Installation

Requirements#

• Omeka Classic 3.1 or later. Announcements is built and tested on 3.2.2.
• PHP 8.1 or later.
• For email copies only: a working mail setup in application/config/config.ini (mail.transport; the default sends with the server's sendmail), an Administrator Email under Settings > General, and Omeka's background jobs, which need the path to PHP's command-line program (background.php.path in config.ini, which most hosts set).

The plugin has no other dependencies.

Installing#

1. Unzip Announcements-1.0.0.zip and copy the Announcements folder into your Omeka Classic plugins/ folder.
2. Log in to the admin as a Super User and click Plugins at the top of the admin.
3. Click Install next to Announcements.

Installing creates five database tables (announcements, announcement_target_roles, announcement_target_users, user_announcements and announcement_preferences, with your site's table prefix) and two settings. The defaults (archive the messages of expired announcements, no automatic cleanup) are fine to start with; see Configuration. On a site that keeps its files on its own disk, it also creates the folder files/announcements for attachments.

From then on, every user who signs in to the admin sees a bell next to their name at the top of the admin, an Announcements entry in the menu on the left that opens their inbox, and an Announcements panel at the top of the dashboard. Admins and Super Users send announcements from Announcements > New announcement.

Upgrading#

Replace the plugins/Announcements folder with the new version, then click Upgrade next to Announcements on the Plugins page. Announcements, inboxes and settings are kept.

Uninstalling#

Uninstalling drops the five tables, which permanently deletes every announcement and every user's inbox, deletes the stored attachments, and removes the plugin's settings and every user's email choice. Deactivating the plugin instead keeps everything; the bell, the menu entry and the dashboard panel go away until you activate it again.

If the plugin cannot be uninstalled from the admin, drop the tables by hand (with your table prefix, omeka_ here) and remove the plugin folder:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS omeka_user_announcements;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS omeka_announcement_target_users;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS omeka_announcement_target_roles;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS omeka_announcement_preferences;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS omeka_announcements;
DELETE FROM omeka_options WHERE name LIKE 'announcements\_%';

Attachments are in files/announcements/ (or under announcements/ in your cloud storage).