I have replicated the digests modification user control panel interface for my digests extension under development. It all looks and behaves the same as it does for the modification. Fortunately a lot of the code could be copied and pasted with some changes for the new architecture. The hardest part was creating the interface in the first place, as the methods for doing so are not well documented. I spent a lot of time on issues like getting form keys to show as hidden fields. Fortunately, the people contributing to the phpBB extension writers forum were of great help. A snapshot of the Forums Selection screen is shown below.
With the Administration Control Panel digests extension user interface also complete, the next step is to port mail_digests.php, which as the name implies actually sends the digest. This will include challenges too including:
- I will need to extend the mailer class to allow HTML formatted emails. I’ve never done this before.
- It’s not advisable to print raw text to the screen anymore, so I’ll need to develop some sort of template that shows progress as digests are created and mailed. Most of the time this won’t be seen as digests are run automatically.
- Add logic to hook mail_digests into phpBB’s cron structure, as it will kick off digests.
So it’s fairly challenging work but a lot of the code can be ported. It’s the stuff above that will consume most of the time and puzzling.
