No notifications and e-mails

[pf-iservice]

Hi,
I have installed Planka on a Raspberry Pi with Docker. It works fine so far. However, we are not receiving any notifications, neither in the app nor via email. Does something specific need to be activated? Is there an example of a correct SMTP configuration?
best regards
jo

[meltyshev]

Hi!

To enable email notifications, you need to configure the SMTP_* environment variables. We don't seem to have an example of setting these environment variables in the documentation, but here's an example:

SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=465
SMTP_SECURE=true
[email protected]
SMTP_PASSWORD=password
SMTP_FROM="FirstName LastName" <[email protected]>

Please note that, currently, email notifications are only triggered when a card is moved to another list or commented on (you have to be a subscriber of the card), but we plan to add more events in the future.

[samson8t]

Hi! What error message does Planka display when attempting to send an email?

I wasn't even able to update the stack via Portainer, running on a Synology-box

Now I edited the following lines to the YAML to update the stack:

environment:
  - BASE_URL=https://...
  - TRUST_PROXY=0
  - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres@postgres/planka
  - SECRET_KEY=KEY
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_EMAIL=Mail
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD=PW
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_NAME=User
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_USERNAME=Username
  - NODE_ENV=production
  - SMTP_HOST=domain.eu
  - SMTP_PORT=587
  - SMTP_SECURE=true
  - SMTP_USER=planka.notification
  - SMTP_PASSWORD=password
  - SMTP_FROM="Planka Notification" <[email protected]>
  - SMTP_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=false

Would this work?
The line SMTP_FROM=... looks a bit strange to me.

Thank you for your help. Planka is such a great tool to organize projects. I really appreciate your marvelous work.

[meltyshev]

Thanks for the kind words!

Would this work?

I hope so, if it was a certificate issue. To define the problem more precisely, we need the exact error message.

The line SMTP_FROM=... looks a bit strange to me.

It should work in this format. Alternatively, you can try setting it to just [email protected].

[samson8t]

Now I configured a Gmail-adress to use it with Planak and changed my environmental-variables to the following, but neither on commenting a card, editing and modifying a card nor on moving a card I get a mail-notifications. Something's wrong.

environment:
  - BASE_URL=https://URL
  - TRUST_PROXY=0
  - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres@postgres/planka
  - SECRET_KEY=...
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_EMAIL=...
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD=...
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_NAME=...
  - DEFAULT_ADMIN_USERNAME=...
  - NODE_ENV=production
  - SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
  - SMTP_PORT=587
  - SMTP_SECURE=true
  - [email protected]
  - SMTP_PASSWORD=...
  - SMTP_FROM="Notification Planka" <[email protected]>

Thank you for your help.

[samson8t]

What about that LOG-Message?

2024-10-02 17:34:05.468 UTC [187] WARNING: database "planka" has no actual collation version, but a version was recorded

Does it have anything to do with the problem on top?

[meltyshev]

2024-10-02 17:34:05.468 UTC [187] WARNING: database "planka" has no actual collation version, but a version was recorded

Nope, this log message isn't related to Nodemailer.

If you don't see any other messages, you might be expecting notifications to be sent when they aren't supposed to be. For example, editing something on a card won't trigger a notification if you made the change yourself. Notifications will be sent to user A's email if user A is a card subscriber and user B moved the card or left a comment. In that case, you'd see an error in the logs if something is misconfigured.

[Oleg-Ne]

nodemailer does not work for me under portainer, as far as I understand, nodemailer does not work for many people under docker. can you add support additionally emailjs? https://github.com/eleith/emailjs

p.s. could it be a problem that the correct version of nodemailer is not added to dependencies in package.json?
and is it possible to add an additional parameter SMTP_DEBUG? debug: true in nodemailer?

[meltyshev]

Hi! Switching to emailjs won't solve the issue, as both use the same SMTP protocol with identical settings. There may be some missing configurations, but it's hard to determine which ones without seeing the error message in your Planka logs.

p.s. could it be a problem that the correct version of nodemailer is not added to dependencies in package.json?

It should be in server/package.json and should be installed in all the latest Docker images.

and is it possible to add an additional parameter SMTP_DEBUG? debug: true in nodemailer?

There is a debug feature in nodemailer, but it logs all messages over the SMTP protocol. If something is misconfigured, it should appear in the Planka logs anyway, so there's no need for more detailed debugging.

Also, keep in mind that emails are only sent if the card is moved or commented on by another user, and you are subscribed to that card, as described here: #842 (reply in thread).