Subscriptions

Subscriptions provide a way for digital workplace members to receive recurring updates on content. Administrators can create subscriptions for groups, while members can create subscriptions by following content. Subscription updates are sent as email notifications. The frequency of notifications can be set to instant, daily, weekly, or monthly. Only channels and their content can be subscribed to.

Sections in this article:

• Actions that cause subscription notifications
• Frequency of subscription notifications
• How administrators interact with subscriptions
• How users interact with subscriptions
• How user and group subscriptions interact
• Subscribe a group to a channel and content

Actions that cause subscription notifications

• Channel subscriptions:
  • New content is added to the channel.
  • The channel is renamed.
  • Settings on the Advanced page are edited.
• Content subscription:
  • Content is edited.
  • Content is versioned.
  • Content is moved.
  • Content is commented on.
  • Content is manually archived/unarchived

You will not receive subscription notifications for these actions if you are the one who acted. For example, if you publish an article to a blog channel that you are also following, you will not receive a notification for that article. Additionally, deleted content will not be included in digest notifications. 

Frequency of subscription notifications

When subscribing or following content and channels, you can select how frequently you receive notifications from that source. Your options are:

• Instant
• Daily (not available for microblog channels)
• Weekly (not available for microblog channels) 
• Monthly (not available for microblog channels) 

Selecting Daily, Weekly, or Monthly adds the subscription to your subscription digest for that period.

• Daily digests 
  • Include all content that you are subscribed to at a daily frequency that has had an update that would trigger a notification.
  • Only sent if any of your daily subscriptions have had an update that would trigger a notification.
• Weekly digests
  • Include all content that you are subscribed to at a weekly frequency that has had an update that would trigger a notification.
  • Only sent if any of your weekly subscriptions have had an update that would trigger a notification.
  • If no weekly digest has begun to be compiled, the first update that would trigger a notification starts the compilation of the weekly digest. All other updates to weekly subscriptions are included in this digest compilation. The digest is then sent 7 days after the initial triggering notification.
• Monthly digests
  • Include all content that you are subscribed to at a monthly frequency that has had an update that would trigger a notification. 
  • Only sent if any of your monthly subscriptions have had an update that would trigger a notification.
  • If no monthly digest has begun to be compiled, the first update that would trigger a notification starts the compilation of the monthly digest. All other updates to monthly subscriptions are included in this digest compilation. The digest is then sent 30 days after the initial triggering notification.

As an administrator, you can set at what time digests are sent from your digital workplace. For more information, see Configuring at what time your digital workplace sends digest notifications.

How digests are structured

Daily, Weekly, and Monthly email notification digests organize notifications by displaying new content first, followed by content updates in sections ordered alphabetically by content type:

• Blog articles
• Events (Calendar)
• Documents (Folder)
• Forums
• Wikis

Within each of these sections, content is listed chronologically from oldest to newest. 

Blog articles

New blog articles in digests come with specialized features, allowing them to:

• Display a feature image to the left of the author's information and summary. 
• Display only author information and summary when no feature image is available.
• Display the author and the first 200 characters of the article when no summary is available.

Updated blog articles will not display article content. Instead, they display an information bar with the number of updates to the content since the last notification.

If you encounter issues seeing images in digests, see Microsoft Outlook is not displaying images in notifications. 

How administrators interact with subscriptions

Role Limitations

• Workplace administrators: Can subscribe groups to channels and content located anywhere within the digital workplace. They can also access the Manage Groups page from the Control Panel to manage existing subscriptions of any group within the digital workplace.
• Space administrators: Can subscribe groups to channels and content located within their space.
• Manage Member Groups Roles: Can subscribe groups to any channels and content where they also have at least an Edit level of access. They can also access the Manage Groups page from the Control Panel to manage existing subscriptions of any group within the digital workplace.

Subscribe groups to content

Every channel and content type has its own unique Subscriptions page. Administrators can use this page to subscribe groups to receive notifications. To access the Subscriptions page:

1. Go to a channel or piece of content. 
2. Select Actions, and then Subscriptions to see all the digital workplace groups. 
3. Select Instant, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly next to a group to subscribe its members to the channel or content at that notification frequency.
4. (Optional) Select the number next to a group's name to view who is in the group.

At the top of a channel's Subscriptions page is an option that controls auto-following content. This option can interact with a member's personal auto-follow setting in the following ways:

• Channel Auto-Follow is On, and Personal Auto Follow is Off: The member will not auto-follow content they create or comment on.
• Channel Auto-Follow is Off, and Personal Auto Follow is On: The member will not Auto-Follow content they create or comment on.

Manage subscriptions

To manage subscriptions via the Manage Subscriptions page: 

1. On the Userbar, select Control Panel.
2. Under Membership, select Manage Groups.
3. Next to the group, select Actions, and then Subscriptions.
4. Next to the subscription, select Actions, and then select a new frequency. 

Group subscriptions can also be changed or removed directly on the Subscriptions page of a channel or content. Select Instant, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Never next to a group to change its subscription frequency.

How members interact with subscriptions

Subscriptions allow members to stay up-to-date with important content. Members follow content to create a subscription, receive notifications, and manage their subscriptions from their Subscriptions page.

How members and group subscriptions interact

If a member is subscribed to content that they have also been subscribed to as part of a group, their selected frequency takes precedence over the frequency of the group subscription. For example, if you subscribe to a blog at a frequency of Instant, and an administrator then subscribes your Members group to that same blog at a frequency of Weekly, you will receive Instant notifications and not Weekly notifications. 

However, if a member is subscribed to content with a subscription frequency of Never and all group subscriptions to that content are removed, the subscription will be removed from the user's Subscription page.

Subscribe a group to a channel and content

Only workplace administrators, space administrators, and members with the Manage Member Groups role can subscribe a group to a channel. Space administrators can only subscribe groups to content and channels located within their space, while those with roles are restricted to where they can have at least an Edit level of access.

1. Go to the channel to which you want to subscribe a group.
2. Select / Actions, followed by Subscriptions.
3. Next to the group, select a subscription frequency.
4. Select Done.