Propose INotifier

[avdata99]

Proposed fixes:

In different CKAN projects I'm using Sendgrid and Slack to notify users. I assume other users have similar requirements.
Sometimes we don't have (and don't need) an SMTP server.

I think it will be nice to allow users to work without SMTP and define custom notification services (or don't notify at all)
I started this PR to:

• Propose a new INotifier interface to allow extension to notify in different ways.
• Propose to stop trying to send email when there is no available settings to do it

I know this will require more work but I want to be sure that this is a good idea.

Features:

• includes tests covering changes
• includes updated documentation
• includes user-visible changes
• includes API changes
• includes bugfix for possible backport

Please [X] all the boxes above that apply

[mackeynichols]

Hey @avdata99 👋
Do you envision this including notifying external apps via an HTTP request (like a webhook)?

It sounds like it might be a bit out of scope 😅 but I wanted to ask

[avdata99]

Hey @avdata99 👋 Do you envision this including notifying external apps via an HTTP request (like a webhook)?

Yes @mackeynichols, this change will allow you to implement INotifier in your extension and notify with any method.
I'll probably release a ckanext-sendgrid extension as an example.

[wardi]

This is a related extension by @JVickery-TBS for using "gcnotify" (a fork of https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/ ) for sending ckan emails: https://github.com/open-data/ckanext-gcnotify

Right now it works by monkey patching ckan core, a proper interface like the one you propose would be much nicer.

[JVickery-TBS]

Yeah, would be nice to have an implement to extend emails instead of just monkey patching the mailer script

+ 1

[avdata99]

This is a related extension by @JVickery-TBS for using "gcnotify" (a fork of https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/ ) for sending ckan emails: https://github.com/open-data/ckanext-gcnotify

Thanks @wardi, that's what I'm doing now. It ~works but not for all cases.
For internal CKAN notification it fails (at least for me). Notifications whitin the extension works but CKAN internal notification (e.g. invite a user) fails.

[avdata99]

I think this is ready for review @wardi