nodebb-plugin-custom-emails

NodeBB Custom Email Templates Plugin

Alpha Version (0.1.3-alpha) - This plugin is in early development. Test thoroughly before deploying to production.

This plugin provides custom email templates for Invictus Growth portals.

Features

• Custom digest email template with simplified section headers
• Custom footer without additional unsubscribe links
• Custom greeting (removes username display)
• Custom CTA button text

Installation

For Development (Local Testing)

• Copy this plugin directory to node_modules/nodebb-plugin-custom-emails
• Run npm install in your NodeBB root directory
• Enable the plugin in the Admin Control Panel
• Rebuild and restart NodeBB:

  ./nodebb build
  ./nodebb restart
  

For Production (Multiple Instances)

Option 1: Install from Git Repository (Recommended)

• Create a private git repository for this plugin
• Push the plugin code to the repository
• On each NodeBB instance, install via npm:

  npm install git+https://your-repo-url/nodebb-plugin-custom-emails.git
  

• Enable in Admin Panel and rebuild

Option 2: Manual Installation

• Copy the plugin directory to each instance's node_modules/
• Enable in Admin Panel
• Rebuild and restart

Customizations Included

Email Templates

• digest.tpl - Simplified section headers (removed site name)
• partials/footer.tpl - Removed extra unsubscribe link

Language Overrides

• Greeting changed from "Hello {name}" to just "Hello"
• Digest CTA changed to "Click here to visit the portal"

Upgrading NodeBB

This plugin survives NodeBB upgrades because it's installed as a separate package. After upgrading NodeBB:

• Test the emails to ensure templates still work
• If NodeBB made breaking changes to email templates, update this plugin accordingly
• Rebuild and restart

Deployment Across Multiple Instances

Using Git (Recommended)

# On your development machine
cd /path/to/nodebb-plugin-custom-emails
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git remote add origin https://your-git-server/nodebb-plugin-custom-emails.git
git push -u origin main

# On each production instance
cd /path/to/nodebb
npm install git+https://your-git-server/nodebb-plugin-custom-emails.git
./nodebb build
./nodebb restart

Manual Sync

# Create a tarball
tar -czf nodebb-plugin-custom-emails.tar.gz nodebb-plugin-custom-emails/

# On each instance
tar -xzf nodebb-plugin-custom-emails.tar.gz -C node_modules/
./nodebb build
./nodebb restart

Maintenance

To update the plugin across all instances:

• Make changes to your local copy
• Commit and push to git (if using git method)
• On each instance: npm update nodebb-plugin-custom-emails
• Rebuild and restart

Version History

• 0.1.3-alpha - Feature release

  • Added customizable CTA button text (default: "View Discussion")
  • Added customizable CTA button color (default: #222222)
  • Added customizable email text color (default: #000000)
  • Added color picker UI in admin panel for easy color selection
  • Added toggle to show/hide "Hello" greeting in notification emails (default: shown)

• 0.1.2-alpha - Bug fix release

  • Fixed notification URL conversion logic to properly extract post ID from URL

• 0.1.1-alpha - Bug fix release

  • Fixed empty settingsUrl in email footer (now defaults to {nodebb-url}/settings)
  • Fixed notification URLs to point to topics instead of posts
  • Improved email parameter handling

• 0.1.0-alpha - Alpha release with digest and footer customizations

  • Added security improvements (input validation, path traversal protection)
  • Added admin authentication to template save endpoint
  • Added template editor in admin panel