Quick start guide

Requisites and dependances

Python version >= 2.6 or >= 3.3

Some reasons:

  • (2.6) use of str.format()

Django version >= 1.5 on py2, >= 1.5.5 on py3

Some reasons:

  • (1.5/py2) url template tag syntax
  • (1.5.5/py3) Six version >= 1.4.0
  • (1.4.2) use of the Six library for supporting Python 2 and 3 in a single codebase

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 http://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 (or for Django <= 1.6 manage.py syncdb)

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_FROM_EMAIL

New in version 3.6.0.

Set it if you want to override the default ‘from’ field value.

Defaults to: DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL.

POSTMAN_PARAMS_EMAIL

New in version 3.6.0.

You can customize the sending of emails by this means. The value is a function, receiving 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 dictionary, possibly empty, with django.core.mail.EmailMessage parameters as keys.

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:

  • ‘reply_to’ is available as of Django 1.8. For previous versions, you can embed it under ‘headers’ as: {'Reply-To': 'someone@domain.tld'}
  • 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

A notifier application name, used in preference to the basic emailing, to notify users of their rejected or received messages.

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

Note: django-notification v0.2.0 works with Django version 1.3. As of Django 1.4, switch to at least django-notification v1.0.

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 obligatory but makes the display more confortable.

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.

For Django 1.3+, just follow the instructions related to the staticfiles app.

Examples

settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    # 'pagination'  # has to be before postman
    # ...
    'postman',
    # ...
    # 'ajax_select'
    # 'notification'
    # '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 'notification'
# 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:

url(r'^messages/', include('postman.urls', namespace='postman', app_name='postman')),