John's Blog: File Posted Notices

July 17, 2013

Rumpus makes it easy to have an Event Notice triggered when a particular user uploads a file, or to have someone notified when a file is uploaded into a particular folder (using Folder Triggers). But, what if you have lots of users, some or all of whom need to be notified when a file is uploaded into their folder? There is actually a little-known feature that makes this possible using a single Folder Trigger.

Assumptions

The function I'm about to describe will only work when the file is posted through Rumpus. If you use some other method of transferring the file into an end-user's content area, Rumpus isn't involved in posting the file so there is no way for it to trigger a notification.

Also, for generic sending of files to outside people, on a single use basis, you'll probably want to use Drop Shipping. The setup I am going to describe is best for people who have Rumpus user accounts and will access the file by logging into their account and downloading the file using the Web File Manager.

Finally, the Home Folders of the users to be notified in this example all share a common parent folder. For example, let's assume that there is a folder in our FTP Root folder called "Acme Widgets", and there are 3 folders within that: "Bob", "Mary" and "Tom". The users "Bob", "Mary" and "Tom", who all work for the company "Acme Widgets", have their account Home Folders defined accordingly.

Of course, the common parent folder could be the top level FTP Root folder, so that all Rumpus users would be eligible for this notification. Or, you could set up the file posted notifications for several different groups of users, so not all notified users have to share a single common parent content area.

Basic Setup

Create a new Event Notice in Rumpus called, "FilePosted", for example. Set the "Mail To" user account to your own e-mail address, and set up the message body so that it looks something like this:

Next, on the Event Notices window, click "Set Folder Triggers" to open the Folder Triggers sheet. Click the "New Trigger" button to create a new Folder Trigger, and set up the trigger so that the "FilePosted" notice is executed when a file is uploaded to the parent folder which contains the Home Folders for those user accounts who need to be notified.

At this point, save everything, then log into the Rumpus server and post a file to one of the user content folders, like the "Bob" folder in our example. You should receive the e-mail notice, telling you the file was posted.

Now, instead of having the e-mail message go to you, we need to have the notice sent to the correct person based on the folder the file is uploaded into.

The Trick: <MATCHEMAILADDR>

Open the Event Notice window, select the "FilePosted" notice, and set the "Mail To" address to "<MATCHEMAILADDR>". That token causes Rumpus to scan user accounts looking for users with a Home Folder that contains the new uploaded file. When a user account is found that can access the uploaded file, that user's e-mail address is entered as the Mail To address. So, if a file is uploaded into Mary's Home Folder, the message will be sent to Mary's e-mail address.

Note that the token will insert a comma delimited list of e-mail addresses, if multiple user accounts are found with access to the uploaded file. So, when it's used in the "Mail To" field, all users who can access the file will receive the notice.

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