Subscriptions Module 5.x-2.0

After spending a long time getting familiar with the latest incarnation of the Subscriptions module, I wanted to contribute the following help file that I wrote for my client. This refers to the 5.x-2.0-beta11 version as of April 9th, 2008, available at http://drupal.org/node/102205.

Edited: most of this applies to current versions of the subscriptions module. Feel free to move relevant sections to the parent page.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

User Level Instructions:

In your user menu (in the upper left hand corner of the screen with your user name at the top), click “My account”. On the next screen, click the “Subscriptions” tab. There are four areas in your subscriptions.

Overview Shows a quick count of current subscription types that you are subscribed to. Clicking on any of the links below “Type” will take you directly to that page.

Note the “Settings” link towards the bottom of the section. Clicking this link will expand a menu where you can edit your own personal settings. (It is recommended to leave the settings at their default, but as you become more familiar with how subscriptions work you may wish to fine tune your settings.)

Threads Shows individual active subscriptions. If you have subscribed to any items they will be shown in this area.

Content types Shows a list of the various types of content on the site. If you check any of the boxes you will receive email notifications for ALL comments, updates, and additions to that particular type of content. For example, if you subscribe to Content type “Page” you will get an email if a new page is added to the site or if an old page is edited.

Please remember that subscribing to Content types is a site-wide subscription and is not limited by anything. This will probably generate A LOT of email notifications.

Categories Shows a list of the Forums. The check boxes for Containers are grayed out and cannot be subscribed to. Checking a box for one particular forum will create email notifications for activity within that one single forum. You will be notified for all new forum topics, edited forum topics, new comments, and new replies within that forum. If there are any other taxonomy terms defined on the site, these will be listed in this tab also.

If you find that subscribing to an entire forum generates too many notifications, please see the “Subscribe Link” section below to narrow your subscription.

“Subscribe” Link:

In addition to the subscriptions described above you can subscribe to a single item. This will generate far fewer emails and allow you to be notified about particular items that you are interested in. The “Subscribe” link will be found underneath the content you are subscribing to. Following are some examples of where to find the “Subscribe” link for each type of content.

Events You must be viewing the individual event. If you click a day on the calendar (upper right corner) and there are multiple events on that day you must click the single event (the title of the event is a link). After you click the link, a menu will expand and give you these options:

Subscribe to this post: any changes made to this event (time, date, descriptions, etc.) will generate an email.

To Event posts: any changes or additions made to ANY and ALL events. This is the same as subscribing to Event through “Content types” as described above.

To Event posts by [author]: any changes or additions made to ANY and ALL events made by [author].

Polls You must view the poll from the “Recent Polls” link in your user menu (upper left corner). After clicking the “Recent Polls” link, click on the poll you’d like to subscribe to. After you click the link, a menu will expand and give you these options:

Subscribe to this post: any changes made to this poll (question, choices, new comments, but NOT votes) will generate an email.

To Poll posts: any changes or additions made to ANY and ALL polls. This is the same as subscribing to Poll through “Content types” as described above.

Pages You must be viewing a single page to subscribe. If you don’t see the “Subscribe” link move your mouse over the page’s title – if the title is a clickable link, click on the link to be taken to the individual page. After you click the link, a menu will expand and give you these options:

Subscribe to this post: any changes made to this page (title or body) will generate an email.

To Page posts: any changes or additions made to ANY and ALL pages. This is the same as subscribing to Page through “Content types” as described above.

Forum Topics You must be viewing an individual forum topic for the “Subscribe” link to appear. This is the same area in which you can add comments. After you click the link, a menu will expand and give you these options:

Subscribe to this post: any comments or changes to this particular post will generate an email.

To Forum topic posts: ANY and ALL new forum comments or topics (not limited to that single topic) – this is the same as the “Content type” subscription described above.

To Forum topic posts by [author]: ANY and ALL new forum comments or topics posted by [author].

To posts in [Forum]: any comments or posts within that forum (one level up) – this is the same as subscribing to the forum through “Categories” as described above.

To posts in [Forum] by [author]: any comments or posts within that forum (one level up_ but limited to posts by [author].

Terms:

Container Used to describe the highest level of a Forum division. Containers simply hold related forums and give them a label.
Forum Used to describe the second highest level of a Forum division. Forums actually hold the related topics that are under discussion.
Topic Used to describe the lowest level of a Forum division. Topics are about a single subject and hold the actual discussion.
Thread Used to describe any discussion between members. Threads are made up of comments and replies and can be found inside of a forum topic, on the results of a poll, etc.

Administrative Level Instructions:

There are a few site wide settings for the subscription module. They can be accessed through Administer > Site Configuration > Subscriptions. There are three different tabs in this section.

Site Settings Allows you to mark content types as unlisted or blocked, block specific nodes, restrict or omit vocabulary terms (taxonomy terms), and tweak the display a bit.

User Defaults There are three sections within this tab. You are essentially choosing the defaults but they can be overridden by your users (except for items which you mark hidden – see below).
Overview Set these however you think is best for your users. The descriptions are self-explanatory.

”Visibility of controls” section will prevent your users from being able to make changes to the defaults. If you don’t want them to be able to choose their Send Interval, mark it Completely inaccessible. Send Updates and Send Comments refer to choosing to receive notifications when an item is updated or receives a comment. Marking any of these hidden will change them to a hyperlink that expands.

Content Types Checking any of the boxes will automatically subscribe new users.
Categories Checking any of the boxes will automatically subscribe new users.

Interval Allows you to define your own intervals. However, the interval is determined more by how you have set up your cron maintenance. Notifications are sent out ONLY when cron runs. So if your cron runs once a cay and a user chooses “every 15 minutes” as their preferred interval they will still only receive their notifications once a day.