Messaging settings

VX Modules → Messaging. The module works without touching any of this; every default is one a site can live with.

Health

The screen opens here, because the first question about a module like this is whether it is actually working.

What it tells you	Why it matters
Working / Needs a look	Tables present, a Messages page exists, the fast poll is running
Conversations, messages, attachments	What is on the site
Attachment storage	What the files are taking up
New messages arrive	every second, or every 10s if the host refused the fast endpoint
Conversation search	full text if the database supports it, basic otherwise
Daily tidy-up	When the clean-up job next runs

Three things raise a warning:

• The tables are missing. Turn the module off and on again to build them.
• There is no Messages page. Links like /messages/?to=12 have nowhere to land.
• Running on the slower poll. The host would not run the standalone endpoint, so messages arrive every ten seconds instead of every second. Everything works; it is less immediate.

Who can reach whom

The two settings most worth getting right. Both are cautious by default.

Starting a conversation

Setting	What it means
From a listing or profile only (default)	There is no searchable list of members. Conversations start from a listing or a profile.
Anyone can search for anyone	Any member can find any other by name.
Only these roles can be searched for	Pick the roles. Anyone else can still be messaged from their listing.

The default is closed on purpose. A marketplace where buyers should only reach vendors through a listing does not want its buyers findable, and that is the more common shape — so opening the directory is a decision you make, not one you have to discover and undo.

What a conversation can be about

Which post types can be a conversation's subject. Empty means member to member only — no listing is ever attached. Set it to your listing post type to get the two-sided titling described in Messaging.

Members can hide a conversation

Hiding clears it from their own list and leaves the other person's untouched.

Groups

Setting	What it does
Allow groups	Off leaves every conversation between two people
Who can add people	The owner and admins, or any member of the group
Most people in one group	Between 2 and 200
Mentions	Whether typing @ and a name notifies that person

Attachments

Files members send each other. They are kept out of the Media Library and served only to people in the conversation, under a random name.

Setting	Notes
Allow attachments	Off removes the paperclip
File types	Extensions without the dot. Anything not listed is refused
Largest file	In megabytes
Files per message	Between 1 and 20

The size field reads PHP's own limit and says what it is. If you set 10 MB on a server that stops at 2, the field says so — a setting that lies is worse than a low one.

In the conversation

Setting	What it does
Read receipts	Whether the sender is told their message has been read
Online status	A dot beside anybody active in the last minute
Response figures	How quickly and how often somebody answers, available as dynamic tags
Chat dock	The messenger in the corner of every page

Limits

Two separate brakes, because they stop different things.

Setting	What it stops
Messages allowed … every … minutes	A runaway client, or a flood in one conversation. Default 30 every 5 minutes
New conversations an hour	Spam. An account that opens forty threads in an hour is not talking to anyone. Default 10

Zero means no limit on either.

Email

Email about unread messages sends for a message somebody has not read while they were away, and quiet hours hold anything waiting until the morning.

Not built yet

These settings are on the screen and nothing sends anything yet. They are listed here so the screen is documented honestly; email notification is on the roadmap.

Keeping and deleting

Both of these throw things away, and both are off unless you turn them on.

Delete messages older than

Days. Zero keeps everything, which is the default — a marketplace usually wants the record of what was agreed.

Set a number and a daily job deletes messages and their files past that age, a batch at a time, along with any conversation it empties. There is no undo.

Delete everything if the plugin is uninstalled

Off, so uninstalling to troubleshoot — or to move the plugin to another install — does not lose anybody's messages. With it on, deleting VX Modules drops every conversation, participant and attachment on the site.

The daily tidy-up

Runs once a day whether or not you set a retention period, and clears three things nothing else would:

• Files picked in a composer that was then abandoned. A file is uploaded the moment somebody chooses it, before the message exists — that is what lets the composer show a thumbnail — so an abandoned composer leaves one behind.
• Rows left pointing at a message that is gone.
• Anything past the retention period, if you set one.

Every pass takes a bounded batch, so a site with a large backlog drains over days rather than meeting a timeout halfway through.