fix: correct fallback handling for email opt-in report (#38410)

[ajayakkalasetti]

Summary

Fixes incorrect fallback behavior in the Email Opt-In report where users without an email preference record were assigned misleading default values.

Problem

The report currently assigns:

• is_opted_in_for_email = "True" (hardcoded)
• preference_set_datetime = "2014-12-01 00:00:00" (hardcoded default)

when no corresponding record exists in user_api_userorgtag.

Solution

• Removed the hardcoded fallback date
• Avoid defaulting is_opted_in_for_email to "True"
• Instead:
  • Leave preference_set_datetime empty when no value exists
  • Leave is_opted_in_for_email empty when no preference is set

Reference:

• Reference Ticket: ACT - 616 Incorrect Dates in Email Opt-In Report
• OpenEdx PR(merged): fix: correct fallback handling for email opt-in report openedx/openedx-platform#38410

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the Email Opt-In report generation to avoid misleading fallback values when a user has no email-optin preference record, aligning the CSV output with the “unknown / unset” state instead of inventing defaults.

Changes:

• Output empty preference_set_datetime when no preference record exists (removes the hardcoded 2014 fallback).
• Output empty is_opted_in_for_email when no preference record exists (removes the prior default-to-True behavior).
• Update test expectations to reflect the new “unset preference => empty field” behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/management/tests/test_email_opt_in_list.py	Adjusts assertions to expect empty values for unset preferences/datetimes.
openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/management/commands/email_opt_in_list.py	Changes CSV fallback behavior to emit empty fields when preference data is missing.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/management/tests/test_email_opt_in_list.py:108

• This comment still says the user should be opted in by default, but the test now expects an empty value (no preference) for is_opted_in_for_email. Update the comment so it reflects the new behavior.

        # so the user should be opted in by default.
        output = self._run_command(self.TEST_ORG)
        self._assert_output(
            output,
            (self.user, self.courses[0].id, ""),

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[kramakrushna]

Changes looks good for me.