How to edit system emails?

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Nextcloud version (eg, 20.0.5): 21.0
Operating system and version (eg, Ubuntu 20.04): `Ubuntu 20.04.02
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PHP version (eg, 7.4): unsure

The issue you are facing:
I need to edit some of the system outbound emails. Not the configuration of SMTP. That works. I want to edit the text, subject of the emails that go to users.
Specifically, the emails about activities.

Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Y/N): Not an error

Steps to replicate it:

The output of your Nextcloud log in Admin > Logging:

PASTE HERE

The output of your config.php file in /path/to/nextcloud (make sure you remove any identifiable information!):

PASTE HERE

The output of your Apache/nginx/system log in /var/log/____:

PASTE HERE

You can use the search field on this website: GitHub - nextcloud/server: ☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data
Perhaps you find the source code of the file. If not post the text.
But with the next release you must re-edit the file.

You you do not use the standard language english i think you must change it in the translation section.

https://portal.nextcloud.com/article/customized-email-templates-29.html

Why adding an article behind a “paywall”?

the article is “paywalled” the attached zip-file isn’t— so maybe you could learn from that :wink:

That is no longer true, there’s no longer a link to the ZIP available.

The fact that promotion for this paywalled content is plastered all over the relevant docs section, even behind a link titled “a Github issue”, and forum threads like this one, is quite annoying to me.

I suggest someone who still has a copy take a look at the license of the code and if possible use the power granted to them to put it into a git repo and push it to Gtihub or wherever and put up a link to it, to solve this problem once and for all.

Ideally Nextcloud would do this themselves and link that from their paywalled docs, but oh well.

This leaves a closed-sourcy taste in my mouth.

To be fair, nothing is closed source here. The complete code of the template is here: server/lib/public/Mail/IEMailTemplate.php at master · nextcloud/server · GitHub

Now, of course, one can argue that normal users or system administrators who don’t know anything about PHP programming will most likely not be able to figure out how to overwrite the template by themselves without having access to a step by step guide. But that doesn’t make the software closed source.

I love that you took the time to point me at the full Template Class, that’s referenced in the open docs already but didn’t upload the supposedly-not-closed-source sample somewhere.

While it’s a correct hint, I’ve looked at it already.

In fact, I’d already decided to creating an App myself, generated a Nextcloud App “skeleton” and then given up in annoyance, as the “skeleton” is actually a full notes app, using DB and everything. What the heck.

If Nextcloud wants to make some paywalled, closed-source docs, fine.
But dion’t answer every single mention of this question on the internet with that link and pretend like it helps anyone not paying for it.

I’d look at the License of the sample and confirm whether it’s closed source or not myself, but I dont have that ZIP…
Even if it’s AGPL-licensed but I can’t get it, is it open source?

I don’t need the step-by-step Tutorial that comes with it, they can keep that for their paying customers.

That zip contains probably a template of the modification you need to do in order to achieve what you want, and therefore I would count it as a part of the documentation, and not as a part of the Nextcloud software.

That’s because most useres here are home users. And let’s be honest, for home users that’s would at best be a “nice to have” thing, and many wouldn’t probybly even bother to use if it would be exposed in the UI. And companies that want to use branded instances with custom messages can either pay Nextcloud for consulting and extended documentation, or they can hire a PHP dev… Either way it’ll cost them money.

Another way for the Nextcloud GmbH to handle this, would of course be to not mention the possibility to change the messages at all in their public docs. Not sure that would be a more “open source” approach though :wink:

Sigh. Here we go.

Found a copy of it and did the one right thing with it: GitHub - InsanePrawn/nextcloud-email-template-app


@bb77

And companies that want to use branded instances with custom messages can either pay Nextcloud for consulting and extended documentation, or they can hire a PHP dev… Either way it’ll cost them money.

What if I told you I was a small-time php dev, this was about replacing domains for $technicalReasons, not just branding, and I had an unrelated upstream NC server issue/merge request lined up that I could go look into sooner if I didn’t have to spend a day hunting this stuff down?

Another way for the Nextcloud GmbH to handle this, would of course be to not mention the possibility to change the messages at all in their public docs. Not sure that would be a more “open source” approach though :wink:

What kind of strawman argument is this? Not gonna go into this “logic”.
Sidenote: You seem to assume that this necessarily has to be about changing messages and/or branding.

People like me recommend and support Nextcloud installations because it’s open and extensible, not closed and secret-sauce’d.
If there’s real-world use-case developer discussions that become awkward because they cut into paywalled docs, that changes the tone.

1 Like

Just that we understand each other, I am not a developer, but only a user, and all I was trying to say is Nextcloud is not more or less open source, whether it has such a fetaure at all, whether the feature is documented or not, or whether the documentation of this feature is behind a paywall or not. Open source means the (source) code of the product is open, no more and no less.

How a project or a company wants to handle documentation, services, support and distribution of their software or how easy it is for developers to customize the product or participate in the development process has nothing to do with whether a product is open source or not. However, if you don’t like the way the original project is handeling things, you can always fork an open source product, in compliance with the licence of course, and than handle things in a better way. That’s exactly what the founders of Nextcloud did with Owncloud.

That beeing said, I still think that Nextcloud handles things in a good way, although of course, there’s always room for improvement. :slight_smile:

Well, it might be that you have to figure it out yourself then :wink: Branding and certain customizations, seem to be things they want to gain revenue with. And honestly, as a home user, I’m fine with that.

But as I said, I’m not a dev, and I could be wrong, but I think once you figured it out, they won’t block your app, and if so, you could still publish it in your own repo and people could install it manually.