Multi-Email Post Node

Technologies Used

Node.js, PHP, WordPress

Goal

To make the transition from SharePoint to WordPress for many BEST users, the option to e-mail content to the BEST homepage was a must. This plugin provides a simple content workflow in lieu of training all content creators to use WordPress directly. Instead, they can simply e-mail it in. This approach offers a convenience for mirroring emails that already go out to distribution lists.

Approach

Existing e-mail posting plugins for WordPress were either too complicated to use or lacked the flexibility required for anything but a single-author, small website. The BEST homepage has tens of authors posting to multiple categories.

Multi-Email-Post-Node is a hybrid plugin in that is has a Node and PHP component. The PHP component takes and stores the mailbox configuration via WordPress. The Node component listens to one or more IMAP mailboxes, parses the content, then sends it back to the PHP component. Then, the PHP component checks for user permissions and sets the category the post is supposed to go in based on configuration. Each user can have a different category for every mailbox configured, allowing for significant flexibility.

Status

This plugin is in production now on the BEST homepage and is being used by NY BEST and DC BEST to post their weekly look-ahead e-mails to the site. Certain announcement emails are also posted with the plugin on a regular basis.