How does the Content Subscription actually work?

Kayla Johnson asked on January 24, 2018 19:25

We built a client's intranet. It has multiple page types - News, posts, files, that get created regularly. They would like the users to receive notifications when new content is posted.

The Content subscription is not well documented.

Can we have one content subscription set up for all page types?
Do we need to use the web part? Can't we just have all users be subscribed to this? I understand that as a standard web process, email subscriptions need to have an unsubscribe feature. So if that's the case, that's fine. But is there a way to batch and/or manually add users to a content subscription?
If the web part is required, does it matter where we place it so that it can grab all content in the page tree?
In the documentation for the web part, it talks about events for notifications. But in the screenshot on the page, none of the events are checked. How does that example work if none of the events are checked? What happens when you enable an event? Also there is a template name field for the events (Create document, etc). What is this? Where are these managed? How are they different than the templates we created in the previous step for the email notification?

content subscription

Recent Answers

Juraj Ondrus answered on January 25, 2018 15:21

Hi Kayla,
1. You can select all page types in the Page type selector field.
2. Yes, the web part must be placed on the page template which is then used for these pages. IF you do not want to use the web part, you can use the advanced workflow and add the email step to send emails to desired people or another option would be creating custom code in the pages global event handler.
3. It should be present on the page template which is used on the page. Or, you can add it to the master page template. It depends what path and page types are set in the web part setup.
4. Sorry for the confusion, it is just a mistake in the screen shot - it is obvious that you need to enable one of the page events to trigger the notification. So, if you enable the event, the web part is listening for this event and then the nitification is executed. The template is the template which is then used to send the email - the content of the email notification - so, it is the template you created in the previous steps.

0 votesVote for this answer Mark as a Correct answer

Kayla Johnson answered on January 25, 2018 21:14

Regarding the template, I'm getting confused. I made a template called News Updates from the previous step. https://prnt.sc/i5ldnm See screenshot.

But when I select a template from the Subscription web part, it's only showing a Product template. I did not create this. I don't know where it's coming from nor why my template does not show. https://prnt.sc/i5ldnm

Additionally, does this fire every time an individual item is created? and if so, is there a way to link to that item in the email template? I don't see any way in the demo to do that, other than just say that one has been created. Do we have access to the name or link in the email?

0 votesVote for this answer Mark as a Correct answer

Juraj Ondrus answered on January 26, 2018 06:56

Hi,
1. In step 3 of the template creation, what site was selected in the drop down list? Or, was the template made as a global one? Then, when selecting the template, have you changed the site drop down list? (screenshot)
2. You can use macros in the template text. There is also an example (using Kentico 11) at the top of the template editing - screenshot
3. An item can be created only once. I assume you meant updated. See above on how to use macros to get the page related data into the template text.
4. I would like to suggest to install the sample Corporate site and then, in the content tree at /Examples/Web Parts/Notifications/Content subscription you can see the web part pre-defined. Also, in the examples section you can see most of the web parts in action.

0 votesVote for this answer Mark as a Correct answer