[Feature:Forum] Pinned reply as announcement by jndlansh · Pull Request #12526 · Submitty/Submitty

jndlansh · 2026-03-03T17:44:33Z

Why is this Change Important & Necessary?

Related to discussion in the forum about improving announcement capabilities for pinned threads. Currently, when instructors reply to pinned threads (which often contain important announcements), the replies are sent as regular notifications that students may overlook. This feature allows instructors to send announcement-level notifications when replying to pinned threads, ensuring students receive the same level of notification as initial announcements.

What is the New Behavior?

When an instructor or TA replies to a pinned thread, they now see an additional checkbox option: "Notify students (w/email) (pinned thread reply)" or "Notify students (pinned thread reply)" depending on whether email is enabled.

Before:

Replies to pinned threads sent as regular post notifications
No way to emphasize important updates to pinned announcements

After:

New checkbox appears when replying to pinned threads (only visible to instructors/TAs with full grading access)
Checking the box sends the reply as an announcement notification instead of a regular post notification
Notification subject: "Update to Pinned Thread: [Thread Title]"
Verification ensures thread is actually pinned before sending announcement
Falls back to regular notification if thread is not pinned
JavaScript confirmation dialog on submit: "You are about to send an announcement notification to all students. This should only be used for important updates to pinned threads. Continue?"

What steps should a reviewer take to reproduce or test the bug or new feature?

Log in as an instructor
Navigate to the forum
Create a new thread and pin it (or use an existing pinned thread)
Click "Reply" on the pinned thread
Verify that a checkbox labeled "Notify students (pinned thread reply)" appears below the post editor
Enter a reply message
Check the "Notify students (pinned thread reply)" checkbox
Click "Submit Post"
Verify confirmation dialog appears: "You are about to send an announcement notification..."
Confirm the submission
Verify the notification is sent as an announcement (check notifications list)
Try replying to a non-pinned thread and verify the checkbox does NOT appear

Automated Testing & Documentation

Other information

No Breaking : I verified the CI tests.

Migrations: None required - uses existing database schema and notification infrastructure

Security Concerns:

Feature restricted to users with accessFullGrading() permission
Verification step ensures thread is actually pinned before sending announcement
Falls back to regular notification if verification fails

JManion32

Hello @jndlansh, thank you for your contribution! 2 things:

Please include a screenshot of UI updates
Does this close #12333? If so, please prefix the issue with "fixes" or "closes" instead of "related to". That way, the issue will automatically closed when this is merged.

codecov · 2026-03-03T23:39:53Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 0% with 18 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 21.63%. Comparing base (7d7fb78) to head (7bbdc41).

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff              @@
##               main   #12526      +/-   ##
============================================
- Coverage     21.64%   21.63%   -0.01%     
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============================================
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  Lines         36920    36933      +13     
  Branches        495      495              
============================================
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- Misses        28439    28452      +13     
  Partials        491      491

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migrator	`100.00% <ø> (ø)`
php	`20.69% <0.00%> (-0.01%)`	⬇️
python_submitty_utils	`80.08% <ø> (ø)`
submitty_daemon_jobs	`91.13% <ø> (ø)`

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jndlansh · 2026-03-04T13:16:54Z

Hi @JManion32 !

I have updated the "related to" - "closes" in the PR description.

Yes there is a UI change, I have added a checkbox (next to anonymous to class checkbox) that makes sure that reply to a pinned thread can be send as an announcement.

Before:

Now :

I have also tested the CI checks in my fork;

jndlansh · 2026-03-09T17:48:55Z

@JManion32 could you please review my PR?

roye2

In my configuration (Linux + Firefox), when you click on the button to notify students, the browser confirmation popup appears multiple (5?) times even when you say yes for the first one. I am not sure why this is happening. I did test in Chrome and received the same issue.

Also, the button still does not explicitly say it will email the students with the notification. If email is enabled, it should say "Notify students (w/ email) (pinned thread reply)", as you stated previously in your PR, instead of just "Notify students (pinned thread reply)". This might mean that there is something wrong with the check on line 196 of ThreadPostForm.twig.

Otherwise, the changes of the code make sense to me and the feature seems to work as intended. I was able to verify that both the notifications and emails were sent correctly.

JManion32 · 2026-03-21T15:04:26Z

@jndlansh please include those screenshots in the PR description.

jndlansh · 2026-03-21T18:11:26Z

@jndlansh please include those screenshots in the PR description.

Yes @JManion32, I have edited the PR description with the screenshots.

JManion32 · 2026-03-22T19:46:54Z

@jndlansh What's the status of this PR? It seems that you haven't addressed the changes requested by @roye2.

jndlansh · 2026-03-23T15:28:51Z

Hey @roye2 @JManion32 !

I have fixed the issues raised by @roye2 :

Multiple Popups : Now a single pop-up.

The old code accidentally attached multiple "click triggers" to the checkbox behind the scenes. When you clicked it once, all the hidden triggers fired at the same time.
Hence hardcoded onchange directly into the HTML means the checkbox can physically only hold one trigger.

The Missing (w/email) Text :

Updated the data array in ForumThreadView.php to explicitly pass $this->core->getConfig()->isEmailEnabled() down to the Twig templates. The (w/email) label now correctly conditionally renders based on the server's global email configuration.

Question : I want to ask, We tie this label (w/email) to the global server config rather than the thread's creation state to act as a safety warning, right? Since replying to any pinned thread automatically fires an email (if the server allows it), the UI needs to explicitly warn the user based on that global capability so they don't accidentally spam the class?

roye2

I tested the updated functionality and found that the popup only displayed once and the wording next to the checkbox was updated correctly. Once you fix the linting error shown in the CI (extra instance of "email-enabled") I can approve this PR.

P.S. Sorry for the delay in my review!

This reverts commit 6d70934.

roye2

I tested the functionality and it appears to work as intended. I also reviewed the code, and I just left a comment about some specific lines that I thought could be extraneous.

roye2 · 2026-04-03T18:56:02Z

            "thread_announced" => $thread->isAnnounced(),
+            "show_reply_announcement" => $thread->isPinned() && $user->accessFullGrading() && $first,
+            "email_enabled" => $this->core->getConfig()->isEmailEnabled(),
+            "debug_thread_id" => $thread->getId(),


Are the debug_<...> lines here something you used for debugging that can be removed? Or does it actually serve a purpose in the functionality.

Yes, they have served their purpose in debugging, now removed.

jndlansh · 2026-04-04T04:03:38Z

Yes these lines were added by me for temporary debugging and to to check if the correct thread or post was being processed. Thank you for pointing out, my bad!
I have removed those lines.

roye2

Okay, I've reviewed the code and the functionality. As far as I am concerned, everything looks good. Thanks for removing those extra bits.

jndlansh · 2026-04-07T06:44:58Z

Okay, I've reviewed the code and the functionality. As far as I am concerned, everything looks good. Thanks for removing those extra bits.

Thank you @roye2 !

JManion32

Overall, the feature looks good, I just found some small code changes to make. @jndlansh and @roye2 did either of you verify that both email types (thread announcement and announcement reply) are as expected? If possible, provide screenshots of the outputs.

JManion32 · 2026-05-25T20:17:46Z

@jndlansh Please address these small changes so that I can rereview. Thank you!

JManion32

Code changes and functionality work as expected. Replies to PINNED threads by an instructor can be marked as an announcement. Note: you cannot make an announcement on a thread that is not pinned.

bmcutler · 2026-06-08T19:14:27Z

@jndlansh Please fix merge conflict

JManion32

Cypress tests are now passing. There is a failing forum test, but this is on every branch currently.

jndlansh added 4 commits March 3, 2026 16:39

Allow reply posts to be sent as announcements

9a0891b

Fix trailing whitespace in ForumController

df3c2cd

Fix else formatting for Submitty coding standard

bb721ff

Use strict comparison === instead of ==

63dbc32

github-project-automation Bot added this to Submitty Development Mar 3, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to Seeking Reviewer in Submitty Development Mar 3, 2026

JManion32 reviewed Mar 3, 2026

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jndlansh added 2 commits March 4, 2026 17:59

Fix show_reply_announcement variable passing through templates

ab07d13

Remove useless ternary operator

41f7ac7

roye2 self-requested a review March 13, 2026 02:25

roye2 self-assigned this Mar 13, 2026

automateprojectmangement Bot moved this from Seeking Reviewer to In Review in Submitty Development Mar 13, 2026

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

67e033b

roye2 requested changes Mar 13, 2026

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github-project-automation Bot moved this from In Review to Work in Progress in Submitty Development Mar 13, 2026

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

61cdcb2

jndlansh requested a review from roye2 March 22, 2026 18:38

automateprojectmangement Bot moved this from Work in Progress to In Review in Submitty Development Mar 22, 2026

Fix duplicate popups and missing email label on pinned thread replies

d422600

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

a8a71c1

roye2 reviewed Mar 31, 2026

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jndlansh added 2 commits April 2, 2026 00:21

Fix PHP lint and Fix Cypress timeout on leaderboard date update

6d70934

Fix JS lint

86fe405

jndlansh added 2 commits April 3, 2026 11:04

Revert "Fix PHP lint and Fix Cypress timeout on leaderboard date update"

62e9f9a

This reverts commit 6d70934.

fix PHP lint

50372f4

roye2 requested changes Apr 3, 2026

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github-project-automation Bot moved this from In Review to Work in Progress in Submitty Development Apr 3, 2026

remove debug lines

6d8b51e

jndlansh requested a review from roye2 April 4, 2026 11:25

automateprojectmangement Bot moved this from Work in Progress to In Review in Submitty Development Apr 4, 2026

roye2 approved these changes Apr 7, 2026

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github-project-automation Bot moved this from In Review to Awaiting Maintainer Review in Submitty Development Apr 7, 2026

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

50612ab

JManion32 requested changes May 1, 2026

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Comment thread site/app/controllers/forum/ForumController.php Outdated

Comment thread site/app/controllers/forum/ForumController.php Outdated

Comment thread site/app/views/forum/ForumThreadView.php

github-project-automation Bot moved this from Awaiting Maintainer Review to Work in Progress in Submitty Development May 1, 2026

github-actions Bot added the Abandoned PR - Needs New Owner No activity on PR for more than 2 weeks -- seeking new owner to complete label May 16, 2026

JManion32 removed the Abandoned PR - Needs New Owner No activity on PR for more than 2 weeks -- seeking new owner to complete label May 25, 2026

JManion32 unassigned roye2 May 25, 2026

jndlansh and others added 3 commits May 26, 2026 12:21

fix if-else issue in ForumController.php and removed extra comments

bc4697e

fix PHP lint

5492c93

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

621e32b

JManion32 approved these changes Jun 6, 2026

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Comment thread site/app/views/forum/ForumThreadView.php

github-project-automation Bot moved this from Work in Progress to Awaiting Maintainer Review in Submitty Development Jun 6, 2026

jndlansh and others added 4 commits June 9, 2026 00:48

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

efeb94e

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

54ebb61

Fix merge conflict

02e4f5b

Merge branch 'main' into feature/reply-as-anouncements

7bbdc41

JManion32 approved these changes Jun 14, 2026

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bmcutler merged commit 0f9ff50 into Submitty:main Jun 15, 2026
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Why is this Change Important & Necessary?

What is the New Behavior?

What steps should a reviewer take to reproduce or test the bug or new feature?

Automated Testing & Documentation

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