Quick start guide¶

Requisites and dependances¶

3.7 is the last series of the app to support Python 2, and supported Django versions range from 1.8 LTS to 2.2 LTS.

4.0+ needs Python 3, and supported Django versions are: 1.11 LTS, 2.x and 3.x (the rationale is mainly related to the Django support calendar).

Installation¶

Get the code from the repository, which is hosted at Bitbucket.

You have two main ways to obtain the latest code and documentation:

With the version control software Mercurial installed, get a local copy by typing:

hg clone https://bitbucket.org/psam/django-postman/

Or download a copy of the package, which is available in several compressed formats, either from the Download tab or from the get source menu option.

In both case, make sure the directory is accessible from the Python import path.

Configuration¶

Required settings¶

Add postman to the INSTALLED_APPS setting of your project.

Run a manage.py migrate

Include the URLconf postman.urls in your project’s root URL configuration.

Optional settings¶

If you want to make use of a postman_unread_count context variable in your templates, add postman.context_processors.inbox to the TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS setting of your project.

You may specify some additional configuration options in your settings.py:

POSTMAN_I18N_URLS

New in version 3.5.0.

Set it to True if you want the internationalization of URL patterns. Translations are provided by the language files.

Defaults to: False.

POSTMAN_DISALLOW_ANONYMOUS

Set it to True if you do not allow visitors to write to users. That way, messaging is restricted to a User-to-User exchange.

Defaults to: False.

POSTMAN_DISALLOW_MULTIRECIPIENTS

Set it to True if you do not allow more than one username in the recipient field.

Defaults to: False.

POSTMAN_DISALLOW_COPIES_ON_REPLY

Set it to True if you do not allow additional recipients when replying.

Defaults to: False.

POSTMAN_DISABLE_USER_EMAILING

Set it to True if you do not want basic email notification to users. This setting does not apply to visitors (refer to POSTMAN_DISALLOW_ANONYMOUS), nor to a notifier application (refer to POSTMAN_NOTIFIER_APP).

Defaults to: False.

POSTMAN_NOTIFICATION_APPROVAL

New in version 3.7.0.

A hook to control the email notification sending on a per user basis. It can act both as a go/no-go and as a provider of an alternative email address. For instance, it could be used to condition the notification to a profile preference of the user or to implement a custom processing to deduce the final email address. This setting does not apply to visitors (refer to POSTMAN_DISALLOW_ANONYMOUS), nor to a notifier application (refer to POSTMAN_NOTIFIER_APP). The value can be specified as:

True to allow the sending in any case.
A function, with these parameters: user, action, site.
The full path to a function, as a string, whose import will be deferred. For example: ‘myapp.mymodule.myfunc’. This sort of reference can be useful when resolving circular import dependencies between applications or modules. The parameters of the function are: user, action, site.
The name of a method of a custom user model. The method is called on the user instance with these parameters: action, site.
(not recommended) Any other value that can be evaluated as a boolean and, if True, as a string.

Defaults to: True.

Parameters are:

user: an instance of settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL.
action, site: refer to the context variables described in section For visitors.

When a function or method is used, the returned value may be:

False (or None) to prevent the sending.
True to allow the sending, to the ordinary email address of the user.
a string as the email address to use instead of the ordinary one.

Examples:

# settings.py ; one of:
POSTMAN_NOTIFICATION_APPROVAL = False
POSTMAN_NOTIFICATION_APPROVAL = lambda user, action, site: return !user.is_staff
POSTMAN_NOTIFICATION_APPROVAL = 'myapp.mymodule.notification_approval'
AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'myapp.MyUser'
POSTMAN_NOTIFICATION_APPROVAL = 'notification_approval'

# myapp/mymodule.py
def notification_approval(user, action, site):
    return '{}@domain.tld'.format(user.username)

# myapp/models.py
class MyUser(AbstractBaseUser):
    #...
    def notification_approval(self, action, site):
        return True if self.is_active else 'support@mydom.com'

Note: The POSTMAN_DISABLE_USER_EMAILING setting is kept for backward compatibility, but the same effect can be obtained with POSTMAN_NOTIFICATION_APPROVAL = False.

POSTMAN_FROM_EMAIL

New in version 3.6.0.

Set it if you want to override the default ‘from’ field value. The value can be specified as:

An explicit string.
(New in version 4.3) A function.
(New in version 4.3) The full path to a function, as a string, whose import will be deferred. For example: ‘myapp.mymodule.myfunc’.

In both cases, the function receives one parameter: a dictionary with the same context variables as for the subject and body template rendering: {‘site’: …, ‘object’: …, ‘action’: …}. The return must be a string.

Defaults to: DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL.

Example:

def get_from_email(context):
    return '<{} admin> no-reply@domain.tld'.format(context['action'])
POSTMAN_FROM_EMAIL = get_from_email

POSTMAN_PARAMS_EMAIL

New in version 3.6.0.

You can customize the sending of emails by this means. The value can be specified as:

A function.
(New in version 4.3) The full path to a function, as a string, whose import will be deferred. For example: ‘myapp.mymodule.myfunc’.

Defaults to: None.

Example:

def get_params_email(context):
    return {
        'reply_to': ['someone@domain.tld'],
        'headers': {'X-my-choice': 'my-value'}
    } if context['action'] == 'acceptance' else {}
POSTMAN_PARAMS_EMAIL = get_params_email  # default is None

Notes:

In case of use of django-mailer (v1.2.2), only ‘headers’ is supported and to the condition that a HTML-version email template is involved.

POSTMAN_AUTO_MODERATE_AS

The default moderation status when no auto-moderation functions, if any, were decisive.

True to accept messages.
False to reject messages.
None to leave messages to a moderator review.

Defaults to: None.

To disable the moderation feature (no control, no filter):

Set this option to True
Do not provide any auto-moderation functions

POSTMAN_SHOW_USER_AS

How to represent a User for display, in message properties: obfuscated_recipient and obfuscated_sender, and in the or_me filter. The value can be specified as:

The name of a property of User. For example: ‘last_name’.
The name of a method of User. For example: ‘get_full_name’.
A function, receiving the User instance as the only parameter. For example: lambda u: u.get_profile().nickname.
(New in version 3.3.0) The full path to a function, as a string, whose import will be deferred. For example: ‘myapp.mymodule.myfunc’. The function is given the User object as the only parameter. This sort of reference can be useful when resolving circular import dependencies between applications or modules. Another approach, not promoted but compatible, is to specify a class instead of a function, like ‘myapp.mymodule.MyClass’. In that case, an instance of the class is initialized with the User object and its representation is the final result.
None : the default text representation of the User (username) is used.

Defaults to: None.

The default behaviour is used as a fallback when: the value names an attribute and the result is false (misspelled attribute name, empty result, …), or the value names a function and an exception is raised (but any result, even empty, is valid).

POSTMAN_NAME_USER_AS

New in version 3.3.0.

How to name a User as a recipient. The value can be specified as:

The name of a property of User. For example: ‘last_name’ (in auth.User) or ‘nick_name’ (in a Custom User Model).
None : the default User model attributes are used: USERNAME_FIELD and get_username().

Defaults to: None.

POSTMAN_QUICKREPLY_QUOTE_BODY

New in version 3.2.0.

Set it to True if you want the original message to be quoted when replying directly from the display view. This setting does not apply to the reply view in which quote is the basic behaviour.

Defaults to: False.

POSTMAN_NOTIFIER_APP

The identifier of a notifier helper, used in preference to the basic emailing, to notify users of their rejected or received messages.

The value can be specified as:

The label of an installed application.
(New in version 4.1) A module name, having a send(users, label, extra_context) callable.

Defaults to: ‘pinax_notifications’ label, as in pinax.notifications.

If you already have a notifier application with the default name in the installed applications but you do not want it to be used by this application, set the option to None.

POSTMAN_MAILER_APP

An email application name, used in preference to the basic django.core.mail, to send emails.

Defaults to: ‘mailer’, as in django-mailer.

If you already have a mailer application with the default name in the installed applications but you do not want it to be used by this application, set the option to None.

POSTMAN_AUTOCOMPLETER_APP

An auto-completer application specification, useful for recipient fields. To enable the feature, define a dictionary with these keys:

‘name’
The name of the auto-completer application. Defaults to ‘ajax_select’.
‘field’
The model class name. Defaults to ‘AutoCompleteField’.
‘arg_name’
The name of the argument. Defaults to ‘channel’.
‘arg_default’
No default value. This is a mandatory default value, but you may supersede it in the field definition of a custom form or pass it in the url pattern definitions.

Defaults to: an empty dictionary.

Templates¶

A complete set of working templates is provided with the application. You may use it as it is with a CSS design of yours, re-use it or extend some parts of it, or only view it as an example.

Don’t forget that you shouldn’t modify the templates provided into the package (changes are lost with an application update) but use a copied set pointed to by the DIRS entry in TEMPLATES setting.

You may need to adjust some templates to match your version of Django. Permute the comment tags for the lines denoted by the marks: {# dj v1.x #} in:

(currently no case)

Relations between templates:

base.html
|_ base_folder.html
|  |_ inbox.html
|  |_ sent.html
|  |_ archives.html
|  |_ trash.html
|_ base_write.html
|  |_ write.html
|  |_ reply.html
|_ view.html

The postman/base.html template extends a base.html site template, in which some blocks are expected:

title: in <html><head><title>, at least for a part of the entire title string
extrahead: in <html><head>, to put some <script> and <link> elements
content: in <html><body>, to put the page contents
postman_menu: in <html><body>, to put a navigation menu

Static Files¶

A CSS file is provided with the application, for the Admin site: postman/css/admin.css. It is not mandatory but makes the display more comfortable.

A basic CSS file is provided to style the views: postman/css/postman.css. You may use it as a starting point to make your own design.

These files are provided under postman/static/.

See also styles for the stylesheets of views.

Just follow the instructions related to the staticfiles app.

Examples¶

settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    # 'dj_pagination'  # has to be before postman
    # ...
    'postman',
    # ...
    # 'ajax_select'
    # 'pinax.notifications'
    # 'mailer'
)
# POSTMAN_I18N_URLS = True  # default is False
# POSTMAN_DISALLOW_ANONYMOUS = True  # default is False
# POSTMAN_DISALLOW_MULTIRECIPIENTS = True  # default is False
# POSTMAN_DISALLOW_COPIES_ON_REPLY = True  # default is False
# POSTMAN_DISABLE_USER_EMAILING = True  # default is False
# POSTMAN_FROM_EMAIL = 'from@host.tld'  # default is DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL
# POSTMAN_PARAMS_EMAIL = get_params_email  # default is None
# POSTMAN_AUTO_MODERATE_AS = True  # default is None
# POSTMAN_SHOW_USER_AS = 'get_full_name'  # default is None
# POSTMAN_NAME_USER_AS = 'last_name'  # default is None
# POSTMAN_QUICKREPLY_QUOTE_BODY = True  # default is False
# POSTMAN_NOTIFIER_APP = None  # default is 'pinax_notifications'
# POSTMAN_MAILER_APP = None  # default is 'mailer'
# POSTMAN_AUTOCOMPLETER_APP = {
    # 'name': '',  # default is 'ajax_select'
    # 'field': '',  # default is 'AutoCompleteField'
    # 'arg_name': '',  # default is 'channel'
    # 'arg_default': 'postman_friends',  # no default, mandatory to enable the feature
# }  # default is {}

urls.py:

path('messages/', include('postman.urls', namespace='postman')),