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Sending notifications to a community

Notifications help you build a tighter, more robust community. They drive users to your site by notifying them of a recent event, then directing them to the affected page.

Ektron's notification system creates and transmits a notification messageConsists of text and a triggering activity. When the activity occurs, the message is sent to eligible recipients. to recipientA colleague, or a member of a community group to which a person belongs, that gets a notification message.s through various agentA provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmits messages.s, based on Ektron activitiesEvents within Ektron's Community Feature, such as adding content, joining a community group, and submitting a micro-message. The activity may be performed by a community group, membership user, or an Ektron user. For example, a membership user wants to notify colleagueA user who accepted your invitation to be a colleague, or whose invitation to be a colleague you accepted. This activity is managed by the Friends server control.s whenever a document is uploaded to his profile page. When this occurs, a notification agent sends an email to that user's colleagues.

Users can control the notification system by determining

  1. A user performs an activity in Ektron, which raises a corresponding event.
  2. Activity data is written to the database's activity table.
  3. Activity information is sent to the activity queue.
  4. Ektron verifies that the notification system is enabled and that the user who performed the activity wants to notify others when it occurs.
  5. The notification service compiles
  6. The notification service uses notification agents to send the message to appropriate recipients.

Notifications respect permissions and private content

The notification system respects Ektron’s content permissions. As a result, content-related notifications are only sent to users with at least read-only permission for the content. See also: Managing folder and content permissions.

For example, Julia adds content to an Ektron folder for which her colleague, Tyler, does not have permission. Tyler is not notified when content is added, even though he signed up to be notified about colleagues’ activities. However Kristin, another colleague who has permission to edit the folder’s content and who signed up to be notified about colleagues’ activities, does receive notification of that event.

Similarly, private content is only viewable by authorized CMS users or membership users with at least read-only permissions for it. See also: Making content private.

Notification activities and recipients

The following table lists Ektron notification activities, and the users and groups that receive each notification.

NOTE: As explained in Personalizing notifications about your activities, users must elect to receive these notifications.

Activity

Notification recipients

Blog Post. user posts to the user's blog

 User's colleagues

User or Community Blog Comment. user comments on a blog post

Posting user's colleagues
Add/Update Site Calendar Event. event is added or changed on site Web calendar User's colleagues
Add/Update User Calendar Event. event is added or changed on user Web calendar User's colleagues
Add/Update Group Calendar Event. event is added or changed on group Web calendar Community group members

Add Colleague. user adds a colleague
  • Colleagues of user who adds
  • Added colleague

Create Community Group. user creates a community group

 Colleagues of user who creates group

Join Community Group. user joins community group
  • Community group members
  • Colleagues of user who joined

Add/Edit Group Content. user uploads or edits content in a community group workspace

 Community group members

Group Blog Comment. user comments on a community group’s blog post

Community group members

Group Blog Post. user posts to community group blog

Community group members

Group Messageboard Post. user posts to a community group message board

 Community group members

Add/Edit Site Content. user adds or edits Ektron content

User's colleagues

Content Messageboard Post. user posts to a message board associated with content

 Users who have permission to view the content

Add/Edit User Workspace Content. user uploads content to the user profile

Depends on folder’s share setting, which can be

  • Public—all colleagues
  • Colleagues—all colleagues
  • Selected colleagues
  • Private—no notification

Forum Post. user posts to a forum
  • Posting user's colleagues
  • Forum owner and owner's colleagues

Forum Reply. user replies to a forum post

Posting user's colleagues
Community group forum post. user posts to community group forum
  • Posting user's colleagues
  • Community group members
Community group forum reply —user replies to community group forum post
  • Responding user's colleagues
  • Community group members
Micro-message. user posts micro-message User's colleagues

User Messageboard Post. user posts to a message board associated with a user
  • Colleagues of user who posts
  • Message board owner and the owner's colleagues

Setting up notifications

This section explains how to set up community notifications.

Setting up Ektron to send notifications

Prerequisite 

  • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned the Community Admin role.
  • You have permission to edit files in the Ektron site folder.
  1. Set up Ektron to send email notifications. See Enabling email notification and Automatic email notification.
  2. Go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Settings > Edit.
  3. Check the Publish Notifications box and click Save.
  4. In the siteroot/web.config file, you have 2 options for determining the SMTP server that sends notifications.
    • Use SMTP server information in the web.config file's SMTP Server configuration area. To do this, set the <notificationAgent> <providers> element as shown in the following code sample. Then, complete the SMTP Server configuration area if necessary. (You typically define SMTP server settings while enabling email notification. See Enabling email notification.)
      <notificationAgent>
 <providers>
  <add name="EktronEmail" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Providers.EktronEmailAgent, 
   Ektron.Cms.Providers" useSystemSettings="true" smtpServer="" smtpPort="" 
   userName="" password="" fromEmail="" />

      By setting useSystemSettings to true, you indicate that you want notifications to use settings set in the SMTP Server configuration area of web.config. And, if you set useSystemSettings to true, you must go to the Application Setup screen's General tab and

      1. Define the sending email address at the System E-Mail Address field.
      2. Check the Enable Sending of System Notification Email box.
      3. In your server's Local Services window, restart the Ektron Notification service.
    • Set SMTP server information in the <notificationAgent><providers> element. Do this if you want to use a different SMTP server to send notifications. To do this, set the <notificationAgent> <providers> element as shown in the following code. Replace the coded values for smptServer, smtpPort, userName, password, and fromEmail with actual values.
      <notificationAgent>
 <providers>
  <add name="EktronEmail" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Providers.EktronEmailAgent, 
   Ektron.Cms.Providers" useSystemSettings="false" smtpServer="mailservervalue" 
   smtpPort="port number" userName="email address of user authorized to use mailserver"
   password="encrypted password of user authorized to use mailserver" 
   fromEmail="sending email address" />

      IMPORTANT: Whenever the web.config or the Ektron.Notification.Service.exe.config file is updated with changes affecting notifications, you must restart the Ektron Notification service.

  5. Review, and modify if necessary, the default notification preferences. These determine which activities trigger notifications, and the agentA provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmits messages.s that send them. See Creating default notification settings.
  6. Enable agents that transmit notifications. See Working with notification agents.
  7. Review the default text of the notification messageConsists of text and a triggering activity. When the activity occurs, the message is sent to eligible recipients.s. Create new ones or edit existing ones if necessary. See Managing notification messages.

    If you want to enable SMS messages, see Setting up SMS.

  8. If you are a developer, you can raise a custom activity, create a custom agent, set up SSL, and learn how to use notifications in a multi-site environment, and with eSync.

Working with notification agents

A notification agentA provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmits messages. sends notifications to eligible users when an Ektron activity occurs. After an agent is registered, users can choose notification preferences that use it.

Ektron's predefined agents are

NOTE: Ektron’s predefined agents are enabled by default.

You can customize these agents or create your own using the extendable notification agent architecture.

Enabling or disabling an agent

Prerequisite 

  • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.
  1. Go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
  2. Click the name of an agent.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Check (or uncheck) the Enabled check box.
  5. Click Save.

Removing an agent

Prerequisite 

  • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.
  • You have permission to edit files in the Ektron site folder.

When you no longer need an agent, you can remove it. This can be a 2 step process, depending on the level of removal you want to achieve. First, remove the agent from the Workarea's list of agents. At this time, you can easily reactivate the agent. In the second step, you remove the agent from the web.config file. At this point, it is no longer available in the Workarea.

  1. Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
  2. Click the agent's title.
  3. Click Delete ().
  4. In the Delete Agent dialog, click OK.

    NOTE: To completely remove the agent from Ektron, follow these additional steps.

  5. Open the site root folder’s web.config file.
  6. Within the <notificationagent> <providers> elements, remove the agent. The following example shows agents that might appear in the web.config file. 
    <notificationAgent>
  <providers>
    <add name="CustomAgent1" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
    <add name="EktronEmail" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
    <add name="SMSAgent" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
    <add name="ActivityFeed" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
  </providers>
</notificationAgent>

Creating a custom agent

Ektron provides 3 standard notification agents: email, SMS, and Activity Stream. You can customize these agents or create your own using the extendable notification agent provider architecture. This section explains how to extend the object model to build a customized notification agent.

Each type of notification agent accepts configuration parameters. For example, email and SMS require an SMTP server, username, and password. These parameters can be specified in the web.config file, and read when the agent is initialized the first time.

Each agent may also require the ability to store settings for each user receiving notifications. For example, the SMS agent requires the user’s cell phone number and carrier, which it stores as an SMS email address. To save these properties, each notification agent has an associated NotificationAgentSettingsData class. This class defines properties that must be supplied by a user. Ektron provides APIs for storing and retrieving this information, but the developer must create an interface for users to supply the information.

Implementing a custom agent

Object Model

The NotificationAgent is the abstract base class you must extend to implement a custom notification agent. Details about the class, available properties, and methods are as follows:

  • virtual void Initialize(string name, Amenable config);

    The initialize method comes from the ProviderBase base class. It supplies all name value pairs specified in the Providers web.config section.

    If custom settings need to be provided to your agent, add them to your provider’s web.config key, and the Initialize method provides them at runtime. If you have no custom settings, this class does not need to be overridden.

  • abstract NotificationAgentSettingsData GetAgentSettings();

    This method should return a new instance of the NotificationAgentSettingsData class associated with your agent.

  • abstract void Send(NotificationMessageData message);

    This method should send the actual notification. It is called by the notification engine for each user that needs to be notified.

    The NotificationMessageData has all the information you need for sending the notification, including

    • the message
    • the user to be notified
    • the NotificationAgentSettingsData for the user to be notified

    If your agent has a custom NotificationAgentSettingsData, you need to cast the supplied NotificationAgentSettingsData to the appropriate type so that you can access the appropriate properties.

Adding a custom agent

Prerequisite 

  • You have permission to edit files on the Ektron web server.
  • You are either a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.
  1. Edit your siteroot/web.config file.
  2. Insert the new agent between the <notificationAgent><providers> tags .
    <notificationAgent>
  <providers>
    <add name="CustomAgent1" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Providers.CustomAgent1, 
      Ektron.Cms.Providers" setting1="" setting2=""/>
    <add name="EktronEmail" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Agents.EktronEmailAgent, 
      Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" useSystemSettings="false" 
      smtpServer="amh010" smtpPort="25" userName="" password="" 
      fromEmail="[email protected]"/>
    <add name="SMSAgent" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Agents.SMSAgent, 
      Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" smtpServer="amh010" smtpPort="25" 
      fromEmail="[email protected]" validationRequired="true"/>
    <add name="ActivityFeed" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Agents.ActivityFeedAgent, 
      Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" validationRequired="false"/>
  </providers>
    </notificationAgent>

    After you add an agent to web.config, it appears in the Workarea's list of agents.

  3. Go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Select the custom agent from the Name drop-down box.

    NOTE: If you do not see the custom agent in the Name drop-down, check the web.config file to verify it appears between the <notificationAgent> tags.

  6. Check the Enabled box.
  7. Click Save.

Setting up SMS

SMSShort Message Service (SMS); used for texting. sends notifications from the Ektron website to wireless devices, such as a cell phone or PDAPersonal Data Assistant. To set up this capability, configure several items.

To set up SMS agent information:

Prerequisite 

  • You have permission to edit files on the Ektron web server.
    1. Open the siteroot\web.config file.
    2. Find the SMSAgent tag.
    3. Enter the smtpServer value for the server that sends your organization's email. For example:
      smtpServer="EKMAIL291.internal.mycompany.com"
    4. Replace the value of fromEmail with the email address of the user from whom notifications are sent. For example:
      fromEmail = "[email protected]"
    5. Save the file. The completed code looks like this.
      <add name="SMSAgent" 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Providers.SMSAgent,
  Ektron.Cms.Providers" smtpServer="EKMAIL291.internal.mycompany.com" |
  smtpPort="25" fromEmail="[email protected]" validationRequired="true" />

    Creating default notification settings

    Ektron lets an administrator create default notification settings. See also: Sending notifications to a community. The default settings apply to all newly-created users, but any user or group can personalize them, as described in Personalizing notification settings.

    There are 3 types of default settings.

    • Colleagues. Colleagues' activities about which a user wants to be notified
    • Community Groups. Community group activities about which a user wants to be notified
    • My Activities. User activities that send notifications to colleagues and community groups.

    NOTE: By default, activities are checked for the Activity Stream agent only.

    Prerequisite 

    • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.
    1. Go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > System Default Preferences > Colleagues.
    2. Click Edit.
    3. Check the box next to each default notification.

    4. Click Save.

    Personalizing notification settings

    By default, a set of notification preferences is applied to each user's profile. Most users want to personalize these settings, so they send and receive notifications as they wish. Similarly, a community group member can access a community group profile and click Edit Group Notification Preferences to personalize the group's preferences.

    Personalizing notifications about your activities

    In your profile, enable only activities that you want to notify others about.

    NOTE: The My Activities tab appears only after a user is registered and the Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Settings > Publish Notification setting is checked.

    1. Log into the Ektron site.
    2. Go to your profile page.

      Alternatively, log into the Ektron Workarea > Settings > Users > your username > Profile Links tab > click the link.

    3. Click Edit Profile.
    4. Click the Activities tab.
    5. Click the My Activities sub tab.

    6. Check the box of each activity that you want to notify other users about.
    7. Click Save.

    Personalizing the receipt of notifications

    In your profile, enable only activities that you want to be notified about. Use the Colleagues tab to enable notifications for activities performed by colleagues, and the Community Groups tab to enable notifications for activities performed by group members.

    1. Log into the Ektron site.
    2. Go to your profile page.

      Alternatively, log into the Ektron Workarea > Settings > Users > your username > Profile Links tab > click the link.

    3. Click Edit Profile.
    4. Click the Activities tab.
    5. Click the Colleagues sub tab.

    6. Check the box of each activity that you want to be notified about, and the agentA provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmits messages. to notify you.
    7. Click the Community Groups sub tab.
    8. Check the box of each activity that you want to be notified about, and the agentA provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmits messages. to notify you.
    9. Click Save.

    Raising a custom activity

    Prerequisites

    • You are a developer.
    • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.

    Ektron's notification system lets you create and raise custom activity types. Custom activity types can generate notifications, just like standard activity types.

    1. In the Workarea, go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Activity Types.
    2. Click Add Activity Type. The Add Activity Type screen appears.

    3. Enter a unique name.
    4. Select an Action Scope, which describes the types of users who create the activity.
      • User. activity raised by an Ektron user
      • CommunityGroup. activity raised by a community group user
    5. Save the screen. The following image shows a sample custom activity.

    6. Interested users go to their User Profile screen’s Activities tab to indicate if they want be notified when the custom activity occurs, and if they want to notify others.

    7. To raise a custom activity, call the Ektron.Cms.Framework.Activity.Activity.Publish method. The method takes an ActivityData class. You supply the following:
      • the Id of the Activity Type you want to raise (1001 in this example)
      • the user causing the activity
      • a message

        NOTE: Custom activity types cannot use Community Management messages as the standard Ektron activities do.

        Here is an example of that method.

        Activity activityApi = new Activity();
ActivityUserInfo user = new ActivityUserInfo();
user.Id = activityApi.UserId;
ActivityData activityData = new ActivityData();
activityData.ActionUser = user;
activityData.ActivityTypeId = 1001;
activityData.Message = "John Doe just rated Ektron a buy!";
activityData.LanguageId = 1033;
activityApi.Publish(activityData);

      When publish is called, the notification service notifies users who signed up to be notified of this activity.

    Managing notification messages

    Ektron's notification system uses messages to communicate site activities. A message is sent if:

    You can view each activity’s message text on the Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages screen.

    For each activity, you can create an HTML-based and a plain text message. Typically, HTML messages are sent as email or to the ActivityStream server control, while plain text is used in SMS style messages. Messages can use text and tokens. See also: Working with tokens

    Creating or editing a message

    As explained in Managing notification messages, one message is provided for each activity type and sub type in the default language. You can edit the default message text as well as create new messages in non-default languages.

    Prerequisite 

    • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.
    1. Go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages.
    2. If you are using the multi-site feature, select the site with which this message will be associated.
    3. Select the language of the message that you want to create or edit.
    4. To create a new message, click Add Message. To edit an existing message, click its title then Edit.
    5. Complete or update the following fields.
      • Title. Enter a name for the message.
      • Type. Select a message type. Choices are:
        • User. message sent when user activity occurs
        • Community Group. message sent when group activity occurs
        • Blog Notifications. message sent when blog activity occurs
        • General Notifications. message sent when activity is "email message reply"
      • Sub Type. Select the activity which triggers the sending of this message.

        Choosing a message type

        User and Community Group messages contains several message sub types. Sub type is the activity that triggers the message. For example, to edit the message that notifies colleagues when you upload a document to your Workspace, select User from the Type drop-down and AddWorkspaceItem from the Sub Type drop-down.

        Only one default message is active for any sub type. So, if you create a new message, you must make it the default (via the Add Notification Message screen’s Default check box) if you want it to be sent. If another message was the default for that type and sub type, it is no longer used. For a list of Sub types, see Notification activities and recipients.

      • Tokens. Tokens for the selected Sub Type appear. To insert a token into a message, highlight a token, then copy and paste it into the message. See also: Working with tokens.

        WARNING! A message is limited to 3000 characters after its tokens are converted to text. Characters beyond 3000 are removed.

      • Default. Check this box if you want the message to be the default one that is sent. See also: Choosing a message type.
      • Subject. Enter a subject to be used if the message is sent as email.
      • Text. Enter the text and tokens that comprise the message. The editor lets you format the text. Use this field for HTML, email, and activity stream messages. See also: Making a token into a hyperlink.
      • Plain Text. Enter the text and tokens that comprise SMS and plain text messages. (If you already composed the message in the field above, you can copy and paste it into this field.)

        NOTE: Most SMS systems impose a 160-character limit on messages. If you create a plain text message greater than 160 characters, Ektron divides it into several smaller messages.

    6. Click Save.

    Removing a message

    Prerequisite 

    • You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.
    1. Go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages.
    2. Click the title of the message you want to delete.
    3. Click Delete ().
    4. Click OK.

    Working with tokens

    A tokenAn Ektron-defined variable that surrounded by at signs (@). For example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@. This variable gets translated in message notifications. is an Ektron variable surrounded by at signs (@). When a message is generated, tokens retrieve information about CMS users, groups, and objects. For example, the following message:

    @SubjectUser.FirstName@ added a new document, ‘@Content.title@’, to the profile page.

    might look like this:

    “Paul added a new document, ‘Best Practices for Writing Code’, to the profile page.”

    In this example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@ is the first name of the user performing the action. @Content.title@ is the title of the object that was uploaded. See also: Customizing Ektron email with tokens

    There are several token types.

    • SubjectUser tokens. Represent a user who performs the activity
    • DirectObjectUser tokens. Represent a user to which the activity is happening
    • Content tokens. Represent content involved in the activity
    • CommunityGroup tokens. Represent a community group involved in the activity
    • Blog tokens. Represent blog use in the activity
    • webEvent tokens. Represent a Web Calendar used in the activity
    • MicroMessage tokens. Represent micromessages used in the activity

    Message tokens: user and content-based

    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @WebEvent.EndTime@
    • @WebEvent.Id@
    • @WebEvent.Quicklink@
    • @WebEvent.StartTime@
    • @WebEvent.Title@
    • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
    • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@,
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteURL@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteURL@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @BlogComment.Id@
    • @BlogComment.Message@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @CommunityGroup.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Name@
    • @CommunityGroup.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @MessageBoard.Message
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Topic.Id@, @Topic.Title@
    • @Topic.Quicklink@
    • @TopicReply.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @Topic.Id@, @Topic.Title@
    • @Topic.Quicklink@
    • @TopicReply.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Name@
    • @CommunityGroup.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @MicroMessage.Id@
    • @MicroMessage.Message@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
    • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
    • @MessageBoard.Message@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

    Message tokens: community group-based

    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@,
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @WebEvent.EndTime@
    • @WebEvent.Id@
    • @WebEvent.Quicklink@
    • @WebEvent.StartTime@
    • @WebEvent.Title@
    • @CommunityGroup.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Name@
    • @Content.Icon@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
    • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteURL@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @BlogComment.Id@
    • @BlogComment.Message@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @Content.Id@
    • @Content.Quicklink@
    • @Content.Title@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @CommunityGroup.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Name@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @CommunityGroup.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Name@
    • @CommunityGroup.TemplateAlias@
    • @MessageBoard.Message@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
    • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
    • @CommunityGroup.Id@
    • @CommunityGroup.Name@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
    • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
    • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
    • @MessageBoard.Message@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
    • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
    • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
    • @SubjectUser.Id@
    • @SubjectUser.LastName@
    • @SubjectUser.UserName@

    Message tokens: email reply message

    Email Message Reply

    • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
    • @System.SiteUrl@
    • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

    Making a token into a hyperlink

    A message tokenAn Ektron-defined variable that surrounded by at signs (@). For example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@. This variable gets translated in message notifications. represents Ektron content, users, or groups. It can become a link that, when clicked, forwards the site visitor to referenced content, a user’s profile, or a community group’s profile.

    To make a token into a clickable link:

    Prerequisite 

    The path to the page that displays the referenced content, user, or community group.

    —Image—

    1. Create the message, as described in Creating or editing a message.
    2. While editing message text, highlight a token and click Insert Link ().
    3. In the URL field, enter the path to the page that displays the content, user, or community group.

      Be sure to include a QueryString parameter to identify the object. The parameter should point to an ID token. For example, an add colleague message might be:

      @SubjectUser.UserName@ and @DirectObjectUser.UserName@ are now colleagues.

      When creating a link for @SubjectUser.UserName@, insert into the URL field the path to the user’s profile page. It might look like this.

      http://localhost/Intranet/UserProfile.aspx?id=@subjectUser.Id@

      NOTE: The QueryString parameter (?id=) points to a token that represents the logged-in user’s ID, @subjectUser.Id@.

      For @DirectObjectUser.UserName@, enter the same path but change the dynamic parameter token to [email protected]@.

      When hyperlinking content, insert into the URL field the path to its QuickLink token. For example, an add content message might look like this.

      @SubjectUser.username@ added new content, @Content.Title@.
    4. Click OK.

    Managing email replies

    The email reply feature consists of additional text within a notification message that prompts a recipient to reply. See the following example. If the recipient replies, the resulting email is posted to the group's message board.

    To modify the reply message's text and start and end delimiters, see Modifying email reply text.

    Setting up the email reply feature

    Prerequisite 

    IMPORTANT: The Community email reply feature is only supported for group activities, such as uploading a document to a group workspace. It is not supported for user activities.

    1. From the Workarea, choose Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Settings.
    2. Click Edit.
    3. Check Enable Activity Email Reply.
    4. Specify the email reply feature's settings.

      • Email Account Name. Enter the address that receives email delivered to your website. It must be the same as the account used to send email, which is defined in Enabling email notification.

        IMPORTANT: Each community group's email address must be unique.

      • Email Account Password. Enter the password for that email address.
      • Email Server. Enter the POP mail server that retrieves email for this account.
      • Email Server Port. Enter the port number used to retrieve email for this account.
      • Use SSL. Check this box if SSL is used when retrieving email.
      • Test Connection. Click this button to verify the information and the ability to connect to the mail server.

        NOTE: If you are using Gmail as the SMTP server to fetch email replies, after the notification service processes the emails, you probably want to delete them from the Inbox. To set up automatic deletion of this email from the Inbox, got to Gmail's Settings screen > Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab > Pop Download Area > 2. When messages are accessed with POP > select delete Gmail's copy.

    5. Verify that all users who may receive an email reply have a valid email address in their user profile. While in each user profile, verify that the Disable Receiving of Workflow and Task Email box is unchecked.
    6. Enable group email for each community group that may send an email reply. See also: Creating a community group's email address .
    7. Make sure that all users who may participate in the email reply are assigned to a user group mentioned in Step 6.

    Modifying email reply text

    Prerequisite 

    • You have permission to edit files on the Ektron web server.
    • You are either a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.

    Community activity that generates an email can include a reply statement, as shown in the following example.

    NOTE: The message text is determined by the activity. For example, if the activity is a blog post, the message text is retrieved from the New Blog Post notification message.

    To review and modify email reply text:

    1. In the Workarea, choose Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages.
    2. Click Email Message Reply.
    3. You cannot edit the Title, Type, Sub Type or Default check box. The Subject field is not used.
    4. Edit the message Text. You can create an HTML-based and a plain text message for each activity. Typically, HTML messages are sent as email or to the ActivityStream server control, while plain text is used in SMS style messages.

      A line of dashes separates the activity message from the email reply. Messages typically combine text and tokenAn Ektron-defined variable that surrounded by at signs (@). For example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@. This variable gets translated in message notifications.s. See also: Working with tokens.

    5. Optionally change the message's start and end delimiters. By default, the email message reply begins with a new line character and ends with a line of dashes. If desired, change those defaults. For example, you want to limit the reply to a single paragraph.
      1. On the Ektron server, open C:\Program Files (x86)\Ektron\EktronNotificationService\
        Ektron.Notification.Service.exe.config        .
      2. Find the <siteNotification> <sites> element.
      3. Insert the following properties at the end of the <Add> tag.
        • replyStartDelimitter. Marks the beginning of the reply.
        • replyEndDelimitter. Marks the end of the reply.

        For example:

        <siteNotification> 
  <sites> 
    <add name="dev" url="http://localhost/eintranet"
      connectionString="server=.;database=eintranet;
      Integrated Security=TRUE;user=;pwd=;" services="All" 
   replyExtractor="Ektron.Notification.Service.EktronReplyExtractor" 
      replyStartDelimitter="^" replyEndDelimitter="\r\n" /> 
  </sites> 
</siteNotification>

        Use RegExRegular expression; an alias that creates a pattern. For example, blogs.aspx?blogmonth=3&blogyear=2012&blogid=41 can be a RegEx blogs/2012/03/41. From that, a site visitor can infer blogs/2012/03/40 to see the previous post, or enter blogs/2012/03 to see all March 2012 posts expressions to indicate the start and end delimiters. In the above example, the start delimiter (^) is a new line, and the end delimiter (\r\n) is a page break. So, only the first paragraph in the email reply is used.

    How email replies are handled

    The following table shows how the notification system treats email replies.

    Activity

    How email reply handled

    User adds a colleague

    Comment on Activity Stream

    User adds content to Ektron

    Post to Content Message Board
    Event is added or changed on Web Calendar

    Comment on Activity Stream

    User uploads content to community group Workspace

    Post to Content Message Board
    User comments on group workspace content or asset Comment on Activity Stream

    User uploads content to the user's profile

    Post to Content Message Board

    Comment on user workspace content or asset Comment on Activity Stream

    User comments on a blog post

    Comment to same blog post

    User posts to the user's blog

    Comment on post

    User posts to a message board associated with content

    Reply to post

    User creates a community group

    Comment on Activity Stream

    User posts to a Forum

    Reply to post

    User replies to a Forum post

    Reply to post

    User comments on a community group’s blog post

    Comment on same blog post

    User posts to community group blog

    Comment on post

    User posts to a community group message board

    Reply to post

    User joins community group

    		 Comment on Activity Stream
    User posts micro-message

    Comment on Activity Stream

    User updates status

    Comment on Activity Stream

    User posts to another user's message board

    Reply to post

    Message board reply Reply to same post

    Enabling attachments to notifications

    Ektron supports the attaching of community group assets to a notification. For example, a user uploads a Word document to a group workspace, which generates a Group Content Added notification. The Word document is attached to the notification. If you enable attachments and the email Reply feature, message recipients can

    1. Download the attached asset.
    2. Modify it.
    3. Reply to the email, attaching the modified asset.
    4. The modified asset replaces the original one.

    If a group administrator does not want to keep the modified asset, the administrator uses the asset history to restore the original version. See also: Restoring a previous version.

    IMPORTANT: If a message's email signature includes an image, the email reply feature uploads it as a group asset. To avoid this, remove the image from the signature before replying.

    To set up notification attachments for a community group:

    Prerequisite 

    You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Community Admin role.

    1. From the community group page, click Edit Group.

      Alternatively, from the Workarea, choose Settings > Community Management > Community Groups > click a community group > Edit.

    2. Near the bottom of the screen, check the Attach Documents in Email Notifications box.
    3. Click Save.

    Generating email invitations for community management

    The notification system enables Ektron to generate email that invites other users to join a community group, join a site, or become a colleague.

    To create a message:

    1. Go to Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Messages.
    2. Click Add Email Message.
    3. Enter a title that describes the message.
    4. At the Type field, click the drop-down arrow to choose the message type that will trigger a notification.
    5. Select whether to make the email message the default message for the activity type. Only the default message is sent when the corresponding activity occurs. Non-default messages remain available on this screen in case you want to quickly change them in the future.
    6. In the editor, enter the message text. Messages can include tokenAn Ektron-defined variable that surrounded by at signs (@). For example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@. This variable gets translated in message notifications.s, which retrieve information about the user sending the invitation or the link to join a group and display it in the message text. See also: Working with tokens.
      • @appFriendDisplayName@. The recipient's name.
      • @appFromUserDeleted@. Message is from a user that was deleted.
      • @appFromUserDisplayName@. Name of user who sent message.
      • @appFromUserID@. ID of user who sent message.
      • @appGroupName@. The group that the recipient is invited to join.
      • @appInvitedEmail@. The recipient's email address.
      • @appInviteId@. Appends the invite ID to the registration URL. For example:

        Click <a href=http://www.example.com/register.aspx&fInvId=
        @appInviteId@>here</a>         to accept.

      • @appMessage@. Message text.
      • @appOptionalText@. Text a user inserts into the Optional Message box on the Invite server control.
      • @appPrivateMessageID@. The Ektron ID of a private message.
      • @appSenderName@. The sender of the invitation.
      • @appSubject@. The message's subject field.
      • @appToUserDisplayName@. Name of message recipient.
      • @appToUserID@. ID of message recipient.
      • @appToUserMessageID@. Ektron ID of the recipient's message object.
    7. Click Save.

    Managing notifications in a multi-site environment

    In a multi-site environment, notifications stay within the site where the activity happened. For example, if there are 2 sites—an Intranet and Social Club site—when a user from the Intranet site performs an activity that generates a message, it does not trigger notifications on the Social Club site.

    Exception: A user’s colleagues receive notifications regardless of the site from which the message originated.

    When a message type is created, it becomes the default message used by all sites. But you can assign a different message of the same type to each site in your environment. To view the messages assigned to a site, go to the View All Notification Messages screen, click the Site drop-down, and select the site.

    When creating notification messages in a multi-site environment, specify the site for the message. For example, you want a “Status Update” message targeted one way for an Intranet site and another way for your Social Club site. The Intranet site message might be:

                        @SubjectUser.username@ has an updated status on Intranet with the following: 
  @MicroMessage.Message@.

    While your Social Club site might message be:

                        @SubjectUser.username@ has an updated status on the
Social Club with the following: @MicroMessage.Message@

    Creating a community group's email address

    To allow anyone to post email to a community message board, set up a community group email address.

    Prerequisite 

    • You are a member of the Administrators group or a community group administrator.
    • You enable notification system, as described in Setting up notifications.

    To set up a community group's email address:

    1. On community site's group page, choose Manage > Edit Group. The Edit Group screen appears.

      Or, from the Workarea, choose Settings > Community Management > Community Groups. Click the group.

    2. Click the Properties tab.
    3. Check the Enable Group Emails box.

    4. Complete the fields.

    Using SSL with notifications

    If your site uses SSLSecure Sockets Layer (https), you must update the Ektron notification service configuration file with that information. The file is typically located at C:\Program Files(x86)\Ektron\EktronNotificationService\Ektron.Notification.Service.exe.config.

    Change the url="http value to include an s (https).

    <siteNotification>
      <sites>
        <add name="769723537"
      url="https://your server" 
      connectionString="server=your server;
      database=Intranet2;
      Trusted_Connection=true;
      User ID=;Password=;" />
      </sites>
    </siteNotification>

    Restart the Ektron notification service to enable this change.

    Using eSync with notifications

    When using eSync with notifications, new agents are not synchronized. This means that you must manually add new agents to each server in your configuration.

    If an agent exists on all servers in your configuration, eSync keeps them updated. For example, assume a membership user logs into the production server and updates the profile’s Activities tab by changing the activities a custom agent will perform. eSync copies those changes to the staging server.

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