OJS 3.3.0.7 No longer sending Submission Notification email to JM or Editors

[pmangahis]

Describe the bug
In OJS 3.3.0.7, JM and Editors are no longer receiving the Submission notification email they would have in 3.2. JM would like to continue receiving these types of notifications.

Requested in https://forum.pkp.sfu.ca/t/ojs-3-3-new-submission-notification/69028

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Author submits a new manuscript
2. Author receives Submission Acknowledgment email
3. Journal Manager and Editor does not receive any emails

Additional information
Email notification from OJS 3.2.1.1

[asmecher]

@pmangahis, have you been able to replicate this behaviour in 3.3.0-x, or are you relying on user reports?

[pmangahis]

Hi @asmecher,

I tested this on the PKP 3.3 demo install which has the emails enabled and confirmed that the JM and Editors didn't seem to be getting the emails anymore.

[NateWr]

I had a look at the code and this is the logic describing who gets an email notification in 3.3.0-7:

1. If there is only one user assigned to a manager or assistant role that is assigned to the submission stage, that user will be automatically assigned and notified. (eg - if there are two or more journal manager, no automatic assignment is made and therefore no notification is sent).
2. If one or more section editors are assigned to the section the submission was made in, they are automatically assigned to the submission and notified.
3. The same as (2) except for categories. If a submission is assigned to more than one category, all related section editors are assigned and notified.
4. The submitting author is sent a submission acknowlegment email.
5. Every author listed in the submission is sent a separate submission acknowlegment email.

The report on the forum says: "I no longer receive a copy of the new submission confirmation sent to the author (I used to receive this with our previous installation)." That would be different from the email described in this issue. The email that user seems to be talking about is the one that was re-added in #6272.

[NateWr]

I believe the email shown in this issue (screenshot in the original post) is the task-level notification. Editors should be able to opt in or opt out of that under their User Profile > Notifications. @pmangahis can you test to see if you get an email when enabling those settings?

[pmangahis]

Tested this again based on your notes on the PKP School 3.3 Install. Even with only 1 JM and 1 Editor and all notifications enabled, neither of these users seemed to get a submission notification.

[asmecher]

@pmangahis, I tested it locally, and the single editor did receive a notification message:
[edit: I originally quoted the wrong message; updated.]

Subject: [t2] New notification from t2
Body: You have a new notification from t2:<br />
<br />
A new article has been submitted to which an editor needs to be assigned.<br />
<br />
Link: <a href='http://localhost/git/ojs-stable-3_3_0/index.php/t2/workflow/submission/22' class='url-style-class'>http://localhost/git/ojs-stable-3_3_0/index.php/t2/workflow/submission/22</a><br />
<br />
<br/><br/>
________________________________________________________________________<br/>
<a href="http://localhost/git/ojs-stable-3_3_0/index.php/t2">t2</a>

I suspect the notification email is being sent by the system but getting spam-trapped or something similar.

[NateWr]

Even with only 1 JM and 1 Editor and all notifications enabled

Can you show a screenshot with the notification settings? The configuration can be kind of counter-intuitive.

[pmangahis]

I don't think make any changes to the notifications and tested using mailinator (for both SE and Author account) when I was testing this, but only the author got the email that Alec got.

[NateWr]

After reviewing with @pmangahis, we determined this wasn't a bug and that the submission acknowledgement emails added back in 3.4 will address the remaining issues the editor was facing.