Item6011: No notifications sent in a protected web

For a client with a restricted access twiki I cannot make WebNotify mails to work. In the twiki all webs are protected (cannot be viewed by TWikiGuest). And so no email are sent out.

The MailerContrib topics says: A user identified by an email address will only be sent change notifications if the topic they are asubscribed to is readable by guest users.

Actually this seems to be valid for all users, whether they have written their email address in WebNotify or not.

For a test I have made the Sandbox web readable by TWikiGuest, and then I do see mails sent out.

This is the output from mailnotify:

~/cgi-bin/twiki$ perl ../../twiki/tools/mailnotify
Processing Main
---+ Abonneer je op wijzigingen

Je ontvangt elke dag een overzicht van wijzigingen op deze twiki.

%COMMENT{type="subscribe"}%
   * ArthurClemens: *

%FLIP%
%INCLUDE{"%TWIKIWEB%.WebChangesAlert"}%

__%MAKETEXT{"Related topics:"}%__ %TWIKIWEB%.WebChangesAlert, %MAINWEB%.%WIKIUSERSTOPIC%, %TWIKIWEB%.TWikiRegistration

%FLOP%
        Last notification was at 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
Processing Sandbox
%MAKETEXT{"This is a subscription service to be automatically notified by e-mail when topics change in this [_1] web. This is a convenient service, so you do not have to come back and check all the time if something has changed. To subscribe, please add a bullet with your [_2] in alphabetical order to this list:" args="*<nop>%WEB%*,%SYSTEMWEB%.WikiName"}%

   * Main.TWikiGuest - example@your.company
   * ArthurClemens: *

%INCLUDE{"%SYSTEMWEB%.WebChangesAlert"}%

__%MAKETEXT{"Related topics:"}%__ %SYSTEMWEB%.WebChangesAlert, %SYSTEMWEB%.TWikiRegistration
        Last notification was at 2008-09-21T20:35:32Z
Processing TWiki
        TWiki has no subscribers
Processing Trash
        Trash has no subscribers
        0 change notifications from Main
        0 change notifications from Sandbox

It is a real pity this does not work, and my clients sees the value of their TWiki reduced because there is no way to get notified by changes (RSS does not work either in a protected web).

-- TWiki:Main/ArthurClemens - 21 Sep 2008