Welcome to django-postman’s documentation!

This is an application for Django-powered websites.

Basically, the purpose is to allow authenticated users of a site to exchange private messages within the site. In this documentation, the word user is to be understood as an instance of a User, in the django.contrib.auth context.

So it is mainly for a User-to-User exchange. But it may be beneficial for a subscriber to receive inquiries from any visitor, ie even if non authenticated. For instance, a subscriber as a service provider wants an ask-me-details form on a presentation page to facilitate possible business contacts. In this case, the visitor is presented a compose message form with an additional field to give an email address for the reply. The email is obfuscated to the recipient.

What is a message ? Roughly a piece of text, about a subject, sent by a sender to a recipient. Each user has access to a collection of messages, stored in folders:

Inbox for incoming messages
Sent for sent messages
Archives for archived messages
Trash for messages marked as deleted

In folders, messages can be presented in two modes:

  • by conversation, for a compact view: the original message and its replies are grouped in a set to constitute one sole entry. The lastest message (based on the time) is the representative of the set.
  • by message, for an expanded view: each message is considered by itself.

Here is a summary of features:

  • A non-User (email is undisclosed) can write to a User and get a reply (can be disabled by configuration)
  • Exchanges can be moderated (with auto-accept and auto-reject plug-ins)
  • Optional recipient filter plug-ins
  • Optional exchange filtering plug-ins (blacklists)
  • Multi-recipient writing is possible (can be disabled by configuration) with min/max constraints
  • Messages are managed by conversations
  • Messages in folders are sortable by sender|recipient|subject|date
  • ‘Archives’ folder in addition to classic Inbox, Sent and Trash folders
  • A Quick-Reply form to only ask for a response text
  • A cleanup management command to clear the old deleted messages

It has support for optional additional applications:

  • Autocomplete recipient field (default is ‘django-ajax-selects’), with multiple recipient management
  • New message notification (default is django-notification)
  • Asynchronous mailer (default is django-mailer)

Moderation

As an option, messages may need to be validated by a moderator before to be visible to the recipient. Possible usages are:

  • to control there is no unwanted words in the text fields.
  • to make sure that no direct contact informations are exchanged when the site is an intermediary and delivers services based on subscription fees.

Messages are first created in a pending state. A moderator is in charge to change them to a rejected or accepted state. This operation can be done in two ways:

  • By a person, through the Admin site. A specially simplified change view is provided, with one-click buttons to accept or reject the message.
  • Automatically, through one or more auto-moderator functions.

Indices and tables