What is Drupal's Message Stack and how do its modules work together?

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The Message Stack appears to be a set of 3 Drupal contributed modules, that can be used in a Drupal 7 site to implement messaging in a Drupal site.

Here are some details about it (from that same link):

The modules have been written with a pluggable architecture that supports customization and extensibility. Each module includes implementation examples that give a hint of the potential use cases and integration with other popular Drupal modules.

I wonder what this is all about, ie:

  1. What's the purpose of each of these modules?
  2. How do its modules work together?
  3. Where can I find examples of others who have been using the Message Stack already?

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Posted 3 years ago.
Pierre.Vriens's picture
Pierre.Vriens

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What's the purpose of each of these modules?

The Message Stack consists of these modules (quotes are from the module's project page):

  • Message:

    The Message module is the core of the message stack. It enables logging and displaying system events in a number of different use cases. Events that are recorded over time are sometimes call activity streams. Exportable messages subtypes can be created for different use cases with custom fields and display (view) modes.

  • Message Notify.

    This module provides a method for sending a message via a notifier plugin. Message Notify comes with plugins for email and SMS and may be extended to other transport mechanisms as required.

  • Message Subscribe.

    With this module, users who subscribe to content will be notified when events occur that involve that content. The module leverages the Flag module, which provides a subscribe functionality to users.

How do its modules work together?

These are the basic components and dependencies of the Message Stack:

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For an interesting presentation about it, refer to the DrupalCon prezentation titled "Organic Groups // Message". The 2nd half of this video introduces the Message Stack (a replacement for Messaging & Notifications) and how it can be used to send notifications in a scalable way.

Where can I find examples of others who have been using the Message Stack already?

  • Drupal distributions - Quite a few popular Drupal distributions already adopted to this Message Stack, such as such as Commerce Kickstart, Drupal Commons, ERPAL and Open Atrium. And it will make you well positioned for Drupal 8 also (because of he modules' object orientated architecture).

  • Answers module - If you want to have a closer look at the Message Stack in your own environment, then experiment a bit with the Answers module (disclosure: I'm a co-maintainer), together with the Answers Notification sub-module, which allows logged in users to subscribe to selected questions, so that they receive notifications (using the Message Stack) when Questions receive Answers.

Bonus tip: get ready for Drupal 8

The Message Stack will make you well positioned for Drupal 8 also (because of the modules' object orientated architecture). And the Message module does have an RC1 release already.

- 3 years ago.
Demo.User

93

Comments

Minor correction: The Message module now also has an RC-release for D8 ...

 - Famous.Dries - 2 years ago.