Email From name back to “WordPress” after last update

[d19dotca]

It may just be me so I wanted to ask here… before I had converted all my WordPress sites to have a “from name” that matches the email address so that it didn’t appear as “WordPress” which is the default. It’s been working well for a couple of years now, but it seems like since the very last WordPress app package update, the mail from name is now WordPress again.

Has anyone else noticed that behaviour? I’m worried the package update somehow reverted my email settings inside the app. I’m using the SMTP plugin which comes with the app package, only change I had made (years ago) was the from name itself and now seems like it’s back to default WordPress. Anyone else?

[humptydumpty]

In the app settings in your CR dashboard --> Email --> did you set the FROM name in there?

Edit: I did some digging and the SMTP mailer did reset back to "Wordpress". I'm guessing it's related to the new CR feature under EMAIL, where you can set the FROM name which seems to control what's displayed in the SMTP mailer field.

[robi]

This sounds like a bug that overwrites the setting instead of updating it if it's the default and leaving it alone if it's already custom.

[girish]

Correct, what @humptydumpty said.

This is/was a breaking change in 7.2. Any suggestions on how we can do this better in future releases? I could have pushed the package as a major upgade (in which case it won't auto update). Is that desirable? But that would mean future security updates don't apply automatically as well.

[humptydumpty]

@girish a message in the changelog and/or in the notification section about the change should suffice.

[d19dotca]

@girish So the issue here is that there was a change in v7.2 Cloudron which required changes to the WordPress SMTP plugin in the app package? I'm a little confused how those are related, but if I'm assuming that's how it was then... then yes I think that should have been handled differently because I had about 20 sites to have to login to and change again after some awkward messages from clients showing it changed.

To be fair, I guess I should have done more thorough testing and that's on me, but I had just never seen SMTP issues before with app packages so didn't really test that, guess I'll be adding that to my list to test after updates now. I'll take some ownership of that lack of testing on my part, haha.

In the future, I think if there's a breaking change then it should have been pushed as a major update so that admins are effectively forced to see the changelog before updating. App packages which include breaking changes should never be auto-updated, IMO. At least my two cents anyways.

@humptydumpty - Changelog for sure, but I don't think that's quite sufficient either because if apps auto-update then people won't see that one. Should be totally fine for non-breaking updates though.

[d19dotca]

@girish I am a bit confused though on one part... if the change requires us to use the Cloudron Email tab for setting that stuff now, then why did changing it in the plugin again yesterday suffice for me? And does that mean my changes I made last night will break again on the next update so I need to then do it over again in the Cloudron Email tab on each affected app?

[humptydumpty]

@d19dotca said in Email From name back to “WordPress” after last update:

Changelog for sure, but I don't think that's quite sufficient either

MB. I meant a separate notification along the lines of "admin intervention required - SMTP FROM name has been reset"... With that said, I can see how it can be an issue if manage client websites. If it makes your life any easier, updating the FROM name from the CR side will update the FROM name in the SMTP mailer plugin. No need to log in to your clients site.

[d19dotca]

@girish Ah okay, I think I understand this a bit better now... so it wasn't specifically a 7.2 breaking change but a breaking change in the app package itself to accomodate a newer 7.2 feature. So yes, in that case when it's a breaking change I'd like to suggest we mark it as such so it can't be auto-updated since it will effectively require intervention from admins to fix it up the way we like it again during the upgrade.

Also wanted to suggest (but not sure if this is even possible but raising it in case this affects other apps down the road which may be get upgraded to the newer feature)... maybe when the "From Name" is blank in Cloudron, the plugin / part of the app which was previously storing the "From Name" should be left alone, and only overwritten when the field is updated in Cloudron instead? In my case, for example, the From Name wasn't actually changed to "WordPress" in the app package, it was within the SMTP plugin instead but the "From Name" was blank in Cloudron... so the fact that was modified in the app itself was a little bizarre. Maybe that can be only overwritten in the case where it is actually a set value in Cloudron instead? Just a possible alternative anyways, but not sure if that's even possible to do with the way the packages are written.

Hopefully the above makes sense. Sorry for all the comments, lol, was just thinking out loud.

[d19dotca]

@humptydumpty said in Email From name back to “WordPress” after last update:

With that said, I can see how it can be an issue if manage client websites. If it makes your life any easier, updating the FROM name from the CR side will update the FROM name in the SMTP mailer plugin. No need to log in to your clients site.

Yes, I just tested that a few minutes ago actually and found that out, so I'm in the process now of making the changes again in Cloudron instead of the SMTP plugin. Hopefully that'll future-proof it. But yeah, the packages with breaking-changes which require intervention from admins really need to not be auto-updated IMO. I guess I could disable auto-updates entirely in Cloudron but generally have never had problems at all and would rather the odd issue than always having to waste time updating manually, haha.

[humptydumpty]

@d19dotca said in Email From name back to “WordPress” after last update:

Hopefully that'll future-proof it

The FROM name isn't displayed/saved in the CR side so I'm not sure if it's future-proof. I have to log in and check the value in the SMTP mailer plugin to confirm things. That's definitely a hassle for providers like yourself with +20 sites!

[d19dotca]

@humptydumpty said in Email From name back to “WordPress” after last update:

The FROM name isn't displayed/saved in the CR side so I'm not sure if it's future-proof.

Ah good catch! Yeah after making the change, if I update the Cloudron app page then it is missing again (though the value is set correctly in the plugin still)... Seems like another bug? I can file a new report if that's the case since that's more Cloudron than WordPress at that point.

[robi]

Perhaps Cloudron should offer to bulk update changes like this that affect all installations of the app in question.

Noticing it is needed, alerting, having a resolution tied to a button for approval and executing a for loop script that does the setting changes (or noop in some cases to sync both sides).

[girish]

@d19dotca said in Email From name back to “WordPress” after last update:

Ah good catch! Yeah after making the change, if I update the Cloudron app page then it is missing again (though the value is set correctly in the plugin still)... Seems like another bug? I can file a new report if that's the case since that's more Cloudron than WordPress at that point.

That shouldn't be the case, checking now.

[girish]

There was a UI bug in the dashboard, which I have fixed here - https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/dashboard/-/commit/7291d5a9ecf3ce1a450f08f59c075e453ca0297a