allow private mail sender to set an expiration on their messages. Once expired the message is destroyed at both ends (subject to the granularity of the polling interval) and is gone. Officially it takes some form of language independent string like 2013/11/22, but English speakers can use anything that strtotime() understands, like "+30 minutes" or "next Tuesday".

include/items.php

@@ -910,6 +910,7 @@ function encode_mail($item) {
 	$x['message_id']     = $item['mid'];
 	$x['message_parent'] = $item['parent_mid'];
 	$x['created']        = $item['created'];
+	$x['expires']        = $item['expires'];
 	$x['title']          = $item['title'];
 	$x['body']           = $item['body'];
 	$x['from']           = encode_item_xchan($item['from']);
@@ -939,6 +940,10 @@ function get_mail_elements($x) {
 	$arr['title']        = (($x['title'])? htmlentities($x['title'],ENT_COMPAT,'UTF-8',false) : '');
 
 	$arr['created']      = datetime_convert('UTC','UTC',$x['created']);
+	if((! array_key_exists('expires',$x)) || ($x['expires'] === '0000-00-00 00:00:00'))
+		$arr['expires'] = '0000-00-00 00:00:00';
+	else
+		$arr['expires']      = datetime_convert('UTC','UTC',$x['expires']);
 
 	$arr['mail_flags'] = 0;
 
@@ -2465,6 +2470,7 @@ function mail_store($arr) {
 	$arr['from_xchan']    = ((x($arr,'from_xchan'))  ? notags(trim($arr['from_xchan']))  : '');
 	$arr['to_xchan']   = ((x($arr,'to_xchan'))   ? notags(trim($arr['to_xchan']))   : '');
 	$arr['created']       = ((x($arr,'created') !== false) ? datetime_convert('UTC','UTC',$arr['created']) : datetime_convert());
+	$arr['expires']       = ((x($arr,'expires') !== false) ? datetime_convert('UTC','UTC',$arr['expires']) : '0000-00-00 00:00:00');
 	$arr['title']         = ((x($arr,'title'))         ? notags(trim($arr['title']))         : '');
 	$arr['parent_mid']    = ((x($arr,'parent_mid'))    ? notags(trim($arr['parent_mid']))    : '');
 	$arr['body']          = ((x($arr,'body'))          ? trim($arr['body'])                  : '');

include/message.php

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ require_once('include/attach.php');
 // send a private message
 	
 
-function send_message($uid = 0, $recipient='', $body='', $subject='', $replyto=''){ 
+function send_message($uid = 0, $recipient='', $body='', $subject='', $replyto='',$expires = ''){ 
 
 	$ret = array('success' => false);
 
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ function send_message($uid = 0, $recipient='', $body='', $subject='', $replyto='
 	if(! strlen($subject))
 		$subject = t('[no subject]');
 
+//	if(! $expires)
+//		$expires = '0000-00-00 00:00:00';
+//	else
+//		$expires = datetime_convert(date_default_timezone_get(),'UTC',$expires);
 
 	if($uid) {
 		$r = q("select * from channel where channel_id = %d limit 1",
@@ -111,8 +115,8 @@ function send_message($uid = 0, $recipient='', $body='', $subject='', $replyto='
 	
 
 
-	$r = q("INSERT INTO mail ( account_id, mail_flags, channel_id, from_xchan, to_xchan, title, body, attach, mid, parent_mid, created )
+	$r = q("INSERT INTO mail ( account_id, mail_flags, channel_id, from_xchan, to_xchan, title, body, attach, mid, parent_mid, created, expires )
-		VALUES ( %d, %d, %d, '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s' )",
+		VALUES ( %d, %d, %d, '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s' )",
 		intval($channel['channel_account_id']),
 		intval(MAIL_OBSCURED),
 		intval($channel['channel_id']),
@@ -123,7 +127,8 @@ function send_message($uid = 0, $recipient='', $body='', $subject='', $replyto='
 		dbesc($jattach),
 		dbesc($mid),
 		dbesc($replyto),
-		dbesc(datetime_convert())
+		dbesc(datetime_convert()),
+		dbesc($expires)
 	);
 
 	// verify the save

include/poller.php

@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ function poller_run($argv, $argc){
 		intval(ACCOUNT_EXPIRED)
 	);
 
+	// expire any expired mail
+
+	q("delete from mail where expires != '0000-00-00 00:00:00' and expires < UTC_TIMESTAMP() ");
+	
+  
 	// Ensure that every channel pings a directory server once a month. This way we can discover
 	// channels and sites that quietly vanished and prevent the directory from accumulating stale
 	// or dead entries.

mod/message.php

@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ function message_post(&$a) {
 	$body      = ((x($_REQUEST,'body'))         ? escape_tags(trim($_REQUEST['body']))    : '');
 	$recipient = ((x($_REQUEST,'messageto'))    ? notags(trim($_REQUEST['messageto']))    : '');
 	$rstr      = ((x($_REQUEST,'messagerecip')) ? notags(trim($_REQUEST['messagerecip'])) : '');
+	$expires   = ((x($_REQUEST,'expires')) ? datetime_convert(date_default_timezone_get(),'UTC', $_REQUEST['expires']) : '0000-00-00 00:00:00');
 
 	// If we have a raw string for a recipient which hasn't been auto-filled,
 	// it means they probably aren't in our address book, hence we don't know
@@ -111,7 +112,7 @@ function message_post(&$a) {
 
 	// We have a local_user, let send_message use the session channel and save a lookup
 	
-	$ret = send_message(0, $recipient, $body, $subject, $replyto);
+	$ret = send_message(0, $recipient, $body, $subject, $replyto, $expires);
 
 	if(! $ret['success']) {
 		notice($ret['message']);
@@ -322,7 +323,8 @@ function message_content(&$a) {
 			'$attach' => t('Attach file'),
 			'$insert' => t('Insert web link'),
 			'$wait' => t('Please wait'),
-			'$submit' => t('Submit')
+			'$submit' => t('Submit'),
+			'$expires' => t('Expires: (leave blank for never)')
 		));
 
 		return $o;
@@ -463,8 +465,6 @@ function message_content(&$a) {
 
 		}
 
-		logger('mails: ' . print_r($mails,true), LOGGER_DATA);
-
 		$recp = (($message['from_xchan'] === $channel['channel_hash']) ? 'to' : 'from');
 
 // FIXME - move this HTML to template
@@ -498,8 +498,8 @@ function message_content(&$a) {
 			'$attach' => t('Attach file'),
 			'$insert' => t('Insert web link'),
 			'$submit' => t('Submit'),
-			'$wait' => t('Please wait')
+			'$wait' => t('Please wait'),
-
+			'$expires' => t('Expires: (leave blank for never)')
 		));
 
 		return $o;

view/theme/redbasic/css/style.css

@@ -1693,7 +1693,7 @@ tr.mceLast {
 }
 
 
-#prvmail-to-label, #prvmail-subject-label, #prvmail-message-label {
+#prvmail-to-label, #prvmail-subject-label, #prvmail-expires-label, #prvmail-message-label {
 	margin-bottom: 10px;
 	margin-top: 20px;
 }

view/tpl/prv_message.tpl

@@ -17,12 +17,15 @@
 <div id="prvmail-subject-label">{{$subject}}</div>
 <input type="text" size="64" maxlength="255" id="prvmail-subject" name="subject" value="{{$subjtxt}}" {{$readonly}} tabindex="11" />
 
+<div id="prvmail-expires-label">{{$expires}}</div>
+<input type="text" size="64" maxlength="255" id="prvmail-expires" name="expires" value="" tabindex="12" />
+
 <div id="prvmail-message-label">{{$yourmessage}}</div>
-<textarea rows="8" cols="72" class="prvmail-text" id="prvmail-text" name="body" tabindex="12">{{$text}}</textarea>
+<textarea rows="8" cols="72" class="prvmail-text" id="prvmail-text" name="body" tabindex="13">{{$text}}</textarea>
 
 
 <div id="prvmail-submit-wrapper" >
-	<input type="submit" id="prvmail-submit" name="submit" value="{{$submit}}" tabindex="13" />
+	<input type="submit" id="prvmail-submit" name="submit" value="{{$submit}}" tabindex="14" />
 	<div id="prvmail-upload-wrapper" >
 		<i id="prvmail-upload" class="icon-camera jot-icons" title="{{$upload}}"></i>
 	</div>