Support upgrade from Drupal 7

[olafgrabienski]

After upgrading a site from Drupal 7, Simplenews doesn't work out of the box. A lot of settings are missing, and there seems to be an issue with the Newsletter category field.

To reproduce the issues:

I. Install D7 + Simplenews and upgrade to Backdrop

• Install Simplenews on a vanilla D7 site.
• Create one newsletter node, using the default category and mostly default settings. (Exception: Default send action, including a Test address.)
• Upgrade the site to Backdrop.

II. Check Simplenews in Backdrop

(1) Node

• Visit the newsletter node. Result: The Newsletter tab is missing.

(2) Content type

• Visit the "Simplenews newsletter" content type configuration.
  • In Publishing settings, The "Use as simplenews newsletter" option is disabled.

(3) Settings

• Visit admin/config/services/simplenews/settings. Result: These settings from D7 are not present:
  • Default send action: Send one test newsletter to the test address
  • Test addresses: Email address, Allow test address override
  • From name
  • From email address (even if required)
• Visit admin/config/services/simplenews/settings/mail. Result: Cron and Cache settings don't have the same values as in D7.
• Visit admin/config/services/simplenews/categories/1/edit. Result: The field "From name" has the value from D7, but the required field "From email address" is empty.
• Add a address to "From email address", and save the configuration. Result: the address is not saved.
• Add the "From email address" in the general Newsletter settings. Result: The address IS saved, and now it's also present in the settings of the newsletter category.

(4) Back to the content type

• Enable the "Use as simplenews newsletter" option, and save the content type. Results:
  • Blank page with the error

    FieldException: Attempt to validate a field with no field name specified. in field_validate_field() (line 237 of /.../core/modules/field/field.crud.inc).

  • The simplenews newsletter option is however saved.
  • Also, the newsletter node now has a Newsletter tab.
• Go to the newsletter node, switch to its Newsletter tab, and send a test newsletter. Result: that works, no issue here

(5) Custom content type

• Add a new content type, and enable the "Use as simplenews newsletter" option. Results:
  • Blank page with the error

    FieldException: Attempt to validate a field with no field name specified. in field_validate_field() (line 237 of /.../core/modules/field/field.crud.inc).

  • The Newsletter category field is missing.

[olafgrabienski]

Hey @alanmels, I've just completed the description above. These are many issues, but I guess they are all upgrade related. I hope you'll be able to verify my findings.

[alanmels]

@olafgrabienski thanks for the detailed information. As you can read in the very first issue https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/simplenews/issues/1 there was no upgrade path considered in the current port of the module, and since it requires some time and efforts to implement such an upgrade path, and because I'm currently busy with number of things and can't assign anyone else to address this issue, I have to be frank with you so you could set realistic expectations. Unless someone in the community helps offering an upgrade path coding, this needs to be postponed at least for couple or three months. I hope I can poke in to this issue about then.

[olafgrabienski]

Thanks for the clarification, Alan. It's a pity that Simplenews doesn't have a upgrade path from Drupal 7, but I understand if you don't have the time to address this for the moment. As I really need the module for an upgrade I'm currently working on, I'm considering various options, e.g. looking for a workaround or asking others for support. I'll report back here, when I make progress. (In the meantime, as the module looks otherwise stable, I'd suggest to mention the missing upgrade path in the README, so that people coming from D7 get realistic expectations.)

[alanmels]

The disclosure went in on https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/simplenews/blob/1.x-1.x/README.md#known-issues