question / feature request about categories in subject line

You could use square brackets or dashes as described here https://postieplugin.com/faq/override-post-categories/

[category] subject
-category- subject

It does leave behind the “fwd:” so that isn’t great. Although you could create a generic category with the slug “fwd” that works pretty well.

I would like a way to get rid of the Fwd:, square brackets or semi-colon…

Not sure I follow.

Please describe your ideal solution regardless of what Postie can do today.

Ok, let’s say I was coder for Postie, I would add a Yes/No option in the Settings page to “Remove ‘Fwd:’ from Subject field” and that option would trigger this if/then statement:

// if subject starts with "fwd:" or "Fwd:"
if ( substr(strlolower($subject), 0, 4) === 'fwd:' ) {
    $subject = substr($subject, 4); // remove first 4 characters from subject
    $subject = trim($subject); // remove space at the beginning of subject line (because usually the subject of a forwarded email will be "Fwd: Category: Subject")
}
// then continue the logic on the subject (match category before semi-colon, remove category, etc...

I hope that makes sense

just curious, any hope this might be implemented in a future version? is there an “official” way to submit a feature request for this?

I was working on a way for you to do this and got distracted while testing it.

Today I released 1.9.53 of Postie which includes a new filter for altering the subject line. See https://postieplugin.com/filter-postie_subject/

Thank you for taking my feature request to heart.
I’ve upgraded to the new postie just now but I don’t see the option. Is it in the backend or is it something I need to hard-code into the plugin?
If so where would I put and how do I ensure I don’t loose that when I upgrade to the latest Postie?

Not an option, you have to write some code.

See https://postieplugin.com/extending/

The create a file filterPostie.php in the wp-content directory.

Put this in the file (untested):

<?php
add_filter('postie_subject', 'my_postie_subject');

function my_postie_subject($subject) {
if ( substr(strlolower($subject), 0, 4) === 'fwd:' ) {
    $subject = substr($subject, 4); // remove first 4 characters from subject
    $subject = trim($subject); // remove space at the beginning of subject line (because usually the subject of a forwarded email will be "Fwd: Category: Subject")
    return $subject;
}
}

Thank you for giving us this feature.

Your filter does work, and so does my function, except for a small typo (I wrote strlolower, instead of strtolower). So for those who might stumble on this post looking to do the same, here is the corrected and tested function:

I wanted to report back that your filter works and my function does too, with the exception of a small typo (I wrote strlolower, instead of strtolower), so for those who might stumble on this post, the correct function for the filterPostie.php file is:

<?php
add_filter('postie_subject', 'my_postie_subject');

function my_postie_subject($subject) {
   // match the first four characters from the subject (works with Gmail, other email clients might prepend "Fw:" or "Forward:" or something else) after making it all lowercase to match both "Fwd:" or "fwd:"
   if ( substr(strtolower($subject), 0, 4) === 'fwd:' ) {
    $subject = substr($subject, 4); // remove first 4 characters from subject
    $subject = trim($subject); // remove space at the beginning of subject line (because usually the subject of a forwarded email will be "Fwd: Category: Subject")
    return $subject;
   }
}
?>

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by marcnyc.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Hey everyone, I wanted to post a correction to my code…

<?php
add_filter('postie_subject', 'my_postie_subject');

function my_postie_subject($subject) {
	// match the first four characters from the subject (works with Gmail, other email clients might prepend "Fw:" or "Forward:" or something else) after making it all lowercase to match both "Fwd:" or "fwd:"
	if ( substr(strtolower($subject), 0, 4) === 'fwd:' ) {
		$subject = substr($subject, 4); // remove first 4 characters from subject
		$subject = trim($subject); // remove space at the beginning of subject line (because usually the subject of a forwarded email will be "Fwd: Category: Subject")
	}
	return $subject;
}
?>

Initially I had the return $subject; line in side the if statement which broke my system because whenever the email was NOT being forwarded it now lost its subject, so that line needs to be last so the subject is returned even if the email is not forwarded.
Hope that helps