/requestToJoinMail.ftl

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<#-- Default 'Open' Action -->
<#assign defaultAction = comUrlUtil.linkifyContainer(community.url, comUtil.resource('OPEN_LINK_TEXT'), {}, comStyleUtil.actionArgs) />

<#-- Actions -->
<#assign actions = [ defaultAction ] />

<#-- Deprecated Actions -->
<#-- comUrlUtil.linkifyContainer(community.url, comUtil.resource("email.open.community")) -->
<#-- comUrlUtil.linkifySpecial(comUrlUtil.LINK_ID.COMMUNITIES.MEMBERS, community.members.url, comUtil.resource("email.add.this.person")) -->

Deprecated Action “email.add.this.person” let’s check this

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 <#-- Default 'Open' Action -->
 <#assign defaultAction = comUrlUtil.linkifyContainer(community.url, comUtil.resource('OPEN_LINK_TEXT'), {}, comStyleUtil.actionArgs) />

 <#-- Actions -->
 <#assign actions = [
         comUrlUtil.linkifySpecial(comUrlUtil.LINK_ID.COMMUNITIES.MEMBERS, community.members.url, comUtil.resource("email.add.this.person"), comStyleUtil.actionArgs)
         defaultAction ] />

 <#-- Deprecated Actions -->
 <#-- comUrlUtil.linkifyContainer(community.url, comUtil.resource("email.open.community")) -->
 <#-- comUrlUtil.linkifySpecial(comUrlUtil.LINK_ID.COMMUNITIES.MEMBERS, community.members.url, comUtil.resource("email.add.this.person")) -->

Copy the line to the actions, remove the comment signs and add , comStyleUtil.actionArgs) into the function, this adds the same styles as for “Open”

When we synchronize the nodes and restart the news application we get following notification:

So we got back some usability, but in my opinion I miss a view in each Community to see the “Join Requests” like the view “Invitations” in the members’ widget.

There is already an enhancement request / idea in the Product Ideas Portal for HCL Connections .

Summary

I made all tests with HCL Connections 7 installed with Connections-Automation Ansible repository . I doublechecked and the error/missing link appeared already with Connections 6.5 (no older version to check).