How to send any email at any time

How to send any email at any time


Most notices on Koha are sent by automatic processes controlled by cron jobs, however, there is a way for library staff to send notices at will using the Patron Emailer Plugin. As many notices as are needed can be sent with this tool, and the same notice can be sent to the same borrower as many times as required. The standard notice templates can be used or a custom notice can be created by staff members.

Step 1 - Download the plugin

Go to the release page for the plugin to be installed and download the most recent .kpz file. 

Step 2 - Uploading Plugin to Koha

Go to Koha administration > Plugins > Manage plugins

If plugins have been enabled on your system there will be the option to upload plugins.


If plugins have not been enabled on your system please contact Interleaf Technology directly.

Once you have clicked Upload plugin you will be taken to a new page where you will be prompted to choose a file to upload.

Click the Upload Plugin button. This will bring you to a new page where you will be prompted to upload the .kpz file you just retrieved from github.

Upload the .kpz file. If the file has been uploaded successfully, it will appear in the table of plugins on your system, similar to this:



Step 3 - Configuring the notice you want to send

Once the plugin is uploaded successfully go to Actions on the right hand side and select Configure from the dropdown. You will be brought to a new page where you can write the message of the email you are going to send out and give it a subject. 

It is important to note that the emailer users Template Toolkit syntax and as such, if you are inserting placeholders for information that will change depending on the specifics of who is receiving the notice, they must be formatted using a very specific convention. For example, adding the first name of the patron to receive the email should appear like this: [% firstname %]

It is important to use the correct spacing of the brackets and per cent signs and placeholder labels from the Koha database tables.

You can find information on the database tables by looking at the schema. 
If you have any questions about Template Toolkit, please contact Interleaf Technology directly.

You will also be asked to define a data delimiter. This is the punctuation used to separate one piece of information from another in the CSV file of patron information you will upload to use the plugin. Unless you have a specific reason, leave the data delimiter as a comma, the default setting. 

Here is an example of a correctly formatted notice template:

Once you’re satisfied with the plugin configuration, hit Save configuration.

Step 4 - Running the Plugin

To send out the email, go to KOHA administration >  Plugins > Manage plugins.

This will bring you to a page with all plugins enabled on your system in a table. 

Go to the Patron Emailer row and hit Actions on the right hand side. 

Pick Run Tool from the dropdown. 


This will take you to a new page where you can identify the patrons the notice should be sent to. 

4.1 - How to identify patrons to receive the notice



In the first section Patrons to email, a CSV file of patron information can be loaded or a report from the Reports module can be selected, the results of which the email will be sent to. 

To use option of loading a CSV file of student information, the easiest way to put this kind of file together is to create a report on Koha and download the results. This way the file will automatically have the correct headings. It is possible to put together a CSV file to upload from scratch, as long as the header line uses the correct database headings. The CSV file must include the patron email address and cardnumber in all cases, as well as any other information needed to fill in the place holder information from the notice.
 

If you require assistance with creating a report for this plugin you can contact Interleaf Technology with a filled out Report Request form. Please mention when logging the query that it is in relation to the Patron Emailer Plugin. 

To use the reports option, the id number of the report the patron information should be drawn from must be added to the box beside the line Enter report id.

For information about navigating to the Reports module and viewing reports on your site, please check our help centre.
The report you select must not include any additional running parameters i.e when the Run button is clicked in the Reports module, the report should run without needing to add or select information like dates or patron categories.

The second section, Select a notice, allows you to specify the notice to be sent notice.

4.2 -  How to select the notice to be sent out

If you've configured a notice in the Configuration page of the plugin, then you will be able to select this notice by placing a tick in the box beside the line Use notice configured in plugin.

If you wish to use a notice that has been defined in the standard notice area, under Tools > Patrons and circulation > Notices & Slips then instead of selecting the configured notice, use the three dropdown menus to identify the notice to be sent. The notice will be selected from the Choose a notice dropdown, however, the other two dropdowns can be used to limit which options will be offered.

Select a library
This allows the notices to be selected from to be narrowed down to notices linked to a specific branch.
Choose a module
This allows the notices to be selected to be narrowed down to those related to a specific area of Koha, i.e selecting circulation from the dropdown will reduce the options under the Choose a notice dropdown to notices relating to circulation issues like overdues.
Choose a notice
This dropdown will be a list of notices that can be selected, depending on the information in the two other dropdown menus above.

Step 5 - Sending the email

Once you have identified the patrons to send the notice to and the notice to be sent click, Upload.


This will take you to a new page where you will get a table of the notices and who they will be sent to. Once you are satisfied the information here is correct, hit Send emails. 


This will bring you to a page with a table of information confirming that the notice have been scheduled for delivery. These will be sent out with the automatically scheduled notices on your site.



Version History

Version

Date

Detail

Author

1.0
29/03/19
Create doc. 
Holly Cooper
2.0
14/05/20
Migrate to Zoho
Holly Cooper
2.1
21/10/20
Updated to reflect changes in later releases of the plugin
Holly Cooper
2.230/12/20Adding TOC and improving formattingHolly Cooper
2.316/03/22Adding details to improve formattingHolly Cooper












Retention Policy

Permanent







    • Related Articles

    • How to enable the Print Borrower Notice Plugin

      Setting up print versions of overdue notices notices tends to be time consuming as notices must be configured correctly and may need several edits to ensure they are displaying as you want them. Additionally, printing a bulk of notices is not always ...

    • What are the five circulation notices for due and overdue items and how can they been enabled?

      This document explains the five circulation notices related to due and overdue items and how can they been enabled. These notices can be set up to go out automatically based on how long patrons have had an item checked out and how overdue the items ...

    • How to email receipts to borrowers when paying or writing off fines

      This document outlines how to enable automatically emailing a receipt to a patron for credits paid against a fine on their account.  How to view the payment/writeoff notices Go to Tools > Patrons and circulation > Notices and slips This will take you ...

    • How to resend a notice

      It is possible to resend a notice to a patron by locating the record of notices already on the patron account. Step 1 - Locate the notice that has already been sent out Go to the patron account and look in the Notices tab on the left hand side of the ...

    • How to install and use the Bywater support plugin

      It is possible to install a plugin that will allow practitioners on the staff interface to ask queries and provide details of issues directly to an email support account from within the Koha application. Step 1 - Download the plugin Go to ...